Page 23 of A Duke for Stealing
“I have known you, Tristan, Hugo, and Dominic for years now. I am getting to know Alistair better as well. I have attended multiple dinners where you have discussed your successes. Did you really think I was not listening?” She asked.
Before he could retort, Rose went on.
“No, the house is not dry. There are five farmers who provide goods to our manor, and I gave a bottle to each head of the family and each grown son. Thirteen bottles in all were gifted. You still haveseveralcases of whiskey in the spirits room. As for permission? I alerted you to what I was doing. I invited you to join me. To help me. You refused, and I did not hold that against you. But I did, however, take authority to make all decisions regarding this festival.
“Responsibilities such as these? They are precisely what you brought me here for. They what you tasked with, what you deemed more necessary than the care of your nieces.”
“Yes, my nieces,” Everett said quickly. Finally, he could arrive at the issue that caused him to come find her in the first place.
“What of them?” Rose asked.
“The nurse told me what happened,” Everett explained. “With Leah’s tantrum. I told you not to bother them anymore, and not only did you disobey me, but you also coddled that girl when there should have been discipline! You proved my point that such a responsibility is not fit for you.”
Rose walked toward him with an even, confident stare and stopped right before him with her hands on the hips of her pink gown. His eyes roamed down to her breasts, drawn to the soft appeal of her cleavage, and when he inhaled, he caught the sweet scent of rosewater and lilies. It dizzied his head, and though he tried to hold on to it, it stole some of his logic. His hands itched to reach out to her. To feel the pink softness before him.
“Have you hired a governess?” She asked softly.
Everett forced his eyes up to hers and was nearly knocked back by the intense blue of her eyes.Had they always been such a deep blue?
“I beg your pardon?” He asked.
“A governess,” Rose replied slowly, trailing a hand up her bosom to circle around her bare neck. “Have you hired one?”
Everett’s mind was losing track as he watched her delicate fingertips swirl around the expanse of flesh around the hollow of her throat, her collarbone, and then finally settle around the graceful column of her neck. He swallowed hard, trying to ignore the erotic possibilities of what he would do if it werehishand there.
“No,” he rasped. “I have….been busy.”
“Well then,” Rose said, then let out a breathy sigh that made her breasts rise and fall in a sinfully delicious way, “I do not see how we are still arguing this point.”
Everett needed to get a hold of himself. He was in a losing battle with his primal urges, and even he could see it. When he’d first entertained the idea of being faithful, it was nothing but a flimsy possibility. Still, as he settled more into his brother’s work affairs, he’d found no time at all to dally as he used to, and had, without meaning, remained loyal to his new wife.
Two weeks. Had he ever gone so long without the touch of a woman? Not since he was a boy, surely. With his money and charm, he’d never needed to go more than a day and a half, and even that was stretching it. Perhaps he would have more luck controlling those needs if Rose were unattractive to him, but the damned thing was, the more he argued with her, the more alluring she became. The more he noticed about her body.
“Are you listening?” Rose’s harsh tone broke his thoughts.
“No,” he admitted, and dragged his gaze from her throat to her blue eyes. Resentment burned in them, and dash it all if that didn’t make him want her more.
“In fact, I was just thinking about how little I actually knew about you,” he went on.
Some of the resentment in Rose’s gaze dampened, replaced with curiosity.
“And pray tell,husband,what is it that you thought you knew about me?” She asked.
Everett reached out to where her hand was still laced around her throat. Satisfaction shot through him as he heard her breath hitch when he grazed his fingertips over her hand.
“You were always so prim and proper before, Miss Gravesmoor,” he murmured, tracing his fingertips over each of her small fingers. “So willing to correct one of your friends when they spoke out of turn or behaved impolitely. Soveryworried about rumors spreading.”
“I am still that person,” she replied. But her voice was breathy. Uncertain. As if she were not sure, she still believed it to be true.
“If that is true,” Everett rasped, letting his fingers splay over hers and squeeze, “Why do I always find you disobeying my orders?”
He squeezed her throat. Gently. Just a small flex of his hand, and he was rewarded with the softest, most alluring whimper that had ever graced his ears.
“Do you not want to behave for me?” He asked, reaching up with his other hand to secure her elbow. With a gentle tug, he had her fingers slipping out from underneath his, giving him full access to her throat.
“Do you not want to show me you are still that very good girl?”
He watched in pleasure as Rose’s pupils dilated; heard her breath grow shallow; saw a deep red blush bloom on her beautiful cheeks. Everett flexed his hand just a little tighter, and he was rewarded with another whimper.
