Page 33 of Her Devil of a Duke
“You do not know me.” She shook her head. “Do not presume to know my mind just because we…” She struggled for the words, her lips opening and closing.
“Because I pleasured you?” he said simply. “I know something of you, believe me.”
“You were right in what you said before.” She abruptly stood up, so in danger of knocking her wine glass over that he had to reach out and grab it to stop it from falling. “Youarearrogant.” With these simple words, she swept away from the table, heading for the door.
“Wait. Evie!” He hurried to stand, but she had already left, the door slamming behind her. For a moment, he thought about going after her, but he couldn’t get the image of her attempting everything he was showing her on another man. With a heavy sigh, Rafe dropped to his seat and downed what was left in his wine glass. “Well done, Rafe. Why did I have to insult her?”
The jealousy still curdled in his gut though. He pushed away the decanter, a sick feeling twisting his stomach.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
She said she couldn’t sleep in the darkness.
These words halted Rafe. He stood in his chamber with night thickly fallen, wearing nothing but his trousers. He was about to climb into bed, writing today off as a lost cause in anger, when this memory came sharply back to him.
The memory of how Evie had mumbled in the library about hating the darkness and sleeping alone was a sharp and sudden thing. He didn’t want her alone in his house, afraid, and then he remembered just how easily she had slept beside him the night before.
They’d blown out the candles, yet she had been peaceful, just as he had been.
She cannot sleep alone in the darkness.
Without thinking much of his actions, he left the chamber abruptly, carrying a candle with him. He walked all the way to her chamber, not even hesitating this evening beside the west wing as he passed it. When he reached her door, he knocked.
“Come in, Petra,” she called from within.
Rafe hardly cared if she had mistaken him for the maid. He walked in regardless, closing the door behind him.
“Thank you for this bath,” Evie called to Petra, still mistaking him for another. “It helps after this evening.”
Rafe walked forward. He circled the screen that separated him from her and saw Evie sitting back in a copper tub. Her hair was wet and plastered on one of her shoulders. The content smile on her face faded completely and she sat up abruptly, making the water splash around her. She covered her breasts under the water, making him smile a little.
“I’ve seen them already, Evie.” He grew aroused, just thinking about how bare she was under the bathwater.
“I thought you were–”
“I know.”
“You are not welcome here.”
“Ah, still angry at me then.” He walked toward the bath.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” she said in challenge. In her effort to move in the bath and cover herself up a little more, she made the water splash again. He hovered beside the bath, gripping the side of the copper that was warm. “You were rude and arrogant. Talk about seduction, do you think any woman wishes to be seduced in such a manner?”
“I was angry.”
“Yes! I could tell that, though I do not know why.” She looked past him, clearly in search of something. “Please pass me that towel. I wish to cover myself up.”
“To get out of the bath and use it, you’d have to stand before me,” he reminded her, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.
“Rafe–”
“Evie.”
“Don’t tease me now.”
“You’re not happy with me.”
“Not remotely!” she said sharply. She now crossed her legs beneath the water. His eyes shot down to the creamy long legs. He pictured them wrapped around his hips as he entered her.
