That was why.
Stupid wine.
Stupid Hugo.
Stupid belly butterflies whenever he was around.
Hugo stared at me, and I gripped onto the handle of the door I was backed up against, keeping one hand pressed over the lower half of my face.
“Sophie—”
“Please leave.”
He raised his hand as if he were about to say something, then sighed. He jerked his chin in a silent agreement and turned around, pulling the cottage door open. He left without another word and pulled it closed again behind him with a thump that was just a little too loud, and I dropped down, crouching against the door.
I was so stupid.
So, so stupid.
What the hell had I kissed him for?
What on Earth had possessed me to think that was a good idea? That it’d been the right thing to do? That he even wanted me to kiss him?
I doubted it was the first time Hugo had been in a situation where a drunk girl kissed him without his say so, but that wasn’t who I was. I didn’t do that stuff. I didn’t get drunk and kiss random men, much less men who were in line for a dukedom.
I was a farmer’s granddaughter from Norfolk who’d failed in everything she’d ever tried to do, and he was heir to an ancient dukedom who seemed to have his shit together.
And I was working for his family.
Under someone else’s name.
I let my bum hit the ground and rested my head back against the door.
How the hell was I going to face him tomorrow?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN – HUGO
Bad Decisions
I leaned over my cup of tea and stared into the liquid. It swirled around a few times before settling to a stop with little bubbles in the centre.
That felt like my brain.
Except it hadn’t bloody stopped since I’d walked out of Bluebell Cottage last night.
Sophie had had a lot to drink. She wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t exactly in full control of her actions. There was no way she would have kissed me if she were completely sober, and I knew that to be one hundred percent correct.
That was why I’d left when she’d told me to.
It didn’t matter that her one gentle press of her lips to mine had set a fire raging through me in a way I didn’t understand.
It didn’t matter that all I wanted to do was drag her back against me and kiss her until her knees gave out.
She’d been drinking.
She wasn’t in a clear state of mind.
I wasn’t, for a single second, going to do anything that would take advantage of her in that state. That wasn’t who I was.