No Duke Will Do - Eva Devon Page 0,38
there wasn’t any softness there.
“Yes,” she enunciated, unwilling to be daunted.
He placed his papers down slowly. “This is not some sort of romantic reunion, Mary.”
A part of her told her to apologize, to run. But she let that fear of his coldness wash over her then. . . she said, “It could be.”
The room filled with his power, his presence, his emotion, despite the coldness of his face. “I think you should go.”
“I don’t wish to go.” She wiggled in her chair to find a firmer place. “I wish to stay.”
A shadow crossed his face. “Why?”
“Because you make me feel—”
He gave a terse shake of his head. “It doesn’t matter what I make you feel. You’re meant to go back to the ton. You’re meant to live your life.”
“I don’t want that life,” she cut in. “I want you. I can’t deny it.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, and there was the slightest tightening of his hands, as if he was controlling some deep emotion. “You barely know me.”
“I know enough,” she declared. “And I think. . . I think there’s a chance you might feel the same.”
When he did not reply, she felt her heart sink, but then she drew upon her strength, the strength he’d helped her find. “Do you?”
He gazed at her for a long time. A ragged breath tore from him. “You have not left my thoughts, not one single day. Your name has beat a refrain in my mind that has left me sleepless. . .”
She stood, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Now, we need not dance about it.”
“There was never dancing,” he said. “Only cold, hard truth. You and I are from two different worlds, and we cannot mix.”
“Now who’s living by the rules,” she pointed out.
“Oh, I know rules quite well, Lady Mary,” he said without relenting. “So do you. My rules are different, but I have them all the same.”
She raised her head and squared her shoulders. “Perhaps it’s time we break them.”
The muscles of his throat worked. “Breaking rules is dangerous, Mary.”
“So is abiding by them,” she said lowly before she professed the truth she couldn’t deny. “I don’t wish to be without you. Let me be with you. All I wish is you.”
Chapter 16
All I wish is you.
Those words echoed through his office.
He took them in, barely able to believe he’d truly heard them. Those were the words he’d dreamed of, night after night, for almost a year. And now, they had been spoken by the woman who had consumed him. Now that they’d been proclaimed with such surety, he was. . .
Bloody hell, he was afraid to act on them.
That’s what it was. Fear seized him up inside. Did he dare take her up on those words? He’d never allowed anyone but her to be so close.
She stood silently, waiting for him to reply, and he stood silently, drinking this moment in, until at last, there was only one thing left to do.
He strode across the room and took her into his arms.
Sliding his hands up into her hair, arching her head back, he took her mouth with his.
He kissed her as if he were a man drowning and she a raft to cling to, and she responded as if she had been waiting all this time to pluck him out of the water and bring him to safety.
They kissed deeper, stronger, more passionately, their hands roaming over each other. He pulled at the ties of her cloak, letting it fall to the floor, bearing her to him. She yanked at his coat, tearing it back from his shoulders, whipping it down to the floor. Her wildness stoked the fire inside him. She was everything he had ever wanted and never imagined.
He pulled back.
“Don’t you dare go away from me now,” she whispered.
“No,” he said. “Never again, but not here. Come with me.”
He led her out of his office, down that dark corridor, and up a set of stairs that twisted to his rooms. He’d lived above the club for years, except for, of course, when he went to the country.
He guided her into the simple space. He’d never been one for luxury, and he didn’t know what she’d think of it, but he didn’t have time to contemplate it now.
He pulled her farther and farther into the place that had been his sanctuary. A fire blazed in the hearth, illuminating the room in a soft red-golden glow. It bathed her, giving her an almost holy look.