Page 18 of A Christmas Temptation for the Duke
It wasn’t until he was through the front door, slamming it closed behind, that Daniel took a deep breath. His body was trembling. His heart was racing. And the way his blood pumped hot through his veins and through his legs… he groaned, wanting but unable to stop thinking about what had nearly happened.
Lucky then that she and her family were leaving on holiday in a few days’ time. All he needed to do was avoid her until then. And once she was gone from sight she would be banished from his mind and all this would be was a small slip in Daniel’s stalwart self-control.
Chapter Five
“What is taking so long?” Felix huffed and folded his arms across his chest. “This is absurd!”
“It’s Winnie,” Alison said, smiling softly because she could not find it in herself to be mad with her little stepsister. “Despite all efforts, she has failed to pack on time.”
“Unbelievable! I have half a mind to ride out myself and have the rest of you follow on later.”
“In this weather?” Alison snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Felix scrunched his face with contempt and then shifted across the carriage to look out the window. As he did, he muttered darkly under his breath, his mood sour.
If this does not bode well for the trip, I don’t know what else will…
Alison watched her half-brother glower, able to feel his anger as if it was a fire setting the inside of the carriage aflame. Where it might have been easy to say that his mood was caused by the lateness of today’s departure, Alison had noticed the way he’d been acting the last few days. Grumpy and short tempered, snappy and even more mulish than usual.
She might have asked what was bothering him… but she wasn’t much in the mood to have her head bitten off.
She had Pickle on her lap and patted him gently as she shuffled to the other side of the carriage and looked out the window, willing the time to move faster than it was.
She could see Lord Pemberton pacing across the drive, his patience wearing thin. Nerissa stood by the second carriage, arms folded and rolling her eyes. And she could hear her mother crying after Winnie to hurry up from inside the manor, the tone of her voice suggesting that it would be some time until Winnie was ready.
Alison exhaled, her patience getting the best of her.
On most occasions, she would simply wait it out. But Felix’s mood had turned the inside of the carriage into a most unbearable place, and from where she was sitting, looking out the window, her eyes kept drifting to the neighboring estate and with it her mind wandered toward the inevitable…
Lord Grayhill was undoubtedly home. Somewhere within those walls. Strange that for so long Alison had hardly noticed thehome next door, nor had she given a thought to the man who owned it. Now that she had met him, now that she had come face to face with him, a quick glance at the home and his domineering presence could be felt even this far away.
A warmth rippled up Alison’s body so that she was shuddering and her thighs were burning and despite her best efforts she could not stop thinking about what happened just two days ago.
I just do not understand it. By all accounts, the man hates me. As I hate him. But when he is snarling at me, I feel a burning energy that pulls me toward him so that all I want is to feel his body and his hands and his lips…
She gave her head a shake and yanked her mind back to much more mundane matters.
“Fetch me when we are leaving,” she told Felix as she climbed from the carriage, Pickle held to her chest.
“What? Where are you going?”
“Someplace warm,” she said without looking back.
She kept her head down, refusing to look at Lord Grayhill’s estate, as she hurried inside. Out the corner of her eye she saw Lord Pemberton speaking with Nerissa and neither noticed her entering the manor.
The inside of the home was silent at first, as Lord Pemberton had given the staff the holidays off, allowing them to spend time with their own family and friends.
But this silence was soon broken when she heard her mother barking at Winnie to hurry up. As the staff had all left, it was up to Winnie to do a final check of her things, and clearly the little girl was making it as difficult as was possible. Another smile flitted across Alison’s face as she hurried across the foyer and toward the library. By her estimate, she had a good hour to kill, so she might as well do it by a fire and with a book in hand.
It was a short time later that this desire became fulfilled.
Curled up on a thick rug by the fire, Alison started to read the first book she found. It was terribly boring, a history of Wales – a book Felix would enjoy – but she turned the pages, let her mind wander, let the fire warm her, let her body sink into the soft rug as Pickle snuggled in beside her.
She did not mean for it to happen, but soon her eyelids felt heavy. Soon her body turned number. And just as soon, she drifted off to sleep…
“Oh!” Alison startled awake suddenly.
Her eyes sprang open, and she sat up as the room turned around her. She was cold, shaking because the fire had dimmed, and she pulled Pickle into her chest for warmth.
