Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

Her gaze dropped to her hands, where she was fidgeting with the tassels on one of the cushions, and she pulled it onto her lap so she could continue toying with it. “You didn’t make me… uncomfortable,” she said slowly. “And, if I’m honest, it wasn’t like I immediately stopped it, was it?”

“But you did.”

“Eventually, yes,” she replied. “But only because I didn’t want it to go further than what it was.”

I tilted my head to the side, and my eyebrows rose in question.

Adelaide took a deep breath and met my eyes. “Alex, I would have to be blind not to be attracted to you, but it has to stop there. Just an attraction. Technically speaking, I’m your employee, and I’m really only here for Olympia. Anything more is completely inappropriate.”

“I agree.”

“You agree with me?”

“I do. I agree that anything between us has to stop at an attraction.” I rested my arm on the back of the sofa, gazing at her. “Although I do hope this situation doesn’t stop us being friends.”

“Of course not.” She shook her head. “I’m becoming quite accustomed to our late-night chats. And future chess matches.”

Something inside me twisted painfully. “As am I.”

Adelaide smiled at me, and I returned the gesture. At least we’d cleared the air and we’d accepted that our mutual attraction had to be the limit of our relationship.

And that was fine.

That was good.

Did I really want to pursue a relationship right now? No, I didn’t. I was busy. I had a lot on my hands between the estate and my family. That didn’t leave a lot of time for romance, and that was all right with me.

Completely all right.

Not a problem.

“All right. I think I’m going to go to bed.” Adelaide took a big drink of her tea and set the mug back down before she stood up. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Addy.”

She smiled and, after tucking her chin against her chest, slipped past me and walked towards the door.

I turned my head to look out of the window. There wasn’t a great deal to see as it wasn’t quite dark enough for the outdoor lighting to come on but was a little too dark for me to see clearly.

Great.

Fine.

That was all cleared up, wasn’t it?

Yes.

Excellent.

Bloody brilliant.

“Why don’t you regret it?” Adelaide stalked back over to me and looked down at me. “Kissing me. Why the bloody hell can’t you regret it?”

I jerked around to look at her. “Because I don’t. Would you prefer if I lied to you?”

“No. Yes. No!” She threw her hands out. “Oh, I don’t know! Why doesn’t that matter? Why couldn’t you just say that you did? I’d never know if it was a lie!”

“Why does it matter that I didn’t lie?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “You’re the one who said our relationship can never progress past friendship or attraction.”

“I—” She stopped, swallowing hard.

“Well?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, running one hand through her dark hair. “It’s fine. Forget I mentioned it.”

“All right, then.” I turned my attention back to the window.

“All right, then? That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“I’m trying to respect your wishes, Adelaide! What the bloody hell do you want me to say?” I put down the mug and stood up to face her. “I’m not going to lie to you, and that’s the end of the matter. I respect you far too much to lie to you.”

“I wish you would have! Because now this is complicated.” She flapped her hands between us. “And it was easier an hour ago when I’d convinced myself that you were ignoring me because you regretted what happened.”

“I don’t know what I can say to change that,” I replied, holding out my own hands. “By all means, feel free to re-convince yourself of that if that makes you feel better.”

“Re-convince myself? I can’t do that!” She buried her face in her hands for a second before dropping them. “All I’m going to do is go upstairs knowing that you wanted to kiss me and because you won’t lie about it that you probably want to do it again, and all that’s going to happen from there is me going to sleep to have another bloody stupid dirty dream that’ll never happen, and—”

“You’ll do what?” My lips twitched to one side.

Adelaide froze. Although she didn’t move, her cheeks flushed a flaming red.

“Adelaide.”

“Nothing,” she said quickly, taking a step back. “Nothing.”

“Adelaide, have you been having dirty dreams about me?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

I tilted my head again. “You just said it.”

“You misheard me.” She swallowed. “I didn’t get to finish.”

“It’s one or the other. I either misheard, or you didn’t finish. It can’t be both.”

“The Rock,” she rambled out, her cheeks still flaming. “I’ve been having dirty dreams about The Rock.”

“The Rock? Really?” I stepped closer to her. “Of all the people you could lie about having sex dreams with you choose the person who is the least like me?”