Page 44 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
“As long as I am allowed to keep and expand my reading club with Lizzy, I won’t mind the rest,” she added with a shrug, as if what happened between a man and a woman was just something to get over with. A chore. A duty. Something to dread and endure.
His grip tightened on her arm. “This isn’t about children, Selina. I don’t care about children.”
“What?” It was her turn to sound surprised, her face scrunched up.
He moved up a step until he towered over her, his arm curving around her side to brace his hand against the banister. Pinning here there, not as he had done in the library, out of desire, but out of a fierce determination to be understood.
“I want you towantmy kiss,” he growled, leaning down to her ear. “I want you towantmy touch and my presence. I want you to crave them. I do not want you to think of it as a chore to be suffered through or an expectation. I do not want you to merely tolerate me, love. I want you to desire me.”
She pressed back against the banister to put space between them, a harsh bark of a laugh leaving those plump, tempting lips of hers.
“Since when have you cared about my opinion?” she asked.
“It would be a mistake to mock me, Selina,” he warned.
“It is not mockery. You have not cared about my opinion before.” Her eyes were fever bright, two hot coals of anger and defiance. “You have not asked what I wanted before. Indeed, you have done the very opposite, thus far.”
He gazed at the curve of her neck, his lips itching to kiss her there. “So, I imagined your frantic breaths in the library? I imagined the way you kissed me back so fervently? Were you clinging to me purely to steady yourself?”
It might have sounded like teasing, but he truly wished to know. If he had misjudged, he wanted to ensure he did not make the same mistake again. Even if it tortured him to keep his distance.
“I beg your pardon?” she rasped, her face flushing.
“You heard me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You just want me to obey. This is all… about control.” Her throat bobbed. “So, let me ask you this—what would you do if I won’t obey? If I refuse to want you as you want me to? If I won’t be a good little wife?”
He was contradicting himself, but he pressed closer, his hand gripping the banister so tightly that the wood creaked.
How could she act like she didn’t want him when her gaze kept flitting to his lips, her bosom was heaving like that, and her face was the deep pink of desire?
“Go on,” she goaded, her voice catching. “What would you do?”
He could see her pulse fluttering in her throat. Whether it was nerves or longing that intensified its beat, he couldn’t know. All he knew was that he wanted to kiss that spot, feel that racing pulse against his mouth.
“What would you do?” she repeated, breathless.
His hand came up from the banister and closed around her throat, gentle, not squeezing too hard. Her neck arched, those eyes drawing him in, bringing him closer to her lips. Like she wanted him, more than anything.
Biting his lip, he leaned in that little bit more. If he spoke her name, it would brush his mouth against hers.
Instead, footsteps in the hall brought a sharp curse to his lips.
If that is Lizzy, she won’t be pleased.
Only, the footsteps were coming from the opposite direction of the drawing room and moving with haste.
Glaring, his hand fell away from Selina’s throat, and his head whipped around to find Mary standing in the middle of the entrance hall, frozen. A sting of something like hurt flickered in her brown eyes, her face tense.
Jealousy, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“There is… a carriage coming, Your Grace,” she said.
Why she was declaring that instead of letting the visitors come to the door, to be received by the butler, would have been beyond him if it were not for that wounded look on her face. The arrival of a carriage was just an excuse to interrupt; he would wager a lot of money on it.
“You should announce yourself,” he seethed.
She was absolutely doing this on purpose. Revenge for his rejection the other night.
