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‘So why aren’t you running now?’
He shifted, leaning a fraction closer, bracing himself on the bookshelf behind her while his fingers moved on her mouth, his thumb pressing gently on her lip as if testing it.
‘Or perhaps it’s because you can’t see past a warm bed and good food.’
That could be true. He might have lulled her into a false sense of security. She’d been wrong a couple of times before. But she didn’t think she was wrong now. He’d had plenty of opportunity to touch her, to take what he wanted, and he hadn’t. He had no reason to do so now.
Yes, so why now?
Good point. His obvious sexual interest was rather sudden. Perhaps he didn’t want her the way she thought he did. Perhaps he was only trying to frighten her away.
After all, he’d been in a strange mood when he’d come in, with a sharp, raw energy to him, his eyes glittering like shards of green glass. Anger, she was sure, though she wasn’t sure why.
Perhaps he’d come into the library hoping for some time to himself and found her there instead, intruding. Ignoring him when he told her to leave. And now he’d had to take more drastic steps to scare her off.
He doesn’t want you, idiot. Why would he?
Her stomach dipped, an aching disappointment filling her. There was no reason for him to want her. She was just a homeless person he’d rescued from the streets and for some reason been kind to. And because she hadn’t taken the hint and left when he’d asked her to he’d had to be more explicit. All this touching and getting close to her wasn’t actually abouther, and she’d be an idiot to think otherwise.
She tore her gaze away, not wanting him to see her disappointment or the hurt that had lodged inside her. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps you’re really not all that kind after all.’ She tried to sound as level as she could. ‘If you want me to go, you’d better move.’
Yet the hard, masculine body crowding her against the bookshelves didn’t move. She stared at the fine white cotton of his shirt—he was in evening clothes tonight, so it was obvious he’d been to some fancy party or other—her heartbeat thudding in her ears, a sick feeling in her gut.
Then the finger stroking her mouth dropped, as did the arm near her ear, and the duke straightened up, giving her some room.
The feeling of disappointment deepened.
She pushed herself away from the bookshelf, wanting to get away now, to get some distance from him. But before she could go past him, his fingers closed around her upper arm.
Her bare upper arm.
Leonie froze. His fingers burned against her skin the way they had that night in his study, making her breath catch and that restless heat sweep over her yet again.
She didn’t look at him, staring straight ahead, her pulse racing. ‘I thought you wanted me to go?’
‘I thought I did, too.’ His voice was dark, with threads of heat winding through it. ‘You’re really not scared of me, are you?’
‘Does it matter?’ She tried not to shiver in response to the sound of his voice, though it was difficult. ‘I’m sorry I was here when you came in. I know you wanted to be alone, and I shouldn’t—’
His fingers tightened around her arm abruptly and she broke off.
‘Why did you think I wanted to be alone?’ he demanded.
‘You looked angry, and I shouldn’t have been in here.’
‘You’re fine to be in here. Also, yes, it does matter.’
His fingers felt scorching. ‘You should let me go.’ She kept her gaze on the wall opposite, trying to ignore his heat and the delicious scent of his aftershave. ‘I know you were trying to scare me away—but, for the record, it won’t work.’
There was a tense silence, full of the same humming tension that had surrounded them last week in his study.
‘It won’t, hmm...?’
Unexpectedly, his thumb stroked the underside of her arm in a caress that sent goosebumps scattering all over her skin. ‘That’s something you shouldn’t have told me.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it only makes me want try harder to scare you, of course.’
