“You think?”
She smiled at him, her best penitent smile. “Would you be a dear and get it for me?”
His glare was dead. “Would you be a dear and accompany me to examine the consequences of your actions?”
The two of them retrieving the ball… alone?
Her heartbeat went frantic, thudding against her ribs with the wild rhythm of a bird desperate to flee its cage. A rush of heat surged up her neck, blooming across her cheeks like an unwelcome fire. She schooled her features into practiced indifference, though her mind was anything but calm.
Alone. With him.
Kitty shrugged. “If I must.”
They strolled towards the far end of the lawn, where the ball had disappeared into the darkness in front of the hedges. The other players’ laughter and chatter faded as they moved deeper in, the warmth of the summer air thick with tension neither of them wished to break.
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, praying he hadn’t noticed the slight tremble in her hands as she walked. He stood so composed, so infuriatingly unreadable, and it only made her nerves spike higher. Every inch of her body was on fire, her skin too aware of his nearness, her stomach a tight knot of anticipation and dread.
Norman pushed aside a low-hanging branch, taking stock of the ground. “This,” he said sternly, “is why there are rules. If everyone played as they pleased, there would be no game left to play at all.”
Kitty hummed. “My apologies,Your Grace.”
He shrugged, “You enjoy perplexing me excessively.”
“I enjoy many things excessively,” she said softly, her voice barely more than a whisper as she lowered her eyes—then froze.
Oh.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Her gaze had landed where it absolutely should not have, and for a heartbeat too long, she could not look away. A sudden flush swept over her skin at the sight of the bulge in his pants, her cheeks blooming with mortification and something far more dangerous.
Oh my... is that…?
She blinked hard and jerked her gaze away, mortified. Her entire body went rigid. Of all the ways to lose one’s composure… She swallowed hard, willing her mind to focus on anything else. The trees. The gravel beneath their feet. The absurd fact that she was now intimately aware of just how affected the duke currently was.
His expression was inscrutable, his jaw set just a little too tight. The air between them seemed to crackle.
Before he could say anything, she exclaimed. “Aha! Found it!”
She bent to grab the ball, but he did as well, and their hands collided. Kitty stopped moving.
Norman didn’t stir.
They stood there for a beat too long, her hand beneath his.
Kitty’s heart thudded wildly. She ought to stand up. She ought to push away. But she didn’t.
Neither did he.
Instead, his burning eyes lifted to hers.
The space around them contracted, electric with a sensation she couldn’t name. His eyes dropped to her lips.
And then, excruciatingly slowly, Norman pulled his hand back along hers as he released it, a soft caress that caused her to shiver.
He pushed himself to standing, frowning at the ball in his palm. “We need to return.”
Kitty let out a breath she’d not even been aware she held. “Yes,” she murmured. But she did not move.
