Page 16 of The Duke Who Dared Me
The thought should have been sobering.This was Verity.Verity.The realization should have stopped him cold.Instead, it only made him more desperate to taste her, to silence whatever cutting response was forming on those lips with his own.
Before his mind could catch up to his body, he'd closed the distance between them.The next moment, her mouth was beneath his, and he couldn't breathe.
Her taste.The feel of her beneath his touch.Her.
What had he done?This wasn’t some debutante he could charm and forget.Verity was the woman who once dumped a bowl of pease soup in his lap at dinner because he wouldn’t agree that unicorns were real.Who’d challenged him to a race down the main hall of his estate when he was twelve, which ended with him concussed and her laughing so hard she snorted.
She was Verity Marie Baxter.The sole bane of his existence since he was five years old.And he had just kissed her like his very soul depended on it.Worse, he’d liked it.More than liked it.The damn taste of her had lit something within him that felt too dangerous to name and too consuming to ignore.
Alistair turned his horse in a slow, stunned circle, trying to physically shake the madness from his skull.The morning air did nothing to cool the fire still burning beneath his skin.
She was infuriating.Reckless.Entirely too bold for any decent man's peace of mind.
She was also soft in his hands, and warm, and heaven help him, he wanted her again.Even now, with the sting of her palm still blazing across his cheek, he wanted to pull her back into his arms and finish what they'd started.
“Hell and damnation,” he swore, his voice rough in the crisp air.He kicked his horse into motion and cut back toward the main path, his pulse still thundering like hoofbeats in his ears.
He didn’t allow himself to think.That would only lead to madness.Instead, he followed at a careful distance, knowing she was likely headed back to the stable where she could plot her revenge in private, or seek out her brother to torment, or whatever other delicious trouble occupied that sharp mind of hers.
He kept well behind her retreating figure, unsure what he intended to do when he caught up to her, knowing only that he had to do something.
Apologize?
Demand she explain the way she’d kissed him back before that damned slap?
Kiss her again until she forgot every reason why she shouldn't want him.
He didn’t know.He only knew he would allow that stolen moment to be the end of whatever fire had sparked between them.Not when it threatened to consume him entirely.
He found her at the stable, nuzzling her chestnut mare as the stable hand waited.The sight of her disheveled hair catching the early afternoon light, her gloved hands gentle against the horse's neck, sent another jolt of want through him that he couldn't name.
“Your Grace.”The stable hand rushed forward, bowing low.“How may I help you?”
Alistair dismounted with a leap, his eyes pinned to Verity, unwavering.“See to my horse.And make yourself scarce.”
The younger man stammered in agreement, taking the reins and disappearing deeper into the stable.Alistair stepped into the dim interior, shadows swallowing him, before he turned to Verity in the doorway.
“You’velost your mind,” she snapped, half whispering, half yelling.“What are you doing here?”
“Likely.”Alistair pressed against a stall, keeping his distance.There was no need to be hit again.
She brushed back her hair and tilted her chin.“You kissed me.”
“You kissed me back.”
Verity erased the distance between them, finger pointed at his chest.“Because you ambushed me!”
“I didn’t…” He yanked off his gloves, running a hand through his hair.He glanced up at the low ceiling, the smell of freshly mucked stalls and hay heavy in the air.“I didn’t plan on kissing you!”
“No?You couldn’t help yourself and needed to kiss your best friend’s little sister in the middle of the day?”
He flinched.“Don’t do that.”
“Do what, Ali?”
He wished she’d stop using his nickname.Something about it made him possessive and angry, and damn it… it was a good kiss.
“Don’t use Percy like a shield.This has nothing to do with him.”
