“Why did you come home wounded?” she asked, turning back the focus on him, using the word he hated.
Adrian never liked it whenever anyone called him wounded or hurt. “I merely got scrapes, Duchess. Nothing more.”
“You are minimalizing the situation,” she complained.
Adrian sighed. He knew that she would not stop until she got an answer from him. “Someone forgot their manners and needed to be given a reminder. That is all.”
“You do business with men like that?” she asked incredulously, but her eyes revealed that she believed it. Very much so.
The Duke simply nodded at that, keeping their gazes locked. At that moment, he acknowledged the truth of his secret, dangerous world.
“That is reckless,” Daphne scolded. This time, he heard more of her concern than anything else. “You could have been seriously hurt. It seems that the risk outweighs any benefit that you may be getting from your business.”
Adrian silently disagreed. So, he let a small predatory smile touch his lips. He needed to show her that he was more dangerous than the other men out there. That he could handle himself.
He reached out to capture her chin with his thumb and forefinger.
She was so beautiful. So innocent.
“If I will have you fussing over me like this, Duchess, in your own bedchambers, I would not mind getting hurt again.”
“Adrian,” she protested.
Her eyes widened when she realized that she had let his Christian name slip out of her mouth before she could stop it.It was the first time his duchess had called him anything but “Duke” or “Your Grace”.
The effect was profound.
It was swift.
Adrian’s smile vanished, not because he was displeased. No. It was something else entirely. His gaze burned into hers as his thumb stroked her jawline. She didn’t budge.
“Say it again, Daphne,” he commanded, with an urgency he had not felt even in his type of business.
She had turned bright red now, from her cheeks to her collarbone. There was a shift in the room that neither could deny.
“Daphne,” he urged.
She shivered. This time, she was no longer hiding her reactions to his voice.
“Adrian,” she breathed out.
The sound was his undoing. With a groan, he grabbed her waist and hauled her onto his lap. She gasped as she landed on his abdomen. Her arms quickly wrapped around his shoulders. It was instinct, but Adrian would take it. But her next move musthave been all her. She buried her face against his neck, as he brushed the loose strands of golden hair away from her face.
She could not be hiding again. Not now.
“That is a very bold move for a duchess, especially one so obsessed with propriety. You just called your husband by his first name in your bedchambers, Daphne,” he murmured teasingly against her ear. “I shall have to teach you more things if you keep on being so bold. Of course, I will make sure they are not at all appropriate.”
Daphne lifted her face from his neck, muttering something about decorum. It also seemed like she cared about what the servants would say. Her face was so red, he had to chuckle.
What did she really think a man and his wife did in their bedchambers? He wanted to teach her more things. He caressed her hair and followed a trail down her shoulder with his hands, letting his touch linger on her arms and down. Then, he lowered his head so that their foreheads touched.
“If you do not want me, tell me to stop, Daphne. Say the word, and I will walk out that door and we will never speak of this again.”
To his shuddering relief, she said nothing.
Instead, her body responded for her, trembling against his touch. His mouth found hers with ease.
They had kissed before, but he wanted more from her. This time, it was absolute surrender. Both seemed hungry for each other. When he probed her mouth with his, she opened it. He slipped his tongue in to taste her. She moaned, shifting over him, making him hard. Oh, so hard.
