Page 53 of The Duke on Her List
“I’m not,” he said. “I don’t think that’s right. I think the people who haven’t appreciated this about you haven’t gotten to know you well. They haven’t seen the value of your nature. The strength you have. The way no one ever has to guess at what you want, because they can be assured you’re going to tell them. The way you stand up not only for yourself but for everyone around you. I didn’t need you to protect me from your brother’s questioning over dinner, but I can’t pretend it wasn’t lovely to know that you were on my side.”
She nodded. “I do feel bad about that,” she said. “He was more aggressive with you than he should have been.”
“I don’t mind a bit. As I mentioned, I would have done the very same thing if someone was courting Helena,” he said. “He wants to make sure you’re well protected, that’s all.”
Then he grinned. “Of course, how he could possibly think you require any protection is entirely beyond me.”
Agnes laughed. “I think he wants me to need it more than I do,” she said. “At least then he would know what to do for me. It’s hard for him that he doesn’t know how to help.”
“I would think he’d be able to see that you don’t need any help,” Gabriel said. “At least, not from him.”
“Not from him?”
“Well,” Gabriel said. “I flatter myself that you do needmyhelp.”
“You think so?” She grinned.
“You need me to help you complete your list.” He moved closer to her. “Isn’t that right?”
His eyes locked with hers, and for a moment, Agnes forgot how to breathe.
Being close to him like this was staggering. The fact that he had chosen to be here with her, that he wanted this closeness—that he kept showing up for it—was difficult to believe. And the way his eyes seemed to blaze at her, as if he was looking at a puzzle he was trying to solve, made Agnes feel like the most fascinating thing in all the world.
She couldn’t let herself get carried away. She had to focus on what they were doing here. That door was still open. There were still people in the room. They weren’t on their own here, and they couldn’t forget it and act as if they were.
But he was looking at her as if he had forgotten.
He was looking at her as if he were contemplating kissing her.
Hewascontemplating it. She was suddenly sure. His eyes had dropped to her lips, and his own were parted, and now he was leaning closer still.
His eyes began to drift closed.
He was about to kiss her. He really was.
No, he couldn’t be. He wouldn’t consider something like that, not with maids in the room watching us. Not knowing full well that Reeves could come and interrupt us at any moment.
He wouldn’t consider it anyway! This courtship is a pretend thing. He isn’t going to change the terms of our agreement so rapidly.
And yet…he’d done that already. The day of the proposal. That was supposed to be a pretend thing, a moment of make-believe , but he had turned it real. He had given her what had seemed so much like a real proposal that she had found herself unsure of how to handle it.
Maybe the barriers between them had fallen altogether. Maybe the rules had changed. A kiss would have been entirely out of line when all this had begun, but maybe that line had moved.
And Agnes realized that she wanted it to move.
But nervous energy filled her, and she cleared her throat. “Yes,” she said. “I need your help with my list. We’re nearly finished. Soon enough, we’ll be able to put all this behind us.”
His face darkened slightly, and he pulled back. His voice, when he spoke, was tighter than it had been so far, without any trace of humor. “Yes,” he said. “I suppose you’re right about that. We’ll be able to put everything behind us, if that’s what you want to do.”
He turned away from her, and the odd tension that had come from their staring at one another seemed to snap.
He’s angry with me.
But she didn’t know why. What had she done? Whatcouldshe have done? He was the one who had begun the conversation about the list. She had been agreeing with him, nothing more. He couldn’t take issue with that, could he? Wasn’t this what he wanted?
Did he think she was saying she would end the mock courtship when the list was completed?
Well, if that was his concern, why didn’t he just ask her? She was in no hurry to put an end to things between them. In fact, she was rather enjoying herself. But she wasn’t going to rush to reassure him if he wasn’t even going to pose the question, for heaven’s sake.
