Page 20 of Deviant Duchess
She whirled around, muttering to herself about his awful behavior, and went to the writing desk. Not wanting to think about him or anything else, she sat down in the sun, searched through the drawers until she found blank paper, a pen, and an inkwell, and began to write down everything about her plan for Sylvester that had gone wrong. She wanted to see it all laid out. She wanted it burned into her mind. That way, she would not make the same mistake twice.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Confound it all,” Deborah murmured, looking down at all she had written. She reached for the hunk of bread that was brought up along with the rest of her dinner and tore a piece off with her teeth, mauling it over the same way she was mauling her thoughts.
There was so much she could not do now that she was married. The risk was too high now to keep going to the auction in disguise. As a married couple, she and Cedric would have no choice but to attend societal balls and assemblies. All it would take would be for one of her disguises to slip, and she would be identified, and such a mistake would shove Cedric and Adeline into the forefront of gossip.
It had been different with her own family. They were already pariahs. Cedric might be a confounding devil who would not care, but Adeline was innocent. She crossed the wordbarmaidoff the list, knowing she’d never get back to the auction that way again. She then wrotemaid,but quickly scratched it out as well.Getting into Sylvester’s house to seek revenge was not going to be that easy.
With a sigh of frustration, Deborah dropped her pen and her bread and stood up; her body aching as she did so. She stretched, deciding she needed a break from her list of failed ideas. She walked to the open windows as she shook out the pins and needles from her limbs and massaged her neck.
She had been at it so long that she had not realized the sun had set, and in place of its yellow and orange hues, the twilight sky, with its purples and grays, seemed to sparkle with welcome as she looked at it. Despite her frustration, she smiled as she took in her new surroundings.
“Well, I may have had no choice but to accept this situation, but at least it is pretty,” she said aloud, her eyes roaming over the beautifully tended flower gardens in her view. It was quieter, too, she noted.
Once in a great while, back in London, she could hear the birdsong or insect chirps, but here, they were present and constant; a natural lullaby that she had silently longed for since her family had lost their house in the countryside.
“Shoo,” Deborah said aloud, waving a hand toward a buzzing thing that came toward her face.
She missed, and the wretched thing buzzed in a circle before it came flying right back at her face. With a gasp, she batted atit again, missing. She felt it land on her shoulder, and as she reached to smack it, the blasted thing crawled under her sleeves.
“Eugh!”She exclaimed, immediately tugging at the sleeve of the gown.
Frustration tunneled through her as the sleeve did not budge. Still feeling the thing crawling on her, she reached for the fasteners on the back of her gown and tried to reach it. She was only able to reach the bottom one, which only let her pull her sleeve down her shoulder.
Growing panicked, she went inside and rang the rope bell for a maid.
“Get out!” She demanded, working and tugging at the gown as she tried to find the blasted thing, “You hear me, get out!”
“You are not even curious as to what I came to say?”
Deborah whirled around as she heard Cedric’s voice, and she bit back a groan of embarrassment as she saw him leaning in the doorway, looking at her in a surprisingly approving fashion.Of course,he was there.
“Withthatlittle dance and show, your bid would have gone much higher, I would wager,” he mused, his eyes landing on her bare shoulders.
Deborah’s cheeks flushed with indignation, but as she opened her mouth to retort, the thing caught in her dress moved again, and she yelped instead.
“Do not just stand there gawking; help me!” She demanded, going in a circle as she once more tried to unfasten her dress.
“I would, but I am not sure what I am to be helping you with,” Cedric chuckled.
“The thing! There is a wretched thing stuck in my dress, and it is crawling on me!” She exclaimed.
A loud burst of laughter filled the air, but Cedric pushed himself away from the doorframe and came toward her.
“Alright, alright, hold still,” he told her, reaching for the ties on her dress.
Then the blasted thing moved again, and she squirmed. This time, her body did not just move in the air, but her backside brushed against the front of Cedric's trousers. A rumble escaped his chest, sending goosebumps over her flesh, and a moment later, his hands came pinning down on her hips.
“Be still,” he all but growled in her ear.
Deborah whimpered, fighting the urge to keep clawing at the dress until it came off in shreds. Such thoughts vanished immediately, though, as she became acutely aware that herback was firmly flush against Cedric’s front. She felt the warm, hard planes of his muscles beneath his white-collared shirt; felt another ridge, pulsing and far more protruding on her backside.
She drew in a trembling breath and willed herself to stay still. With quick jerks, Cedric had the ties of her gown unfastened, and he helped her pull the sleeves of her gown down her arms. She freed them in a hurry, and as she did so, the fabric turned inside out, and out of her left sleeve came tumbling the infernal insect that had gotten caught. It landed on the hardwood floor, and before Deborah could shriek again, Cedric’s foot came into view and smashed it under his black dress shoe.
She breathed a sigh of relief, happy that it was dead, and without thinking, let her body sag against Cedric’s. Something, she immediately realized as she felt his one arm wrap around her waist, was a terrible mistake.
Heat coursed through her veins, sending little sparks of pleasure through her core and nipples as Cedric slowly caressed a hand over her stomach. Her breath hitched as she heard him take a slow inhale near her ear; his lips tracing over its outer shell.
