Page 66 of How to Seduce a Duke this Autumn
A rough chuckle. “Just love it, I say.”
She huffed. “So incorrigible.” She glanced back to the house spilling with light, music, and laughter before glancing back at Adam, saying softly, “I don’t trust myself, to be honest. I don’t trust this.”
“You don’t trust me,” he whispered back.
“It’s not about trusting you or not.” This much she knew for a fact. “It’s about opening a door that I won’t be able to shut.”
“And trusting that everything will be fine.”
Charlene nodded. “I don’t know if everything will be fine.” Not while his brother was the very reason for the most hurt she’d experienced in her life. She certainly didn’t want to experience it again, and while Adam would never hurt her in that way, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t get hurt.
He leaned in, his forehead resting against hers. “I don’t want you to kiss me like that and pretend it means nothing. That’s my biggest fear.”
“Oh, it’s the biggest?”
His eyes bored into hers. “At the moment, yes.”
“Well, I’m not pretending at the moment,” Charlene said softly. Tomorrow might be another story.
His thumb brushed her bottom lip. “Then kiss me again. No ghosts, no regrets. Just us.”
She thought she’d been doing just that, but in hindsight, being so lost in the sensation of him, there was no way to think about anything else, so Charlene did just that. She pressed a soft, chaste kiss on his lips.
A peck.
But a true peck.
Not one of thrill, desire, or longing.
Just a soft press of lips against lips.
She pulled away. “How was that?”
“Bloody soul-shattering.”
Charlene laughed. She couldn’t help it. When the man said things like that with such a straight face, how else was she to respond but with true delight. The truth was, she felt the very same. There was no way to get lost in such a simple kiss. It exposed everything. Which might seem impossible, and yet here she sat with her heart pounding even harder than any other time they had touched.
This man had a way to wrap himself around her and make her believe in dreams again. He made her believe.
And she didn’t know what to do about that. Did she fight it? Did she surrender? What were the consequences of both?
“You are doing it again.”
She blinked at the man, the roughness of his voice sending a delightful shiver skittering down her spine. “Doing what again?”
“Thinking.”
Charlene snorted. “What nonsense is this? No person can go without thoughts.”
“True, but depending on the thoughts, some people are better left not thinking at all.”
Her eyes narrowed on the man. “I’m sure that’s an insult.”
“To some maybe, but not to you.”
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t think about anything but—”
“Me.” He grinned at her. “If you are not thinking about me, it’s best not to think at all.”
