Page 55 of The Pureblood Daughter
Nadia brushes her fingers through her hair as she crosses the bedroom to the window and looks out. The gardens stretch away from the manor, sprawling with all manner of plants, but she can’t find the viscount amidst the greenery. The sky is purple with dusk, and Nadia realizes with a start that she spent her entire afternoon perusing Lord Rosetti’s research. Her eyes adjust so easily to darkness now that it was able to slip in unnoticed.
Fat dark clouds loom above, and Nadia pauses at the armoire and pulls out a shawl and umbrella before slipping soundlessly from the room.
In the halls, she moves quietly, listening to the house around her. She’s still not used to this place, so foreign and full of things she doesn’t yet understand. But perhaps in time she’ll come to know it as a place of safety, ofrefuge.
Nadia descends a back staircase, her dress swishing behind her, and smiles at a passing maid, who pauses briefly to curtsy. Once the woman has gone on her way, Nadia approaches the French doors into the back garden and pushes one open.
The evening air sweeps in, cool and charged and smelling of honeysuckle and an approaching storm. She pulls the shawl more tightly about her shoulders, tucks the umbrella beneath one arm, and steps down the stairs into the soft green grass.
This is her first time in the garden, and it comes to life around her in a way she’s never experienced. Each scent is stronger, fuller, even bordering on distracting. The honeysuckle pulls her one way, the sweet wisteria the other. Delighted, she loses herself in the maze of plants, moving farther from the manor with every step. Even the grass beneath her feet sends up aromas of summer, and she is staring down at it, entranced, when soft footsteps sound behind her.
Nadia takes a moment to breathe in deep, testing these new senses of hers, and she knows it’s Theodore behind her just by the scent in the air. She closes her eyes, studies his warm smell, tries to file it into her memory for safekeeping.
“Even one day away from you is a day too long,” he whispers, and Nadia detects a slight shift of her hair as Theodore twirls a dark lock between his fingers.
“What doesiubitmean?” Nadia asks without turning, enjoying the feel of him standing so near to her, his essence warm and strong and enticing.
His chuckle is low and soft, and she imagines him smiling, his green eyes crinkling in the corners. Theodore shifts behind her, and a tingle races down her spine when he brings his lips close to her ear.
“Lover,” he whispers, making her heart beat ever faster as he presses a delicate kiss to her neck.
Near bursting with heat, she turns to face him, and he regards her with a roguish smile. His teeth are white and straight, no pointed edges in sight.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Nadia says, her voice smooth and low, “I’d think you enraptured by me, Viscount Rosetti.” She lowers herself into a curtsy, a smile tugging on the corners of her lips. “Do tell me it isn’t true.”
“I can do no such thing.” He steps closer and reaches down to catch her chin in his hand, lifting her from the curtsy.
Nadia rises, looking up into his verdant eyes. His hand guides her lips seamlessly to his, and the moment they touch, a spark ignites in her belly.
His free hand wraps around her waist and pulls her closer, and she sighs at the sensation of their bodies pressing together. His chest is firm and warm under her hands, and as she trails her fingers down his body, his length presses against her thigh.
She catches his lower lip in her teeth at the same time she reaches for his breeches, brushing her hand delicately over the intimidating hardness she finds there.
Theodore lets out a growl and moves to deepen the kiss, but Nadia steps back, untangling herself from his arms. Though he moves to take her hand, she shifts it just out of his reach, instead using it to push back her hair, sending her scent rippling toward him through the fragrant air.
The viscount closes his eyes and clenches his jaw, and even from a distance, the strain in his trousers becomes more evident, moredemanding. And in turn, the power Nadia wields—the power she’s only coming to understand she has—grows ever stronger.
No wonder her mother never told her how fun this is.
“I had the opportunity to meet Miss Kazamir today,” she says lightly, stepping away from Theodore to meander through the lush garden.
His hesitation lasts but only a moment, and she smiles to herself as he falls into step behind her.
“Is that so?” His voice is apprehensive, searching. “I’d planned to introduce you once you’d settled.”
“Hmm.” Nadia reaches for a rose as they pass beneath a blooming arch and lets a thorn prick her finger. Her blood wells up suddenly, crimson and shining, and the viscount draws a breath behind her. “It was a rather... disagreeable encounter.” She whirls to face him, the rose clutched tenderly in her fingers, which are now painted with her lifeblood. “Who is she?”
“The daughter of another prominent pureblood family.” His green-eyed gaze follows her fingers as she twirls the rose. “She’s only here for the season.”
“And tell me, Lord Rosetti, what does the Kazamir woman mean to you?”
“Nothing.” His response is quick, curt.
“Have you ever...” She looks down at his trousers, and a flicker of anger burns through her at the memory of Miss Kazamir dancing with him, touching him, breathing the same air as him. “Gone to bed with her?”
His eyes narrow, his lips pulling back in a snarl. “Absolutely not.”
Nadia studies him, searching for a sign of dishonesty, but she finds none.
