Page 56 of What's a Duke Got to Do With It
“One night was not enough,” she replied. She dipped her head, kissed his ear, ran her tongue around the whorl there. He shivered under her touch, making her smile at the joy it gave her. That such a magnificent, powerful man could be affected by her was heady indeed.
“Surely one more night could not hurt,” she continued, the words breathless. She ran her hands over the breadth of his shoulders, reveling at the power under the layers of his clothes even as she wished fervently that she could do away with those clothes and explore his delicious skin and corded muscles once more.
He raised his head, and the yearning in his eyes made her lose her breath entirely.
“No, one more night could not hurt,” he murmured, cupping her cheek. He looked down to her lips, a ragged breath escaping his own. “Though I don’t know if I can wait for tonight.”
“So don’t wait.” She took his hand, placing it on her breast, curling his fingers over the softness there, and was rewarded with a low groan that rumbled up from his chest.
Just as he was about to speak, however, Mouse’s booming woof sounded, reminding them that they were not in a private place. With one final, gentle kiss, he pulled back, that lopsided smile back in place as he gazed down at her.
“Though obviously we cannot indulge in such things here,” she murmured with a smile of her own. Tugging her clothes to rights and running her fingers over her hair to check for any stray locks that might have escaped, she took the arm he offered and they started off again after the dogs.
But he was not through with her. Not by far.
“When?” he demanded hotly as they walked down the gravel path, his large hand covering her own, his thumb doing wicked things to the inside of her wrist.
A thrill went through her, and it took everything in her not to grab him by the lapels, drag him behind the hedges, and have her way with him.
“While Lady Tesh takes her nap before dinner,” she whispered. “Meet me in the library.”
“I’ll be there,” he replied, and she heard more than saw the smile in his voice, a reflection of what was in her own heart.
The planned rendezvous with Katrina was all Sebastian could think about in the hours that followed their walk in the garden. Dear God, she consumed him.This is just temporary, he tried telling himself, not for the first time that day.
Yet every time he thought of her, how she had responded to his touch, how she had fallen apart in his arms the night before—and how hungrily she had kissed him in the garden—he had an increasingly difficult time remembering that fact. Because he wanted more with her, so much more. In fact, he never wanted to let her go.
Marry her.God, he wanted to, so badly he ached with it. Her sweet declaration of love, so pure and certain, had unlocked something in him he had thought forever shut up, a hope for the future he had hardly dared to acknowledge. Once more he scoured his brain for a solution so he might be with her. And once more he came up empty-handed. His lines of credit with the banks were already well past their breaking point, his friendships with anyone who might be able to assist him dissolved, every property and jewel and valuable gone to creditors. Hell, he wasn’t even so good at cards that he could attempt to recoup his lost fortune through gambling. Not that he would ever attempt that. Not after what his father’s losses at the tables had wrought.
But there had to be something he was missing, some solution that would allow him to find happiness and love with the woman who meant everything to him without hurting everyone else he cared for in the process.
“Can you believe something so ridiculous, Ramsleigh?” Bridling said.
Sebastian, starting guiltily, looked over at the other man. They were just returning from a quick ride, and to Sebastian’s dismay, he realized he had been quite thoroughly ignoring his companion. He had intended on using this time with Bridling to further his interest in Lady Paulette and distract him from his actress—but that had been before last night, and Katrina.
Katrina. He sighed dreamily, then just as quickly yanked himself back from drowning once more in thoughts of her.
“Ah, sorry about that,” he replied, shifting in his saddle. “What was it you were saying?”
Luckily, Bridling did not appear as if he suspected anything was amiss. Good-natured fellow that he was, he merely smiled and rolled his eyes playfully at Sebastian’s inattentiveness before explaining, “Only that Lady Tesh has got it in everyone’s heads that I’ve made a match of it with Lady Paulette. I swear, I don’t know how the dowager came up with something of that sort. Even Lady Paulette’s brothers are teasing me over it.”
A preternatural stillness came over Sebastian. “You don’t care for Lady Paulette?” he found himself asking.
The snort that emerged from Bridling’s lips only increased the unease in Sebastian’s gut. “Good God, not you, too. Of course I don’t care for Lady Paulette. At least, not in any way that is not pure friendship. She’s a nice enough girl. But certainly not for me.” He smiled, his eyes going distant. “I like a different type of woman entirely.”
Sebastian stared at him, a rhythmic sound rushing in his ears. It took him some seconds to realize it was the heavy beating of his heart. “But what was all that about playing knight in shining armor?”
Bridling stared at him before exploding in laughter. “And you thought I meant Lady Paulette? Oh, you cannot be serious.”
“But you rescued her,” Sebastian insisted. “That night on The Promenade, from the thief.”
“It was an entirely different rescue I was referring to,” he said with a knowing wink.
In a moment Sebastian knew he had erred, and horribly. It had seemed obvious to him at the time, of course, that Bridling had been referring to Lady Paulette. His rescue of her from the thief had been all anyone was able to talk about, and the boy’s pleasure in his newfound fame had been quite obvious.
But who could it be that had captured his interest? Who else had the boy rescued, if not Lady Paulette? Before he could quiz the boy on just who had captured his affections, however, they reached the stable yard and two grooms rushed out to take their horses from them followed quickly by a footman.
“Your Grace, Mr. Bridling,” the footman said, “these letters have just arrived for you, and the messenger instructed they were to be given to you immediately.”
