He chuckled, and the sound was a little sad. “My Katherine, you will not want to drag a cripple around with you; you need a healthy young buck at your side…and in your bed.”
Her eyes flew to his in astonishment, a startled question in them. He surmised it was the allusion to taking her to his bed. Unexpectedly, the air tightened with tension, a flush mounted her cheeks, and her eyes darkened. Katherine wanted him with the same intensity with which he desired her. The awareness brought a violent surge of heat to his loins. Alexander gripped the edge of his wheeled chair and slowly counted to ten…backward.
It did nothing to halt the lascivious images flickering to his jaded mind—demanding that she be unclothed and standing before him naked. Ordering her to wrap bolts of sheer silk around her voluptuous body and dance for him as he played the pipe. He could take what her heated gaze so innocently offered, and she would be irrevocably ruined with no chance of an offer from him.
He had the will and these hungers quaking through him, demanding he bend her to the raw, sexual hunger beating through his body. What his cock would not do, Alexander would take with his mouth and fingers.
“I am not a man you should want,” he murmured.
“What astounding arrogance to presume to order my desires, Your Grace,” she retorted just as quietly. Yet her regard spoke a different message— there was a challenge in the depths of her golden-brown eyes.
Take me if you dare.
And he sensed it wasn’t a tryst she tempted him to reach for—but forever.
“I want to see you naked. Take off your clothes for me.”
With each word, her eyes grew wider and wider, one of her hands fluttering to settle above her heart.
“You are trying to shock me,” she said faintly.
“I’ve not seen the naked female form in ten years. It is a hunger of mine.”
“I am sure there are many who would stand nude before you…without an offer of marriage.”
He rolled closer to her and stroked his finger over the curve of her hips and up to her side. She did not pull away but swayed into him, and his heart became a roaring pounding of need.
“Yet it is you I want to see.” Alexander was being wickedly provoking, but it was a truth that had been haunting him for the last few days. His thumb slid over the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. “Shall I command you, Katherine?”
She uttered a slightly shocked protest. “You are laboring under a misapprehension to presume I would simply obey.”
“You are my captive, and you are wholly at my mercy.”
Awareness of her vulnerability shone in her beautiful eyes, along with a flash of such soul-searing yearning, his hands trembled, before he curved them over the arms of his chair, now the one desperate to find a balance. “Why, Miss Danvers, I do believe you want to be wicked with me.”
Her lips curved into a sweetly sensual smile, and dark lashes shielded the expression in her eyes. His gaze lowered to her mouth, as if some unseen force controlled them. Her lips were pink, lush, sweetly curved, and perfect, and Alexander wanted to kiss her without consequences.
A long breath burst from him as she slowly lifted her day dress above her slippers and bared a stocking-clad ankle to his eyes. So innocent, yet charmingly provocative.
He snapped his gaze to her, and the minx winked at him before laughing, inviting him to share in the sensual humor.
He wheeled his chair toward the door, and right before he opened it, Alexander paused. Then he turned abruptly away and said harshly, “I am the villain of this piece, Miss Danvers. You should do well to remember it.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kitty had been at the Castle McMullen for four days. In that time, she’d hardly seen the duke.
Each day, Alexander disappeared behind the beautifully carved door of his treasure room for hours. It had been one of the most exquisite rooms she had ever seen. Three floors of books, ancient artifacts and relics, paintings, sculptures, and scrolls. When not in his treasure room, he retired to his study. In there, Kitty assumed he did whatever dukes did in overseeing their vast estates.
The constant rains had kept her indoors, and that was entirely unsuited for her disposition. Kitty loved the outdoors, riding, taking long walks, inhaling the various fragrant flowers redolent in the air, and just basking in the beauty of nature. She, however, tried to endure the restrictions with some cheer, and most of her time had been spent reading Sense and Sensibility, which she had found in the castle’s original library.
She had discovered another splendid room in the castle and one of the reasons she would wish to stay there forever if she were the silly, romantic sort. Three stories high, the library was resplendent with shelves lining all the walls, and every one of them filled with fascinating books. Beautiful books, lavishly bound in the finest gilded, embossed leather. A wheeled ladder hung on runners, which could be moved back and forth to reach the books on the highest shelves.
Kitty also enjoyed chatting and playing parlor games with Penny, who was a charming girl, even if rather garrulous. It was through her that Kitty learned that Mr. Eugene Collins was first cousin to Alexander, their fathers having been brothers. Mr. Collins’s father had gone to his final rest only a year after his brother had died in the fire at this castle, so he was now Alexander’s heir.
Penny’s eyes had been wide and wounded as she reflected on their tragedy, though she had tried to sound unaffected. Kitty had gently shifted the conversation toward the history of the castle. That had been a few hours ago, and the young girl had disappeared for the rest of the day with her governess and tutors, while Kitty had retired to her chambers with a novel.
Today dragged on most unsatisfactorily, and unexpectedly Kitty felt bored with reading. The book was unable to turn her mind away from the duke and why she was still at his castle. After dreading this possible visit and what the duke would do with her, the absence of anything happening puzzled her immensely.