The Matter of a Marquess - Jess Michaels Page 0,25
given her respite. She had tossed and turned all night. Every time she’d fallen into even the slightest state of sleep, Nicholas’s face had ripped her awake.
Back to a reality where he was just a few chambers down from her. Practically arm’s length. Being this close to him was like going back in time. And talking to him? That was even more intense. When he stood near her, she could smell that pine-and-leather scent of him that made her body tingle in all the most outrageous places. And when she could feel the body heat of his long, lanky frame? She had such thoughts. Such wicked, passionate thoughts.
She huffed out a breath and fisted her hands at her sides. That was more than enough. She was about to start walking again when she heard a sound from behind her. She turned back toward the house far above on the hill and was surprised to see an animal racing toward her. A dog, though he was so large he could have been mistaken for a small pony. He didn’t bark as he barreled over a slight rise in the field, but he was focused intently on her as he ran.
As he got closer, she recognized him as a fine bullmastiff, ruddy tan in color, with thick, muscular lines. He was a dog meant to intimidate, but she didn’t feel intimidated as he skidded to a stop in front of her and just…stared.
“Well, good morning, fine sir,” she said, smiling at the animal.
The dog titled its massive head quizzically and let out a little whine of confusion.
“What is a good boy like you doing out here by himself?” She crouched down. “Hmmm? Tell me, good boy?”
The dog lolled his tongue out of one side of his mouth and let out a playful bark. She reached out, allowed him to smell her hand and then began to scratch behind his ear. The dog immediately flopped down, back leg flexing as she scratched.
“You must belong to someone,” she continued, unable to help herself from using the same tone she would with an adorable baby. “A pretty boy like you has to be so loved.”
The bark-whine combination was the only response, and she laughed as the dog rolled on his back and offered his belly for pets. There was no refusing him, so she sank to her knees in the grass and went to work at rubbing the fine, broad chest and belly.
“You are a vicious dog, aren’t you? A guard dog, no doubt. So frightening. Who do you belong to, eh boy? Who is your master?”
“That would be me.”
She jolted at the sound of Nicholas’s voice and looked up to find him coming slowly toward her, cane in one hand. Her breath caught, for from her angle on the ground, he looked impossibly tall and lean and strong. And stern, as the sunlight caught off his expression as he stared down at her and the animal that was apparently his.
“Oh,” she squeaked, and shook her head. God, could she be any more obvious in her attraction to him? That wasn’t good for either of them. “Good day,” she managed, and shoved back to her feet.
He arched a brow at the dog still lolling on the ground at her feet, whining for her to come back and finish what she’d started. “My guard dog seems not to be much on guard.”
She laughed, for at the moment the dog wiggled and his tongue flopped from one side of his mouth to the other. “He’s very sweet.”
“Sweet?” Nicholas repeated, and then he laughed. All the air was sucked from her lungs at that sound she had once loved, craved. How many times had she found amusing things for him just to make him chuckle in that low, husky tone? “Not many would say that about him.”
She struggled to find breath enough to respond. “What is his name?”
“Fortescue,” he said, and at that the dog stopped playing and jerked to his feet. Nicholas smiled as he flicked his hand to his side. The dog trotted over and sat down at full attention. He continued to send Aurora side glances, but now he looked every inch the guard dog Nicholas had said he was.
“Oh,” she said. “So a proud, Norman warrior.”
His smile widened. “Indeed. Despite his drooling over female affection.”
“I’m sure that same desire must have afflicted soldiers of old,” she reassured him. “You cannot blame Fortescue for that.”
Nicholas shifted and his gaze slid over her face, settling on