Page 28 of A Duke in Pursuit of Passion
When he heard her sucking in a deep breath as if to yell at him some more, Nathaniel turned on her. “What you did was entirely irresponsible and utterly dangerous!”
He stormed across the room to face her, hoping she would see the fury in his gaze. Perhaps then she would finally be silenced, and he could forget all of this ever happened.
Instead, she snapped back at him, “Don’t you want to know why we were even in that alleyway?”
“The thought had not even crossed my mind!”
His own fury was mirrored in Lady Ella’s violet eyes then, and she suddenly looked like an avenging angel ready to scold him for all his sins.
“I found Louisa!” Lady Ella declared though Nathaniel only scoffed. As if she believed that he did not already know that. Alice had told Mack everything shortly after they returned home, and he had already used the information to make further enquiries.
“I know you found her and lost her all over again because your stupidity almost got you hurt or worse!” Nathaniel reeled back at her, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. From the looks of her, Lady Ella was just as tense, her teeth gritted, her lips parted as though she was preparing to spit angrily at him again.
“Perhaps if you had not been out so late last night, then I might have come to you this morning to tell you where I was going in the first place!” Lady Ella said, and had he not been quite so angry, he might have actually laughed openly. There was no way she would have told him of her plans even if he had been up and about that morning before she left.
It was just like her to go off and do exactly what she wanted whenever she wanted without so much as giving a second thought to the consequences of her actions.
“Good lord, Ella! You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met!” Nathaniel snapped at her, instinctively lashing out to grab hold of her shoulders and shake some sense into her.
“You are just angry because I did not come and get your permission first!” Lady Ella protested, starting to slip from his grip as though she did not wish him to touch her. Desperately, Nathaniel tightened his grip upon her and pulled her back into place, bracing her there with his hands on her upper arms.
“Ella, I am not mad because you did not run your plans past me; I am mad because you terrified me!”
“Oh, stop it, Nathaniel!”
She twisted in his grip, half-turning away. Nathaniel’s hands only slipped back to his sides for a moment before he lashed out once more and grabbed hold of her wrist, forcing her back around to face him. “I mean it, El. The moment Mack told me you and Alice were gone, I was terrified something awful might have happened to you.”
Against his better judgement, he reached up with his free hand and cupped her cheek. “I could not bear the thought of anything bad happening to you.”
Before his eyes, he watched the fury draining from her face. Her eyes seemed to light with surprise, and the emotional turmoil that had been surrounding Nathaniel’s heart all day finally overwhelmed him.
Gripping hold of her face in both his hands, Nathaniel kissed her. It started as a soft and gentle kiss, deepening with every second, his heart pounding with the terror that she might try to stop him.
Only when he felt her hands upon his chest, her fingers tightening in the front of his shirt, did he feel any relief. As she stepped closer, his manhood hardened uncomfortably in the front of his tight britches. Her warm body pressed against his own caused his hands to drop from her face, wrapping his arms around her so she could not escape his kiss.
The way her hands trailed south, her fingers playing with the buttons on his waistcoat, told him she had no intentions of stopping him from kissing her. And suddenly, he knew there was only one way to release all the pent-up anger and tension of the day.
Fingers tightening in the lacings of her gown at her back, he tugged until they came loose, encouraging it to open so he could slip it down over her shoulders. Feeling the soft pale skin of her arms beneath his fingertips, sensing the way she shivered, he knew without a doubt that he needed to feel so much more.
The second his hand slipped beneath the edge of her stay, feeling the soft bud of her nipple against his fingertips, Ella shrank back as though she had been stung. The realisation of what they were about to do suddenly dawned upon her face, and she shook her head, muttering something imperceptible.
Feeling her shock as his own, Nathaniel immediately released her, feeling horrified with himself when she turned and rushed from the room. She left him standing there, his hands dropped to his sides, unable to understand exactly what had just happened.
One minute they had been arguing, and the next, all he had been able to think about was being inside her, showing her how she had been making him feel ever since they had been reunited.
The frustration he felt at watching her leave was nothing compared to the worry that perhaps this time, he might have actually gone one step too far. Would she ever forgive him for laying hands on her?
It didn’t bear thinking about, and though he desperately wanted to go after her, to apologise or to see whether she truly did not wish him to touch her that way, he forced himself back into his desk chair. She needed her space, and more than ever, he needed his.
Chapter 17
Louisa had lost track of the days since the men had come and barrelled her out of the inn, practically throwing her into the back of a carriage. In fact, she preferred to try not to think of how many days she had been stuck in the dark, dingy room that smelled like mould and rat droppings. She’d been there all too long, and that was enough for her.
For days she had spent hours trying to wiggle a nail free from the bed frame, and finally, it had come loose. She used it several times to attempt to unlock the door that was the only constant barrier between her and freedom, hiding it in the bust of her dress whenever she heard someone approaching the door.
The men who had captured her, for the most part had left her be, bringing her food and a bucket for her ablutions, but otherwise, they left her alone. None of them answered her questions, instead treating her with silence until she got on their nerves, and they told her to shut the hell up if she knew what was good for her.
And with every day that passed, she began to grow more and more concerned for Joshua. She had heard nothing of him, and so far, he had not come for her, though she hoped and prayed that he would. If he knew where she was, he would come for her, and if he didn’t, he would find out because Joshua loved her.
