Page 95 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
“No.” Bella said the word with such vehemence, Rhys wondered if she’d misunderstood him.
He hadn’t actually askedthequestion, but she seemed terrified he would.
“Please don’t. Not now. Not like this.”
Rhys raked a hand through his hair. Bella was the brightest woman he’d ever known and the most desirable. But she was also the most maddening.
“Five other men have had the opportunity to ask. Perhaps you should allow me to get the words out too.”
Was this not what she wanted? Their feelings were mutual. He saw it in her eyes. Felt it in how her body responded to his. He still wasn’t sure he could ever deserve her, but he wanted to try.
Bella walked away from him, pacing down the pavement, then turned back and approached until they were almost toe to toe. It was odd for her to be the one pacing, unable to remain calm, while he stood still. Waiting.
Somewhere along the way, the tables had turned.
“We should head back to the Tremaynes.” Her voice held that no-nonsense quality he usually loved. “They’re expecting us for luncheon.”
“Very well.” He wanted to push, to break through the cool facade she wore as well as he wore his jovialone. But Bella was stubborn, and he had no wish for a battle.
She walked with him to the carriage and let him help her inside. He touched her only as long as necessary and didn’t linger as he’d done the past few days. When they were seated on opposite benches, he turned his head toward one window and she focused her gaze out the other.
For the short journey, they said nothing.
It was as if the past days had been nothing more than a delicious dream and they were back where they’d started, glaring at one another across the length of the Hillcrest billiard room.
He’d never had to woo or seduce a woman in any but the most carnal of ways. Bella was worth the effort to try for more.
Trouble was, he had no real idea of how to begin.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bella knew by all the rules of propriety, she was being an awful guest.
Rather than join the others at Tremayne House for luncheon, she asked a servant to give her excuses and remained in her room, combing the pages of her manuscript for anything she might improve.
The puzzles and problems didn’t absorb her as they usually did. And of course, she knew why. She had a much greater conundrum to solve.
One that involved a man who made her breathless every time he touched her. One that made her heart race anytime she let herself contemplate the future, because every possibility frightened her. She couldn’t imagine a life with Rhys, and yet she could no longer think of one without him.
It was why she’d begged off lunch. He would be there with that searching blue gaze of his, and shefeared the next time they were alone together he’d ask the question she’d once longed to hear.
But that was the past, and this wasn’t foolish infatuation. Her heart was torn and her head led her down winding paths of worry. If he asked, she still didn’t know what her answer should be.
Rising from the settee in her guest suite, she stretched to ease the knots in her back. Glancing at the clock, she wondered if it was too late to join the luncheon.
Laughter filtered up from downstairs intermittently. The event was a larger affair than she’d imagined. She’d counted at least a dozen guests as she’d watched from her window when carriages arrived.
After nearly quarter of an hour’s absence, she wondered why Rhys hadn’t come up to find her and ask why she wasn’t in attendance.
Pressing a hand to her middle, she drew in a deep breath. Then she turned to the mirror over the mantel and tucked a few strands of hair into pins to straighten her coiffure.
Perhaps she would go.
She started for the door and stopped when someone knocked from the other side.
“Rhys.”
But when she swung the door open, it was the Duchess of Tremayne smiling at her from across the threshold.
