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Alicia found it impossible to move. Never in her wildest imaginings did she think she would see him outside, actuallytendingto the garden instead of sitting in it.

What sort of duke kneels in his garden to plant flowers?

The Duke looked up, and Alicia sucked in a breath as she saw the outline of his muscular chest beneath his shirt.

He was bending forward, the angle making the fabric hang off him. She could see all the way down to his navel.

The expanse of muscles across his torso was impressive, the smooth edges of them catching the light in mesmerizing, rippling shadows.

She swallowed as he noticed her.

He leaned back, his forearm resting against his knee, the trowel held loosely in his hand. Slowly, he ran his gaze over her in an assessing way that heated her body from head to toe.

Now that she had seen him again, she felt doubly foolish.

It was discouraging to realize that she had enjoyed his good opinion. She liked seeing himadmireher clothes.

There would be no question of his doing so now.

It is a good thing I repulse him. That was the entire purpose of making the dress in the first place!

Alicia jutted her chin and stalked toward the flowerbed a little way away from him, trying to ignore the amusement in his eyes.

The dark heat that had sprung up between them in the woods seemed to have been conjured unbidden from the air, and she was acutely aware of his presence, of his every movement.

The weight of his gaze was a physical touch as she knelt on the ground some distance away, determined not to look at him.

CHAPTER 13

Seth bit his lower lip as Alicia moved away from him and toward another flowerbed on the other side of the garden.

The smile that had threatened to burst free when he had first seen her spread across his face, now that her back was turned to him.

What in the world is she wearing?

He looked her up and down, fighting the urge to laugh out loud at her appearance.

It seemed to be one of her dresses originally, for the base material looked rather fine. The cut was exquisite, hugging her figure in all the right places. But, for reasons he was still rather confused by, it was coupled with a large quantity of gray fabric that cascaded in strange loops and ragged lines down to the floor.

He squinted at it, noting that some part of the dress was constantly touching the ground.

Seth did not move from his position, leaning back on his heels and waiting to see what she would do next.

He enjoyed a puzzle. What was she trying to achieve with this? Alicia was generally the picture of elegance and grace. So what was the purpose of this new fashion?

He considered it for a few minutes, enjoying the opportunity to run his eyes over her beautiful curves, but remained none the wiser.

With a wry smile tugging at his lips, he returned to his basket of bulbs.

His gardener, Marcus Langham, was a patient man about his age. He knew of Seth’s strange whims and had taken to indulging them without instruction.

Today was no exception.

When Seth had first inherited the dukedom, it had been a jarring transition. The house he had grown up in suddenly seemed cavernous and foreign. It had taken him several months to grow accustomed to living in Radcliffe Manor without his father’s towering presence in every corner.

But one thing he had loved right from the start was the garden. Unlike many of his peers, Seth had discovered that he not only liked sitting in the gardens but also tending them.

It was hardly common for a duke to plant flowers, but there was a strange set of circumstances that had led to his current position on his knees, beside a flowerbed.