“Um…” Although the game was still interesting, she wasn’t certain it still qualified as fun.
“You are not, I repeat, not to meet men, any man, in any garden alone,” he ordered with a high-handedness that almost equaled his temper. “Do I—”
“Except you, of course,” she pointed out. Any sensible girl would have known that now was a good time to keep her mouth firmly shut and simply nod in agreement. Sophie had always thought herself a reasonably sensible girl, but at the moment she was willing to reconsider. Alex’s fingers tightened on her upper arms. His head bent until their faces were inches apart and she could see the outline of her reflection in his green eyes.
“Do I make myself clear?” he ground out.
She swallowed, or tried to, as her mouth had suddenly gone rather dry. “Yes,” she rasped.
“Good. I forbid it.”
Well now, that just begged for a response.
“Well now, that—”
Alex bent his head and kissed her. Whether it was to silence her, or simply because he wanted to, she didn’t know. Nor did she care, because this was her first real kiss.
And it was amazing. It wasn’t the gentle pressing of lips she had always imagined kissing to be, and to be honest, she had done a good deal of imagining. No, this kiss was forceful, wild, incredible. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her against him, molding her form against his length. Sophie lost all sense of reason, all sense of time and place, lost everything but the ability to feel.
Her hands found his chest, his neck, his face. Her fingers speared into his hair, brushing through that endearing lock in front that she’d wanted to touch for days now, and tangling in the back as she struggled to bring him closer. She could never be close enough for this, close enough to him. He groaned and nipped her bottom lip. Something hot settled in her chest and spread down to her toes.
Alex abandoned her mouth to trail his lips down the side of her throat. She tasted like every sweet thing he had ever craved. His hand stole up and lightly brushed against her breast, teasing the both of them. She gasped and the soft sound sent a fierce wave of desire through him. “My God, Sophie.”
Sophie…Sophie Everton.
The name sent off bells in his head. They weren’t loud enough to stop him from kissing her again, but they were persistent. Little chimes that snuck past the lust.
Miss Sophie Everton, the woman he had been sent to watch. The woman whose cousin was a suspected traitor. The woman who had him, the Duke of Rockeforte, scouring ballrooms, jumping off balconies, and acting like an overbearing, possessive…orangutan.
Alex broke away and used his last remnants of willpower to grab Sophie’s shoulders and set her at arm’s length.
Sophie stumbled a bit before regaining her balance. If the kiss had been unexpected, its conclusion was a complete shock. She wasn’t an expert on these matters, far from it, but…shouldn’t they have wound down a bit first? It all seemed rather abrupt. Her heart and mind were still whirling away, still lost in the kiss. And she realized—she wasn’t quite ready for it to end.
Alex, on the other hand, looked done in. He was bent over at the waist with his hands braced against his knees. She couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders were shaking like…like he was laughing.
“Are you laughing?” she demanded, wishing the words had come out as something more than a horrified whisper.
Alex took a deep breath and straightened. “Sophie—”
“You are laughing!” Good. God.
“No! Well, yes I am, but—”
“You heartless…foul…” Oh, how she wished her best curse words were in a language he’d understand. “I cannot believe—no wait, yes I can. Yes, I can! You’re despicable. You’re…you’re…” Argh!
“Sophie, please, if you would just—”
“No! Don’t! Don’t touch me,” she hissed, seeing red. Absolute fire and brimstone crimson red. “Don’t ever touch me again. Don’t even come near me, or so help me God, I will geld you. Now, do I make myself clear?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just turned on her heel and left.
Nine
You laughed at her?” Whit’s forkful of eggs was halfway to his mouth when Alex finished the retelling of last night’s events.
“I did not laugh at her,” Alex growled. “I laughed at the situation.” The excuse sounded even lamer spoken aloud than it had in his head.
Whit eyed him dubiously. “I’m sure Miss Everton was delighted to hear that.”
Alex cringed visibly. Sophie’s reaction could not, by any stretch of the imagination, have been described as one of delight.