Page 76 of Anything But a Duke
He did as she bid him, and he continued the work with impressive persistence. There wasn’t a moment’s disagreement when she redirected him to another spot on the metal or advised him how best to hold the hammer.
He was the most handsome, competent, and agreeable assistant she could have ever imagined.
Though there was little she could do with a rag wrapped around one hand, Aidan made it feel as if they were working in tandem. He asked her questions about her design as he worked.
“Anything else?” he finally asked when the copper piece was finished.
Diana hesitated, uncertain whether she should ask him to do more.
“I want to help. I’m here to help,” he insisted.
She pointed to another sheet of unhammered copper. “The same needs to be done to that piece and the one below it.”
Without hesitation, he retrieved a fresh plate of copper and began shaping it over the wooden block. His strikes with the hammer were already deft. After a few moments of working away at the metal, he paused and tipped a grin at her over his shoulder. “Banging away like this is strangely satisfying. I could get used to it.”
Diana’s heart leaped in her chest. He’d made the comment lightly, his voice full of amusement, but the feelings it evoked were deeper. So potent that they frightened her.
He looked so strangely right in her workshop, just as his lips felt perfect against her own. They always had. Even before she knew his name.
“Yes,” she whispered, unsure if he heard her. “I could get used to this too.”
When he continued working, she unwrapped her finger and approached, resting her hands gently on his shoulders. He stilled, but the muscles of his shoulders bunched and flexed under her touch. Then he laid down the hammer and pivoted on his seat to face her.
“Thank you,” she told him.
His eyes were bright, his mouth softened into a half smile. “You know those are words I will always owe to you, since the night we met.”
“You can consider that debt repaid.”
He chuckled. “After an hour of work? I must teach you to drive a harder bargain.”
“In that case, I ask for a bit more than your labor.”
Standing, he moved an inch closer, until their chests brushed in a delicious friction. “What else can I do for you, Miss Ashby?”
Diana twined her arms around his neck and lifted off her heels. He caught her around the waist, and every heated inch of him warmed her.
“Just this,” she whispered before pressing her mouth to his. She kissed him boldly, slipping her tongue inside to taste him, nipping at his lip before she kissed him again.
He let out a moan when she stroked her fingers against his neck and tightened his hold on her waist, but he let her take the lead when their mouths met again and again.
When she lowered onto her heels, he bent and pressed his forehead to hers. They were both hot, breathless, and there wasn’t an inch of space between their bodies.
“Is that enough?” he asked in a teasing tone.
She couldn’t answer. Her body was humming with need and her heart ached with tenderness that frightened her. She was afraid of the answer too, because the kiss wasn’t enough.
She wanted much more.
Chapter Twenty-One
Diana blew a stray hair from her brow and tightened the bolt into place. A strange sensation rushed through her, a wave of relief mixed with a heady thrill of victory.
She was finished. Five machines crowded her workshop, the metal polished and gleaming, every piece fixed in place, and all had been tested successfully.
Air whooshed from her lungs on a sigh, but the moment she relaxed onto her stool, exhaustion threatened to sweep in. She noticed the aches in her shoulders and back. Too many hours had passed since she’d stood and moved or had anything to eat.
“I’ve done it,” she said to the empty workshop and five machines that had once been only an idea in her mind. “We’ve done it,” she added more quietly.
