Devil in Duchess's clothing

Chapter 10

What the hell?

Emma tried to shove him with all her might but she might as well have tried to move a boulder. What was Garrett thinking?

His mouth left hers for a brief second and travelled to her ear. "My mother is behind you," he whispered. She stopped struggling immediately.

He resumed kissing her and this time, since Emma wasn't busy fighting it, she allowed herself to feel it. It was her first proper kiss, after all...she refused to call that sloppy lick Tommy—the butcher's son from Dorsetshire had given her eight years ago a kiss. This, on the other hand was a kiss. This was the closest she'd come to experiencing something magical, she decided.

It seemed like her hands had a mind of their own as they wound about his neck and her eyes—she really tried to keep them open, if only to stare into his but to no avail. His mouth was gentle on hers, moving slowly, as if savouring something and Emma tried to imitate the movements. It seemed to please him, she noted happily. And then she let herself go, matched his kisses with hers, matched his enthusiasm with hers (maybe even outdid him in that department). She lost track of time.

His mouth left her lips and found her neck. Emma thought she would float away from the pleasure of it.

"I've been wanting to kiss this little mole forever," Garrett whispered hoarsely. But she barely heard anything.

And then the dashed man pulled away. "Emma, my mother left," he murmured.

Emma pulled away from him. Feeling inexplicably shy to face him, she turned around and sure enough, there was no sign of Lady Beresford.

"Did she just leave?" she asked, daring to look at him.

"Of course. I stopped kissing you the moment she left, it was the gentlemanly thing to do," he said seriously. A little too seriously.

That did not sound like him at all.

Emma bit back a smile. It didn't hurt to know that he had been just as carried away by their kiss. He placed her palm on his arm and began leading her towards the house.

"I apologize," he said. "For kissing you."

"Will you stop saying that?" she groaned.

"What? Saying that I kissed you?" he asked with mock innocence. Emma wanted to smack him. But then she remembered that she was a dignified duchess and that she couldn't smack people...no matter how much they deserved it.

"Yes," she growled. "And I know you did what you thought was needed to keep up the ruse. However, a warning would be nice the next time."

"Which means that you are expecting a next time?" he grinned.

"That is not what I meant."

"Are you certain? You did seem to be enjoying yourself quite a bit."

That did it. She pinched him.

"Ow! What is wrong with you?" he howled.

She could always deliver a mean pinch, she thought, pleased. She felt marginally better about her predicament now.

"You deserved it," she grinned.

"What are you, four?" he muttered. "Do you go around pinching random people like this?"

"Just you," she winked and skipped ahead of him, leaving a befuddled and speechless Garrett standing there. It was a feat of considerable proportions.

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Garrett did not know how long he stood there, staring after her until she disappeared into his house. He could not, for the life of him come to terms with the fact that Emma had just winked at him. Immediately after letting him kiss her, at that.