Page 31 of A Virgin to Tempt the Duke

“I could not sleep, and I thought some tea might help.” She kept her voice even, without drama. “I was going to the kitchen. Your door was open and Percy was… concerned.”

“Percy cannot speak.”

I am glad his quickness is back.

“I think he does in his own way,” she said.

He looked at Percy, who just looked back at him and blinked. “You didn’t have to?—”

“You were shaking,” Anna said simply. “I did have to.”

He said nothing. She picked up her candle. She could leave. He was back, steady; the surface held. She should leave. She let the wax drip down her finger, the heat of which was not even close to the pull she felt to stay.

“You fell asleep at your desk working,” she said, instead.

“I work until the work is done.”

“You work until you collapse, you mean.”

“I don’t…” He stopped. “I don’tcollapse. It was a nap.”

“You were asleep at your desk over papers at midnight.” She looked at him. “What would you call it?”

“An occupational hazard.” He reached up and pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes briefly. “I have a duchy to run.”

“A habit of punishing yourself with work until your body takes the decision away from you,” Anna said. “Because if you stop working, you might have to…” She paused. “Truly examine whatever that was, just now.”

He looked at her. She looked back.

“You’re perceptive,” he said.

“I’ve had a long time to understand what exhaustion looks like when it’s being worn as a suit of armor.” She held his gaze. “Your work will still be here tomorrow.” She kept her voice gentle. “But you will work better, think better, and be better if you sleep. Properly.”

I am worried about you, she wanted to say.

He was looking at her. She became aware, somewhere in the middle of this, that she had leaned forward slightly, and that the candlelight was between them, and that her dressing gown had slipped. The left side shoulder seam was loose, she realized, and his gaze moved to her bare shoulder, the line of her collarbone inthe warm light. Then his warm amber eyes went back to her face, and what was them was not controlled at all.

Something hot and charged and unknown pulsed within her. He was close enough that she could see the rare, unguarded warmth of his expressive amber eyes. She hadn’t imagined it. She leaned forward, ever so slightly, which he returned as they grew closer. She licked her lips and looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. Her braid shifted just a little, exposing her shoulder just a bit more, and she thought she heard him almost growl.

A ball of paper shot across the floor at considerable speed. They both pulled back.

Percy had apparently located a crumpled estate letter that had fallen beneath the desk and made it his new toy. He batted it toward the bookcase, pursued it, lost it, found it again, and sent it skidding onto the fireplace screen with a small crash. The room reassembled itself, and the electricity dissipated into something awkward.

The Duke straightened, and the dark thing in his eyes receded behind the surface. “Go back to your room,” he said sharply.

His voice was not cruel, but it might as well have been a knife. Anna stood and drew her dressing gown back onto her shoulder; her cheeks had turned pink, and she willed them to cool.

“Goodnight,” she murmured as she rose to her feet.

She did not wait for an answer. She took her candle and went out into the corridor.

Behind her, she heard the study door close, and Percy’s paper ball hit something else, and the rain went on.

CHAPTER 12

This dining room is far too large for one person,Anna observed as she entered that morning.

The table, which had seated four comfortably during Lady Oldbarrow’s visit and housed two with reasonable dignity, seemed to expand in proportion to absence. The silver was set for one. A single teacup. The fire was going, and the sideboard was covered with everything that was always arranged with breakfast: toast, fruit, eggs, and bacon, almost mocking her solitude. She took her usual chair.