Page 20 of The Duke's Mysterious Lover
Tomorrow, and the next day, she’d dress and undress this man, and she’d remember what his face looked like when he reached ecstasy.
And she’d be envious of the lady who would one day hold his heart.
Because when Thorne loved, he loved witheverythinghe had.
He was swaying again by the time she picked his trousers up from the floor, so she nudged him back to sit on the bed. These would have to be laundered, so she tossed them in the correct basket. By the time Kit returned to the bed, the man was fumbling with his stockings.
Clucking her tongue, she grabbed his ankle and pulled first one stocking loose, then the other, and nudged him to roll his way up the bed.
He did so, with a sound which might’ve been a chuckle, and she had to smile. What would the world think to know even all-powerful dukes slept in their smalls and got drunk sometimes?
She nudged Thorne up the bed, so his head lay on the pillows, then pulled the counterpane from under him. He shifted with an appreciative grunt.
It was when she went to pull the covers over him that he caught her wrist.
Kit froze, her gaze immediately going to his face, wondering what this meant.
His blue gaze was clear, trusting, and gave absolutely nothing away. He tugged her closer, and holding her breath, she went, until her rear end landed on the mattress beside the pillows. Neither of them spoke, and in the waiting silence, Kit had to force herself to inhale.
His hold on her wrist twisted somehow, until his fingers were not-quite-entwined with hers. As she watched, his eyelids lowered to half-mast, and he pulled her hand closer. “Thank ye, Kit,” he said. No, hebreathedthe words, as exhaustion and satiation and the whisky finally caught up with him. “Ye take good care of me.”
Always.
The words stuck in her throat.
But when Thorne pressed the knuckles of her hand against his cheek, in what might’ve been the most intimate way she’d ever touched a man, she knew they were true.
She was in London to find her father, to find answers. That was why she’d come all this way, but somewhere along the way she’d allowed herself to be distracted by another man. A man whoneededher, even if it could only be as a friend.
That piercing blue gaze slowly shuttered as his lids lowered. His hold on her loosened, and Kit knew he was falling asleep.
But unable to release him, releasehishold on her, she moved her hand. Not away from him, but just to his temple. Then his hair. As her trimmed fingernails scraped along his scalp, he shuddered slightly and a little groan of pleasure slipped from his lips.
Smiling bemusedly, she moved her touch down his neck to his shoulders, alternating between scratching and stroking, as his sighs told her how much he liked the simple caress.
Not sure this was part of an average valet’s job description.
Not that she minded.
Kit lifted her legs into the bed beside him and crossed her feet at the ankles. Her back was propped by the pillows, and it was simple enough to use the knuckles of her right hand to stroke the base of his neck, where the muscles were tightest.
She focused on the way he shuddered happily when she raked her fingernails along his scalp again. He needed a haircut, and she was afraid that meantshe’dbe given the assignment—despite having paid approximately zero attention to men’s coiffure in the past, as evidenced by her own butchered hair.
As she scratched his back, his breathing deepened, and she sighed in…well, it was relief. Pride, perhaps? Tonight he’d needed her, and she’d given him what he’d needed, even if he hadn’t realized it.
Thorne was a man with the world on his shoulders, and had welcomed someone else taking command. She’d seen that, and yes, she could be proud of that.
Now that he was asleep, she could wiggle her way from the bed—
As she tried, Thorne grunted and rolled. She froze as he tossed his arm across her lap, pinning her in place, and settled his cheek atop her thigh.
Dio Benedetto!
Kit swallowed, then forced herself to breathe again. His breathing evened, confirming Thorne reallywasslumbering.
He’d fallen asleep. In her lap.
Thisdefinitelyhadn’t been in the job description.
