Page 78 of A Duke for Stealing
“Everett,” she said again, then licked her lips. “We can still be friends even if we-”
“If we were just friends, I would not react so strongly to the way you just licked your lips,” he gritted out.
His hands shot out then, gripping her arms.
“Driving me mad, haunting my dreams,” he muttered.
“Everett, I am sorr-”’
Her words were cut off as Everett pulled her to him, crushing his lips down on hers. Rose instantly wrapped her arms aroundher neck; her body singing with joy as she felt his fervent kiss once again. Their lips and teeth gnashed at one another in a desperate harshness, as if their bodies did not have the patience to reconnect slowly.
His hands moved from her arms and tore the hem of her shirt from her trousers, and he moaned into Rose’s mouth as his hands found her breasts. Rose broke away from the kiss with a whimper and went for the buttons of his vest. Her fingers shook as she hurriedly parted the thing, and then she tugged the hem of his shirt from his trousers.
His body, the one she craved so very much, was just as hot as hers- and just as needy.
“Uncle Everett? Lady Rose?”
Rose and Everett froze as they heard Diana’s voice from the closet door.
“Leah, I believe I have found them,” Diana called. “There’s a noise coming from the closet!’
Everett roughly tucked the hem of Rose’s shirt back into her trousers and then stepped into the corner just as the closet door opened.
“Lady Rose, we found you!” Diana crowed happily, then frowned as she studied Rose.
“Is your fever back, Lady Rose?” She then asked. “You look awfully flushed.”
Rose wanted to die from embarrassment. Instead, she forced a smile and shook her head.
“It is this closet,” she replied, “it is so terribly hot in here.”
Diana gave her a dubious look, then shrugged.
“Have you seen Uncle Everett?” She then asked as Leah came into the room. “We have not found him yet.”
“I am right here, girls,” Everett said from the corner of the closet.
He stepped into the light, his vest buttoned and shirt properly tucked into his trousers just as it had been before.
“We win!” Leah exclaimed with glee. “Let us play again.”
“I am sorry, girls,” Everett said, walking out of the closet and past them. He stopped just long enough to take one last glance at Rose, and his pained eyes sent another bolt straight to her heart.
“I have to go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Where is Uncle Everett?” Diana asked the next morning.
Rose glanced at the empty chair at the head of the table. She rubbed her thumbs anxiously over the bright red rose that adorned her teacup. The girls and she were breaking their fast, and once again, Everett had not joined them.
“I do not know, my darling,” Rose replied. She smiled, but it did not hide the sadness in her voice.
She missed him. Wanted him. More than wanted him. As she had tossed and turned all night before, she had come to a startling realization: she was in love with him.
“I hope he does not have a fever as you had,” Leah said, pushing her eggs around her plate with her fork. “It was awfully terrible when you had yours.”
It was clear that Rose wasn’t the only one sad over Everett’s absence. His nieces missed him, too. He’d gotten so close to the twins- to all three of them- and now it seemed as if he was disappearing again.
