Not Just a Wallflower

‘No?’ Long lean fingers reached up to smooth back those curls, the touch of his fingers light and cool against the heat of her brow.

Ellie swallowed before attempting an answer, at the same time inwardly willing her voice to sound as it normally did. ‘How can it, when you are the elusive but much-coveted prize of the marriage mart?’

She sounded only a little breathless, she realised thankfully, at the same time as she knew her disobedient knees were in danger of turning to water and no longer supporting her.

‘Am I?’ A smile tilted those sculptured lips as those lean fingers now trailed lightly down the warmth of her cheek.

Her throat moved as she swallowed before answering. ‘Elusive or much coveted?’

‘Either.’

Ellie found she was having trouble breathing as his fingers now lingered teasingly close to, but did not quite touch, the fullness of her lips. Suddenly she possessed both dry lips and a throat she necessarily had to moisten before attempting to speak again. ‘This is a ridiculous conversation, your Grace.’

‘Ah, once again you seek to put me firmly in my place with the use of formality,’ he murmured admiringly.

‘I do no such thing!’ Ellie attempted to rally her indignation—not an easy task when the soft pad of the duke’s thumb was now passing lightly across her bottom lip, and sending rivulets of excitement to the tips of her breasts and an unaccustomed warmth to gather between her thighs. ‘Your Grace—’

‘Justin,’ he correct softly. ‘Or Cousin Justin, if you prefer.’

‘I do not,’ she stated firmly, knowing that if she did not stop his teasing soon she would end up as a boneless puddle at his highly polished, booted feet. ‘It is late, and I— Perhaps there is some—someone anxiously awaiting your returning to her tonight?’

He stilled as those narrowed blue eyes moved searchingly over her flushed face. ‘You implied something similar when I arrived earlier tonight...’

‘Your Grace?’

‘It becomes more and more obvious to me that you, like my grandmother, believe my delay in arriving here this evening to be because I was in the arms of my current mistress,’ he said speculatively.

Ellie felt her cheeks flush even warmer, no doubt once again clashing horribly with the red of her hair, as well as emphasising the freckles across her cheeks and nose that had long been the bane of her life. ‘I am not in the least interested as to the reason for the delay in your arrival—’

‘Oh, but I think you are, Eleanor,’ he contradicted softly. ‘Very interested.’

She gave a pained frown as she looked up into those intent blue eyes and decided she had suffered quite enough of this gentleman’s teasing for one evening. ‘Is your conceit so great that you believe every woman you meet must instantly fall under the spell of your charm?’

‘Not in the least.’ Those blue eyes now twinkled down at her merrily. ‘But it is gratifying to know that you at least find me charming, Eleanor—’

‘What I believe, your Grace, is that you are a conceited ass—’ She fell abruptly silent as Justin lowered his head and bit lightly, reprovingly, on her bottom lip.

Ellie stiffened as if frozen in place and her heart seemed to cease beating altogether as she acknowledged that the coldly arrogant Duke of Royston, the mockingly handsome Justin St Just, had just run the moistness of his sensuous tongue over her parted lips...

Chapter Five

Justin knew, almost the instant he began to gently nibble on the enticing fullness of Eleanor’s bottom lip, tasting her heady sweetness against the sweep of his tongue, that he had made a mistake. A mistake of monumental proportions.

Admittedly he had been intrigued by that plump curve for some time now and had wondered at the depth of sensuality it implied, but to have acted upon that interest, given that his grandmother had so newly appointed him Eleanor’s unofficial guardian, was unacceptable. To himself as well as it must be to Eleanor. Indeed, she appeared to be so horror-struck by his advances that she stood in front of him as still, and as cold, as the statue she now resembled.

Justin pulled back abruptly, his hands grasping the tops of her arms as he placed her firmly away from him, at the same time unable to stop himself from noticing that her lip was a little swollen from where his teeth had seconds ago nibbled upon it. ‘Perhaps, in future, it would be as well if you desisted from challenging me by insulting me?’ he added harshly in a desperate attempt to divert her attention away from his despicable behaviour.

‘You—I—’ Ellie gasped her indignation, eyes wide and accusing at the unfairness of being blamed for his shockingly familiar behaviour. She now wrenched completely out of his grasp to glare up at him. ‘You are worse than conceited, sir! You are nothing more than—’

‘Yes, yes,’ he dismissed in a bored voice, knowing he had to carry on now as he had started. ‘I have no doubt I am a rake and a cad, and many other unpleasant things, in your innocent eyes.’ He eyed her mockingly as he straightened the lace cuffs of his shirt beneath his jacket. ‘You will need to be a little more subtle, my dear, if you are to learn to rebuff the advances of the gentlemen of the ton without also insulting them.’

‘And why should I care whether they feel insulted, if they have dared to take the same liberties you just did?’ Ellie asked scornfully.

‘Because it is part of the game, Eleanor,’ he explained, hoping she would believe him.

She stilled, eyes narrowed. ‘Game...?’

He gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘How else is a man to know whether or not he likes a woman enough to marry her, let alone bed her, if he does not first flirt with her and take a liberty or two?’

She breathed shallowly. ‘You are saying that you—that your reason for—for making love to me just now was your way of preparing me for the advances of other gentlemen?’

He raised a golden brow at her comment. ‘A mere taste of your lips cannot exactly be called lovemaking, Eleanor.’

Her cheeks flushed. ‘You will answer the question!’

He shrugged wide, indifferent shoulders. ‘Are you now prepared?’

Was Ellie ‘prepared’ for the assault upon her senses that had resulted when he had nibbled upon, and tasted, her lips? Could anything have ‘prepared’ her for having her heart stop beating as it leapt into her throat? For the aching heat that had suffused her body? For the way her legs had turned to jelly, threatening to no longer support her? For the thrill of the excitement that had run so hotly through her veins!

And all the time she had been feeling those things he had merely been ‘preparing’ her for the advances of the other gentlemen of society...

She straightened, her shoulders back, chin held proudly high. ‘I am “prepared” enough to know I shall administer my knee to a vulnerable part of any gentleman’s anatomy should he ever attempt to take such liberties with me!’

The duke gave a pained wince. ‘Then my time with you this evening has not been wasted.’

Had there ever existed a gentleman as arrogant, as insufferable, as this particular one had just proved to be? Somehow Ellie doubted it. Nor did she intend to suffer his company this evening for one minute longer!

She stepped back, her gaze cool. ‘I believe it time that I went upstairs and checked upon the dowager.’

Blond brows rose in disbelief. ‘Are you dismissing me, Eleanor?’

Her mouth set stubbornly as she refused to be cowed by his haughty arrogance. ‘Did it sound as if I were?’

‘Yes.’

She gave a small smile of her own. ‘Then that is what I must have been doing.’

Justin gave a surprised bark of laughter at the same time as he cursed the fact that he had realised only this evening that he found this particular young woman so damned entertaining. It was, to say the least, inconvenient, if not downright dangerous, to his peace of mind, if nothing else. As he had realised when he had kissed her just now. A mistake on his part, which Justin had felt it necessary to explain by dismissing it as a lesson for Eleanor’s future reference—even if the lesson he had learnt had been not to kiss her again. ‘I am a duke, Eleanor, you are an impoverished stepcousin; as such it is not permissible for you to dismiss me.’

She raised auburn brows. ‘Another lesson in social etiquette, your Grace?’

Gods, this woman had enough pride and audacity to tempt any man— Justin brought those thoughts to an abrupt halt, a scowl darkening his brow as he looked down at her between narrowed lids. ‘One of many ahead of me, I fear,’ he taunted. ‘Your social skills appear to have been sadly neglected, my dear.’ And he, Justin acknowledged bleakly, would have to take great care in future not to ‘enjoy’ those lessons too much!

Colour blazed in Eleanor’s cheeks at his deliberate insult. ‘I assure you that I am perfectly well aware of how to behave in the company of both ladies and gentleman without your help, sir.’

‘Your implication being that you do not consider me as being one of the latter?’

There was no missing the dangerous edge to his tone now, and Ellie—in keeping with her changed circumstances in life a year ago—wisely decided to heed that warning. This time. ‘There was no implication intended, your Grace. Now, if you will excuse me...’ She gave a brief curtsy before crossing to the library door.