Page 32 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke
‘John?’
‘You give me ease, Katherine. Let me give you this. Let me be able to think of you wearing it and know you think of me. Perhaps one day I might see you in it.’
Her hands finally reached to accept it and as her bare fingers touched his, they melted the feeling of cold ice in his stomach to water. The reaction disturbed him, he felt suddenly vulnerable. He walked to the French door.
‘What is going on, John?’ she whispered behind him.
He looked back. ‘Nothing.’
‘I do not understand you.’
Nor do I understand myself.Perhaps that was half his problem? Who was he, his mother’s son or his grandfather’s dark, cold, unfeeling monster? Far more the latter lately. But he did not want to be a monster and Katherine could make him feel warmth.
He returned to her, his gaze holding hers as physical and emotional desire burned inside him like an inferno. ‘You are beautiful, Katherine.’
‘You are beautiful. I am not,’ she answered.
‘Do you not see yourself? I like your gold hair, and the blue of your eyes. I like your spirit too.’And I want you.
He took the box from her hands, put it on the chair, then his fingertips lifted her chin. She did not turn her head away, her gaze held his, bright with the knowledge that he intended kissing her. He kissed her gently, unable to comprehend the level of feeling in his chest. How could she have come to mean so much to him in such a short time?
His kiss travelled to brush her cheek, her nose, her temple, as her face tilted towards him like a flower to the sun. ‘I like your skin too,’ he whispered near her ear.
She shivered and her fingers clasped his coat at his waist.
He liked having this effect on her. She was nothing like any other woman he had bedded, and she was everything he craved.
Castle’s footsteps on the hall floorboards announced his approach.
They pulled apart sharply and John turned and walked back to the window, looking out once more as his heart pounded and his groin ached with the need for fulfilment.
He clasped his hands behind his back only to stop them shaking.
He wanted to touch her.
Katherine thanked the butler and he heard her take the tea tray and set it down.
It was not tea he was thirsty for.
When she brought him a full cup, he turned and met her gaze again, aware of the door which still stood open.
She could not shut it. It would be the height of impropriety to do so, but at this moment, it was only that open door which saved her chastity. He wished to do wicked things with her, very wicked things, and he did not know if it was his grandfather’s monster roaring within or just his mother’s child who desperately longed to be loved.
‘Katherine…’ John’s eyes shone, as he looked at her.
She had thought him vulnerable at the funeral months ago, with no evidence to pin the thought against. But today she saw it.
There had been a desperate desire for her acceptance in his eyes when he had held the box out, and there was insecurity in them now. She could see nothing of the arrogant man.
‘John,’ she said in a low voice, ‘I do not understand what is happening? I can be no one to you.’
He took the full cup of tea she held out. ‘You are wrong. You can be everything to me, Katherine.’
She did not know what to say, so she turned to pour her tea.
‘I have never felt this way for anyone before,’ he said behind her. ‘I have no idea what it is, or how to progress. All I know is I wish to be in your company constantly…’
She was about to turn back when she heard the front door open. Her cup wobbled in its saucer.
