AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The duke told me it wasn’t a love match,” I say, keeping an eye to how far open the door is, and how low our voices are pitched.
“It hardly could be described as amiable, let alone love,” she replies, confirming what the duke had said to me last night.
It makes me wonder what it had been like between the two of them. He didn’t love me, and yet when he’s touched me, when he’d kissed me—
My lips start to tingle, and burn. I lift my hand up, fingers brushing over my bottom lip to stop the prickling sensation. My whole body warms, and all I can think of is Tahoe.
Tahoe,Tahoe.The look on his face as he took me apart. In my memory, his face morphs into Benedict. Fresh warmth floods my body, and then—
That wicked smile. It curls up.
And it’s Lord Noah.
I jerk backward, and gasp, my eyes blinking wildly. Oh. God.
I… I think I’m wet. Jesus.
I need to get myself together.
Mrs. Harris looks at me funny and I give her a smile, trying to cover up my idiotic daydream. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Do you think we should order her tea up here? That way she can have fun, and not worry about her father being gone,” I say, covering for my quick descent into memory land. It can’t happen. Whatever this thing is that’s building between me andthe duke, and me and the marquis, all of us, this complete fucking madness that I’ve been ensnared in, I need to put a stop to it. For my life. For my job.
Priorities and all that.
I just don’t know how.
35
Eva
My phone chimes softly just as Maddie's eyes slide shut. She turns her head into her pillow and sighs, breathing evening out. She'll be asleep in minutes. I get up, storybook still in hand from our reading, and pick up my phone.
Please come to my rooms when you are able. ~ Lady R.
Ruby. I tap my fingers against the side of my phone case for a moment and glance back at Madeline. She is already sleeping, her chest rising and falling in slow movements. I pull her drapes closed and make up my mind. It's not like I can ignore a direct request, especially if Maddie is tucked in for the night. My nerves are buzzing, though. The mysterious sister of the King clan. And she wasn't expected back for months. All I can think about is her dresses down in the vault, hundreds, thousands of them, dripping crystals, beadwork, and sequins. What kind of life has Lady Ruby led compared to my own?
I push away that thought. There is no use comparing us since we're as different as the dirt and the sun.
And she's the sun.
I slip out of Maddie's bedroom, the door clicking shut behind me, and I make my way down the hall toward Lady Ruby's rooms. There was no point in changing, right? She wouldn't expect me to be in anything other than my nanny's uniform. Why am I suddenly questioning my every mo-
A hand emerges from a shadowy alcove and grabs me by the upper arm. I let out a squeak, but another hand claps over my mouth. I'm pulled against a firm body, and I inhale sharply through my nose. Leather, tobacco blossom, and crisp cotton fill the back of my throat, an expensive cologne that wraps around my senses.
My eyes drag up, to try and catch a glimpse of my assailant in this dark, shadowy spot.
My strangled breathing staggers to a stop.
Lord Noah.
"A single sound," he threatens, and I nod slowly. "What are you doing near my sister's bedroom."
Is he… guarding her room? I glance out into the hallway, trying to keep myself from hyperventilating.
Stay focused…
My phone, still in my hand, pings quietly again, and Noah's eyes, a dead ringer for Benedict's, narrow.
