The Duke's Wife (The Three Mrs #3) - Jess Michaels Page 0,16
haltingly, as if he was trying to keep himself from saying something that might hurt her.
And, of course, he had, though for once it wasn’t his fault. Lady Ophelia had been one of the women Erasmus had pursued behind Abigail’s back during their marriage. He had intended, it seemed, for her to be his fourth wife.
She shifted as she looked at her again. Lady Ophelia was exquisitely beautiful. “So she will be at events,” she said.
“Will that be difficult for you?” he asked.
She pursed her lips. He was peeling her open with that question, revealing her vulnerability, her humiliation. She folded her arms to make it stop, but that was no barrier to his seeing stare. “No,” she lied. “Why would it be? Now, I’m sure I just heard the carriage pull up. I think it’s time for me to go.”
She hustled toward the door, but as she began to pass him, he caught her hand. His grip was gentle but firm and she stopped, heart racing as she looked up at him.
Just like in the billiard room, his desire was unmasked. It mirrored her own, much as she tried to fight it.
“Abigail,” he whispered.
“Gilmore,” she returned, back to his title as another attempt at a wall between them.
He arched a brow. “Nathan. I think you must definitely call me Nathan in this moment.”
“Wh-why in this moment specifically?”
“Because I’m going to kiss you,” he said. “If you’ll let me.”
She stared at him. She had spent a great deal of time painting this man as a villain in her mind. There were reasons for it, both valid and invalid. She’d also spent far too much of that same time fantasizing about him. Dreaming of him. Of exactly what he wanted to do.
And now, in the quiet of his parlor, when she felt vulnerable and uncertain…she again wanted exactly what he requested. And she wasn’t going to be strong enough to refuse him.
“Nathan,” she whispered as consent.
He bent his head, slowly, like he was savoring the fraction of a second before the kiss. His lips brushed hers, gentle at first, then harder. She pivoted more fully into his chest and wound her arms around his neck. The dam broke, months of tension and sparring washed away by the rushing water of desire and need and loneliness that he erased with his touch.
She parted her lips, a silent invitation that he took hungrily. His tongue swept in, tangling with hers as his hands gripped into fists in her skirts and held her tighter against his broad chest.
She could be washed away by this. She could be saved by this. She could be destroyed by this, and it would be the most glorious demise.
But the reminder brought her back to reality. She pulled away and he immediately released her, panting as he stared down at her with as much surprise and desire as she, herself, felt.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time,” he said.
Those words wound past her heated physical reactions and settled into her mind. She wrinkled her brow at them. Until tonight, he had never expressed any interest in kissing her. Never looked at her with anything but contempt.
Her hackles lifted back into place and she glared at him. “I do not know what your game is, Your Grace, but I do not wish to play it. Good evening.”
She pushed past him, and this time he let her go without argument. She flounced to her carriage and nearly tripped hurtling herself in. Her heart pounded as she settled into place and the rig trotted off. Pounded harder when she pulled the curtain back a fraction and saw that Nathan had come out to the top step and was watching her go.
She yanked the curtain shut and leaned back in her seat for the short ride home. She licked her lips and could still taste the man there. Mint, whisky, desire, a potent combination she feared would live in her mind for a long time, alongside how his hands felt on her, how alive his mouth had made her feel.
“No,” she said out loud. “No. No. No.”
Gilmore was handsome, yes. And tonight he had been…fun. But it didn’t change the fact that he had gone out of his way to make the situation with Erasmus more difficult. That his actions had caused the public revelations that had ultimately destroyed her life.
She couldn’t forget herself with him, not ever again. She would go back to avoiding him and that was that.