Page 51 of An Inconvenient Duke

She broke with a cry. His hands clamped around her waist to keep her on her feet as release shuddered through her and left her sagging bonelessly against the wall. When her leg slipped to the ground, he rose up to catch her in his arms.

She stared at him in wonder, her lips slightly parted and a visible heat in her cheeks even in the shadows.

The sight of her, flushed and satisfied, made him long to make her come again, this time while he was buried inside her. He couldn’t have that, not tonight. But he would never regret bringing her this pleasure. “Danielle, are you all right?”

“I’m wonderful.” Her trembling fingers lightly caressed his cheek.

Yes, she certainly was.

“Butyoudidn’t…”

There was no use in pretending that he didn’t know what she meant. Danielle might still be innocent, but she wasn’t ignorant. There was also no denying the stone-hard bulge in his trousers.

“No,” he rasped, “I didn’t.”

“You don’t…want to?”

Sweet Lucifer.He bit back a groan of longing so fierce that it shook him to his core. He captured her face in his hands and kissed her heatedly enough to chase any doubt from her mind about exactly how much he wanted her.

“When you give your innocence,” he rakishly drawled into her ear when he could finally bring himself to tear his mouth away from hers, “it won’t be on some cold piece of ground tucked away shamefully in the bushes. And it sure as hell won’t be behind masks.”

He felt her swallow. Hard. “Where will we be, then?”

His heart stuttered at the promise implicit in her words that he would be the man she would share that moment with, at the realization that she wanted that, too.

Cannon fire boomed across the gardens, signaling the start of the fireworks before the evening’s end. In unison, all the bands sent up a fanfare that sparked excitement through the park.

“We have to return to the box,” he told her, thanking fate for this small reprieve from having to answer her question, because he had absolutely no idea what to say. “The fireworks will be starting soon, and we’ll be missed.”

She nodded. But neither of them could bring themselves to loosen their hold on the other.

“When this evening is over and we have whatever answers we’re going to find from Lady Hartsham about Elise,” he murmured, “the two of us are going to have a long talk.”

Another nod against his shoulder, but this time, she slipped away from his embrace. She retied her stockings, slipped on her shoes, and backed slowly toward the path. Then she was gone, dissolving into the darkness.

Sixteen

Dani hurried through the dark stretch of gardens as quickly as she could without stumbling on the uneven path. She wound her way back toward the lanterns and buildings of the main section of the park more relieved to be out of the wilderness with every step she took.

Her heart pounded brutally hard, and she gulped in great lungfuls of air. But she didn’t dare stop. She also didn’t bother to glance behind her, because she knew Marcus wasn’t following.

As a gentleman, he would wait before he returned to the box, to give several minutes’ space between their two arrivals to cover up any whispers of impropriety that they’d returned at the same time. And to give him an opportunity to collect himself, so there was no evidence of what they’d been doing in the darkness.

Oh, heavens, what they’d done! She pressed her fist against her chest to keep down the rising flush—not of regret or humiliation.Neverthat, never with Marcus. How could she ever regret something so wonderful with a man so special?

No, she fought down her emotions because she wanted nothing more than to turn around, run straight back into his arms, and beg him to do that again. To give him the same exquisite bliss that he brought to her. And with that, possibly lose both Nightingale and herself.

A long talk, indeed.

She slowed her pace as the path spilled out into the area surrounding the Chinese pavilion. Her fingers grabbed at her mask and she tore it off, her hand falling to her side and the long ties dangling against her skirt. She dragged in several deep lungfuls of the cool night air until it tingled her chest from the inside. But there wasn’t enough air in England to fight down the flaming heat lingering inside her that Marcus had ignited. A heat she knew only he could extinguish.

As she approached the rear of the gallery, a figure moved out of the darkness. Dani halted with a surprised gasp.

“There you are.” Mrs. Slater stepped into the lamplight from the shadows where she’d been waiting. “And gone dangerously longer than twenty minutes, I daresay.”

Thankful to hide her lack of breath under the pretense of being startled, Dani half panted out, “The line for the ices was exceedingly long.” But her voice held no inflection to support that lie. She added dryly, “Pity that we were separated in the crowd.”

“Indeed.” Mrs. Slater looked past her toward the avenue and lowered her voice, “And His Grace?”