Page 73 of Saved By the Rakish Duke

“Are you sure you even have the stomach to handlemysecrets?” he asked with a sly grin.

His deflection worked. Lady Penelope brought a hand down to lightly smack his shoulder. “You’re terrible!” she groaned.

“Not anymore,” he grinned, leaning back on his palms after returning the glass to its place on the nightstand. “I feelmuchbetter.”

CHAPTER24

Penelope knew she should have listened to her first instinct.

She shouldn’t have let His Grace convince her to wait. She should have freed herself when he hugged her close.

True, he was considerably stronger than her—as his muscled arms around her waist had reminded her—but he would have let her go quite easily if she had insisted, if she had spoken up, if she had protested even slightly.

But she didn’t.

She gave in to the warmth of his hands, the tickling of his breath over the shell of her ear, the intoxicating gruffness of his voice—which his sickness had rendered much deeper than usual.

Now here she was, a chair pulled up to his bedside with a heavy combined volume of the Iliad and the Odyssey sitting on her lap.

“Didn’t you claim to be feeling ‘much better’ just ten minutes ago?” She raised a skeptical eyebrow as she thumbed through the pages. “In that case, I see no reason to-”

“Is it not expected for friends to want to help each other?” he smugly interrupted, weaponizing her question from earlier against her. “Besides, I thought you said that you wanted me to get some rest?”

He annoyed her, he truly did.

Even when he wasn’t speaking, the smugness of his current stance alone—casually lying on his side, head propped up on an elbow to face her as the covers bunched up around his waist—was irritating enough.

How was it possible that even when he was sick, he exuded such easy confidence that overwhelmed and washed over her?

But Penelope wouldn’t allow herself to get lost in it, not this time.

“So, your first response is to ask me to read to you as though you’re a child who needs a bedtime story?” She let out a chuckle, pinching the bridge of her nose to feign disappointment. “You truly are one of the most preposterous men I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.”

“Perhaps.” His body shuddered as he attempted to stifle a yawn. “But it’s been weeks since I’ve gotten to properly hear your voice, I might as well take full advantage while I have the chance.”

“Careful, Your Grace,” she teased. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d posit that you missed me.”

His ocean-blue eyes rose to meet hers, his gaze so strong it pinned her to her seat. She swore she saw his eyes flicker downwards before locking with her own once again, his expression completely—and annoyingly—unreadable.

Unable to take another moment of whatever this was, Penelope took it upon herself to break the spell. “I- I was merely joking, Your Grace.”

He let out a soft “Hmm!” before dropping his head onto the pillow. “Well?” he asked, now lying flat on his back with his eyes shut, “I’m waiting.”

The sun had been hanging low in the sky when she first entered the room, but now it had completely set, and she suspected she would soon be called for dinner.

But none of that seemed to cross the duke’s mind. Besides, his own sleeping and eating schedule were likely quite erratic now that he had fallen sick.

She took another moment to examine his features—sharp, rugged,handsome.

Even with the dark circles under his eyes that betrayed the late nights he had been putting himself through these last few weeks, even with the stubble that had crept up his pronounced jaw over the last few days, even with his hair unbrushed, he was handsome.

To her dismay, a curious eyelid flew open to silently ask why she hadn’t started, catching her in her examination of him.

“When I asked you to read to me...” he smirked, “I thought it was obvious that I clearly meant that you do soout loud.”

Penelope huffed, adjusting the book on her lap as she thumbed through it once more. “What page did you say you were on?”

“Any page will do, just make sure it’s an interesting one,” he answered. “We all know how it ends, so I like to jump back and forth between chapters.”

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