The Duke and the Lass by Clever Jessie

Author:Clever, Jessie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781737212003
Publisher: Someday Lady Publishing LLC
Published: 2021-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

He hated how his words could bring that wary look to her face, almost like she didn’t trust him. Such behavior was learned, and he hated that she was taught to distrust kindness.

He pushed away from the door and went to her, lifting his hand to cradle her cheek in his palm even as he told himself to leave her be.

But he couldn’t resist touching her, feeling her smooth skin against his palm, hearing the way her breath caught when he caressed her. He stroked her plump lower lip with his thumb, thrilling at the way he could light the fire in her eyes with such a simple touch.

“You’re always so beautiful, and yet you don’t seem to know it,” he whispered, tracing the line of her lips now, following the path of her jaw until he slipped his thumb beneath her chin and tilted her face to accept his kiss.

Only he didn’t kiss her. He drew his lips close, close enough that he could smell the clean scent of her skin, but he didn’t kiss her. He hovered just over her lips, knowing how it must torment her.

“Do you know how beautiful you are, Della? Can you understand?” He whispered the words across her lips, and he felt the flutter of her eyelashes, but she didn’t answer him.

He pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth, lightly, teasingly. He moved to the other corner, and this time pressed just a degree harder.

Still, she didn’t move, didn’t whimper. But he saw the way her chest rose and fell in rapid breaths, heard the flutter of her eyelashes against her cheeks.

He whispered his lips over the line of her cheekbone to her temple and pressed a kiss against the soft skin there.

“So beautiful,” he murmured with his lips still pressed against her skin.

He slipped his arm around her waist carefully, his hand tracing lightly along her back. He could feel every knot of her spine through the thin fabric of her borrowed nightdress, and he knew if he only closed the distance between them, wrapped his arm more tightly around her, he could feel all of her pressed against him.

He wanted it at the same time he was afraid of it. He couldn’t let himself lose control again. Every time he let his guard down something happened, and he couldn’t afford to do it again. No matter how much he craved her kisses or how beautiful she looked with moonlight spilling over her.

Then why was his hand moving lower and lower still? Why did he press his lips to her forehead, her cheeks, her jaw?

She sighed. The sound was so soft, so wistful, he almost thought it a dream, but then she moved. It was so slight, he might have made it up, but her body curved. Not into him, but into the place where his lips touched her jaw, almost as if her body yearned for more.

It was then his resolve snapped. He could feel it let go entirely like a dam breaking.

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