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He surveyed them with warm amusement before turning his gaze back to Jane.
Her body went up in flames. As if the look he gave her were a physical caress. Their explorations had turned into sessions lasting entire evenings. Even now, after having had him just last night, Jane craved him again. Craved the weight of his body upon hers.
The more they explored, the more she wanted him.
“I didn’t know you were a tutor,” he said.
“I happen to believe life is infinitely richer when one knows how to read,” she replied, pressing a hand to her cheek. It was hot. “Those girls wouldn’t learn otherwise if I didn’t teach them. So I teach. Everyone thinks I’m batty to do it at all, much less without compensation. But the girls have a right to learn, same as anyone else.”
“I don’t think you’re batty,” Max said. “I agree with you. Those girls absolutely deserve an education.”
Jane started in surprise. “Really? You—a Duke—agree that the poor have just as much a right to education as you do?”
Clasping his hands behind his back, Max stepped into the room. Eyes locked on Jane’s.
“As a Duke and as a human being, yes. I do believe ignorance is a crime. And I believe the inner life literacy gives us makes our existence infinitely richer, as you say.”
Jane’s heart roared in surprise. The titled men she’d known had cares only for castles and coaches and courtesans. They hardly knew the poor existed. Much less considered the state of their inner lives.
“Aren’t you a rebel,” she said, breathless. Heaviness gathering between her legs.
“Hardly,” he replied. “I take my late father’s seat in Parliament for the first time when the new session opens in October. I hope to use my influence there to change the state of education in Britain for the better. Same as you’re using your knowledge and your books to change the lives of those girls. Bravo, Jane. That is no small feat.”
Jane could only stare at him. Feeling blooming in her chest.
He understood.
He saw what she did—the need in villages like theirs.
He saw her. The strange woman no one else understood.
She felt seen, and by a handsome, wildly wealthy, well-endowed Duke of all people.
She wanted to laugh at the irony.
She grabbed him by his perfectly starched cravat and kissed him instead.
I hit pause on the audiobook, allowing silence to fill my car on my drive out to Wadmalaw. It’s a solid forty five minute ride, and I’ve got about half an hour to go. As much as I’m enjoying Jane and Max, I need time to think. Sort through the mess of things I’ve been feeling ever since Luke dropped that bomb on me yesterday afternoon.
I know raging.
My belly dips at the memory of the urgent look in his eyes when he’d put his hands on my neck and ground his erection into me.
He was so hard. For me.
Why can’t I get over that?
There’s an urgency about Luke. Or maybe it’s my feelings about everything that went down yesterday that are so damn pushy. That refuse to be ignored or shoved aside or quashed.
I asked for intense. And Lord am I getting it.
Give me a chance.
I want more with you, Gracie.
We can fuck however you like.
Now that it’s happening, I’m realizing how unprepared I am. For it. For him.
Case in point—I am so nervous-excited-anxious to see Luke tonight that I couldn’t eat dinner.
And I love to eat. Nothing could ever prompt me to miss a meal.
Except, apparently, Luke Rodgers’ dick.
Is this a mistake? A disaster in the making?
Are we going to have the best sex ever in a mutually supportive, mutually orgasmic arrangement? Or are we going to just fuck up a really great friendship?
Part of me still feels like I should’ve walked away yesterday when Luke put the idea of a romantic relationship on the table. I was totally taken off guard by his suggestion that we try more.
That he wanted more with me. This is Luke Rodgers we’re talking about. Player of the first degree. A guy who is worlds hotter than I’ll ever be.
The idea that he wants me like that is exciting. But the general idea of a relationship doesn’t sound so great. I literally just decided to put the focus on my sex life, what, two days ago? Didn’t I promise myself that I’d put forever on the back burner in exchange for foreplay and four orgasms in one night?
And let’s not forget that I have a real knack for choosing guys who don’t stick around. Things with Luke feel sexy and exciting right now. But I felt the same way when Nick and I started dating.
Bottom line: I can’t trust myself, and I can’t trust Luke, either.
I just have to keep my eyes on the prize. Focus on the self-fulfillment piece of the puzzle. I can have those four orgasms, I can be myself, and I can do it with Luke. Use those pushy emotions to my advantage—channel them into pants-feelings rather than chest-feelings.
