To Dare a Duke by Emma V Leech

Author:Emma V Leech [Leech, Emma V]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Prue!

Whatever happened to you? Tell me everything! I’m dying of curiosity. The duke swore me to secrecy and was so fierce about it. Not that I would have breathed a word anyway, but I certainly wouldn’t have dared refuse anything he asked of me. Is he in love with you? He seemed like a man who wanted very much to be your hero. Did he achieve it?

―Excerpt of a letter from Miss Matilda Hunt to Miss Prunella Chuffington-Smythe.

***

23th April. Still at Lord and Lady Faversham’s garden party. Hambleton House. Beside the Thames. Richmond, London.

Prue shivered. Her arms were prickling with gooseflesh by the time the duke’s carriage paused beside her. The door swung open and Robert leapt down, helping her the short distance to the carriage and hurrying her inside. Once she’d sat down, he rapped smartly on the roof and the carriage pulled away.

She watched, a little alarmed, as he stripped off his coat and moved to sit beside her.

“You’re cold,” he said, by way of explanation, slinging the coat around her shoulders.

The warmth of his body still burned in the silk lining, and as it slid against her chilled skin, Prue shivered again, though pleasurably this time. It seemed intimate, that sharing of body heat, even though he wasn’t touching her. She kept her gaze cast down, fighting the flush of colour that the thought of his hard, masculine form was inviting, but that didn’t help as the scent of him rose from the fabric of the coat. Crisp and clean and something faintly citrus. Lemon soap, she guessed, and felt an illicit thrill at having such a personal detail revealed to her.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you,” she said, and looked up, wishing she hadn’t as she was confronted with those green eyes, for once not the cold reflection of deep water he usually wore, but as soft and inviting as a mossy bank. Tiny flecks of gold glinted amid the green, almost yellow as the sun shafted through the window and illuminated her perusal. Like primroses in the grass, she thought, smiling as she realised the absurd thought would revolt him.

“What?” he demanded, a curious look in the dark forest jade of his gaze.

“Nothing,” she said at once, turning to stare out of the window. At once she was too aware of him, of his large presence so close to her on the plush velvet seat, and of the fact they were alone together in his carriage. She would be ruined if they were discovered.

“You’ll have to marry me now,” he said, his voice gentle and amused. “You’re ruined.”

Prue stiffened, alarmed by the way he’d all but read her thoughts. “I’m only ruined if I’m discovered,” she corrected. “Are you going to allow anyone to find out about this?”

“No, of course not,” he said, folding his arms and sitting back, resting his head against the squab. “But it doesn’t change the fact you are alone with a man in a carriage, looking very much as though you’ve been thoroughly ravished,” he added with a smirk.

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