Page 22 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
“Get down.” Her fists bunched at her sides. “Get down at once.”
“No, don’t stop,” her father called. “I’m liking where this is going.”
Where this was going was straight to disaster. Juliet backed away, but not fast enough. Evesham reached the top and caught her hand in his.
Juliet froze as those long fingers wrapped around hers. Froze, even as heat flared through her. The power of the contact stole her breath, set her heart tumbling, made her forget that they had an audience.
Unforgivably but unstoppably, she twined her fingers around his. For the first time in days, she stared into his eyes. Frantic warnings made no impact. Instead, she felt as though she plummeted deep into that velvety dark brown gaze.
Right now, Evesham didn’t look like a double-dealing snake. He looked like a man half mad with wanting her. Even worse, he looked like a man she could trust.
Her shaky exhalation jammed in her throat, as her crazy heart set off on another wild gallop.
“Madam!”
Not even the sound of her father speaking the Nurse’s offstage line could break the moment.
For once, Juliet Capulet held sway over her actions. She spoke lines that she felt like she’d known in her cradle. “I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.”
Rather than releasing her, Evesham brought her hand to his lips. She waited in a fever of suspense for him to kiss her hand. But he didn’t close the inch that separated his mouth from her skin. The effect was almost more powerful than actual contact.
“You have a line,” he murmured, still holding her hand, the devil.
She blinked at him as if she didn’t speak English, then she snatched her hand back when she realized quite how she’d fallen under his spell.
Juliet swallowed to moisten a mouth as dry as the Sahara. But her voice emerged scratchy all the same. “Anon, good nurse.”
Her skin tingled where he’d touched her, and she stretched out her fingers to banish the sensation. She didn’t have the strength to break his gaze as she continued. “Sweet Montague, be true. Stay but a while. I will come again.”
But her feet seemed glued to the rough pine boards of the floor. Her heart swelled until it filled her chest. Evesham smiled at her, a sweet smile that told her he found her as enchanting as she found him.
“Go,” he said on a thread of sound.
Hectic color infusing her cheeks, she started. What in the name of all that was holy was she doing? Did she want to join the list of women the scoundrel duke had used and abandoned? At this rate, she’d be begging him to ruin her.
Blindly, she turned and stumbled through the door behind her that led to a rickety stairway. Her shaking hand clenched hard around the rail to save her from falling. The warmth of his touch lingered, God rot him.
Her heart still raced fast enough to make her dizzy, and now nausea churned in her stomach, soured her mouth. How had the duke managed to make time stand still? Her reaction to him had always troubled her, but only now was she absolutely terrified.
Did she have a hope of withstanding his charm? He was human opium.
Juliet trembled as if she was ill. Through the pounding in her head, she barely heard Evesham speak his next lines.
“O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard. Being in night, all this is but a dream, too flattering-sweet to be substantial.”
Curse him, this wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare.
“Much, much better,” she heard her father say. “Juliet, you’re getting it at last.”
She sucked in a shuddering breath, smoothed the skirts of her prim navy frock – they were yet to rehearse in costume – and made herself step back onto the balcony.
“Thank you, Papa.” Her voice was too high, but her father had turned to talk to one of the workmen and wasn’t paying her any attention.
She wished that counted for Evesham as well. But without looking at him, she knew he watched her with more of that steady concentration she felt in the pores of her skin.
“That was dashed wonderful, my lady,” he said. “You came alive.”
She shot him what she hoped was a dismissive glance. Although what power could her censure have, after she’d been staring at him as if he was a bowl of custard and she’d just found her spoon? “It always takes me a little while to find my way into a role. This time, it’s been more difficult than usual because I didn’t feel the emotion.”
