Page 12 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)
“Should I give you something to really hate me for, Lady Josephine?” the duke asked her then, his voice strained and his dark blue eyes searching hers for something she couldn’t fathom, never mind give an answer to.
Then, somehow, Cassius Emerton’s arm was around her waist, her face was looking up into his and his warm lips came down gently but firmly upon her mouth.
The sweetness of that first kiss was so sharp that it ran through Josephine like a knife.
Perhaps it cut the duke too, for the sound from her own throat mingled with his own deeper groan.
Within seconds, there was no longer any question of irritation or hatred, only pure fire running through Josephine’s veins as they embraced.
The Duke of Ashbourne’s hands tumbled her hair and her own fingers seized handfuls of his jacket to pull him closer.
Then, she pushed off the jacket entirely, running her hands over the strong shirt-clad arms that clasped her.
The scent of Cassius Emerton’s damp skin was maddening and the dance of their tongues intoxicating. Even the mess of his dark hair and slight roughness of his jaw were fascinating to her touch.
It was some minutes later, but all too soon, that the duke abruptly pulled away, seeming to recollect himself and what they were doing.
“What was that?” Josephine could not help thinking aloud, dazed from the unexpected passion of this strange embrace.
“God, you’ve never even been kissed before, have you?” Cassius Emerton said, his expression incomprehensible.
“You kissed me,” she stated incredulously as her mind began to work again, the power of her singing blood fading into the background and the incongruity of their situation coming to her in full flood. “You kissed me!”
“You kissed me too, Lady Josephine,” Cassius Emerton pointed out with an infuriating hint of a smile. “Well, let that be a lesson to you not to follow strange men to the bottom of the garden alone.”
Snatching up his jacket, he stalked away from Josephine, leaving her stunned and furious.
“How dare he!” she muttered to herself and blushed once again while trying to repair her hair.
If Josephine’s hair had been loosed by dancing, or running or some other innocent romping, she likely would have left it alone and laughed off Vera’s questions.
But it had been the hands of Cassius Emerton that had brought it tumbling down and she felt an irrational fear that this would somehow be detected.
Confusion seemed to reign in her heart. She had kissed him, but why had she done it? Surely, it was somehow all Cassius Emerton’s fault for kissing her first.
As Josephine slowly made her way back towards the garden party, she was still not entirely sure whether she was more angry that the Duke of Ashbourne had kissed her, or angry that he had stopped…
Cassius was silent and brooding in the coach back to London with Benedict and their mother.
For a time, his younger brother chattered on regardless, diverting the dowager duchess with his usual light and amusing comments about mutual acquaintance or the events of the day.
Today his conversation was littered with talk of Lady Josephine Thomson and the games they had played.
This was the last topic under the sun that the Duke of Ashbourne wished to have in his ears at the present moment. That determined young woman seemed to pursue him everywhere he went and she could never be ignored.
“For God’s sake, Benedict,” he burst out eventually, opening a window to let some air into the carriage. “Can’t we talk of something else?”
He saw his mother and Benedict frown at one another and his younger brother shrugged to indicate that he shared the dowager duchess’s confusion.
“What’s the matter with you, big brother?” the younger man asked him, still genially. “Did you eat a bad oyster? Or were your ears offended by Lady Gordenford’s musical offerings? It was a large orchestra for a garden party but I found it all rather merry myself.”
Cassius took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly while looking out of the window.
What could he possibly say? He could hardly tell his mother and brother that very much against his better judgement, he had ended up alone at the bottom of the gardens with Lady Josephine Thomson, and there had given into an overpowering urge to kiss the damned woman.
“I am too long out of the nursery to be able to listen to interminable tales of your juvenile games with Lady Josephine,” the duke grumbled. “Did you talk to no one else for the entire party?”
If only Lady Josephine had been a more conventional and proper young lady, she would have slapped the duke’s face and sent him on his way for this importunity, both of them having learned a valuable lessons about the importance of keeping society’s rules.
Instead, her lips had warmed to Cassius’ own with raw and instinctive passion, her caresses had added fresh flames to his his already-burning body and her eyes had looked on him with eagerness and desire rather than outrage.
“You accuse me unfairly today, Cassius,” Benedict answered with a laugh. “I spent the last hour escorting Mother, didn’t I?”
The dowager duchess nodded, smiling in remembrance. She had clearly enjoyed the day just as much as her uncomplicated younger son.
“Yes, we listened to some Italian chamber music with Lord and Lady Sudbury, Cassius. You might have liked that, but I couldn’t find you. Their eldest girl, Lady Belinda, was very sorry not to meet you, but she will be at the house party with them, of course.”
The Duke of Ashbourne nodded blankly to this comment, not caring one whit for Lord and Lady Sudbury or their disappointed daughter. His mind was still in the wilderness at the bottom of the Gordenford House gardens.
“It’s such a shame that Lady Josephine left early,” Benedict mused. “I hope she was not unwell.”
Not trusting his face, Cassius again turned it to the open window. No, she was not unwell. She was likely as disturbed as he had been by what passed between them.
It was all the worse because Lady Josephine was undoubtedly an innocent rather than a practiced flirt.
The duke did not judge himself guilty of leading her astray, only where her inclinations already intended.
He had, however, revealed part of her nature that would have been safer left to her husband on their wedding night.
Some unthinking part of Cassius had always sensed the hot-blood that ran in Lady Josephine’s veins but his mind had never put words to it. Now the duke knew without a shadow of doubt that this uninhibited young woman’s desires mirrored his own in their strength and insatiability.
They must never be alone together again.