He ignored her comment and said, “You skillfully deflected my question, but I’m not going to let you get by with that.”
She evaded him again by saying, “Did you ask one? I thought you were making a statement.”
He gave her an amused smile. “It’s always a challenge with you, Esmeralda. I like that.”
She gasped. “You can’t call me by my given name.”
“I can and will when we are alone and no one is around to hear but you. Now, here is a direct question for you, Esmeralda. Have you ever been kissed?”
Her immediate instinct should have been to shy away from such intimate conversation once more and insist he call her Miss Swift at all times. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she was outraged he’d ask her something so personal, but staring into his striking gaze as it brushed down her face to her mouth, she knew she didn’t want to resist him in that way or any way.
Maybe she wanted him to call her Esmeralda and to know that her lips had never been touched by another’s. Maybe she wanted him to know she’d welcome his kiss.
Still, her practical, survival nature came to her rescue and she resisted what her heart desired and said, “I’ve not had time nor opportunity for such things as hugs and kisses.”
“Twenty-five and never been kissed.” His voice was low, and soft. “I find that very intriguing.”
His hold over her intensified. There was something about his unobtrusive interest in her that stirred her womanly passions to an anticipation she couldn’t have known existed.
Her throat ached with an increasing need that was always denied—to feel his lips caress hers. Perhaps he found it intriguing she’d never been kissed, but she found it discouraging that she’d never had the opportunity to know what it felt like to be kissed. She wanted to know.
Putting all her sensible, inner declarations aside, and willing her voice not to quiver, she asked, “Are you offering to change that, Your Grace?”
Chapter 16
Don’t think about romance. It has no place for a person in the line of service.
MISSMAMIEFORTESCUE’SDO’SANDDON’TSFORCHAPERONES, GOVERNESSES, TUTORS,ANDNURSES
Esmeralda felt the duke’s breath kick up a notch, matching her own. She didn’t know where the question or her nerve to ask it had come from. It was impertinent, rash, and downright brazen, not to mention something that had never crossed her mind to say before it tumbled from her lips with a confidence that belied her inner feelings.
And impossible too!
Yet, for a split second she thought he was going to drop the blanket and the basket and do exactly what she desperately wanted him to do right there in the park in front of the world. However, he remained still and said, “You only dare to ask that because you know I can’t.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
His voice had been husky and caressing, leaving no doubt he meant what he said. And she understood. They were both born in the same world, but he didn’t know that because she now lived in a different society. Fate wasn’t likely to change their futures. He was a man of honor and had sworn not to touch her while she was under the protection of his household. It was becoming clear each time they met that it wasn’t what either of them wanted, but that was the way it had to be.
Knowing she needed to stop the intimacy swirling between them, she took a step back, changed her demeanor and her tone to one she would use on an errant child, and asked, “Then why would you bring up kissing, Your Grace?”
The corners of his mouth tightened. So did the corners of his eyes. He hadn’t liked her change in attitude or her question, but he had to know it was best. What was happening between the two of them needed to be stopped.
“Curious.”
She kept her firm countenance and expression. “And is that curiosity now satisfied?”
“It will have to be,” he answered much in the way she’d asked.
She inhaled deeply, trying not to allow the sudden disappointment she was feeling to overtake her. “That’s reassuring. As I said, I know little about kissing, and I doubt a man like you could teach me, so we don’t have to discuss kissing again, do we?”
He snorted a short laugh and moved to make up the distance she’d just put between them. Lowering his head so close to hers for a second she thought he was going to forget his honor, forget where they were, and kiss her anyway.
Instead he whispered, “You don’t think I can teach you? With a challenge like that thrown at me, oh yes, Miss Esmeralda Swift, we will talk about kissing again. Have no fear about that. It must wait until you are no longer in my employ, but we will discuss it.”
His tone suggested a promise. That had her legs once again feeling weak. The thought of a kiss from him, no matter how distant in the future, thrilled her, but somehow she had to keep him from knowing that. The duke was far more than she had bargained for, and she had to be careful. She didn’t want to leave her heart with him when she left his employment.
