The Duke's Runaway Princess Page 0,26

gentle taste. He released her and watched with fascination as her eyes fluttered open and she sucked in a deep gulp of air to try and steady herself.

He couldn’t believe that he actually wanted the person on the other side of the door to see Zarah like this. He was generally a very private person, not wanting the villagers to gossip about him anymore than possible. He understood that they lived in a sleepy little town and anything that happened in their area to break the monotony was fair game for gossip, which he worked hard to minimize.

But he wanted his stamp of ownership on Zarah. He wanted the villagers to know that he’d staked a claim and she was his. There were several other men in the village he knew were trying to gain her attention, but as soon as she left his house looking so thoroughly kissed, they would all know that he was going to win.

He frowned as she picked up her purse and opened the door with a shaky hand. He didn’t like the idea of her leaving like this. She looked too off-balance. Okay, a part of him liked that, wanted to make her even more off balance. But another part of him worried that she wouldn’t be aware enough of her surroundings to be careful.

“Zarah, I’m going to drive you back to Mary’s place. Just let me get my keys,” he said and was about to close the door, ignoring the man smiling on the other side of the threshold.

“No!” she gasped and held up her shaking hand. She realized that she’d just made both men freeze with the vehemence of her tone and took a deep, calming breath. With a forced smile, she said, “Thank you very much for dinner. And I appreciate the offer for a ride back, but it’s not very far at all and I’d rather….I need to….I just….” She almost ran out the door, stumbling down the steps and hurrying away from Derrick as fast as her feet would carry her.

Chapter 5

Zarah ran almost the whole way back to Mary’s store, slamming the door after she was inside, then rushed to the store room. She didn’t even care that Mary and two other ladies were in the store, she just needed a moment to collect herself.

She went to the farthest point in the room where it was dark and quiet and slowly sank down onto one of the old chairs that were stored in the room for no apparent reason. In the dark and quiet space, she took several deep breaths, bending down and putting her head between her legs. She slowly breathed in and out, filling her lungs with air that had not a single particle that smelled like Derrick. She didn’t even care that it smelled stuffy and dusty as long as it didn’t have that intoxicating male scent.

She estimated that it took her about fifteen minutes to recover from Derrick’s kiss. The more she thought about it, the sillier she felt. She’d rushed out of his door earlier like she’d just been beaten instead of experiencing the man’s kiss. She couldn’t imagine what Derrick thought of her now. Probably some ridiculous virgin who had never really been kissed by a man.

Okay, so that was true, she told herself. Well, she’d been kissed. She’d dated other men and at the end of the night, they’d moved in and kissed her.

But nothing like that!

She’d never walked away from any of their kisses feeling like she’d just been struck by lightning. They had always been pleasant interludes, but nothing she would get excited about. Some were actually boring.

Derrick’s kiss was not boring. She could apply several adjectives to the way she was feeling right now, but bored didn’t even make it to the bottom of the list.

Frazzled. That one would be at the top. Excited? No, she couldn’t describe what she was feeling right now as excited. That was too calm of a word.

She really wasn’t sure what she was feeling right now besides completely confused.

What did the man have in mind? Was he just after an affair? Did she want to fall into bed with an infamous lothario?

Well, yes….she did want to fall in bed with him.

But she wouldn’t!

No, she had too much pride for that. She needed to keep her head about her because having sex with Derrick would be disastrous. Just look at her reaction from just a kiss! Good grief, she couldn’t even contemplate what