“I thought the hat was a master stroke,” she teased.
“I wanted to give you kisses six and seven right there on the spot.”
“Even though I looked as though I had been raised in a chicken coop?”
“Yes,” he said, his smile now fading. “Ailis, my heart has not felt so light in years. In truth, I’d forgotten how it felt to be happy. So I am going to give you kiss number six right now, before Mrs. Curtis returns and catches you in my arms.”
“Indeed, there’ll be no stopping the rumors if she catches you kissing me. Perhaps we ought not tempt fate. The kiss can wait.”
“No, it needs to be done now.”
“Why?”
“Because you deserve a kiss filled with a joy I have not experienced in a decade. This feeling may be fleeting, and may never happen to me again. So would you rather not be kissed by a happy duke? Or do you prefer the surly curmudgeon?”
She closed her eyes and smiled. “Kiss me with happiness, Your Grace.”
“Jonas.”
“Yes…Jonas.”
He placed his hand to the back of her head and gently drew her toward him. When his lips sank down on hers, she felt the full impact of his hope and yearning. The splendid promise of his own healing.
In this moment, Ailis felt true bliss.
She wanted his pain and torment to end, and if her kiss could bring this about, then all the better.
She kissed him back with full ardor and all the happiness she felt in her heart.
He responded by pressing his mouth deeper onto hers, capturing hers in the divine way he had perfected, knowing just how to turn her blood fiery, to melt her and make her legs turn to pillars of ashes, and yet still make her feel safe and protected when in his arms.
If only she could have this beyond ten kisses.
If only he truly loved her.
Groaning, he drew his mouth off hers. “Ailis, I could kiss you forever,” he whispered.
“I would not stop you.”
She sighed as she heard Mrs. Curtis lumber down the hall toward them. In the next moment, she appeared with a tray in her hands, cutting short any further conversation.
Ailis cast her housekeeper a casual smile, trying to appear at ease and not reveal she had just been given the best kiss of her life, one packed with a sensual heat that still had her body in flames.
But her cheeks were flushed and her breathing unsettled, so perhaps she was not fooling anyone.
The duke—her Jonas—seemed completely unaffected. How did he manage this?
When Mrs. Curtis turned away for a moment to place the tray on a side table, he took the opportunity to give her a devastatingly affectionate smile.
Her cheeks were already hot and now turned hotter. Her breaths were already ragged and remained ridiculously unsteady, so that she had to place a hand over her heart to calm its rapid beating.
Fortunately, her housekeeper mistook the reason for her pink cheeks, and attributed them to her injured shoulder. “Oh, you poor dear. What agony you must be feeling, and never a complaint out of you.”
The duke now had her arm out of the sling and was about to test its healing.
“Well, have a cup of tea once His Grace is done. It will comfort you. And make sure to listen to what His Grace tells you. We want that shoulder of yours to heal as quick as possible.”
“I shall follow his every instruction.”
