The Duke's Sins | ongoing

Appearance vs Reality

15~appearence vs reality

I fisted his collar, tugged him down and pressed my lips to his.

It was supposed to be a simple kiss, a simple reminder that I could also catch him off-guard. But Jaxon smoothed his fingers through my hair, tilting my neck back. His tongue traced across the seam of my lips before consuming me whole, the taste of him, dark and merciless, seeping down my throat.

I pulled away, breathless.

"There," I wiped my thumb along the corner of his lip, removing the slight smudge of lipstick, "now you know what to expect as well."

Without warning, he tugged me into him, his lips crashing back down onto mine. The Duke held my chin between his thumb and forefinger, his kiss slowing into something dangerous and forbidden.

His grip on my wait grew tight. "And now you know what to expect, too," he said lowly.

"Yes," I whispered. "I do."

After taking a large step back, I gathered the courage to look the Duke in the eye.

"We should rehearse," I said.

His eyes narrowed slightly, glittering in the daylight streaming in from the windows.  "You blush an awful lot."

I suppressed the urge to huff.

"I know that. And?" I retorted, reaching for the files on the table. "It's not for your benefit."

He held his hands up in mock surrender. "I'd never presume so."

"Good. Let's keep it that way." Before he could respond, I'd opened the document. "Where did we meet?"

"At the ball," he answered, his eyes shifting to mine knowingly.

The colour in my cheeks darkened. We did—in fact—meet at the ball and what happened afterwards was not something I wanted to remember.

"And then?" I asked, turning to take a seat on the flawlessly arranged sofas.

"And then it was love at first sight."

I choked on my words. "What?"

The Duke pointed at his own file. "It's what our cover is."

"Right." I nodded. "Yes."

Jaxon sat opposite me, his attention fixed to the papers in his hand. 

"You're scared of heights?"

I faltered for a split second... "Apparently. What's your favourite colour?"

He cocked his head. "Blue. Yours?"

I hummed. "Red."

The Duke cracked a smile, amusement dancing in his eyes.

My eyebrows knitted together. "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. "Nothing at all."

"How, um..." I scratched the back of my neck. "Old are you?"

"Twenty-nine."

I tried to keep my breathing even. "How long have you known about this for?"

His gaze snapped up to mine. "About what?"

I crooked a finger between the two of us. "About this... arrangement."

Jaxon leaned back, draping an arm over the back of the sofa. "A week ago. Imagine my surprise when you turned up in Amsterdam."

I didn't miss a beat. "I came because if I wouldn't have found you, someone else would have. And things would have become very nasty, very quickly."

A muscle in his jaw tightened, rippling through the hard slant of his cheekbones. "Things have already become nasty, Delilah."