Page 60 of The Duke's Second Bride
“No. It isn’t that. It was just…” She took a shaky breath, still refusing to look at him.
“I saw Dunfair.” She tensed at the name. “Did he try to speak to you?”
She hesitated, but nodded. “It is fine. I told him to go away.”
A low growl escaped his throat. “He shouldn’t have approached you in the first place. I shouldn’t have left you?—”
“It’s fine, Christian,” she said.
“No, it isn’t,” he insisted, the guilt crawling through his stomach. “What did he say to you?” he demanded.
When she didn’t answer, he put his hands down on the wall beside her. He needed to make it clear he wasn’t going anywhere.
“What did he say?” he growled.
Ava’s lower lip trembled. “He said I was looking well for something that’s sullied,” she admitted quietly. “And that it was no wonder my new husband doesn’t find me enticing.”
Christian felt something snap within him as she said ‘Sullied.’
“I’ll kill him,” he said. “I should have killed him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, barking out a bitter laugh.
“He will never speak to you again,” he swore. “Not as long as I draw breath. That vile excuse for?—”
“But he was right, wasn’t he?”
That stopped Christian dead in his tracks. “What?” he asked incredulously.
She finally looked up at him, and he saw, with a pang in his chest, that her eyes were damp and glassy with tears.
“You cannot stand to be near me,” she said.
“Ava, I?—”
She laughed through her tears. “Oh, don’t deny it. I wouldn’t mind so much if you didn’t insist on proving me wrong at every turn. You are not repulsed by me—but the way you act, kissing me, then pushing me away … it is humiliating.”
He drew in a slow breath, jaw tight. “There is nothing repulsive about you. Nothing,” he said firmly, stepping closer, the heat between them sharp, controlled.
Her brow furrowed, suspicion flashing in her eyes. “Then why?—”
“Because I will not lose myself,” he interrupted, voice low, teeth clenched. “I cannot be near you without wanting … everything.Every inch. And yet, I cannot permit it. I will not be the man to give you what I am not prepared to own properly.”
She blinked, caught off guard, but he wasn’t finished. His eyes swept over her, lingering on the curve of her waist, the tilt of her shoulder, and something inside him tightened in need.
“Do you understand, Ava? It is not cruelty. It is not disdain. You are … perfect, in the way that makes restraint essential. And yet,”—he let his voice drop to a low rasp—” I want you. All of you. Every part I can touch, every part I can claim.”
It was as though his hands moved of their own accord, wrapping around their waist. She reacted instinctively in kind, her arms wrapping up around his neck, as he pulled her close into a passionate, all-consuming kiss.
It was even more heated than their first kiss. Gone was any facade, any false visage of placidity around her. He could no longer hide how badly he wanted her, and he didn’t care.
She kissed him back with equal fire and fervor, as he felt inside. Those lips were even softer than he remembered. The press of her breasts against his chest through the layers of corseting and bodice made him long for their wedding night, when she had come to him in nothing but a nightgown.
The memory of it drew out a growl from him, which elicited a whimper from her in response. That small noise was his undoing. He lifted her up against the stone railing, keeping heraloft with his strength and with the press of his body against hers.
Ava clung to him desperately. Her lips parted, allowing his tongue to enter her mouth, and the warmth that spread through him was unmatched.
Heavens, she was delicious. She was everything he had dreamed she would be, and more.
