Page 42 of Stranded with His Runaway Bride

She could have so easily resisted but she didn’t. His lips were too warm and soft and every bit as inviting as she remembered. He tasted of coffee and storm clouds.

Leo’s fingers massaged the base of her skull. His tongue traced the seam of her mouth. She opened hers with a sigh, letting him in. Heat curled low in the belly, a sweet, drugging heat. She lifted her hands to his chest and a growl rumbled in his throat. He wrapped a fist in her hair and gently tugged, pulling her head back, exposing her throat. He pressed his open mouth to the pulse throbbing beneath her ear and sucked gently.

Violetta’s fingers dug into his chest, her eyes fluttered, losing focus. Dimly seeing the portrait on the wall.

Violetta’s eyes flew open.

Elisabetha stared back. Disapproving. Is this what you really want? Think of what you might lose.

The duchy.

No.

Leo lifted his head.

‘I can’t, Leo.’

‘They’re just kisses, Violetta,’ he said. ‘There’s no need to look so shocked. It’s supposed to be fun.’

Fun?

She stumbled back.

‘Maybe to you, because what have you got to lose if they go further? Nothing! If I let my guard down, even for a moment, you might convince me to marry you after all and then I’ll lose everything I’ve worked towards. Everything!’

She looked up at the portrait. ‘I’ve waited so long, put up with my father and my uncle treating me like I’ve no intelligence or abilities of my own. Watched them take the duchy for granted.’

How had she forgotten?

‘Men! You always think you know better. You always take what you want and give nothing back.’

Now he was the one to look shocked, but she didn’t care.

‘I’m sorry but I’m not doing this.’

She took a last look at Elisabetha, who was gazing down on her in approval, Violetta hoped. Then she walked away, leaving all the temptations of the Wolf of Grimentz behind her.

Leo pressed the back of his hand to his mouth where the touch of her still burned. The floral smell of the shampoo she’d used in her hair was all around him, and the ghost of her in the pounding of his heart and the ache in his groin.

He’d lied when he’d said they were just kisses. They’d been so much more than that. No one had ever lit such a fire in his belly before.

But the anger and anguish in her eyes when she turned on him just now? He recognised that all too well. He’d seen that same look in the mirror, after every excoriating encounter with his father.

‘You always take what you want and give nothing back.’

The men in her life had failed her too but perhaps, today at least, he could redress the balance and give a gift with no expectation of reward.

Something just for her, and he had the perfect idea how to do it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHE’DSPENTTHEday avoiding him, in what was left of the library, to be precise. She told herself she’d gone to kill an hour or two reading. The history of the Grimentzian lace industry was utterly fascinating.

Really, truly it was.

But pretend as she might, some musty old book wouldn’t keep her thoughts away from Leo, or kissing him, more precisely.

She had heard him wandering about the house, although mercifully he hadn’t sought her out, though she’d have to face him again eventually. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe they were just kisses after all.

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