Page 44 of The Duke and the Unwanted Bride

It was a sparsely grown forest, easy enough to walk through. Amelia would run ahead, call out excitedly, and then come back with her face red and her eyes wide with glee.

Hannah played her part perfectly, too. She didn’t say anything untoward to Frederick. She didn’t try and touch him or even mention the previous night. She kept almost her entire focus on Amelia, who was slowly but surely warming up to her.

But then they came across the hidden pond, and everything changed.

Amelia wanted to learn how to swim. She wanted to go in. At the sight of the pond, she ran to its edge and demanded that she be allowed. And while Frederick would have ordinarily said no, Hannah stepped in and made that all but impossible.

“I am sorry.” Amelia pouted, looking away from the water. “I… I can’t.”

Frederick breathed a sigh of relief. “You have nothing to apologize for.” He took her by the hand and began to lead her back from the pond’s edge. “How about we head back home? It’s getting late, and someone has earned themselves a slice of cake.”

“Might I still go in?” Hannah asked suddenly.

Frederick turned back and looked at her. “What?”

“Might I go in?” She nodded innocently toward the pond. “Seeing as the weather is nice and we have come all this way.”

“You’re serious?”

“I have never been more serious.” She cocked an eyebrow at him and then, still holding his eyes, began to unfasten the front of her dress.

“Hannah!”

“It is quite alright,” she sighed. “I am wearing a pelisse underneath. And it is just the three of us. Amelia doesn’t mind. Do you, Amelia?”

Amelia looked as if she could not believe what she was hearing. Partly shocked. Partly amused. Her eyes were wide, her smile was eager, and her body shook from withheld laughter.

“Are you really going to go in?”

“Only if your father does not object.”

Hannah could not have looked more smug. It was a test, Frederick thought, for she knew he wished they would get along, and to deny her this would upset his daughter.

Frederick’s expression was flat and cold, and he made sure that Hannah could see it. “I have no objections. So long as you do not mind getting wet.”

Hannah’s eyes flashed. “I haven’t minded in the past.”

That comment alone had his knees shaking, for the underlying meaning was obvious! And then, as Hannah began to unfasten her dress slowly, watching him the whole while, he could feel the rest of his body join in, growing hot. His breathing became labored.

Her fingers gently undid the ties around her bosom, opening the dress and allowing it to pool around her ankles. Sure, she was wearing a thick pelisse underneath, but that hardly seemed relevant. Even though it was loose, hiding her curves from view, Frederick’s heart began to thud so loudly that he wondered if Amelia could hear it.

Still watching him, smirking to herself, Hannah started toward the water’s edge. She dipped a toe first. Then she lifted the garment to her knees and stepped into the water.

“Oh, it’s cold,” she gasped. “Amelia, are you sure you do not wish to come in?”

“N-no.” Amelia giggled to herself, then she looked up at Frederick. “Father, she is crazy.”

“She is something…” He barely even heard his daughter, unable to look away from Hannah for even a second.

She waded deeper into the pond, her dress now falling into the water and trailing behind her. Deeper and deeper she went until the water reached her waist. She spun about, splashing the water around her, laughing and giggling with delight.

The dress had been loose before, but now it clung to her waist. Those curves were on full display. Her skin shimmered in the sunlight. And when she dipped her hands into the water and ran them through her hair, flicking it back as she closed her eyes and basked in the sunlight…

Subconsciously, as if he had lost control of his body, Frederick found himself walking toward the pond. As if a hand was grabbing him and dragging him forward. He might have tried to fight it if he had been so inclined, but… well, with how he was feeling right now, he wasn’t that.

Images from last night flooded his mind. Watching her pleasuring herself on his bed, somehow resisting the urge to join her. Frederick couldn’t fathom how he had managed to do even that. He wanted her. It really was that simple. A fact made all the more tempting by the very real fact that she wanted him, too.

“Oh, are you coming in?” Hannah asked him, seeing him hesitating by the water’s edge.

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