Page 6 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

It was just too bad she could hardly refuse such a challenge.

* * *

Long fingers, both strong and graceful, wrapped themselves lightly around her neck. Behind her, the wall stood like an impenetrable force, trapping her heated body between its unyielding facade and a warm hardness that pervaded her senses.

“Do you like it when I hold you like this?” A deep voice, soft and mesmerizing, held her in its thrall as much as the hand wrapped around her neck did. “You like this… I can feel it.”

She gasped when she felt the warm roughness of a tongue touching the sensitive shell of her ear.

“I can taste it.”

Alice woke up with a gasp, her body drenched in sweat as she twisted in her nightclothes. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, so loud that it drowned out her thoughts. Liquid heat snaked down her shuddering frame to pool low in her belly.

She wrapped her arms around herself but found herself wanting something more.

She shook her head.

What is wrong with me?

She had never felt such things before—except maybe that time she spotted Lord Grayson trysting with Lady Cartwright in the moonlit gardens last year. Even then, it had not felt as intense as it did now, and she had managed to brush it off the moment she stepped back into the ballroom—unlike now, when she had to concentrate to steady her wildly beating heart.

She looked out the window to find the moon still shining brightly in the sky, casting its soft light on her carpeted floor. Quietly, she made her way and opened the glass panel, allowing the wind to cool her flaming cheeks.

She clenched her hands, her fingernails digging into the windowpane as she stared out into the night sky. She had so very little time left before her freedom slipped completely from her grasp.

She would make sure she would not waste a minute of it.

Tomorrow, she would go into Blackthorn Estate to retrieve—borrow—the coveted translation of Marquis de Sade’s infamous work.

It had to be tomorrow or never at all.

CHAPTER 3

I cannot believe I made it into Blackthorn Estate!

Alice grinned to herself as she tugged at the hem of her apron and wondered—not for the first time that day—if it was truly the best course of action to borrow a plain dress from her lady’s maid. Louise had been hesitant to comply with her request at first, knowing just the sort of shenanigans her mistress usually got into, but Alice’s persistence had eventually worn down the maid’s defenses.

“Now, to find the book itself,” she muttered to herself.

If one were to house a collection of the most scandalous books, then she deduced it must be in a library, for where else should one put one’s books?

But then again, if these books were not meant for the eyes of others, then the Duke of Thorns could very well have hidden them someplace else…

Alice frowned to herself. If the Duke had indeed concealed his outrageous collection someplace else, then it was going to complicate her search a bit. However, the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

Of course, he would not display it someplace for all the world to gawk at. This book had a reputation of its own, after all. It was one of a kind.

Besides, its contents were much too scandalous to be perused outside of one’s bedchamber—or so she had heard. She would find out soon enough when she got her hands on it.

But to do that would mean she would have to go into his bedchamber…

At the thought of rifling through his personal belongings, she felt a familiar warmth creeping up her cheeks even as a strange heat began to coil in the pit of her belly. Was it fear? Apprehension?

Somehow, it felt nothing like it.

It was more of a thrill. An excitement of some sort.

Focus, Alice!

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