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Chapter Fourteen

T he brisk spring air wafted over Selina’s skin as they walked on the promenade through the park.

Hugh had joined her at the front so that they might have a serious discussion about her prospects for marriage.

While the topic still did not intrigue her, she knew that she had no choice but to pursue this endeavor.

It had been her late husband’s wish that she might remarry, and as much as losing her virginity still terrified her, it appeared as though she had little choice in the matter.

As they walked forward, Selina carrying a parasol over her shoulder to block the morning's light, Hugh cleared his throat, clearly ready to broach the conversation.

“So, Your Grace, what prospects have you found during your search for a suitable match?”

Selina sucked in a shaky breath. Hugh had become much better at maintaining a respectable tone with her, and still, it crawled beneath her skin to be forced to discuss this with him.

Selina was a private person, so much more so than people realized, and she could not deny that planning out a marriage arrangement with a man she’d met so recently still made her nervous.

He was trying so fervently to heed her etiquette lessons, however, and it was clear that Hugh sought to do what he believed was in her best interests. She could honor this request of Easton’s, even as her heart was not in it.

After all, Selina was quite familiar with doing so.

“I have a number of prospects in mind, Your Grace. I have kept a watchful eye on the gentlemen who might make for a suitable match. Though, I do believe that Magnus is likely the best suited for the arrangement.”

Hugh’s steps slowed, and she watched him as he turned toward a large oak tree near them, his eyes scanning over the leaves as they rustled in the wind. It was a moment before he turned back to her, a question lingering on his face.

“What is it?” she asked, curious what might be flitting through the man’s mind since he was usually so vocal about his thoughts.

He released a heavy breath and said, “I only wonder, Your Grace, why it is that you still have not married. Remarried, that is. You are familiar with the ways of the ton. You have lived your life within the aristocracy and made yourself a suitable match for anyone. As far as I can tell, you have interest enough in men. So, I find it strange that you still remain unwed.”

The Dowager bristled, pulling back from Hugh slightly as she looked down at her hands, entwining her fingers with each other in an attempt to distract herself from the pound of her blooding through her veins.

Selina had not discussed this much with anyone.

The only person who understood her true concerns was Ethel, and as of late, letters to her friend had gone unanswered.

Flicking her eyes back up to the Duke, Selina offered a gentle, if stoic smile.

“It is best that you do not ask personal questions as such, Your Grace, particularly when we are out in public as we are.”

“How am I to assist you with this endeavor if I do not understand your feelings toward the matter? This is how I will best be able to aid you.”

Idle laughter sounded behind her as Lydia and Myra continued their conversation. Her sisters and mother had all joined them on promenade this morning. While she and Hugh had maintained their distance from them, nervousness still clung to Selina at the thought that they might overhear her.

She had kept what she was about to say to herself for so long, and she did not wish to upset her family with the truth.

Her mother, in particular, might be downright furious about what she was about to say. Selina had been raised to be the perfect lady, to be the best wife possible to any husband she might marry, but in truth, Selina had no love for the perfection that she had been taught.

“Being a widow provides me with freedoms that I did not have previously.” Selina looked at Hugh as he stopped in his walk, meeting her eyes with curiosity.

“My late husband was a good man, but what about the next one? What if the man that I arranged a marriage with revealed himself to be downright cruel? I would be trapped alongside him with little that could be done.”

The Duke pinned her with his stare. Selina sucked in a breath, feeling small beneath the weight of his gaze.

She could not understand how it continued to be possible for this man to elicit such a reaction from her.

Selina’s pulse hummed beneath the surface of her skin, and she felt warm everywhere his eyes landed on her.

Silence hung between them for an extended stretch, the rustle of the trees the only sound. They’d lost her sisters and mother somewhere along their promenade, having wandered in a different direction.

This moment of privacy between them lingered too strongly and felt too similar to the way it had in the ballroom when they’d lost themselves to the steps of that dance.

When Hugh spoke again, his voice was soft, his eyes never leaving hers. And he stepped closer toward her. Reducing the distance between them to just a foot.

“Are there not some advantages to marriage?” he asked. “Perhaps you might find someone who appreciates you for who you are? It is not impossible that an arrangement of marriage could be made for love as well as benefit.”

The seams of Selina’s stays dug into her skin. It felt too tightly laced, and yet she knew that was not the case. She’d taken care since the day of the Duke’s arrival to ensure they were laced comfortably. Why, then, did everything feel so restrictive when the Duke stared at her like that?

“I will admit that the notion of finding love in a marriage seems quite unlikely to me, Your Grace. It is exceedingly uncommon amongst the aristocracy.”

Selina hated the breathy quality of her voice, the way she felt beneath Hugh’s stare as he closed still more of the distance between them.

“We have been studying privately for days now. Are you still incapable of calling me Hugh?”

Her cheeks warmed, a swell of something intoxicating in her blood. Selina blinked, forcing whatever it was down into the depths of her being. And still, they had grown closer. They were quite familiar with each other now. Perhaps he had earned the use of her name.

“Hugh,” Selina said quietly, dropping her stare to the walkway beneath them for a moment. “And I will allow you to call me Selina. You—It is no longer inappropriate.”

“Selina.”

Her entire body vibrated with the sound of her name from Hugh’s lips.

It was nearly sinful the way it spilled from him, and the heat beneath her skin ratcheted higher.

This had not been where she expected this conversation to go at all.

Surely, the Duke would see now that it was time to return to the others and put this discussion to bed.

But then he drew nearer, his voice a gentle whisper when he said, “And perhaps, Selina, if you were to wed once more, you might finally feel what it is like for a man to claim you.”

Her cheeks set ablaze, her eyes widening in shock so strong that she nearly crumpled to the ground. She hastily looked around them, ensuring that no one was aware of Hugh’s words, of how closely he stood next to her.

Selina took only a mild comfort in the knowledge that they were indeed alone because she also quickly realized that the Duke had secretly maneuvered her beneath the lengthy branches of a wisteria tree.

The light purple flowers bloomed around them, releasing their heady fragrance and creating a curtain behind which they were practically invisible.

Only inches separated Hugh from Selina, and her breath caught in her throat when his eyes fell to her lips.

“It still boggles my mind that you have yet to be claimed by a man. How your husband, regardless of his age, managed to keep himself from you is a miracle indeed.”

“Hugh, this is?—”

“This is what?” he interrupted. “Please tell me because I have been at a loss for days now. What happened in the ballroom the other day? Why is it that I cannot get the sight of you out of my mind?”

Selina did not know whether to feel embarrassed, guilty, or flattered by the words that were falling from Hugh’s lips.

In any case, her heart beat so loudly that she could hear each furious pulse in her ears, screaming at her for something unknown.

He slipped closer even still, brushing the wisteria branches away from the trunk of the tree so that he could press her back against the bark.

A tiny gasp escaped her, but she was powerless to do more.

The intensity of Hugh’s gaze was the same as that day of their dance lesson, the same as the day she spied him in the library.

Heat billowed inside her, the clawing need she’d felt before rearing its head once more. Selina’s stare fell to Hugh’s mouth.

She had kissed him once before.

They had said nothing of it, both of them silently agreeing that it had been a mistake, a fluke. Why on God’s green earth was she thinking of doing it again?

“I… I do not know, Hugh…”

“Ugh,” he nuzzled into her hair, breathing her in as his nose brushed against the crook of her neck, “to hear you say my name… It does something to me, Selina. You have done something to me.”

“What could I have?—”

But her words were silenced as Hugh nipped at the sensitive skin behind her ear. Buzzing filled her head, and everywhere the Duke touched her, little streams of fire gathered beneath her skin. Her core clamped, arousal blooming from within her even as she tried to push it away.

Selina was too lost to it all. Hugh was incomprehensible. But the allure had been unmistakable since the moment she’d laid eyes on him. What was it about this man that could draw her into the depths of depravity so easily?

It should not be this way. Ugh, what is wrong with me? I shouldn’t allow—damn!

But like fighting slumber when you were bone tired, resisting this connection between them proved to be futile. She looked up into Hugh’s magnificent green eyes, the way they shone like peridots, and she was spellbound and at his mercy.

Hugh’s fingers dragged across her side, brushing the edge of her breast before they settled on her neck, pulling her toward him, beckoning her to give in, to enjoy another brief taste of him.

And she did.

Their lips met just as a breeze set the wisteria branches to dancing.

Selina relished the way he tasted, the way he swept his tongue across the seam of her mouth before she eagerly gave him entry.

This was far from proper, from advisable, and yet beneath this cloak of purple and green, the concerns over the world beyond faded into the background.

So, Selina remained there with him, stealing this moment of gentle caresses and kisses shielded from prying eyes and the light of day, the morning of their promenade.