Page 28 of A Duke to Undo her
The cries and moans Lady Josephine uttered at his touch had been music to Cassius’ ears at the time, but had they also been loud enough to carry beyond the study’s thick oaken door? He also realized now that with the curtains open, anyone passing outside might have glanced in through the window.
With some chagrin and not a little guilt, he looked away, and then opened the door fully so that his mother could enter the room.
“There are two subjects on my mind, Cassius. One quite minor and one more weighty.”
“Oh?” the duke responded noncommittally, his hands clenching involuntarily even as he managed to control his expression.
“First of all, there is Lady Josephine,” the dowager duchess said thoughtfully as he was closing the door.
The Duke of Ashbourne said nothing, keeping his eyes steadily on the grain of the door’s wood. It felt like he was waiting for an axe to fall. Then, the metaphorical blade swung past and never touched his neck.
“I am worried about that girl,” continued his mother. “She is wild and impulsive, as we already knew, but her heart seems good, and the other young ladies have not taken to her. I do not like to see a young person so isolated. Even some of the gentlemen have been unkind, although I know you will not stand for that.”
“I won’t,” he agreed cautiously, not knowing where his parent’s words might be leading.
“So, I should like to invite some of Lady Josephine’s friends to join our party and keep her better company. I believe she is close to Lord Hollington’s eldest girl, and the daughter of the Duke of Westvale. Both are highly respectable and well-mannered. Presently, Lady Josephine has only her sister and Benedict. Increasing her circle might also allay our fears about Lady Josephine monopolizing your brother.”
“An excellent idea, Mother. I leave it in your capable hands,” Cassius agreed at once, although hoping that Lady Josephinewould not see the need to confide certain of her recent experiences to her friends. “Was that all, Mother?
“No, it is not,” Nerissa admitted with a long sigh. “I cannot stop worrying about you, Cassius. It kept me awake last night, as it has kept me awake on many nights before this.”
The great relief that this statement aroused was quickly quashed as his mother went to sit down in the deep leather chair where the duke had earlier borne Lady Josephine in his arms.
“No!” he intervened with undue sharpness that caused Nerissa to freeze in surprise. “Not that chair. Let us sit on the sofa over by the window, where it is sunnier. We can then sit together. It always feels too strange sitting at a desk across from my own mother.”
“Very well,” she said with a confused shrug, allowing herself to be guided to this seat by Cassius and then sinking down beside him. “If you haven’t guessed, I want to talk seriously to you again about marriage.”
At any other time, the duke might have closed down his mother’s address here, having heard all her entreaties and arguments on this subject a hundred times before, and being immovable in his resolve to remain a bachelor. Today however, he allowed her to continue, being only relieved to move on from the subject of Lady Josephine Thomson.
“You’ve always been very clear with me about how you feel, Cassius, and I know I must be a trial to you in repeating myselfso many times. I continue only because it is such an important subject and you are so very dear to me.”
“I know, Mother,” he acknowledged with a nod, his eyes drawn again to the leather chair and his brain replaying again that series of sharp helpless gasps that Lady Josephine had uttered as her pleasure reached its final heights.
How soft and warm those delicate and slippery folds had been to his touch, how velvet and tight the untried passage within. Cassius longed to taste the salt and tang of Lady Josephine’s secret places and run his tongue over the swollen button he had already caressed with his hands. More than that, he longed for the invitation to plunge himself into her depths and revel in her wet heat.
As the duke raised his hand to scratch his jaw, he could still smell the scent of Lady Josephine’s womanly fluids. How beautifully she had lost herself in his arms, entirely undone with new and erotic sensations…
“…Lady Belinda, Lady Penelope or Miss Tewkes?”
“I’m sorry?” the duke queried, taking a deep breath, having drifted too far away in his mind to catch his mother’s questioning
“I asked whether you could really summon no interest at all in the young ladies I have already gathered at Ashbourne Castle this week. They are all most interested in you, as they well should be, my handsome and well-favored son. Should theyaccept my invitation, I can advise you that Lady Rose is very beautiful indeed, and Lady Madeline has a very good mind.”
Cassius shook his head decisively, this being a well-worn conversation.
“Nothing has changed as regards my views on marriage, Mother. I beg you not to waste your efforts. You would be better served encouraging these ladies to interest themselves in Benedict, wouldn’t you?”
This suggestion went without any answer, his mother’s attention temporarily drawn elsewhere.
“Your neck,” said Nerissa abruptly, frowning as she squinted at him. “Have you hurt yourself?”
“Likely a shaving injury,” the duke lied, pulling up his very rumpled stock and turning his head a little. “Nothing of interest.”
He wished he did have a looking-glass to hand, to know how plausible this dissimulation was. Thankfully, the dowager duchess’s eyesight was not as strong as it had once been and whatever she had seen, she appeared to accept Cassius’ explanation.
The duke noted to himself that he must seek a looking glass and rearrange his collar as well as his hair before he saw Benedict or anyone else. If there were teeth-marks or other signs of passionat his throat, not everyone would be so easily thrown off the scent.
God, he hoped no one had seen Lady Josephine as she left his study. What kind of state might she have been in? He was sure that he had been gentle in his handling, even if she had been less so with him, and prayed that she was unmarked.
