Page 18 of Good Duke Gone Far

Some, what? What was she talking about?Had he spoken aloud? But if he had, she couldn’t possibly be offering her services to assist with his…tool.

“Do you want some sweetmeat? I have to admit, I was the one holding out on you. I have a few left.” Her arm was extended to him. “So…would you like one? Or am I to retract the offer?”

How could he say no to what was being offered right in front of him?

“Yes.” With that single word and the next several steps, he sealed his fate.

Chapter 7

HOWFARCOULDSHEpush this without looking like an absolute strumpet? Never before had Kat flirted with a man so brazenly. With a half attempt to turn her back to him, she angled her leg so that he could see her removing her stockings. Was he looking? She couldn’t be sure. Was that his breathing getting heavier? Or was the stream playing tricks on her mind?

She dipped her feet in the cold water and relaxed. As much as a woman could relax when she was trying to secure the attention of a rigidly self-disciplined man acting as her protector.

Her body was creating havoc within her. It needed to kiss him again. Maybe more. Definitely more. But she didn’t know what that all entailed. She just hoped and prayed her stocking trick was working. She had peeked at a few naughty books before, so there were some ideas floating around her head and pulsating at her core to entice her, but she had never acted on anything before Quinn.

Quinn.

Somehow just thinking his name created a false intimacy in her mind.

She had to get him closer. Ingeniously, she remembered her sweetmeats and offered him some. Now he was taking steps to close the distance between them. Heart hammering, Kat ignored its attempts to throttle her, and held her place on the boulder.

It was impossible to tell, but she felt as though Quinn’s stare hadn’t left her calves, which she had purposely left slightly exposed.

His shadow fell across her, and she opened her eyes. The warm brown she expected to see had turned sable. Black as night but heated. The air between them was charged. The tension could move either of them with just a soft tug on the reins. But who was holding them? Neither one knew.

By extending his hand, she recalled the strength and warmth that had protected her moments earlier. Studying the thumb, it was as though she could recall the feel of its circular motion on her hips. Tenderness and strength all bundled up in one gorgeous man.

There was no other word for it. She had to admit the attraction. The pull. The relentless pressure drawing her to him, whether to stimulate him to anger or passion. A thread tied the two emotions together, regardless.

“Well?” Quinn swayed his hand in the air slightly. “Was this all a ploy to get my boots wet?”

Was her desperation obvious? She would die a million deaths of embarrassment if he caught her.

“Or do you actually have a treat to share?”

With unexpected aplomb, she replied. “It’s certainly not a ploy.” She patted her pockets but had no access to them in her current position. It was necessary for her to stand up and straighten out the pocket. Absent-mindedly, she hopped off the rock and landed in the water.

“Ow!” She screamed at the sharp pain shooting through her foot where it landed on a rock.

Before the “w” had ended, Quinn had lifted her and plied her full length against his.

“What is it?” he murmured into her neck.

Her chin rested against his temple. With her nose lost in the scent of his citrus-scented cologne, she barely made out the words, “Just a rock.”

“That’s what you get for jumping into a stream I guess.” The words held all the promise of a setdown, but the breathy tone was warming her collarbone now.

Her nipples perked up, remembering his face nuzzled between them earlier. There was nowhere reasonable to place her hands. Shoulders? Neck? Hair? All of them clanged loudly in her mind, vying for first place. She settled on his neck. His thick neck. Where she could feel his pulse pressing against her palms. Or was that her own increasing heart rate?

“For saying that, I don’t think you deserve a treat anymore.” Her words and tone matched his as she spoke quietly into his ear.

He adjusted his arms and she sunk a little lower, pressed against him every inch that she dropped. Now he held her by her waist with the strongest vise-like grip she had ever experienced, and for that reason, she had to run her hands down the bulging biceps that were holding her aloft.

It took everything in her to contain the mewl of delight welling up in her as she tried, and failed miserably, to wrap her fingers over his biceps. My God, he was huge.

“I just saved you. Again. I think I deserve something.” The burning embers in his eyes were contagious. She could feel their fire leap into her bones.

“Do you, now?”

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