“Well, I am pleased you chose to wear it today,” he told her. “It brings out the blue of your eyes.”
His fingers were ever so distracting, and Elinor had to step out of his grasp. Lucien fought back a wider smile at her frown.
“You are ever so confusing,” she mumbled.
“Perhaps I just do not wish to be figured out.”
“For a rake, that is rather out of character.”
He chuckled, keeping in stride with her. “Oh, Elinor, that is what being a rake is all about. We bury our true selves deep down and present another version of ourselves to society.”
“Oh, I do not believe that,” she snorted. “You love every inch of who the ton know you to be, I can see it in your face. Although, it is rather unfair. You are getting to know me in my authentic self, but I cannot know you?”
Lucien stopped walking at that, pausing at the entrance to a hedge maze, as though he did not expect her to challenge such a thing. “That … is a fair point, actually.”
Before Elinor could smirk, he had tugged her into the hedge maze, spinning her around so her back was to the neatlytrimmed greenery. He loomed close, and Elinor glanced at the entrance, fearing that somebody might see them in such a position.
“Elinor,” he purred, leaning in close. Once again, his mouth came near the shell of her ear, except this time, his lips brushed the shell of it. “Just howbadlydo you wish to know me?”
Her breath caught, not wanting to humiliate herself by misunderstanding him once again. It only gave him further ammunition to tease her.
“Well, given that this is a farce, it does not matter, does it? I just believe that you are nosy. And entitled.”
“Oh, am I?”
“Yes.”
“Then why has your voice become so breathless at me asking how much you wish to know me?”
“It—it has not.”
Lucien laughed under his breath, his mouth still lingering at the base of her ear. Elinor’s eyes fluttered closed, trying not to react, for therewas no reason to.She was not attracted to the Duke of Fairmont, and he had no right to make her feel as though she was.
“Perhaps I am just a good actress,” she said, but her voice still was truly breathless. “And I wish to stoke your ego.”
His breath was warm on her skin as he huffed a laugh. “No, you do not, for you are not that type of lady. You do not need to preen at a man for his benefit. In fact, I think you are the complete opposite, and you would hate that, so I am tempted to believe your reactions are all genuine.”
“You are the one who asked me to be your perfect actress, no?”
“And yet there is nobody watching us right now.”
“Neither was there in the office the other night,” she dared to say.
Lucien drew back suddenly, a smirk dancing beautifully on his lips. He searched her face for several seconds before he nodded, as if to himself. “That was your foolish thought earlier. You have been thinking about it.”
“I have not,” she insisted. “In fact, I had forgotten it even happened.”
“Is that so?”
Elinor nodded, but her eyes fell to his lips, as his had done to hers earlier. Her chest felt unbearably tight. Not with emotion, but the effort of holding herself back, of her breath shortening so much from what he was doing to her.
“Elinor.” His voice dropped low. “When will you admit that I affect you?”
“I will not need to, because you do not.” She pushed past him, only for him to grasp her wrist, once again whirling her around.
Only, this time, she stumbled right into his chest.
His arm went around her waist to steady her, the other hand still clutching her wrist.
