Winning Her Duke by Allison B. Hanson

Author:Allison B. Hanson [Hanson, Allison B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Hale was surprised by the strength it took to pull himself from Gia. He’d known from the moment their lips touched how wrong it was.

Perhaps not the very moment.

Indeed, for a full second—perhaps two—he may have even been swept away in the rightness of how wonderful she felt against him. But definitely by the third or maybe the fourth second, he had realized.

He was no better than the men who had filled her parlor the day before.

They’d wanted her body and had no intention of marrying her afterward. Or more importantly, before they touched her.

He had warned her. She well knew his reputation. Her chaperone had thought he wouldn’t take advantage of their friendship. What an error that had been.

Shame twisted his stomach. Was he any better than his parents who had taken what they’d wanted for their pleasure without a care of who they hurt?

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. Her warm brown eyes filled with fear, and her shoulders had pulled in as if preparing for the weight of his rejection.

Any emotion besides the one he grasped onto would have been better. But anger for himself and for whomever had rejected her in her past fired through him.

“You have nothing to apologize for. This was all my doing,” he snapped harshly and ran a hand through his hair, remembering the way it had felt when her hands had been gripping his locks moments ago. She’d held him too tightly. Pain to the point of pleasure.

The pain in his trousers offered no pleasure where he still throbbed for her.

Had he allowed the kiss to go on much longer, he might not have stopped until the discomfort had been sated. It was clear, she had no intention of stopping him. She would have let him do what he’d wanted.

She would have let him ruin her. Because she thought him a friend. Because she thought he cared about her. Because she trusted him.

He’d thought she could trust him.

He was horribly mistaken.

This was not how a friend behaved.

*

Gia slumped to the nearest chair when Hale left the room. She knew he wasn’t angry at her, but what did it matter if the end result was the same?

She’d kissed him and ruined everything.

Picking up the painting of him, she took in a shaky breath. The difference between the smiling image in her hands and the man who’d fled after whispering an agonized “Forgive me” were incomprehensible.

She’d known her feelings for him had grown beyond friendship. And she’d known she’d needed to keep those feelings restrained so she wouldn’t lose him.

Her fingers brushed over her lips that still tingled from his kiss.

Yes, she’d painted him. But he’d smiled rather than been appalled.

Yes, she’d offered a flimsy excuse. But he’d offered a flirtatious retort. Even encouraging her to cross the line from friendship to more.

Yes, she’d kissed him. But it was he who had kissed her first.

It was his tongue that had reached for hers.

It was his hands that had explored her body.

And it was his feet that had walked out the door.

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