Chapter Two
Greyson Thornhill, was not a man easily startled.
He had weathered scandal, death, and ducal responsibility since youth. That meant that very little in the world had the power to shift his composure. Yet finding a young woman standing directly in his doorway with her cheeks flushed and her chest rising too quickly struck him silent.
For a moment, they simply stared at one another.
The first thing he noticed was her freckles, warm and vivid across her nose and cheeks, like motes of pollen in the sunlight. The second was her lips, soft and lush in a way that made his chest tighten with something dangerously unfamiliar.
Then those lips parted.
“I… I did not mean to be here,” she blurted, the words tumbling out in a breathless rush. “I swear it. I was simply… well,passing by, because my sisters were behaving like little devils and someone needed to stop them from doing something utterly silly as a dare, and then—oh, this is all far more foolish than I can explain, and I am terribly sorry. Truly. If you would just… if you would simply step aside, Your Grace, I shall go at once and trouble you no more.”
Her voice, though flustered, held a natural firmness beneath the panic. There was a steadiness in her that might have soothed him, had her presence in his private chambers not defied all reason. But she was flustered and blushing, and for some maddening reason, he found the blush captivating.
She moved as though to slip past him. Instead of stepping aside, Greyson stepped forward. She instinctively stepped back. And then the door closed behind him, leaving them both inside his bedchamber…alone.
Her eyes widened. Her lips parted again. The flush on her cheeks deepened until it warmed every freckle crossing her skin. He was not a man prone to fascination. And yet, he found himself fascinated.
Greyson let the silence stretch just enough that she shifted nervously.
“You mean to tell me,” he inquired, “that you are in my bedchamber… because you were dared to enter it?”
Her entire expression collapsed into bewilderment. “What?” she breathed, as though the idea were preposterous and mortifying all at once.
Her already vivid blush darkened further, blooming across her skin like spilled rosewater.
“I… I never said, I mean certainly not… well, notexactly,” She stammered into a hopeless tangle, her composure unraveling the longer he watched her.
Greyson had never particularly enjoyed watching a woman fluster herself. But with this one, he couldn’t look away.
“Not exactly what?” he inquired further.
The woman opened and closed her mouth once, then twice, before finding any words at all.
“I was not dared to come here,” she said firmly, though her voice betrayed her nerves. “I was trying to prevent someone else from attempting such a thing.”
Greyson’s gaze swept the room. It was empty, save for the two of them. There was not a single misplaced cushion to suggest company.
He raised an eyebrow. “Someone else? Fascinating. And where, pray tell, is this mysterious intruder you were valiantly rescuing me from?”
She stiffened. “Well… they are not herenow, obviously. They left before you arrived.”
“Mhm.” He took a leisurely step closer. “How convenient.”
She blinked rapidly, and her lovely freckles shifted with the motion. “I beg your pardon?”
Greyson allowed one corner of his mouth to lift, albeit barely. “Tell me, my lady… are you certain you did not simply imagine these supposed trespassers? A convenient tale to disguise your own desire to enter my bedchamber of your own accord?”
Her gasp was immediate, scandalized, and quite possibly the most endearing sound he had ever heard.
“What?! Absolutely not! I would never desire such a thing!”
“Would you not?” His tone deepened into amusement. “You seemed rather determined to be here.”
“I was not determined.” Her voice pitched higher with outrage. “I was trying to leave until you stepped in and trapped me!”
“Trapped you?” Greyson echoed, leaning just enough that she took another flustered step back. “You could have passed me if you wished.”
