She ran her tongue across her lips. His eyes darkened and, taking no risks, she vigorously scrubbed the back of her hand across her mouth.
There was a glint of something amused and devilish in his eyes as he met her gaze. “You missed me, didn’t you?”
“Missed you?” She hoped she sounded incredulous. “When would I have missed you?” Just because she’d noticed his absence didn’t mean she’dmissedhim.
“When I was away.”
“You’ve been away?” she said vaguely. “I didn’t even notice.” If only he’d stayed away another couple of weeks, she would have been back to normal. He’d returned toosoon; the heat within her was rising. Just standing so close to him brought about a kind of breathless excitement—it was anger, she told herself. It had to be.
His smile was lazy. “You noticed. And I think you missed me. Certainly your expression when we met in the park yesterday seemed to indicate it.”
“We didn’t ‘meet in the park.’ You rode past me as if I weren’t even— Oh, were you in the park?” But it was too late to retrieve the slip and his smug expression showed it.
“Your eyes lit up when you saw me.”
She feigned indifference. “I was admiring your horse.”
“You were relieved to see me. You’d missed me. You were annoyed with me for not coming over to greet you.”
It was infuriating to be so transparent. “You’re very sure of yourself, your grace of Arrogance, but you have no idea what I’m thinking.”
“I do.” And when she arched a disbelieving eyebrow at him, he said, “You’re thinking of making a very unladylike attack on my cods.”
“Your co—oh,” she said as he indicated the area below his waist. “Well, if you don’t let me pass, you’ll find out, won’t you?” And it would serve him right.
He turned, angling his body slightly to protect that area of his anatomy. His hands came up as if to hold her off and he said warningly, “Not again, you don’t.”
She frowned. “What do you mean ‘not again’? I’ve never—”
“You did it once before, five years ago.”
She dismissed that notion with a gesture. “Nonsense. I didn’t know you five years ago. It must have been someone else—clearly a woman of discernment.”
“It was you. We were in Gloucestershire. You’d just ruined a hunt and I pulled you off your horse—I thought you were a boy.”
“Oh, was that you? You deserved it, in that case. In fact, now I come to think of it, I wish I’d hit you harder. Now move aside and let me pass. I want to return to the concert.”
His lips twitched with amusement. “No you don’t. It’s a dreadful concert.” He added in a voice that almost purred, “And here’s me, thinking you never lied.”
The fact that he was right—again—inflamed her temper. George shoved at his shoulder. “Ooh, you are so irritating! Just let me pass, will you?” He didn’t move, just stood there being big and powerful and warm and infuriatingly smug. Annoyingly attractive—and worse, knowing it.
“Make me.” His smile was a slow, sensual challenge. “You know you want to.”
How dare he know what she wanted? Anger, desire and frustration warred within her. She was a spring, wound up too tight. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been warned...
“In that case...” She jerked her knee up, aiming for his genitals, but she was too used to wearing breeches, and the skirt of her dress was too narrow. Her raised knee dragged the skirt against the back of her other knee, which buckled. Cursing the impracticality of dresses, she overbalanced.
Into the arms of the duke.
He pulled her up against him, hard, and his mouth came down on hers, not gently as it had that first time, but firmly, possessively, as if he had every right to kiss her. And while a small thready voice in her mind suggested feebly that he didn’t, neither her mouth nor the rest of her body cared.
The taste of him—dark, hot, intense—soaked into her, building, like a fever in her blood. She speared her fingers into his thick hair and pressed her mouth to his. Excitement shivered through her, sending spirals of heat to the very core of her body.
He kissed as if he wanted to devour her. She learned from his every move, giving him back kiss for kiss, caress for caress. Learning passion. Intoxication.
She twisted her body restlessly against him, practically climbing him to get closer, heat and aching need driving her. She knew she was out of control; she didn’t care.
He slid his hands down over her hips, caressing her as she thrust herself heedlessly against him. She felt himtugging her skirts up. Cool air caressed her heated limbs, and then his hands cupped her bottom and he lifted her against him, where he was swollen and hot and hard.
