“You thought I was good, did you?” she said, arching a brow.
“You sound like you don’t believe me,” Northfield said with a chuckle.
She shrugged. “What was your favorite line of mine? What did you think I delivered especially well?”
He met her gaze and she saw that he recognized she was calling his bluff. To her surprise, he leaned in. “My favorite line was when you said, ‘We are all walking through this world as shadows, ghosts. Some of us just hide it better.’” He gave her a look and then stepped back. “You also died very prettily.”
Despite herself, Adelaide laughed at his words, and his face lit up like he’d won something. It was funny, for she’d known of this man for most of her adult life. He and his friends, all dukes, all members of some exclusive little club, were impossible to ignore. Hell, her own best friend Emma had just married one of them less than six months before.
But she’d neverknownNorthfield. Just been intimidated by him. Now she found herself liking him. It was impossible not to when his rare smile made him even more handsome.
“Very well, so youwerepaying attention to the play,” she said. “You must forgive me for doubting you, for most men who come back to compliment me couldn’t even tell me what the performance was about. They come to…”
“Seduce you?” Northfield supplied, and the smile fell, replaced by a look that could only be called smoldering. The man wassmolderingat her, and the spot between her legs began to tingle even though she didn’t want it to.
“Yes,” she gasped out.
He inched forward, closing the distance he had allowed and nearly touching her with his big body.
“Do not mistake me, Mrs. Ford, I absolutely came back here to seduce you.”
Adelaide squeaked. She didn’t mean to squeak, but the sound escaped her lips before she realized it was going to happen or could call it back. But how could she not? Northfield was standing right against her, his body brushing hers in a most inappropriate fashion, crowding her against her makeup table and he just…took all the air out of the room. Out of her lungs. He took all protests out of her brain when he was this close.
All those reactions made it very clear to her that she had been far more than just intimidated by him during the years she’d watched him roam through Society. She’d been attracted to him. But while a man like Graham Everly, rich and popular Duke of Northfield, might not look twice at Adelaide Longford, spinster daughter of a minor and very dead earl, he was looking more than enough at Lydia Ford.
And right now she liked being Lydia Ford more than she ever had before.
“Do you think you could?” she whispered, shocked by the flirtatious words that fell easily from her lips. “Succeed where all other men who have come back here have failed?”
He smiled again. “Ah, a challenge. I’ve always…risento a challenge, Mrs. Ford. Lydia.”
Her hands were shaking, and she reached back to steady herself on the table behind her so he wouldn’t see. Tonight she was Lydia, a character she had created so she could do what she wished. And Lydia was bold and confident where Adelaide wasn’t. She had tobeLydia. What harm was there in it, anyway? This was just a passing fancy of his. They’d flirt and that would be the end of it.
Except he wasn’t talking or flirting anymore. He was moving forward and suddenly one of his massive, muscular thighs pushed against her skirts, then farther forward. His chest brushed hers. He reached out and slid his hand along her jawline, up into her hair. It was the first time he’d ever touched her, and she was shocked at the tingling heat that shot from his fingertips and through her entire trembling body.
He tilted her head back, forcing her to look up and up into his handsome face. “I’m going to kiss you, Lydia,” he promised, his mouth moving toward hers. “Unless you tell me not to.”
Adelaide swallowed hard. She should say no. She was going to, because that was what was proper,right. Because she already knew the consequences of giving in to desires, of forgetting oneself.
Except her mouth just couldn’t form the words. Her body couldn’t pull away. She stood there, silent and staring, watching as this man’s full lips descended upon hers. And then he was kissing her.
At first it was just a brush of lips, tender, even a bit tentative. His beard was soft against her chin. Her eyes fluttered shut and she stopped thinking, stopped bargaining with herself, stopped fighting between Adelaide and Lydia. But then the pressure of his mouth increased, his hand angled her head slightly and she caught her breath as his lips parted.
He took advantage of that and his tongue glided past her lips. The world evaporated. She lifted her hands to his upper arms, clinging to his biceps as she heard herself let out a low, hungry sound of pleasure.
And therewaspleasure. This man knew how to kiss. He drove his tongue inside of her mouth, stroking her own, building a fire of passion that she rarely allowed to burn because it frightened her. But there it was, exploding out of control as he slid a hand around her waist and drew her up hard against the unyielding plane of his big body.
She let her tongue tangle with his as that fire pulsed through her veins, cascading down her limbs, settling heat at her hard nipples, at her tingling sex, at her shaking knees.
He made a harsh groan in the back of his throat as he lifted her onto the table behind her, setting her bottom on the edge and leaning into her with all his weight. She dug her fingers into his shoulders as she reveled in that sound. It was a sound of surrender, of being swept away.
The Duke of Northfield was being swept away byher.
And she was not far behind him. He used his thigh to part her legs and stepped between them, tangling her gown and letting her feel the harsh, insistent thrust of his erection against her belly. Her eyes went wide as he continued kissing her, for he was a large man in all ways.
His hands began to move and her mind emptied again. He cupped her hip, then slid his fingers up her side until he brushed her breast with the tips. She arched against him, sensation mobbing her as he flicked her sensitive nipple with his thumb.
He smiled against her mouth and drew back, their panting breaths matching in the quiet room. He held her gaze, forcing her to drown in seaside blue, as he rolled his thumb around and around the nub. Electric pleasure, hot and heavy, ricocheted through her body and she let out a low cry as she jolted against him in helpless pleasure.
