She looked the very picture of piety, but it was impossible not to notice the way her breasts swelled above the neckline of her dress with each breath. The way her body bled heat into his. The way she smelled of sweet, exotic spices. All thoughts of calm and prayer forgotten, Avery leaned closer, trying to draw another breath of her into his lungs.
Her eyes popped open, and he jerked backward in surprise. “Oh good, you’re done.” She smiled, a genuine expression that made her brilliant blue eyes sparkle with inner fire. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier.”
He stared at her without a word. What more was there to be said?
“It was totally my fault. I really hope you can forgive me.” She looked down at her lap, and Avery fought the bolt of protectiveness that struck him when her smile faltered. “It’s just that I was so excited about being here GeekGirlsDontDateDukes.indd 28
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and thinking I was meeting my perfect guy. I didn’t
think about how it would affect you, especially considering I screwed up.”
Avery tried to swallow, but his throat was suddenly parched. His voice, when it came, was dry and cracked.
“I took no offense. But you must realize how ludicrous this appears.” He wished he could bite the words back— her opinion was a commodity he hadn’t realized he valued— but once said, it was too late.
She picked at an imaginary thread on her skirt. He wished he could reach out and rub a finger across the fair skin of her wrist. A bitter laugh echoed in his head at the impossible thought. Despite how he was drawn to her, she was a beautiful stranger to him, nothing more.
“It was wrong, and I’m sorry. And I shouldn’t even ask, but you’re the only person I know here.” When she looked up at him, her eyes were as blue and guileless as a midsummer sky. “I need your help if you can forgive me.”
Before he could voice the protest that lay heavy on his lips, her small hand covered his scarred one. His heart stuttered in his chest as he fought to breathe, to keep his head, to not jerk away. She couldn’t know that hers was the first hand to touch him so gently since his mother had passed away all those years ago. But he knew, and her touch shook him to the core.
i
Leah wasn’t sure why Avery reacted so strongly when she touched his hand. The wary guardedness in his eyes intensified, and the tension lining his shoulders and spine increased. It was almost as if he needed to pull away but simply couldn’t. As gently as she could, she broke GeekGirlsDontDateDukes.indd 29
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the contact. Did he have some kind of social anxiety or something?
Shaking off the concern, she tried to focus. Like it or not, at the moment, she needed his help. Nothing to it but to do it. Opting for honesty, she launched straight into her idea.
“I know this doesn’t seem like it’s possible, but I’m from the twenty-first century, from what you’d probably call the colonies.”
She tucked a stray hair behind her ear, scanning his features for disbelief. But, just her luck, Avery Russell had a poker face to end all poker faces. He was like a gorgeous statue with a slight bump in his nose. “It’s magic,” she said, and then immediately wanted to smack herself in the forehead. As if that would make it better.
“Of course.” His tone was dryer than South Texas in July.
She rolled her eyes and stood, needing to put some distance between them. “There’s no need to be sarcastic.
I wouldn’t have believed it either if it didn’t actually happen to me— and my best friend, who’s now married to the Earl of Dunnington, by the way.” She hoped the name might mean something to him.
When he didn’t respond, her smile faltered, but she held her pose. Fine, she’d lay it all out there on the table— either he’d help her or not.
“So listen, here’s my problem. I can’t meet the duke without some kind of introduction. You and I both know I’ll need some help in order to meet him, let alone convince him we belong together.” She sat back down beside him and leaned close to lower her voice to its most convincing level. “You’re my only hope, Avery GeekGirlsDontDateDukes.indd 30
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Russell.” She hoped her sincerity was clear in her face.
There wasn’t much else she could think of to say.
The only clue that he wasn’t as composed as a sack of concrete was the slight flaring of his nostrils. It was almost like he smelled her perfume and liked it. Well, he could sniff her all damn day if he’d just agree to help her. And actually, there were a lot of things that could be worse than staying close enough to Avery to let him smell her perfume. The man really was magnetic, despite his attitude. Her gaze flicked to his full lips before she could stop it.