Page 16 of The One With the Wayward Duke (The One With the Wanton Woman #5)

“I KNOW WHAT MY heart is telling me.” The door to their room had hardly shut before she blurted out the words.

“You do?”

“Yes.” Freya glowed as she spoke. “I’ve learned two things since I met you.”

“Only two?” his raised brows indicated a lascivious meaning.

“Perhaps a few more than two,” she blushed, “but two in particular stand out.”

“Do tell.”

“One,” she counted the first point on her index finger, “I love you.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. “And I love you.”

“And two,” she said, stepping back, wanting to create space for sharing her news.

Only words were about to come forth, but it felt like so much more.

It felt as though she were birthing something into the universe and she needed the room to do it.

“I want to help other women during their moments of crisis and decisions.”

Tobias only raised his brows.

“My sister, Phyllis is opening up some meditation cabins—”

“Meditation cabins? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Oh right, he probably knew nothing about Phyllis. “They’re the first of their kind. Phyllis loves doing yoga—”

“Yoga?”

Freya slapped a palm over her forehead. Her news was never going to be fully birthed if this man didn’t stop with his questions.

“Yoga is a stretching, breathing, meditation exercise done in India.”

“India?” his volume increased.

“Don’t worry. No one’s going to India.” Visible relief rained down on his face as he exhaled. “Yes. So Phyllis loves yoga and recently decided to open meditation cabins for people to spend time in. I know how I can be involved.”

Silence. Oh, now he didn’t have any questions?

“Aren’t you going to ask me how I’m going to be involved?”

“I thought you were going to fill that in.” He stepped forward pulling her into his arms. So much for space. “I also got the distinct impression that you weren’t overly appreciative of my questions.”

She smiled at him, warmed to the core. “You’re right on both accounts. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to offer women a safe place to talk.”

More raised brows she interpreted as a prompt to explain in detail.

“Not everyone has five sisters like me—and three aunts—to go to if they need to talk about something. My family welcomes conversation and is open to ideas, but I know other families aren’t like that.

This whole journey has been vexing as I tried to follow my heart but wasn’t sure what it was telling me.

Eventually I figured it out. But I want to help others and be available to women who feel like they don’t have someone to talk to. ”

“That sounds like a very Freya-idea.”

Oh, a Freya-idea? She liked the sounds of that.

“I’ve learned two things on this one-day journey as well.”

“Only two?” she teased back.

“More than two, but let’s start with two.

” A rough exhale left his body, “After I was jilted at the altar, I had gone a bit off track. One might say wayward into resentment. I thought I was trying to prove my worth, but what I didn’t realize was that I was actually trying to prove myself lovable. ” He shook his head. “It’s ridiculous—”

“It’s not ridiculous. You were hurt. And I’m sorry that happened to you. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Yes, well, she made the right choice. Otherwise I wouldn’t have found you. Your running gave me the direction I needed.”

“I guess I’m glad it happened then?”

He chuckled. “Yes. I’m glad, too.”

“To think we would have never ended up here, going in and out of The Man Trap and the Silent Flute to find love.”

Tobias choked.

“Are you all right?”

He cleared his throat. “Erm…yes…about that. I suppose it falls to me to explain the erm…The Man Trap and,” he blew out a puff of air, “The Silent Flute. Well, you see, if you put The Silent Flute into The Man Trap you could get a baby.”

What the deuce was he talking about? “Why would you put The Silent Flute into The Man Trap, and how—”

He interrupted by arching his hips into her, sending a thrill throughout her body. He was hard, and she knew what that meant.

“Let’s just say that if you want this silent flute, it’s ready to be played.”

Realization dawned and heat flooded her body. “I see…so what you’re saying is…if you decided that between the two us that you were the one who was going to start running all of a sudden…”

“I’d only run straight to your man trap.”