Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

W hy the hell did I confess that to him of all people?

Tongue-tied, Grace stumbled. She had to work hard not to fall over again as she increased the distance between herself and the Duke of Berkley.

He was staring at her in such astonishment that she felt smaller than she had ever before, as tiny as a mouse. Hurriedly, she pulled the shoulder of her dress up, stopping it from where it had slipped. His eyes slid to what she had done.

“What did you say?” he repeated the words when she made no intention of answering him.

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.” She looked away, intent on finding Violet and getting out of here as soon as possible, but strangely, Violet was nowhere to be seen. Needing to escape, Grace rounded the bench she had been seated on with Lord Morton, doing her best to get away.

“What did you mean, Grace?” The Duke cut her off, walking the other way to halt her escape.

“Out of my way.”

“No.”

“So gentlemanly as always.” She stepped up onto the bench and dropped down the other side, her quickest way to escape.

“So ladylike as always,” he said with much more of an undertone than had been in her own voice. Rage shot through her as she came to a sudden stop. She spun on her heel in the dewy grass, turning to look at him.

When she stared at the Duke, she saw everyone in that moment who had ever said a word against her behavior. She thought of her mother, of the maids that sometimes looked at her in incredulity, and she saw the women of the ton who couldn’t believe the number of times she managed to drop things in her life or fall flat on her face.

He is just like the rest of them.

Tears prickled her eyes in her anger, but she would not let them fall.

“What I was doing does not matter. Only know that your intervention was not welcome,” she said darkly.

“Well, we both know you never welcome my presence,” he replied knowingly.

“A feeling that I am sure is mutual.” She had often seen him staring at her when she arrived at his house for her meetings with his sister.

She knew the disapproval, the probable outrage at the gowns she wore or the way she behaved. “If you would excuse me.” She turned away, once again intent on making her exit though she did not get far.

“You were trying to kiss him?” There was outrage in his tone as he somehow sprinted in front of her and blocked her path. Grace began backing up as quickly as she possibly could, but he pursued her, moving forward.

“I have never seen you in such a fury.”

“There’s a first for everything.”

“I didn’t need a first for this!” Deciding the bench was her best option to put an obstacle between them once again, she rounded it, and he halted on the other side.

“Why were you trying to kiss him?” he hissed at her quietly, so angry now that his shoulders rose and fell with each heavy breath. “That man? You want to kiss that man ?”

“Why should it matter to you whom I kiss?” She tried to stand taller, move her hands to her hips, and adopt some notion of dignity in this mad situation though that feeling evaporated when she saw him scowl.

“Him?” he laughed. “Something tells me you do not know who you were really trying to kiss at all.”

“Why should any of this matter to you?” she challenged again. “Leave me be, Your Grace.” She stomped off from the bench, yet the Duke was even faster this time.

“Why would you want to do it?” he asked, walking forward as she walked backward. They ended up in a strange cat and mouse game around the bench.

“It was a dare, all right? Just a dare. It was just something I was going to do. It doesn’t matter.”

“A dare? Dear God, do not tell me this is one of Lady Celia’s dares again? This game you are all playing is as childish as anything.”

Grace had no answer for such a thing. She didn’t need to feel anymore belittled by the Duke than she already did. After a few seconds though, as she watched him shake his head in despair, she found her voice.

“As childish as your behavior now?” she asked. “Poking your nose into things that aren’t your business?”

“Did you do this dare to please Celia?” He ignored her questions and pushed on with his own. “Or did you want to know what a kiss was like?” He got closer to her. In amazement, Grace backed up.

She stumbled a little on the earth but managed to catch her own balance as Philip pursued her. They abandoned their place by the bench and ended up in the middle of the lawn. “You wanted to kiss a man, Grace? To know what the thrill would be like?”

“No one was forcing me to do this,” she hastened to explain, aware that he had somehow closed most of the distance between them now and that she couldn’t back up fast enough. “Yes, I was curious. I wanted to know something of it.”

“Then why him — of all people!” He waved a hand madly in the direction in which Lord Morton had made his escape.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Your Grace, I do not exactly have men flocking to my side, do I?” She came to a halt, deciding it was time to stop retreating from him. He stopped too, just a few inches in front of her. So tall, he was intimidating in his dominating height over her.

Is this what he is trying to do, intimidate me into a confession?

“That’s your answer?” he spluttered. “ He’ll do because there is no other man interested?”

“Enough.” She raised her hands in the air in a surrender position. “Enough, Your Grace, or all your shouts will bring everyone to us.”

His eyes widened. He took a small step back then spun in a circle, plainly checking every gap in the yew bushes that led to their spot in the lawn. He plainly feared their discovery.

“Oh, now I see,” she mumbled.

“See what?”

He fears being discovered alone with me, that he will now be caught in scandal with me.

“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “Look, none of this is any of your business, Your Grace.”

“You are my sister’s friend,” he said, rounding on her again. “Who else’s business is it?”

“None but mine!”

“Shh.” He waved his hands at her. “You were right. We don’t want to be overheard out here, do we?”

“God forbid,” she agreed. “Please just leave this matter alone. Forget this and let us return to the ball and never talk of it again.”

“You expect me to ignore what has happened?” He waved his arm in the air, commandingly. “Really, Grace?”

“ Lady Grace,” she hissed, for she could no longer ignore the fact he was not using her title. He was a man so usually set on propriety that even he looked amazed at the slip. He took a step back and thrust a hand through his hair, ruffling it and making the untidiness even worse.

He can tame every part of his life except his hair, can he not?

“I’m sorry,” she said, deciding it was time to try a different tact. “What happened here with Lord Morton was my business. I didn’t mean to bring you into it. I had no idea that you would stumble upon us and risk yourself being in a scandal. I suggest you run away at once before anyone sees you alone in my company.”

“Wait.” He turned to face her again, his manner suddenly as stiff as stone. “You think that’s why I’m angry? You think I fear myself being involved in scandal?”

“It is your usual thought, is it not?” she murmured. “The night we met, you could only think about how my clumsiness and falling into your pond might be misinterpreted if we were seen alone together by anyone other than your sister.”

“That is not it.” He shook his head, quite wild and passionate in anger. She could not remember ever seeing him so out of control before, his manner so flung to the wind with rage. It was almost as if she was looking at a new man.

“Then why? Why are you so angry?”

“Do you really think this is a way to be kissed, Grace?”

“Lady Grace!” she reminded him again.

“ Lady Grace.” He emphasized the word and stepped toward her. “Do you think that no man would kiss you for any other reason? So much so, you had to drag out the first man you could find and try to cajole him into a kiss?”

“That’s not what it was.”

“That’s what it looked like.”

“No more,” she begged, holding up her hands. “I don’t want to talk about kissing with you.” She blanched, realizing how the words had sounded. “When I said kissing with you, I meant… well, you know what I meant.”

He jerkily nodded then hurried toward her. Startled by his sudden march in her direction, she moved back a step, but as before, his long legs ate up the ground. She was also in danger of slipping in the dewy grass so fell still very quickly indeed.

“You think no man would want to kiss you?” he hissed, his head bending down toward her.

He came so close that the words died on her tongue. His lips practically hovered over hers, his gaze burrowing into her own.

What is he doing? He has never done this before!

“Grace?” he said, waiting expectantly for an answer. This time, she didn’t bother to correct him about her title.

Her mind was a whir, startled by how close he had come and what on earth it was doing to her body. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, her blood was rushing fast, and a sudden heat was enveloping her.

She was all too aware of the handsome line of his jaw, the intensity of those eyes, and how tall and strong he was in figure, compared to her shorter and much rounder one.

Her mouth was dry as she tried her best to swallow, to shift any such attractive thoughts from her mind. Suddenly, everything was here that had been missing with the Marquess of Morton.

While she and the Marquess had just been talking pleasantly enough together, with the Duke of Berkley, she felt her gut stirring, a heat that made her think of kisses, and those lips hovering so near to hers.

“All you have to do, if you want to know what a kiss is like…” he hesitated, his deep and rumbling voice still having a captivating hold on her as his eyes dropped down to her lips, “is ask.”