Page 28 of Her Devil of a Duke
“You could escape,” he reminded her, a small smile on his lips. He purposely lifted his arms up the wall, so they were on either side of her shoulders, showing that she could simply slip down and out under the curve of his arm. When she didn’t go anywhere, but just continued to glare up at him, that smile grew. “I thought you’d left this morning.”
“I’ve been hiding.”
“Have you?” His brows shot up, that smile still in place. “From me? I hope not.”
“Last night… what we did…”
“Was bloody amazing.” His simple acknowledgment had her dumbstruck. She stared at him, her lips parted, as she couldn’t help wondering how his few minutes of pleasure with her had compared to all the other women who he had letters from in his study.
Surely, she could not have been bad at it for him to say such a thing now?
He cocked his head to the side, moving an inch closer to her. All the hairs seemed to stand on end on Evelyn’s body. Her hands gripped the gown tighter across her waist, but she made no effort to lift the shoulders and cover any more of the corset with it. She was too distracted, watching his movements.
One of his arms slid down the wall beside her, coming to rest near her waist. His elbow was tantalizingly close to touching her, within a hair’s breadth of her. If she sighed or fully exhaled, her corseted waist would touch his arm.
He tutted quietly, “you have been hiding.” Then, after a short silence, he abruptly laughed, a soft and quiet sound. “I never even considered that.”
“Arrogant,” she muttered, though there was a smile too on her lips.
He laughed once more, shaking his head at himself.
“I’m always arrogant, Evelyn. You might have to teach me not to be so.”
“Evelyn?” she repeated her own name back to him. “You called me Evelyn, Your Grace. My name is Miss Voss.”
“Do you think I can call you that after last night?” His laughter faded and he edged toward her again, closing a little more of the distance between them.
Her breath hitched in her throat. With one of his arms lifted, she still had the perfect opportunity to escape if she wanted to take it. There was only one issue though. She had no desire to escape. Instead, she stayed exactly where she was, as he moved to her, his hips brushing hers. That sudden intimate touch made him inhale sharply too. They stared at one another, neither of them moving away.
“Your Grace…”
“No more of that,” he whispered. “When I think of what we shared last night, what I went on to dream about, you didn’t moan such words.”
“Moan?” She laughed lightly. “You have been imagining things.”
“Oh, great things.”
Evelyn was intoxicated at his deep voice and sultry words. She began to think it was little wonder he had managed to seduce so many women into his bed. If he was this seductive with them all, then how could they possibly refuse? He had quite expertly made her believe that it washerthat he wanted. And no one else.
“Still, I must call you ‘Your Grace’,” she reminded him. “It is proper.”
“And what we did was proper, was it?” he teased her.
She smiled, her breath gasping once more when he shifted his hips against hers. That subtle amount of friction made her settle fully against the wall, her grip on the gown loosening more and more around her waist.
“Call me Rafe,” he pleaded, lifting a hand and peeling a finger around the edge of that gown.
“I cannot call you that,” she shook her head. “You are a duke!”
“I am a duke, yes, who commands great reverence and does not enjoy being disobeyed. And I am asking you to call me by my name,Evelyn,” he said simply. Taking hold of a corner of her gown, he started to pull it through her grasp, slipping it from in between her fingers.
Evelyn could have clambered to hold onto it. He gave her every opportunity to claw it back. Still, she did not. Instead, the feeling of the silk brushing through her arms teased her even more. She felt her breasts pressing tightly against her corset, as if they begged to be released, and that wet sensation just grew and grew between her legs.
When he had hold of the gown, he dropped it to the floor beside them.
“That’s better,” he whispered with a smile, replacing his hand on the wall as his intense gaze caressed her figure.
Evelyn held her breath. Never had she felt this way before.
