PENETRATE (The Portals of Time Book 1) by Jackie Ivie

Author:Jackie Ivie [Ivie, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-09-30T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Love.

The word carried a hint of emotion when said with such a depth of voice! She’d been wrong. It wasn’t her knees or her heart having an issue. Her throat closed off with the knot that formed in it.

“Would you like some champagne?”

She shook her head. It was the best she could manage.

“You really need to cease shaking. Someone is bound to notice. They might even think it’s me causing it.”

It is you!

“You’re not holding it against me, are you?”

“Wh…at?” The word was split it two, coming through lips so cold, they probably looked blue.

He bent toward her, whispering to her earlobe. The spot sparked. Tingled. And absolutely terrified.

“Requiring my aunt to show proper respect and abeyance. I won’t allow you to be treated as a pariah in your own home. Come along, Ainslee, it is not that frightening.”

“I’m...na’ frightened.”

“You’re shaking. Still.”

“I’m sorry.”

“In a moment, I’m going to haul you over my shoulder and return to our chambers with you. I may even jog.”

She pulled back and stared up at him before realizing that mistake. She darted her glance away. Toward the wall. The window. The doorway. Anywhere else felt safer. She didn’t dare lock gazes with him.

“You don’t believe me? Oh, come on. They already think I’m lustful and uncivilized. Might as well convince them. Besides…it’s a better alternative than allowing everyone to watch your reaction at the moment.”

“My…reaction?”

That idea was too horrid to even consider. The way he affected her was obvious to everyone? She didn’t know what to do. He’d championed her, called her all sorts of endearments, and added to it with that announcement of how he wanted to create babies with her. She was still reeling. Shocked. Awed. Stunned. Dazed. She was terrified of the giddy, effervescent feeling.

She didn’t know how to hide any of it.

“Try not to show it. Can we agree on that much?”

She nodded.

“I’ll attempt to stay away. Should be easier once they announce the sup. We’re on opposite ends of the table. The room seats twenty. Per side. You’re practically in the next village. You ready?”

“For what?”

His shoulders slumped slightly. And then went rigid again. “Helping me with this! For the love of—! You might at least look at me. Maybe give a lover-like expression with it?”

He didn’t know what he asked!

“Come along, Ainslee, play fair. Attempt a smile or something. You’re ruining a really great scene, and I’m trying to portray undying love here. The least you could do is act your part.”

Ainslee looked up at him, and couldn’t look away. The entire room about them blurred as it seemed to slowly rotate about them. Everyone disappeared into the kaleidoscope of form and color. There was just the duke and her, suspended somehow, his hand holding hers atop his arm, his hair pulled back, revealing his handsomeness. He had such intense gray eyes, sometimes as warm as a string of candlelit Scot gray pearls; at others, as cold and glossy as molten silver. They drew her, mesmerized. Made it impossible to hide what she felt for him.

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