Page 27 of The Duke Who Claimed Her

Without another word, the Duke leaned forward and pulled Arabella toward him. Her eyes widened in shock, but she did not pull away. Rather, she let her face be guided; her mouth moistened, her lips puckered, and all sense of reason vanished as their lips met in a kiss.

The kiss felt like a fire had been lit on Arabella’s lips. One that raced through her mouth, down her throat, and wrapped around her heart. The Duke held her by the chin as his lips forced her mouth open, his tongue then diving inside. He licked, and he lapped, bit her lower lip, sucked it, then kissed her some more.

A moan escaped Arabella’s mouth that she had not meant but could not control. Her heart thumped so loudly that she was sure he heard it. She had never kissed anyone before; she did not know what she was doing, but that did not stop her.

Slowly, Arabella relaxed. She gave herself into the kiss. The taste of her husband’s lips. The feel of his tongue. The way it excited her body, making her tremble all over.

Why had she been so afraid of this? Why was she so determined to be alone? If this was what married life was like, maybe it would not be such a bad…

Taken completely by the passion of the kiss, Arabella moved her hands to the Duke’s waist, trying to pull him in closer to her body.

“No!” Suddenly, the Duke pulled back. Arabella gasped in surprise, lurched forward, and nearly stumbled when he let her go and turned away. “I will not…” he hissed at himself, shame erupting from his body.

“What?” she asked. “What happened…”

He continued to look away from her. “There is an irony here, Arabella. I speak of control and yet…” He shook his head. “Go to bed, wife. The hour is late.”

She gasped as if something had been torn from her suddenly; she could still feel her lips burning where he had kissed her. “What? Why are you… You came to me!” Why was she suddenly angry? Why did she want this?

“I should not have done this. You are right, I do not want to control you, nor do I wish to force you to do anything that you do not wish to do. I was wrong to have come here.”

She did not know what to say. She ought to have been thrilled! Vindicated, even! But there was something about the way the Duke shrank back, how ashamed he appeared, that she could not ignore. She did not fully understand it, but she knew it had everything to do with what had almost happened.

“One day, perhaps.” He spoke more to himself than to her. “But only when you want it, and when I can control myself. I need to…” He groaned as if in pain. “I need to do better.”

“What are you talking about?”

He did not answer. Instead, he turned and stormed down the hallway. And there Arabella stood, utterly confused, completely lost, no idea what had just happened or why. In some ways, it felt like a victory, as if she had proven to the Duke that he did not own her. But then again, that was not completely true either.

When she did finally return to bed, her body still hot, still trembling, Arabella could not escape the feeling that she had just lost something. Just as she knew that she was not nearly so desperate for freedom and independence as she claimed to believe. Whatever this marriage was, it was not what she had expected, and she could not decide if that was a good or bad thing.

And all the while, her lips burned where the Duke had kissed her, and that burning sensation stayed with her long after she fell asleep.

Chapter Ten

Arabella was just about to make her way to the breakfast room when Mrs. Robertson found her. It was later than Arabella usually ate, but she had slept in after everything that happened, and even when she finally woke, it took her a while to drag herself out of bed.

She had expected a maid to come and tend to her. Although she did not have such a thing at her own home, she knew a little of what a duchess might expect, and she lay in bed for well over an hour in anticipation of finally being woken up and told that her breakfast was waiting.

When such an eventuality did not occur, Arabella decided there had to be a reason for this. Had the Duke expressly asked that she be left alone? Was he so determined to remind her of her place, to rely on him and him alone, that he had gone out of his way to cut her off from the staff? Surely not.

That hour was spent thinking about the previous night. Still, Arabella could feel the Duke’s lips on her own, and it made her skin prickle and her legs shake if she dared to concentrate on it, which she did far more than she wanted to do.

It had only been a kiss, but all his talk of control implied that he intended to do more than that.

Now that she was alone again, and a night had passed since the incident, Arabella liked to believe that she would have denied him, as if she had that much self-control. But the more she thought about it, as well as how her body had responded, the more she was forced to admit that she was not that strong.

It is a good thing that he stopped himself….

The Duke had appeared angry with himself, too, as if he had failed somehow. That was something that she did not understand, and it only added another layer of confusion to what was already a most confusing situation.

Not knowing what to expect or what had happened, Arabella reaffirmed her decision from last night. Distance was what she needed from the Duke to treat him as a stranger. Only then might her life be her own. Which was what she wanted!

So, she spent the morning getting ready alone, then she left her room to find the breakfast room. However, the moment she stepped into the hallway, she came face-to-face with Mrs. Robertson.

“Good morning!” the elderly maid beamed. “I am so glad to see you awake, Your Grace.” She looked positively delighted.

“Oh, Mrs. Robertson.” Arabella blinked back her surprise, caught off guard by the woman’s positive attitude. “Good morning…”