Page 31 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

As the dance came to an end, he leaned towards her, his lips brushing the sensitive shell of her ear. “Come with me to the balcony, Alice.”

His voice was deep, mesmerizing. Like sinful dark chocolate gliding on her tongue, warming her throat, and filling her with a luxuriant heat.

She shuddered a little, her eyelashes fluttering as she looked up at him. “Whatever for?”

He just smiled mysteriously and pulled back. “To break your rules.”

Promise, dark and forbidden, was evident in his husky voice, ensnaring her senses until she felt lightheaded from it all.

The music ended, and he bowed before her, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand, lingering ever so slightly as his dark gaze swept up to meet hers. A smirk traced the edge of his lips, and Alice feared that the Wolf in him had already heard the thundering of her heart and scented the desire that had begun to stir faintly within her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly, trying to compose herself as he walked her back to where their sisters were still talking most animatedly. She caught Lady Wellington watching them with approval in her deep gray eyes.

Did she, perhaps, know what Colin had just whispered to her? She doubted the older woman would approve of what he had in mind.

Heavens, even Alice herself knew that nothing good would come of it. Meeting at dark balconies—why, that was a recipe for ruin!

But then again, were they not supposed to act the part of the enamored couple? It would be unusual for them to not want to be in each other’s presence at all…

As Alice pondered whether she should or should not, her eyes unerringly strayed towards the open balcony, where the shadowy outline of a tall, broad-shouldered figure stood.

Her heart pounded in her chest once more, loud enough to obscure all common sense.

Slowly, she began to walk towards the balcony.

* * *

She is not coming.

Colin frowned as he stared up into the starlit sky. Had he misread the desire in her eyes, then? The sharp intake of her breath?

The signs were unmistakable—she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Or perhaps she was just more levelheaded than he was at that moment, which was far more disturbing than his former consideration. A blow to his ego if anything.

Angrily, he began to stomp back into the ballroom when his body collided with something—no, someone.

He frowned as the unpleasant thought of being caught out on the balcony with some other young lady surfaced in his mind. But then he caught a whiff of the faint fragrance of lotus flowers, and he knew.

“Alice?”

“Your Grace!”

He smiled as his arm wound around her waist. They really needed to work on how she should properly address him.

“You little fool,” he murmured, pulling her deeper into the darkness. “Anyone could have seen you!”

In the light of the moon, he could see her petulant pout as he pulled her into a gazebo. The sight of her sticking out her lips sent a fierce stab of desire straight to his already hardening member.

“Well, I was not the one who suggested we meet out here,” she pointed out.

“True,” he admitted. “But… have you never really?—”

He bit back the words when he realized just how innocent and how untutored she really was. Of course, Lady Alice Barkley would not know the first thing about sneaking out of a ballroom for a scandalous tryst, as she had never tried it, and the knowledge of it filled him with an immeasurable amount of masculine pride.

Only he had been the one who had been able to lure her out, like a Wolf calling a lamb to the darkness.

“Come here,” he murmured huskily, pulling her into his embrace.

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