Page 29 of The Duke's Impetuous Darling
At the door, she halted. "I'm tired of your treatment of me."
"Oh?" He rounded on her. "And just what is that?"
She curled her fingers into her palms. "You ignore me. Or desert me. Or badger me."
"What would you rather I do?"
Kiss me."Be as you once were with me. Kind and understanding."
He put his hands on his hips. Not happy at all. "You reject me in favor of...of your own self-esteem. What do you expect me to do?"
"You're right. Right. Of course, you are!" Frustrated with herself, angry with him, she swept past him to put a hand to the knob of the door and yanked it open. "I'm asking too much!"
But he whirled her around and pulled her into his arms. "I prefer this!"
And he kissed her, wildly, deeply, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth to taste every little bit of her for a long leisurely minute. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He was passionate, heady and in this moment totally and only hers.
She heard a man clear his throat.
"Oh, hell." With a startled face and shaking breath, Alastair steadied her to her feet.
Only then did she turn aside and see Simms staring down at them. Hands clasped behind his back, he rolled up on the balls of his feet. Triumphant, he'd done his job to close the doors behind him and keep their kiss private. "Did you wish to return to the game?"
Alastair scowled at her. "I'll go first."
"Wise," the butler remarked stepping aside for Alastair to pass. "'Good nature and good sense must ever join.'"
“Shakespeare?” she asked him, not knowing if she would laugh or cry. “Now?”
"He speaks to almost every problem," he said, shot his cuffs and strode to open the door for Alastair.
"You must stop grinning at me," she whispered in hot rebuke to Alastair the next morning as they left the breakfast room. He'd gazed at her, openly from far down the table while they dined among many house guests who came in and out.
"I'm sorry, darling, but I find the blush on your cheeks almost as delightful as the taste of your lips."
She ground her teeth. "Do me the courtesy to stay away from me today."
"But last night, you chastised me for being too far away."
"And then look what happened?"
"I know," he said with smooth satisfaction.
"So do amuse yourself elsewhere." This morning over eggs and toast, many a house guest peered at one then the other of them with amusement. They knew they'd kissed. More than once too.
He chuckled as he paused at the bottom of the stairs. "I won't. I shall be where you are, go where you do, bedevil you, my sweet. My promise."
"My torment."
"Ah. Such is courtship."
She picked up her skirts. "You are infuriating."
"I know." He was so satisfied with himself. "Where are you going?"
"To get my latest novel. Aunt wants me to lead those who wish to read in the library."
"They need leading?"
