The next moment, the Duke reached out to kiss her, swept up by the moment. Their lips met for a short moment, and, just as quickly as they had gotten together, she saw the same affection reflected in his eyes.
He opened his mouth to speak, but then quickly shut it back again, unsure of what to say next. The reality of the situation dawned on Deborah, and she realized the two of them had kissed once again.
She looked around nervously to see if anyone had seen them, but thankfully, the garden was empty, and Peter and Emma were nowhere to be seen.
“Tell me the reason you kissed me that night in the garden,” the Duke demanded, but this time, his tone was softer.
Even though they had not planned the kiss, nor was it a good idea by any metric, Deborah felt a strange closeness to the Duke at that moment.
She looked up at him, meeting his gaze again. Despite them breaking apart, he had not stepped back, and he was still a breath away.
“If I tell you the real reason, I am afraid that you will once again get angry,” she replied earnestly.
* * *
The Duke stared back at the woman in front of him. He did not know what had possessed him to kiss her like this in a place where they could be easily seen by anyone, but he had known that he needed to do it.
He needed to do it, or he would have burst on the spot. He realized that whenever he was around Deborah, he was towing a dangerous line of anger or attraction.
“Tell me,” he stared at her intently. He noticed the way the gold flecks in her brown eyes became prominent under the sunlight.
“You will get angry,” she repeated.
“Do I really scare you that much?” he questioned. Whatever anger or frustration he felt for her previously had now been temporarily transformed into a feeling of contentment or, shockingly even, endearment.
“You absolutely do not,” she replied, and the Duke smiled at that. “It is more of an annoyance.”
“If that is the case, then we both seemed to have annoyed each other to the limit already,” he said. “So, a little more annoyance would not hurt anyone.”
The Duke had thought about her reasons for kissing him many times since it had happened. But he had never broached the topic with her, since the two of them had been pretending that the kiss had never happened in the first place. But now that they had shared yet another kiss, he could not help himself.
“Very well, then.” She seemed to brace herself, taking a deep breath. “I will tell you. The reasons I kissed you that day had nothing to do with curiosity.”
The Duke felt a strange hope arise in his chest. If it were not curiosity, what could it be? Was there something about him that Deborah had found irresistible that she just could not help herself?
“Then what was the reason?” he asked, his voice dropping down to a whisper.
“It was to buy Peter and Emma some time!” Deborah blurted out.
The Duke stepped back from her at once, his eyes full of shock and a hint of disappointment.
“What are you talking about?” he questioned. “What do Peter and Emma have anything to do with our kiss? Are you confusing me with another gentleman?”
Deborah glared at him, implicitly letting him know that she did not appreciate his accusation. “No, you were the only man I have ever kissed,” she replied.
The Duke seemed surprised by her words, and then, perhaps, a little proud as well that he had been the only man she had ever kissed.
“You seem to be an expert at avoiding answering questions that have been asked of you, My Lady.” His tone was beginning to grow impatient. “You have not yet told me what Peter and Emma had to do with any of this. If you recall, our kiss happened before they got engaged.”
Deborah sighed. “That night, Peter and Emma were only a few feet away. I knew that you were looking for Emma, and I only kissed you to distract you from finding them together.”
Disappointment lurched in the Duke’s chest. “I see,” he said curtly, concealing his emotions quickly behind a stone-cold expression. “So, that is all it was? A distraction?”
“Yes.” Deborah nodded. “I knew I had to do it to make my brother happy.”
“And if any other gentleman had come looking for my sister that night, I suppose you would have done the same thing?”
Deborah gave him a puzzled look but then nodded. “I suppose.”
