Page 75 of His Runaway Duchess

She had to turn away, smoothing out her expression.

“His Grace is in his study,” Doctor Seymour was saying now. “I plan to make a few last checks of Master Alexander’s health, and then I shall leave. Your Grace, His Grace was asking if you might step in to speak with him.”

“Of course,” Daphne said, turning around with a neat, little smile. “I’ll see you soon, Alex.”

She strode out of the room without looking back.

Edward did not glance up as Daphne stepped into his study. He was opening letters, the silver blade of a letter opener flashing in the sunlight.

“That looks sharp,” she responded, and he glanced up then. “The letter opener, I mean. It has an unusual handle.”

He grunted, eyeing the handle in question. “It’s carved jade. Something my father brought back from his travels. A present to himself. And itissharp, but don’t worry, I’m careful. Now, Daphne, I summoned you here?—”

“Yes, why did you do that? I’m the Duchess, yet you had the doctor send for me as if I were an errant schoolgirl.” She folded her hands in front of her waist. “I didn’t appreciate that.”

He held her gaze for a long moment, then gave another grunt.

“Very well. I never thought. You have my apologies. And I apologize for how harshly I spoke to you earlier. Youwerereckless in allowing Alex to race his horse, but I know how stubborn he can be. No doubt you did tell him not to jump, and he ignored you. He’s tried it before, with me. Of course, I was firmer with him.”

He added that last part almost in an undertone. Daphne heard it anyway and bristled accordingly.

“Perhaps if you spent more time with your son, then?—”

“Not this again,” Edward cut her off brusquely, getting to his feet and circling the desk to face her head-on. “I thought this incident would have made it clear.Iwill raise my son, and I’ll do it without your input if you don’t mind.”

She took a step forward. “But Idomind. And why must you speak to me like this? Truly, Edward, sometimes I feel as though I have married two different men. You can be so… so affectionate, sointimateat times, and?—”

“Let’s not mention those occasions,” Edward interrupted hastily. A flush was creeping across his cheeks.

“But I must bring up those occasions. I… I could think of nothing else but you, Edward! And then you would become a different person. How was I meant to understand?”

She took another step forward, and this time he did not step away. Heat flared through her, and she reached out tentatively, flattening her palm against the warm, rich material of his embroidered waistcoat.

She fancied she could feel his heart thudding under her touch. Edward stared at her, his eyes hungry and desperate.

He must care for me.He must.

Daphne stared at him for a long moment. She hated how she could still feel the pulse of desire going through her. She still wanted to kiss him, to touch him, to be near him. She still wantedhim. Another step closer, and she was pressed against him, thewantingbuilding up to an ache she could not ignore.

He dipped his head, his breath becoming ragged, and she tilted up her chin. She could almost taste his lips, warm and soft and achingly delicious, and the thrum of desire became unbearable. His hands hovered just over her waist, as if he longed to touch her but did not dare. If she glanced down, she knew she would see that they were shaking.

He wants me, too. I can feel the desire in him, just as strongly as I feel it in me.

“Edward,” she breathed, their lips a hair’s breadth apart. “Edward, I?—”

He pulled back, leaving her bereft andcoldall of a sudden.

“That’s enough,” he said, his back turned to her. “Stop it, Daphne. I am asking you to stop. I am not… I am not strong enough.”

Edward’s feelings and wants, it seemed, were just as alien to her as they had been when she first came here. Back still turned, he moved to sit behind his desk again. Perhaps he felt safer with a little space between them.

“I’m never going to get close to you, are you?” she said, half to herself. “I keep thinking that something will change, but it won’t.Youwon’t change.”

He shuffled papers around on his desk. “I believe I warned you about this when we first agreed to marry. I am not an agreeable man, Daphne. I don’t plan to be cruel, and I don’t plan to ruin your life, but I must be left alone. Why can’t you see that?”

She swallowed hard, her gaze wandering over his head to the garden outside. At some point, luncheon had come and gone, and early afternoon light spilled golden over the lawn, the trees swaying in a faint breeze.

“I do see it, now,” she said, her voice small. “And I can see that my interference with Alex could have led to a serious accident. I know that it was partially my fault.”

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