Page 24 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

“Colin,” she amended. “If you want to make this work, then you had best cooperate. How can we fake a betrothal if you will not even talk to me?”

His only response was cool silence.

She might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Alice did not know why she felt the need to keep ramming herself against it, though.

“And when do you intend for us to make our first appearance as a couple?” she asked him. “I am sure that rumors are circulating all over London now that you have parked your carriage right outside our gates, anyway.”

“Tomorrow night,” he answered in a clipped tone. “Lady Salisbury’s ball.”

“What is the matter with you?” Alice glared at him. “I will not have the ton thinking that I am marrying a brute! I expect friendly conversation at the very least while we are together!”

Where was that mischievous man from last night who teased her until she felt her cheeks would burst into flame from blushing so hard? Who replaced him with this stoic fiend who acted like he could not wait to be rid of her?

Are men always this confusing?

As she stood there, nursing a fine temper, he leaned in and growled in her ear, “Friendly conversation, little lamb? I am afraid that if I am any more ‘friendly’ with you, you will find yourself on your back and your conditions broken much too soon…”

Her breath hitched in her throat as the warm air from his lips fanned the sensitive shell of her ear. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she felt as if she was swaying, losing balance…

“Ahem!”

Alice blinked and glanced over at Anna, who had her hand over her mouth as she politely cleared her throat. The maid shifted her gaze to Colin, who was much too close to be considered appropriate, even amongst betrothed couples.

The Duke of Thorns neatly stepped away, and pressing a kiss to the back of Alice’s hand, he whispered softly, “I shall see you tomorrow at Lady Salisbury’s ball, My Lady.”

My Lady. Not little lamb.

As he walked away from her, Alice wondered why she felt so disappointed. A young lady’s reputation never survived an encounter with a Wolf—or so she had heard. She should be thankful that he held himself away from her.

But perhaps that was only because he did not find her as “entrancing” as he claimed to her parents.

* * *

He could not have left Brandon Estate much quicker.

Lady Alice Barkley had become a fire in his blood, igniting the desires he had long since resolved to put out. For half a decade, he had secluded himself in his estate, keeping company with his demons.

Who would have thought that all it would take to shatter his carefully crafted composure was an eccentric young lady with a penchant for scandalous books tumbling into his bedchamber?

She was no little lamb, as he liked to call her, but a witch. A succubus of devastating power.

He shook his head in irritation. If he had known that this was what prolonged abstinence resulted in, maybe he should have indulged in those women Ethan had sent over!

But none of them had ever tempted him as much as Alice Barkley did with her wide green eyes. Even if they had paraded around him half-naked, their flesh fully on display, begging for his touch, they did not make him as hard as she did, and she was fully clothed.

On the contrary, it only stoked his fantasies of what it would feel like to peel each layer of fabric from her body, slowly revealing inch after inch of her creamy skin…

Colin groaned as his manhood swelled at the mere thought of Alice in his bed, posing for one of his paintings. He imagined running his brush over her sensitized flesh, her lips open in a sensual moan…

“Your Grace?”

The sound of his butler’s voice sharply cut through his lewd fantasies. He opened his eyes, his gaze slightly unfocused as he took in the familiar surroundings. When the logs crackled in the hearth, he nearly jumped.

He was back in his study.

“Yes, Sutton? Is there something amiss?” he asked in annoyance.

“Lady Evelyn and Lady Wellington have sent word that they will be arriving tomorrow morning, Your Grace,” the butler informed him.

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