Page 70 of If the Duke Demands

“I’m not very interesting.” Then she tried to chase away that self-deprecation by wryly commenting, “Perhaps we should discuss salmon fishing instead.”

With a laugh, grateful for her teasing that chased away the somber turn that their conversation had taken, he rose up on his knees to bring his face even with hers and brushed his knuckles against her cheek.

Her eyes closed at the soft caress, as if it was too much to bear, and his heart panged. She was unbelievably sensitive to his touch…And those lips, full and pink, so sweet— When he took her chin and tilted her face up to his, they parted with a breathless sigh so inviting that he couldn’t resist the urge to kiss her. Just a gentle touch of lips to lips, a caress so soft as to be barely a caress at all, but the innocence of it stole his breath away.

“Miranda,” he admitted, his voice a hoarse rasp, “you are the most interesting woman I know.”

Her eyes fluttered open, and she gazed dubiously up at him as she bit her lip, somehow shy and wanton at the same time. A delectable mix of contradiction, just like the woman behind the stare.

“For instance.” He ran his fingers over the edge of her night rail’s neckline. “You wore this to seduce a man.”

“I didn’t wear this to seduce you, silly.” A smile played at her lips at the absurdity of that. “This is what I wear to sleep in every night, and I needed to see you so badly that I didn’t stop to change.” She shrugged a shoulder. “And anyway, I assumed that eventually I would end up in bed, so what was the point in changing only to have to change back again?”

He fought down a smile. Only Miranda could make that logic make sense. “Well, if you’re tired, I won’t stop you from taking one of the guestrooms,” he answered, keeping his face carefully stoic as he tried to suss out her intentions for the rest of the night, “or going home in a carriage to your own bed.”

A flash of grim knowing crossed her face, as if she’d expected that response. Closing her eyes, she nodded. “After everything you shared tonight, I understand if you—”

He leaned in to kiss her. “But not before I ravish you.” Unadulterated heat poured through his voice despite his earnestness as he added, “Several times, in fact.”

Her eyes darted up to his in a mix of wonder, excitement, and quick arousal. He heard the soft catch of her breath in surprise. “You still…want me?”

The vulnerability underlying her whisper nearly broke his heart.Wanther? Good Lord, she had no idea what he felt for her. It went far beyond simplewantto something he could barely fathom. Something that terrified him with its intensity.

“Yes,” he admitted, cupping her face against his palm and brushing his lips across her cheek. “Very much. And I hate to correct you,” he admitted as he shifted away just far enough to rake a lecherous gaze across her, stirring up a blush in his wake, “but I find you surprisingly seductive in this night rail.” He trailed his finger down from her neck, between her breasts and down to her lower belly, making her squirm. “Because I know how beautiful you are beneath, inside and out.”

Her eyes glistened in the firelight with telltale tears, and the sight clenched at his chest. “So I can stay?”

“If you’d like.”

She smiled. “I’d like it very much.”

So would he. But they had one more piece of unfinished business to settle tonight.

Ignoring the hot stab of jealousy in his gut when he thought of Robert and the feelings she held for his brother, he drew a deep breath and said quietly, “There’s something I need to know.” He lifted her hand to his lips to suck at her fingertips. She tasted like vanilla icing, sweet and addictive. “You love Robert, but you came to me. Why?”

“I don’t love Robert,” she confessed softly, in little more than a breath. “I thought I did, but it wasn’t love. I know now that it was only infatuation and habit.”

“And me?” When she hesitated in her answer, he touched the tip of his tongue to her palm, and she trembled.

Her answer was so brutally honest when it came that it sliced through him, leaving him raw and wounded. “I can’t help myself.”

“Neither can I,” he whispered, then reached up to unfasten her hair.

***

Miranda’s pulse fluttered at the heated look he gave her as he untied the ribbon and slowly unbraided her hair. She closed her eyes to revel in the wonderfully decadent sensation of his fingers sifting through her strands, loosing the waves until they lay in a thick curtain around her shoulders.

When he reached for the hem of her night rail and peeled it slowly up her body to reveal her to the firelight, she raised her arms above her head to help him remove it. She sat still and let him look his fill of her, bathed in the soft light. A proper society lady would have been embarrassed, she supposed, to display herself so audaciously. But she wasn’t a society lady. She was simply Miranda. And she would never be embarrassed in front of him for this.

“You are beautiful,” he whispered as his hands roamed languidly over her, up her body from her bare toes to her neck and slowly back down. He was touching her as if discovering her for the first time, and she trembled at the intensity of it. “How did I never notice that before this season?” he murmured, his fingertips lightly tracing down her arms, over the curve of her hips and along her thighs.

“You weren’t looking,” she whispered, heat rising beneath her skin.

“I’m certainly looking now,” he assured her. Goose bumps sprang up on her skin wherever he touched, like magic. And when he lowered his mouth and placed his lips against her bare shoulder, all of her shivered with liquid heat. The sensation was pure heaven.

Releasing her, he slid down to kneel before her on the floor, his hands splayed wide as they slowly caressed down her thighs. When he gently nudged apart her knees, her hands shot out to grab his shoulders and stop him.

“What are you doing?” she gasped, sudden alarm knotting her belly.