Page 48 of Project Duke

“Don’t you?” he asked.

She didn’t see any laughter, so she nodded.

“So do I,” he murmured as his hand traveled down her leg and stopped at the gathering of her skirts at her knees. Then it moved under her skirts, and his fingers were on her stocking-covered leg. She froze, the feel of his large, heavy, warm palm spreading pleasure through her skin. And then very, very slowly, he moved his hand up her thigh.

With every inch it went higher, the throbbing inside her grew, and ached, and all she wanted was for him to reach his destination, that wonderful place where she knew herself there was so much pleasure.

How would it be to have a man’s hand touch her there…? Would it feel as good as when he touched her anywhere else? Just like she had wondered what William’s hand would feel like on her… The shadow of William King appeared at the edges of her psyche, but she forced it down.

Her legs fell open for him, and her reward was his satisfied murmur.

And then his hand was on her there, and she gasped as pleasure spilled through her like honey. He moved his finger around her folds.

“You’re so wonderfully wet for me, darling,” Nathaniel whispered.

Of course you’re wet.

Whore…

She jerked and sat up, pushing Nathaniel’s hand away.

“What it is?” He sat up, too, a worried gaze on her. “Did I hurt you?”

Whore…

How could she be so stupid? The shadow was there, everywhere, torturing her present in every inch of her skin. She would never get rid of William King, no matter how many years passed and no matter that she wasn’t married to him.

Tears burned her eyes, and she hid her face in her hands.

“Calliope…” said Nathaniel, his voice alarmed. “What happened?”

She wanted to pull herself together and say something clever, something that would allow her to keep her pride and her dignity. Or even tell him what she was so afraid of. Tell him what plagued her. He hadn’t done a thing yet to make her doubt he would understand.

And yet, she couldn’t. Opening herself up meant showing him who she really was.

A dirty whore, a girl who had always been wicked and dirty, and read and enjoyed things she wasn’t supposed to.

So she had nothing. All words were swallowed by her tears. Sobs of grief poured through her. She had a rake in her bed who was ready to pleasure her and showed no signs of judging her, and yet she couldn’t let him do what was normal for a husband and wife to do…

Strong arms wrapped around her, and she was surrounded by his warm body, weeping on his hard chest.

“Shush, darling,” he murmured. “Nothing is worth your tears.”

If only he knew…

18

“Poppy, darling, I mean it with all my love, do not laugh so loudly,” said the Dowager Duchess of Grandhampton with a sweet but strict smile.

It was the next afternoon, and Calliope, the girls, and Nathaniel had come to visit Penelope and Preston, as well as Grandmama and Richard and Jane, who had decided to stay in London after their honeymoon got interrupted to attend Calliope and Nathaniel’s wedding.

The sitting room of Newdale was quite pleasant and lively. Penelope was talking with Hazel about a painting that hung above the fireplace, while Poppy was entertaining everyone with the story of their pursuit. In her typical manner, she was speaking at the top of her lungs and with much animation. Violet threw looks full of longing at a book which lay five feet away on the card table—she had heard the story an untold number of times and had been present for the event, of course.

Richard and Jane listened, their eyes darting between Calliope and Nathaniel. The girls had been instructed to tell everyone it was a thief who was after their money, even though Calliope had told them yesterday she didn’t think he was.

Nathaniel sat next to Calliope on the sofa, perfectly quiet and austere, his knee so close to her own she could feel the warmth of his body through the layers of her petticoats and her gown. From time to time, his gaze warmed her skin, and when she met his eyes, they lingered on her for a long time. Something had shifted between them last night, after she had so embarrassingly let him touch her, then rejected him, and then cried in his arms half the night, only to fall asleep surrounded by him.

Who this man was, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that he wasn’t just the officer and the rake she had thought he was.