“And, like I will remind you, you have my protection.”
“That does not cover every moment, every word behind closed doors.”
“Then I will make changes to assure it does.” Lucien stood up, rounding the desk to stand over her.
Elinor still did not look up at him, stubbornly keeping her gaze downward. Her soup would have grown cooler now, but she still ached to eat it, despite her nerves.
“Elinor.”
“No.”
“Elinor.”
When she still did not look up at him, he took her chin in his fingers, surprising her when he lifted her face toward his. She stared up at him in bewilderment as he held her like that.
“When will you accept that, ruse or not, I am here to protect you? That I am invested in you?”
“Because it is not true,” she whispered.
“I can still possess those things whether you are my pretend fiancée or not,” he said earnestly. “My protection is not a transaction. I expect nothing for it.”
Elinor slowly rose to her feet, needing to gain back some autonomy. She shook off his grasp. “Why me?” she asked quietly. “What on Earth did you see in me to bring me into this? You could have had your pick of any lady in any ballroom, yet you choseme.”
“Would you like me to tell you it was merely timing?” he asked, and Elinor ground her teeth in frustration, ignoring the question. “Because that is not entirely true. Yes, I saw an opportunity, but I saw a woman who interested me far more than any other lady ever has. I thought we had been through this.”
“We have, but I cannot stop questioning it, not when I have grown up alongside ladies like Belinda who everybody wishes to dance with, and Joanna, whose beauty is often overlooked by Belinda’s charm, but men are still enraptured by her. Me, though? I have nothing to entice anybody with, yet … yet, you keep coming back, even when there is no one watching us.Why?”
Something came over Lucien’s face, something that Elinor had never seen before but knew well enough: frustration combined with desire.
And then he had her face in his hands, his face lowering to hers.
There was a brief second where he only held her gaze, his eyes searching hers?—
And then his mouth was on her own.
Elinor made a noise into the kiss as he held her to him, not tight enough to force her to stay, but hard enough for her to feel the tremble in his hands, as if he had restrained himself and was now fighting it.
But why would a duke need restraint for a lady like her?
Elinor had never been kissed, and she feared for a moment that she did not know what to do, but as Lucien’s mouth moved against hers, she followed his lead. He kissed her as though she were the only thing keeping him standing, the sudden intensity catching her off guard.
His hands slid from cupping her jaw to sliding into her hair. Elinor leaned further into him. Lucien pressed her against him, shifting them so she was nudged against the desk. Distantly, she heard the clatter of spoons, but she didn’t care. Not when his mouth was so hot on hers, devouring her as though she was his last meal.
Lucien groaned low in his throat as he tugged her even closer until her body was flush against him, and Elinor exhaled shakily into his mouth.
“Elinor,” he whispered against her lips before kissing her again.
Elinor felt herself melting with every second the kiss continued, her limbs turning weak as she fell into him. If he had not had a hold on her, she would have fallen right to the floor.
Magic,she thought, as Lucien kissed her thoroughly.This is magic. This is stars exploding all at once, an entire galaxy of them.
Heavens, that very notion terrified her even as it exhilarated her.
Her eyes had slipped closed, letting herself rely on the feel of Lucien’s mouth on hers, hot and desperate, for that was how itdidfeel: desperate, and as fierce as her earlier panic had been, except now that panic was channeled into something that burned low in Elinor’s stomach.
Desire,she told herself.This is desire. This iswant.
He angled his head to kiss her deeper, his face nudging her spectacles askew. She didn’t even bother to adjust them, but she heard his low chuckle, parting for breath. The pause lasted barely a second before Elinor herself reached back to him.
