Page 47 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

CHAPTER 19

If there was one thing that Alice Barkley hated, it was losing. No challenge was ever too small for her—she simply found ways to achieve victory, whatever that may look like to her. It was this fiercely competitive side of her that had her rushing headlong into pursuits that often landed her in trouble.

The very same character flaw that had her sneaking into Blackthorn Estate to steal a book.

In hindsight, she could have just asked its owner if she could borrow it. He might have been surprised at first, or he might have vacillated, but it was the most prudent course of action.

Alice, being Alice, simply could not resist the temptation of misadventure.

Her eyebrows knitted as she followed Colin into his study. She noticed that it was far less imposing than the one she had seen in Blackthorn Estate. A country estate study, after all, was only used for business that might interrupt a leisurely sojourn in a more rural residence. Still, the stark masculinity could not be dismissed in the dark wood furnishings and the great oaken desk that took up a place of honor.

“Are you sure we can find it here?” she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yes, of course,” he replied almost dismissively as he searched through the shelves.

Alice hated it when anyone used that tone with her, and she made her displeasure known with a slight scoff as she walked towards the desk. She took note of the various writing implements neatly arranged on one side of the desk, within easy reach of whoever sat before it. Several documents were tied up in strings, some of them in leather folios—all of them stacked neatly.

The Duke of Thorns must be a terribly fastidious person.

She turned away from the documents she had no business of perusing and watched as Colin moved over to another shelf, rifling through the books in his collection with a pensive expression on his handsome features. She admired the elegant line of his shoulders and his back, biting back a sigh that such a fine masculine specimen was possessed of the most ornery temper known to mankind.

“Please stop looking at me like that.”

She frowned and raised an eyebrow. “And how exactly am I looking at you?”

“Like you are begging to be kissed,” he muttered darkly, striding over to her.

“I beg your pardon!” she sputtered. “I am not begging to be seduced by you!”

“No,” he murmured. “You are doing the seducing… and you’re far better at it than I had ever hoped for.”

She gawked at him, simmering with rage and an inexplicable sense of feminine pride that she had somehow unconsciously enticed this man before her—not that she had any intention of the latter!

“Are you insinuating,” she hissed at him, “that I am behaving in a thoroughly inappropriate way like a… like a…”

She dared not say the word as her cheeks bloomed with livid fire. She stomped angrily past him, carelessly pushing past his shoulder as she made her way to the door.

“You can keep searching for whatever treasure you like,” she declared. “We are not going to win anyway!”

“Why the hell not?” he retorted angrily, following her to the door. He reached her in no time at all, his strides being far bigger than her tiny steps.

She rolled her eyes. “Clearly, because we cannot possibly work together amicably, Your Grace. Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to be let out of this room. Your ill temper is suffocating me!”

She turned towards the door and yanked at the knob, only to find that it refused to cooperate with her. She frowned and twisted it again, but it was unyielding as a boulder.

“Do not tell me that you have lost the ability to open a door?” he drawled sarcastically.

Alice pursed her lips. “I have not,” she stated primly. “The door is locked, Your Grace. From the outside.”

* * *

“What do you mean it is locked from the outside?” he demanded.

Colin frowned as he reached for the door. To his surprise, she was right—the door did seem to be locked from the outside.

But who would do such a thing? The servants would never dare approach his study, not even to just clean it, without his direct supervision.

“Wonderful. Just wonderful,” he heard Alice mutter.

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