Adrian laughed darkly, a harsh sound. “You make it sound as if I am some king. A dukedom is nothing but a title; it has no meaning. The town and the villages within the dukedom boundaries are not under my rule or jurisdiction.”
She blinked. “You must have tenants.”
“I do, but I need not interact with them,” he replied. “As long as I receive the rents and they keep their homes and the land that they work, then that is all that is necessary.”
Her brow furrowed, her indignance rising up like a spring. “And that is enough? Your title was given to you, yes, but do you not think you ought to earn it, too?” She pulled herself up to make herself taller. “Even my father, who is… not a pleasant man, shows his face from time to time.”
“A baron has far less territory than a duke,” he said coolly. “And far less for tenants and townsfolk and villagers to make demands of. If I do one charitable thing in public, there will be an endless stream of people at my door, hands out, wanting more. My anonymous donation will be more than satisfactory.”
“What is so terrible about being charitable?” Valerie countered, her irritation driving her forward, until she was closer to him than she had planned to be. “What else are you going to do with your fortune, hmm? I do not see a wife or children. You have no visitors, which suggests you have no friends who might wish to borrow from you. But you could raise the spirits of so many, if you would just throw a simple little Christmas party for some children who have nothing!”
Her breath sawed in and out as she stood before him, her eyes defiantly raised up to meet his.
Having never been alone or in silence for longer than a few hours in her usual life, she had never really considered what such an environment could do to a person.
Staring into those cold blue eyes, she found that she did not want to believe that it could twist Adrian up like a shrub in a cupboard, growing crooked in the shadows. She did not want to believe that it had shriveled his soul to a point where he could not muster a jot of empathy or consideration for someone other than himself.
With all the courage she possessed, and the fire that David and Isaac and the orphanage had ignited in her belly, Valerie reached out and pressed her palm to Adrian’s chest.
“Show me that there is something in here,” she urged. “Showthemthat you are not the beast they whisper about.”
His hand shot up to cover hers, fingers curving to prize her hand away from his chest. Once again, it seemed he did not want her to know what his heart was doing.
“And if Iamwhat they whisper about?” he said in a husky voice.
“Then, put away your fangs for just one day,” she urged, her breath hitching. “Even devils were angels once.”
Holding her by the wrist—her uninjured one—he moved closer. But he was already so near to her that she felt compelled to step backward, trying to keep a somewhat polite distance between them. After all, she was alone with him when she should not have been, and it could not be called an accident like their encounter in the study.
The passageway was so narrow that her shoulders hit the wall far sooner than she had expected, a bump that brought a soft gasp to her lips.
“That sound…” Adrian murmured.
She was about to ask what he meant, when his lips stole away any question. He kissed her with an urgency that sparked the same in her, his powerful body pressing her into the wall, his fingertips running through the loose waves of her hair, his other hand cradling her neck.
This time, worried that he might pull back again beforeshecould kisshim,she grasped him by his shirt and pulled him closer. Herlips moved with his, learning with each thrilling second, letting the caress of his mouth guide hers.
So, this is what it feels like…
Her thoughts swirled like spindrift, swept up as if she were still out in the snowstorm, yet in place of that bitter weather, there was nothing but heat. A surging warmth, like getting the feeling back in one’s limbs after being out in the snow; a delicious fever that overwhelmed her senses and held her lungs hostage, so that every breath was a burning gasp.
She kissed him harder, smoothing her hands up the hard contours of his chest and along the broad length of his shoulders, before locking her arms around his neck. He matched her fervor, his mouth hungry as he kissed her.
Oh…
His tongue, hot and wet, slipped into her mouth to glide againsthertongue in a slow stroke. A strange thing to do if she were to think about it too much but, in practice, it was quite something: a thrilling sensation that stirred up the embers of her desire all over again, provoking her curiosity.
Following his lead, she let her tongue dance with his, praying that the kiss and this education in passion would never end.
Adrian seemed to feel the same way as his hands began to explore: his fingertips traced tingling lines down the side ofher neck, his curved palm running up her throat; his other hand skimmed the hourglass of her waist and gripped her hip, pressing her harder against the wall as his kiss intensified.
She moaned softly at his rough and searching touch, realizing why it felt so good; she was still in her nightdress. A thicker one that Kate had found for her, but it was still just one layer of fabric between Valerie’s skin and Adrian’s caress.
“I told you not to come near me again,” he purred, his head dipping to kiss the curve of her neck, while his fingertips danced downward.
She gasped as his touch brushed over the peak of her nipple, his hand molding to the swell of her breast, massaging that supple flesh to the slow and lingering rhythm of his kiss. His hips joined in that ebb and flow, each press of him pushing her closer toward the brink of something like madness. A desire, a need, a want that would make her explode if she could not have it.
Do not break away from me again,she urged, as she kissed the warm skin of his neck and felt his pulse ticking against her lips. It was racing.Show me more. Show me everything.
