Page 22 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
This time, she knew that the intruder already knew that there was a person in the house, and she could not afford to let the intruder get a hold of her. She knew she needed to run out of the house, but she could not afford to go through the front door since the intruder was in the front part of the house.
Jasmine remembered then that the maids used the back doors. Desperate, Jasmine ran out of the house through the servants’ door. Once outside, she made sure not to make any noise so that it would not draw the intruder’s attention to her. Tiptoeing, Jasmine stuck to the shadows as she slowly crawled away from the house and toward the gardens.
Once she got to the gardens, Jasmine pressed against the fence and slowly made her way toward the gate with bated breath. The moment she could see the gate, Jasmine broke into a run and sprinted the rest of the way to the gate. She did not bother to look back to see if the intruder had noticed her or was even after her.
Jasmine did not stop running until she got to the gate of their neighbor’s estate, and even then, she ran right to the entrance door. She banged on the door with her fist while glancing around in fear. At this point, every cricket in the grass and every movement in the shadow seemed like an intruder to her.
She was preparing to bang on the door again for the third time when she heard movement in the house. Moments later, the door was opened by a man with a haughty expression that only butlers sported.
“Help…I…intruder…” Since Jasmine was already out of breath from the running, she could not form a coherent sentence. The butler did not seem impressed, and he looked at her like she was out of her mind.
“His Grace is not interested in charity,” the butler said as he made to close the door.
“What?” Jasmine was shocked and offended that the butler had taken her for a beggar.
“I am not a beggar,” she said. “I need your help. An intruder tried to break into my house. I…”
The butler looked down his nose at Jasmine and rolled his eyes.
“Of course, you are not a beggar. That is what they all say,” he scoffed.
“Believe me. I live in the estate next to this one. I ran out of the house because of…”
“Quit the act,” the butler said, “you do not look like a Thornhill to me, and I advise that you leave this instant!”
Seeing that the butler was set in his way and was not ready to believe her, Jasmine did the next thing that came to her mind. She started shouting.
“Help me, please! I live next door but…”
“You will not make a ruckus here. Now leave before His Grace…”
“What is the meaning of this noise?”
Jasmine heard his voice before she saw him. She would recognize the voice even in a crowd of a million people. That husky and gruff voice that she had fantasized so much about.
“Your Grace!” the butler said, bowing.
“You! You are the Nordic Beast!” she said without thinking.
Jasmine could not believe that the beastly man with whom she had made an acquaintance was the same terrifying man that Cassian had told her about the previous day. Even though he was huge, Jasmine had found that he was nothing like her brother had described.
“You will not insult my His Grace by calling him such abominable names,” the butler commanded.
It was at this time that the door opened wider to reveal him.
If Jasmine had thought that he looked irresistible when they met in the streets of London, she was sorely mistaken because the man that stood before her was nothing short of a god.
He seemed to have just gotten up from a bath because he was still dripping with water. His blonde hair pressed against his face, and the water from it streamed down his face, onto his neck, and then down into his shirt, which, unfortunately, Jasmine could not see beneath. She wished she could run a finger down his face and lick the drops of water off his neck.
He wore a casual white shirt, but through his shirt, Jasmine could see the outline of his ripped body and the bulge of his chest muscles. The shirt stopped just at his upper arm, exposing his bulging biceps and the veins of his forearms. Jasmine swallowed hard as she stared at his magnificent figure.
“Have you gone deaf!” an angry voice yelled, and it was then that Jasmine became aware of her surroundings again.
On realizing that her mouth had been hanging open while she stared at the perfect figure of a man in front of her, Jasmine quickly clamped her mouth shut.
“I…I am sorry,” Jasmine stuttered.
“You have made His Grace…”
