Page 9 of The Villain’s Vixen (Wanton Wastrels)

CHAPTER 9

L exie put a hand over her chest where her heart was about to beat out of it. “I suppose that answers my question… about the level of danger I could be in.” She was having trouble catching her breath. But although the experience was terribly frightening, there was a certain… thrill that she couldn’t seem to shake off.

She glanced at the duke, but he was otherwise quite steady and composed, apart from a thunderous expression on his face. She wondered if his anger was directed toward the assailant or her, but there was no time to think on it because it was obvious he was also a man of action.

He kept hold of her arm as he hauled her toward the back of the small apartment. Amos was on their heels. “Amos, go to the Crown instead, he covered her hands with his own. One of them was over his steady beating heart. “I have to keep my distance or else things will go further than I intend. And with the way I’m feeling right now, I can’t promise that I will be as gentle as you need me to be.”

Lexie wasn’t frightened. She moved toward him. “I want it all.” She brought one of his hands to her breast. “I want this.”

“You’re an innocent,” he rasped. “You don’t know what you want.”

She lifted her face toward him. “I set out to seduce you the moment I saw you walk into that ballroom. Trust me. I know what I want and that is you.”