A Duke a Dozen by Shana Galen

Author:Shana Galen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: sexy romance, sexy regency romance, historical romance, regency romance
Publisher: Shana Galen
Published: 2019-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

She did not want to go down to breakfast. How could she face him after the way she’d behaved last night? She’d gone to his room, brazen and bold, then fled from him as though he were some sort of monster. She should have known it wouldn’t go well. She should just accept she’d always be alone, that she was better off alone.

“Are you feeling well, my lady?” Mrs. Slightley asked as she pinned Annabel’s hair into an elaborate coif. She’d returned to the room this morning, smiling and humming. Obviously, she had passed a much more enjoyable evening than Annabel had. Annabel was tempted to plead a headache. Mrs. Slightley had just given her the perfect excuse to avoid the duke. But she wasn’t really that much of a coward.

Was she?

“I am just a little tired. I didn’t sleep very well.”

Mrs. Slightley made a neutral sound, but Annabel knew very well that her housekeeper thought she had spent the night with Phin. She should have spent the night with him. She’d intended to. And she could have done it too, except that he hadn’t wanted the façade she’d offered him. He’d wanted the real woman or no one, and she was not ready to give him her real self.

And then when they’d lain together on the bed, she’d begun to feel so safe and comforted in his arms. She wanted him, and that was no pretense. But without any of her usual protective armor, she had felt too much. She’d felt vulnerable. And when he’d touched her breast, she’d thought of him. In her mind, Phin’s soft caresses became painful squeezes, and she just wanted to get away.

But Phin hadn’t reacted as she’d expected. He hadn’t been angry or insistent. He hadn’t even seemed annoyed. He’d seemed concerned about her. She’d thought his offer of wine was a ploy to keep her in his room so he could convince her to go to bed with him. And then she’d thought he might try to come into her room and force her when he’d walked her back.

But he’d done none of those things, and she was ashamed she had thought him capable of them. She knew not every man was like the earl. Not every man expected to take his pleasure when and where he wanted, whether or not a woman agreed. But it was hard to trust a man again. It was hard to unlearn the old habits of flinching when touched and allowing her guard down for just a few moments of pleasure.

“There you are, my lady.” Mrs. Slightley stepped in front of Annabel and admired her work. “I daresay you can hold your head high.” She gave Annabel a hand mirror and Annabel nodded.

“It looks very good.” She set the mirror down, not liking to look at her reflection too long. Every time she looked there were new wrinkles. “Is there anything you can’t do, Meg?”

“I’m an awful cook, my lady. I can boil a potato but anything requiring more talent than that, and I’m hopeless.

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