Page 31 of It's All About the Duke
Oh, yes, she did.
But she couldn’t. He couldn’t.
“You can’t kiss me,” she managed to whisper.
“I know,” he said, though his face kept coming closer to hers. “I’m not going to, but you can kiss me.”
“Me kiss you?”
He nodded and the scent of windswept shores and rugged cliffs suddenly filled the air around her, making her feel languid and dreamy. Her breaths became deep and heavy with wanting what he was suggesting. She wasn’t afraid to kiss him. It was just the thought that she shouldn’t want to that held her back.
Yet her desire to feel his lips on hers was great, and he was so close.
So maybe she could kiss him. Not a long kiss of course. Just a brief touch of her lips upon his. Just once.
Only to solve the mystery of what a kiss would be like. As when the boys had encouraged her to touch her first snake, climb her first tree, and wade in her first icy pond without her shoes and stockings. She could consider the kiss a learning experience that she very much wanted to accomplish. When she went to Mr. Olingworth’s house she’d been taught to dance, ride a horse, and manage a household. Shouldn’t she be familiar with a kiss as well?
Marlena’s lashes lowered over her eyes. She felt herself rising up on her toes to meet him. His breath lightly caressed her lips. She was only a second or two away from receiving her first kiss and it was a heady feeling.
Holding the tin tightly to her midriff with one hand, she splayed the other on the desk behind her to steady herself. Her palm landed on a piece of linen. She caughtit up in her grasp and quickly shoved it between her face and the duke’s.
“I have your handkerchief,” she said breathlessly.
The duke slowly straightened again. He blew out a soft laugh and nodded. “So you do.”
Marlena didn’t know if she was relieved or if she would be forever regretful that she’d spoiled her chance for a kiss.
He took the handkerchief from her and slipped it into his coat pocket. “That was very clever.”
It was her escape but she still wasn’t sure she’d wanted to be set free.
“I know we shouldn’t kiss,” he said.
“That’s good to hear,” she agreed.
“It doesn’t keep me from wanting to.”
She wanted it, too, though she wasn’t as courageous as he. She would keep silent with her answer.
He took a step away from her. “I know well my responsibility to you. I will abide by it with all the honor it requires of me. I’m your guardian, your provider, and your protector as surely as Mr. Olingworth and your other guardians before him have been.”
“Thank you.”
He glanced at the box in her hands. “Tell me, Miss Fast, would you have accepted that if Mr. Olingworth had given it to you?”
She looked down at the strong-smelling items in her hands. She wouldn’t have blinked an eye if Mr. Olingworth had brought her the smelling salts in such beautiful packaging. But somehow with them coming from this man who from the moment she first saw him made her feel so feminine and desirable, she thought it must be inappropriate.
Being truthful, she answered, “I would have.”
“Then I don’t know what more I can say about what I brought today,” he said calmly.
After taking in a long deep breath and then expelling it slowly, Marlena said, “I’ll accept them as you intended them. A household necessity.”
Since her secretary was right behind her she turned and opened the top drawer, wanting to hide the tin from Justine for, at least, the time being. There in plain sight for the duke to see as clearly as she could was her writing draft ofMiss Honora Truth’s Scandal Sheet. Marlena thought she might stop breathing, and for a moment she couldn’t seem to move. Seconds ticked by before she slammed the drawer shut. She turned and leaned against the desk again, praying the duke hadn’t had time to read many of the words on the page.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No, I realized that the drawer is full and the tin won’t fit,” she fibbed, but with no small amount of guilt.
