Page 28 of Good Duke Gone Far

“And just when I thought we were making progress into words.”

He felt her cross her arms. He took his top hand and rubbed it up and down her arm. There were goosebumps already formed.

“You’re cold. Come closer.” As if that were possible. But he tried all the same. He tucked her feet between his calves and pressed his chest against her back to share his heat. Since he currently had an ever-increasing amount. There was something about this woman that vexed him beyond belief. Yet things had changed. And quickly. And now she vexed him in an entirely different way. He wanted to know her. Understand her. Why was she being so feisty now? Especially since their intimate connections. Or did she not see them that way? And if not, why didn’t she? He certainly couldn’t deny how affected he was by her kisses.

Her kisses were given as passionately as she did everything else. It shouldn’t have surprised him, but somehow it had. He also now knew, explicitly, that he wasn’t good enough for her. She was looking for a duke. So no matter how good his kisses were, they weren’t getting him anywhere. Where he wanted to be…he wasn’t quite sure yet. Pondering the answer to that question sent shivers up his spine. The traditionally terrifying kind.

“It’s just who I am. I’m not feisty.”

“Alright.”

“I’m passionate.”

“True.”

“It’s just the way I was made, alright?”

“Nothing made you that way?” It had to be asked. He wanted to see from her perspective if she would allow him in. And he thought he was the guarded one.

For a moment or two, he thought they had regressed all the way back to silence.

“It’s just things over time. Not being asked my opinion. Not being heard if I did share it. Being reprimanded if by chance I was heard. Finally, I had enough. I decided I would just say what I wanted to say when I wanted to say it.”

“When did you decide that?”

The fire crackled in the room. Candles whispered in the darkness. Kat turned around to face him. He loathed the fleeting loss until she peered up at him through her lashes, several shades darker than her long blonde locks.

“It’s exceedingly ridiculous.”

Quinn held his tongue, knowing if he spoke now that she might retreat.

“It’s not even something I can necessarily pinpoint. I just remember growing up and feeling as though I was never heard. Maybe it was because Charlotte was so quiet, everyone expected me to be the same way. It felt like my family didn’t see me. I resented them for it. Still do…Anyway, the only time people, my family included, noticed me, was when I was saying something outlandish. And I liked that attention. Well, I should say, I liked having some kind of attention, even though it was negative. It sounds childish, I know. But Iwasa child. For years my mother and governess trained me to hold my tongue. It stuck for a while. But then I watched my cousin go three seasons as the most biddable woman in the world go unmatched. She did everything right. Spoke only as much as women are allowed to speak. Agreed with everything men told her. Not one man asked for her hand.”

Kat pressed her forehead to his chest. Her soft breath teasing his nipples. “She’s the most beautiful woman I know.”

Quinn’s body shook from her warm, steady breaths. He had to get her to stop that if he was going to have any fighting chance to pay attention.

He cupped her jaw and met her gaze, successfully diverting those warm breaths to a–less sensitive–region closer to his shoulder.

“So that’s when I decided. If she could do it all right and not secure a man, then I could either waste my time following the same fallible path, or…or I could just be me.”

It was not the time to look for any fallacies in her thinking. It was only time to listen and accept her for who she was. Wasn’t that her whole point? And didn’t she deserve some points now?

“I’m glad you’re you.”

The warm breaths had lost their place, and now her fingers were entwining themselves in his chest hair. The gentle tugs caused his cock to swell. Surely she could feel that on her hip. And she was the one who had said no touching. What kind of willpower did the woman think he had?

“Are you?”

Her delicate yet playful fingers had sent bells ringing, butterflies flapping, and pyrotechnics firing throughout his core. His groin was getting the worst of it. It was impossible to control the twitches. He had to regain focus on her question. Was he, what? Oh yes, happy about her being her. Yes, he was. At this moment, he was more than glad. Elated. Thrilled. About to explode with happiness all over her.

“Yes,” he managed.

“Really?”

Evidently she needed more. “Yes. I’m thrilled that you’re you. You’re all the right kinds of vexing. You must know. You must feel it too.” He pushed his cock against her pelvic bone. “I want to know you more. I want to be vexed to the max.”

“I want to vex you.”

---