Page 32 of The Duke's Spinster

*

An odd strangledchortle-like sound tumbled out of his mouth. “Seduc—Wha—I think not.” Folded arms should indicate his position on the matter. The kiss had been nice. His mind wouldn’t wrap around a more apt word at the moment. Sonice, it was. Passionate, in fact. And maybe that was the reason he didn’t want it to happen again, but really…lessons in seduction? There was no way in hell that he was about to give the cursed gel some lessons in passion. It was an effrontery to his honor to even consider that. A person did not just engage in seduction lessons. It wasn’t done.

“Not seduction exactly. Mostly just…” she waved her fingers around. “Kissing.”

“I can’t give you kissing lessons, Boudicca.”

“And I can’t give you fencing lessons, Wesley.”

“You have been—”

“Exactly. And you just kissed me. Lessons will be the same as what we’ve both been doing.”

They would likely not be the same as what they had just done because Wesley had never given kissing lessons before, and if he were to think about giving lessons they would not be given so urgently. With so much desire. He stamped that thought down.

“Lessons in passion—”

“Not passion. Just kissing.”

“They’re one and the same.” Even he knew he was grasping at clouds, feeling lost in the argument.

“I don’t think so.”

“Since you’re the kissing aficionado, do explain.”

“Again. There’s no need to insult me. I’m perfectly aware of my amateur status in kissing.”

He wouldn’t have said amateur exactly. She was a quick study. A natural, really.

“I’m sure you have had a kiss without passion, no?”

“True.” He thought back to several experiences where there was no deeper connection than a kiss. More often than not, that kiss led nowhere and didn’t happen again.

“In the same way, I’m sure you have had passion without a kiss, no?”

He genuinely had to stop and think about that one.

“Wesley, really? Are you saying that every time you have felt passionately toward someone you have kissed them?”

“I dare say that is true.”

“You cannot be denied? Is that what you’re claiming?”

“Well, I’m certainly not saying I ever forced myself on anyone.” He glared at her. “I’ll return your turn of phrase: don’t insult me. I would never kiss a woman unless she also desired to kiss me.”

He saw a slight flush run up her neck. Odd, that.

“Regardless,” she said as she waved her finger in the air again, “passion and kissing are different. You can have one without the other. You agree.”

“Yes.”

“So teach me kissing without the passion.”

“I can’t do that.” It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t even a stall tactic.

“Figure out a way, Wesley, or the fencing lessons and this ramshackle courtship are done.”

“Fine.” He wanted the lessons. He needed the lessons. He had to win. But which lessons and what precisely he had to win, he wasn’t sure.

---