Page 28 of The Scarlet Lady's Duke of Desire
At that, Melody felt her cheeks grow hot and she blurted, “How would we know? He is never around! He is always far too concerned with business, leaving us to fend for ourselves against the scandalmongers!”
She thought for a second of the night before and how perhaps if her father spent half as much time trying to fix things with his brother as he did with business, they might have a relationship with their family. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t true and yet, in that moment she wanted someone to blame for the terrible ache she was feeling deep inside her after the events of the night before.
Looking mildly uncomfortable, the duke piped up, “Perhaps I ought to take my leave. I can see I have caused enough trouble.”
Though it would not be the first time he had caused trouble, it was clear from the look on his face that for once, he had not meant to. The remorse made his hazel eyes darken until they were almost black.
“No, please stay,” Melody protested, the words slipping from her tongue all too easily. “You have come all this way. Perhaps we could take a walk in the garden?”
When the duke did not offer a protest of his own, Melody turned to her mother and asked, “Would that be acceptable to you, Mama?”
With an incredulous look on her face, her mother threw her hands wide with exasperation and sighed, “What more harm could it do?”
Melody’s stomach twisted at her mother’s reaction. She would have thought that the visit of a duke to their home would have been a good thing. Yet, it was clear her mother was still reeling from learning that she had attended her uncle’s ball the evening before.
She opened her mouth to assure her mother that all was well when her mother beat her to it, saying, “Stay close to the house so that I might keep an eye on you from the window.”
“I assure you nothing untoward shall occur, Mrs Thornton,” the duke assured her, bowing once more and offering her a reassuringly charming smile.
Melody’s stomach filled with butterflies and her heart skipped a beat when he offered her his arm and suggested, “Will you show me the way?”
“I would be honoured, Your Grace.”
It was true. And for perhaps the first time in her life, there was nowhere that Melody would have rather been as she slipped her arm into his.
Chapter 13
Walking through the garden close to the Thorntons’ townhouse, James felt entirely at ease, save for the way his heart skipped a beat whenever he looked directly at the woman upon his arm. In the mid-afternoon sunshine, her red hair shone like a golden crown upon her head, and when she looked back at him, her grey eyes sparked with a wealth of emotions.
Does she feel as I do?He wondered; biting his words back several times during their walk, to stop himself from asking the question aloud.
Instead, he enjoyed their conversation on how she and her mother had planted every one of the plants within the garden themselves, taking the time to pick them carefully to ensure that the birds and bees and other wildlife had the perfect ecosystem within their small slice of the world.
And James found that listening to her talk was quite calming. Several times he found himself gazing at her wantonly, caught off guard when he realised that she was meeting his gaze.
When he could take the emotions within him in silence no longer, he quickly offered a glance towards the house. Checking every window with quick succession, he grabbed Melody’s hand from his arm and pulled her swiftly towards the nearest tree.
“Your Grace! What are you doing?” she hissed, and again, he glanced at the house. Still, there appeared to be nobody watching them.
Hoping he had picked a trunk wide enough to hide them from view, he gripped Melody’s hips and pressed her back against the bark, using his own body to gently pin her there.
The sharp intake of breath he heard from her might have been enough for him to take pause if not for the way her grey eyes blazed back at him.
She leaned into him and for a brief flutter of his heart, he believed that she was going to push herself up to kiss him. Then, she started to pull away, attempting to slip sideways.
James, against his better judgement, barred her way with his arm.
“Your Grace, this is most inappropriate.”
“Forgive me,” James whispered back, his eyes travelling down to her rosebud lips. He wanted so desperately to feel them against his own. Biting the inside of his cheek to stop from doing so, he added, “I merely wished for a moment to be truly alone with you.”
Though Miss Thornton pressed herself back firmly against the tree, she gripped hold of his forearms as though she was terrified he might try to pull away. Determined to prove otherwise, he pressed himself harder against her. Feeling the heat of her body against his own, he leaned forward and whispered into her ear. “Miss Thornton, you intoxicate me.”
Her body tensed harder against his, and he felt her quivering beneath him, the sensation only making him want her more. He longed to have her stripped bare, to feel her quivering naked beneath him as they writhed together upon a feather bed.
More than that, he wanted to reach inside her soul and know all there was to know about her, and more than the physical, it was that which scared him the most.
“You confuse me, Miss Thornton,” he continued, the words tumbling from his lips without any real thought save for the fact he needed to release them, or risk being forever lost to them. “I find myself conflicted between what I know to be right and what I long for.”
