Page 39 of Her Seven Nights with the Duke

I’m such a fool! But it’s so exciting!

She had never been so attracted to anyone. She had been too ready to go further if he’d asked her to. She wanted to feel hisexpert hands on her skin again and his lips kissing every part of her.

Nora had heard women discuss their escapades, but she had never thought that it would be this wonderful.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

It was their fourth night together, almost a week after the last time that they had seen each other. Samuel had sent a letter for Nora to meet him at his estate, as they usually did. However, this time, he was waiting for her outside.

He’d helped her into the carriage, promptly joining her as the carriage drove them to the hunting lodge. The carriage rolled to a stop, and he offered her a hand, helping her down.

“So, My Lady, what do you think of the change of scenery?” he asked her after giving her the chance to look around.

The hunting lodge was at the back of his estate, located in a secluded location in the woods.

There were very few people who knew about it, and Samuel was often too busy to visit. He wasn’t given to hunting either, andthe hunting lodge had stayed empty after his father’s death, only hosting people whenever the servants came to clean it up.

Today was one of the days that he’d sent his servants to clean it up. Ever since the last time, he’d been thinking of having her in a secluded location where they could be themselves without any self-consciousness on her part.

“Come in, out of the cold,” he said, offering her his hand as he escorted her into the lodge.

He took off his coat, holding out his hand for her cloak when she took it off. The fire burning in the hearth created warmth in the lodge, shedding away the cold outside.from the cool night air.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, looking around. “I’ve never been in a hunting lodge before. I expected it to be slightly different.”

“How different?” Samuel asked her.

“Well, there is no hunting equipment, for one. And there’s no head of a moose hanging on the wall like I’d heard hunting lodges usually have,” Nora said quietly.

Samuel chuckled. “Perhaps if you had known my father, you would have been satisfied with the look of the hunting lodge while he was still alive. While the weapons have always been hidden and are only ever brought out for polishing, he did have the head of a moose hanging on the wall.

“I only removed it after I took over. I am not given to hunting, and having it there had always seemed atrocious to me,” he explained.

Spiting him had also played a major role in my actions.

Samuel kept the last bit to himself, although a part of him wished he’d told her about it.

“I had the servants lay out a table for us.” He led her to the table in a bid to distract himself from the question that was bound to follow after his thought.

They sat in silence as they enjoyed their food, before Nora cleared her throat to get his attention.

“Might I ask you a question?” she asked.

Samuel nodded.

“There is something that I wondered about after you told me the reason for your sour mood on our last… rendezvous.”

Samuel chuckled at her words and her reaction as her face flushed.

At least, I wasn’t the only one affected by everything.

“What do you wish to know?”

She swallowed her last bite of food and leaned back, staring at him. “Why were you so against your mother’s decision to find you a wife?”

Samuel looked away for a moment. He hadn’t realized she would ask that. It was not a subject he liked to broach.

“I believe that marriage should only involve the two people who will be getting into the transaction—no one else needs to be involved,” he said calmly.

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