Page 54 of The Duchess Curse

“No.”

He dropped his arm, but he couldn’t step back, licking his lips and closing his eyes. “Please.”

“I need a new gown for the ball. And shoes and, oh, any number of things.” She turned and looked up into his face. “I think you should stay here. Hesperus can attend me.”

“Hesperus,” he growled. “So… familiar with Mr. Grant? Sharing fucking tarts with him?”

“He’s a good sort. Would never lie to his wife. And he’ll do for today’s outing. I do not feel like acquiring a Braxton-shaped shadow.”

“Too bad.” He stepped closer, crowding her against the table until they were nose to nose and his mouth watered, anticipating a taste of her lips.

She pressed a hand against his chest, curling her fingers into the V of his waistcoat. For a moment, he thought she might pull him closer. A second’s delusion. She re-flattened her hand and pushed him away, smiling as he groaned.

He was always desperate for her, but this went further. He might fucking die if he didn’t have her.

She eyed his crotch, the cockstand straining against his fall. “Excellent.”

“I can show you just how excellent,” he purred.

“No thank you. Then what would be the point of this lesson?” She arched a cunning golden brow. “I suppose you will have to do for today’s outing. But”—her smile was wicked and he wanted to kiss it, wanted to see it wrapped around his cock—“I do not think you will enjoy yourself.” She picked up another amber bottle and pocketed it before calling Artemis to her shoulder and leaving him alone in the conservatory.

His torture at her hands had only just begun.

12

A SHADOWED CORNER OF THE MODISTE’S BACK ROOM

Truly, it wasn’t Bran’s fault Guin had lusted after one man while married to another. But it was his fault that he was both men, and Guin was not in a magnanimous enough mood to let that go. Not today. Likely not ever. When he met her a half hour later at a waiting carriage, his glamour was fully in place, and she did not ask if that was purposeful. She hoped it slipped and humiliated him later. But even if it did, no one would dare laugh at the man beneath the glamour.

As always, he exuded power, a sleek confidence no one ever questioned.

Right now, though, he was exquisitely uncomfortable. He sat across from her in the carriage as it rattled toward Bond Street, every muscle of his body focused on her, and though she could not see his expression through the glamour, she could guess it was something like the helpless puppy eyes he’d had in the conservatory. He was at her command. Unless she ordered him to do something that would make her unsafe, then he would grumble and growl and likely toss her over his shoulder to take her somewhere safer, and she should not get tingly between her legs at the prospect.

She turned toward the window. She would utter not a single word to him. Let him sit there in exquisite sexual frustration.

“How did the glamour get stuck?” she asked, unable to help herself.

“The night of the fire. I was in the shop, trying to get out, and a beam fell, pinning me. I can only guess the heat and the fumes from the potions did something. I don’t know exactly what.” His voice was strained, tight.

“How did you escape?”

He shrugged.

“Tell me.”

His head fell back against the squabs as his legs spread wider. “Apollo Chester. He stopped the fire, then I escaped. When I encountered you in front of the shop, the glamour was already stuck.”

She blinked away tears. That night had been a torment. “I thought you dead.” She knew she sounded small and wavery, and she hated herself for it, but Bran shifted so he was right across from her, leaned forward with his forearms resting on his thighs.

“I know,” he said. “I didn’t mean⁠—”

“But you did!” she snapped. “You could have told me at any time you weren’t dead. But you didn’t. Because it would have revealed your lie.” She pressed the heel of her hand into one eye and fireworks exploded in the darkness.

“Guin,” he said, voice dark and low, “I’m going to cross over to you, and I’m going to lift you into my lap, and I’m going to⁠—”

“No.”

“Fuck.”