Stolen Encounters with the Duchess by Julia Justiss

Author:Julia Justiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

In the afternoon two days later, Davie hopped down from the hackney at Giles and Maggie’s town house, where they were hosting a meeting between officials from the Lords and Commons and some influential representatives of society. At Lord Coopley’s behest, they intended to invite those society leaders to encourage their representatives and peers to attend the meetings and the crucial vote soon to come over the Reform Bill.

Excited as he was to see their efforts finally come to fruition, Davie admitted he was looking forward most to seeing Faith again.

It was foolish, and most likely, sooner or later to be the source of anguish, but in every moment not focused on his committee work, his mind was preoccupied by her. And his dreams—ah, in his dreams, she’d completely replaced any strategising about government reform.

In those hazy moments between sleep and wakefulness, his mind and senses were flooded with images of her—the gold of her hair, the precise blue colour of her eyes, the shape of her shoulders, the contours of her cheeks under his hands. The softness of her breasts pressed against his chest, the silk of her hair under his cheek, the velvety fullness of her mouth, the taste of her.

He would come awake hard, throbbing with anticipation, desire and tenderness—only to realise the images, the touch, the taste, were all an illusion. Surprise and disbelief would bring him fully awake, leaving a twist of anger in his gut as passion faded and bitter disappointment settled in its wake.

Conscious, reasonable, he could talk himself out of the disappointment and anger, but in his half-dreaming state, the idea that he could not claim the woman he loved increasingly made him burn with a fierce determination to turn those illusions into reality.

It had become more of a struggle, even when awake, to yield to the hard realities of their world and repress the conviction to claim her that haunted his dreams.

Which was why this afternoon was so precious. In a salon full of other guests, he could see her, talk with her, but with so many witnesses present, have an easier time keeping a tight rein on the growing compulsion to throw caution and principles out the window and make a full-out attempt to win her.

Not as just his lover. As his wife.

Only the harsh truth that marrying her would be a selfish act that would hurt and diminish her allowed him to keep that reckless desire in check. He might have made a place for himself at the tables of political power, but a farmer’s orphan could only rise so high.

Handing over hat and cane, he mounted the stairs to the salon, from which emerged a babble of voices. He halted on the threshold as the butler announced him, scanning the crowd for the one face he desired to see above all others.

He spied her at once, standing by Maggie at the hearth, her glance lifting to his as the butler intoned his name. Along with

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