Page 46 of A Duke to Undo her
“Of course, Mother. If Lady Josephine can do without me for a little longer?”
“Cassius is here,” declared Nerissa Emerton, taking her younger son’s arm firmly. “He is perfectly capable of taking care of Lady Josephine, aren’t you, Cassius?”
The dowager duchess had left him little choice. The Duke of Ashbourne offered Josephine his arm.
“Would you do me the honor of this dance, Lady Josephine?” he asked, the formal and forgettable arrangement of words made compelling by the roughening of his voice and perceptible unsteadiness of his breathing.
“You could decline politely if he really does not wish it,” Lady Elmridge whispered discreetly in Josephine’s ear, entirely misunderstanding the situation.
Where Vera perceived reluctance, Josephine saw the opposite: a longing so intense that the Duke of Ashbourne feared himself. The problem was not that Cassius Emerton wished to avoid Josephine but that he wished to pick her up, carry her to some private space and carry out the most outrageous and erotic acts with her. It was what they both wanted and she wished she could tell him so.
“Yes, Your Grace,” she instead answered politely and then as she laid her gloved hand on his arm, she added in a murmur, “Yes, Cassius.”
A perceptible shiver ran through the man at his side as she spoke his name.
“Josephine…” he breathed in response, raising every hair on her neck and making her blood pulse loudly in her own ears.
Then they were on the dance floor, one of the duke’s hands at her back and the other on her own hand. Their bodies were only inches apart and she could sense and smell the inviting warmth of his skin.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Josephine whispered as the introductory bars of the waltz played, but Cassius hushed her and the dance began, making her shiver at his touch.
“We must be careful here, Josephine,” he warned her softly. “Everyone can see and we both know that neither of us is made of stone.”
Josephine nodded, in understanding rather than agreement. She could not help enjoying this closeness, despite the torment of wanting more. Nor was she willing to lose perhaps her only chance to speak to the duke without an audience.
For a few moments, Josephine decided to let herself only enjoy the sensation of being steered and twirled in the duke’s strong arms. The waltz was a heady dance with a partner one desired, she found, feeling her body responding to Cassius just as if he had embraced her more intimately.
“How are you and Benedict getting along?” the Duke of Ashbourne asked unexpectedly, his question paining Josephine as much as her appearance had seemed to pain him.
“Benedict is my good friend and I enjoy his company,” she answered and then cut off this line of enquiry with a challenging question of her own. “Why did you leave me in the library like that, Cassius?”
His hand had slipped down to her waist and it now tightened there as he spun them both.
“I am so very sorry, Josephine. All the things I have done, all that I have shown you…However sweet, I should not have done it. Such things should be learned from your husband one day.”
“I wanted you to do it,” she replied fiercely. “I wanted every single second of it. Don’t you see that?”
Their fingers were now fully intertwined in their engaged hands while the duke’s other hand at her waist definitely felt like a caress. Josephine recalled how the nightgown had slid finally from her hips to the floor after such a caress on her bare skin.
“You are so passionate, so lovable, so desirable, Josephine,” Cassius told her in a low voice, close to her ear. “I can only be a danger to you.”
“You want me to believe something that feels so good can only be a danger?” she continued to challenge him, aching for his hands to be able to skim the curves of her bosom and hips rather than merely hold her.
“Yes! I have lived enough to see that and you have not. I am trying to protect you.”
At these words, the duke instinctively pulled her closer in their next twirl, bringing Josephine almost close enough to kiss.
“Then tell me why you left me like that, Cassius,” she insisted, feeling his slightly ragged breathing on her face.
“Because if I hadn’t…” he began with an agonized expression, but then shook his tousled dark head and straightened his face. “It is no use. Even talking of such things is a danger. You must keep far from me, Lady Josephine, and I from you.”
The music had come to an end now but Cassius was still holding Josephine in his arms as though he could not bear to release her. She knew that if they continued to stand there much longer, people would talk and she began to hope they would. Perhaps then he would have to give her proper answers.
Then, finally, his arms withdrew and Josephine was released, whether she wished it or not. No, she did not wish it, she thought fiercely. She wished to be in those arms forever, to be kissed by those warm lips every day, to embrace this man fully, body and soul. She knew this now. Surely he must know it too!
“Cassius, I…” she began to say but it was no use; his expression was again as it had been in the library when he turned everything upside down.
“Thank you for our dance, Lady Josephine. I trust you will enjoy the rest of the ball and journey home safely tomorrow,” the Duke of Ashbourne said with a formal bow before striding away in the direction of the conservatories, leaving Josephine crushed at the edge of the dance floor.
