A LADY FOR A DUKE 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 211 - 챕터 220

She wasn’t blind. It was just that he was Tyler. And normally, when she saw women leaving him, she only saw the women looking starry-eyed. She’d never seen an actual action scene before.The kiss went on and on. Tyler's hand, which Lexi had never noticed was so big or quite so strong looking, was on the woman’s ass, holding her in the perfect place for him to— But surely that was breaking the bonds of friendship. Surely she shouldn’t imagine what he was doing with that part of his body. Particularly not what was making them both make those sounds. And Lexi felt as if she’d been cast in stone and made into a statue of foolish astonishment, right there outside his house. Because she couldn’t move. She couldn’t pick up her bag and slink off in shame to hide off around the corner, at the very least, until this ended. One way or another.The embarrassment was so great that she felt her entire body heat up, and a melting sort of sensation sink through the center of her, seeming to pool dow

“Stability isn’t the same thing as love,” Tyler interrupted her. He should know. It was a challenge to remain relaxed in his chair, but he did it. “And I think you’ll find that friendship, however intense, is no substitute for passion.”Interestingly, that flush seemed to deepen. She busied herself with her mug of tea, once again seeming…flustered.“You would be the expert on that,” she said softly. But distinctly.Tyler hadn’t touched his tea. He thought longingly of the bottle of whiskey he had inside, aged to perfection, but he knew nothing took the edge off the Lexi effect. Nothing ever had, nothing ever would.“You know me.” He forced the easy grin that would make most of the people who knew him do a double take. Because Tyler Connelly was edgy, not easy. But Lexi didn’t know that Tyler. “As long as they leave happy.”“She seemed very happy.” Lexi nodded in the vague direction of the street. “The one downstairs.”“Mission accomplished, then.”“What exactly is it that you do?” she

She shook her head, and frowned at him. His legs were thrust out before him, highlighting the powerful muscles in his thighs. How had she never noticed his thighs before? Because she doubted they’d cropped up overnight.“Is that what it’s like for you?”“I wouldn’t bother otherwise, would I?”“It’s never that way for me.” Lexi took a breath, flipped over that ugly little stone she’d never wanted to look beneath and reminded herself that this was Tyler. That she could say anything to him. “I think maybe I really am frigid. Or broken, somehow.”He didn’t sit with that in a solemn, concerned silence, as she’d expected he would. He rolled his eyes and didn’t look the least bit shaken by her declaration. “For fuck’s sake. Because that wanker told you so? A hundred years ago now? Real men don’t berate women for their own piss-poor performance in bed.”Lexi had dated Christopher for two months that had seemed like a lifetime during term time their third year. A relationship—such as it was— t

She told the charity she needed a bit of personal time, and laid out all the reasons why she thought her second-in-command was more than capable of stepping into the role. She wrote her second-in-command, apologizing for the short notice, but making sure the woman she’d handpicked knew that it was her very competence that had made Lexi so sure she could slip away. It was true, she’d realized as she wrote it all out, even though she might not have thought it through before she’d gotten on that plane.She emailed her father—or rather, his personal secretary—and felt badly about the relief she felt because she didn’t have to have an actual conversation with him. Because she already knew what he’d say. Or rather, how he would sound while he said it. And he was far too good at triggering her guilt. That it was unintentional on his part, and always motivated by concern, somehow always made her feel more guilty. The truth was, Lexi didn’t feel guilty at the moment. She didn’t want to feel gu

But she’d been here almost a week and they were building up again, those encyclopedia entries that together made up Lexi. She still twirled her hair when she was miles away, lost in thought. She still bit down on that knuckle. She no longer hummed beneath her breath, which Tyler felt like a shocking loss. But one morning, when he’d been heading out on the long, hard runs he took to keep his goddamned hands to himself, he’d found himself standing outside the door to the guest room. She’d been in the shower and he’d heard the water running, but that wasn’t what kept him there, frozen still.It was Lexi, singing an egregiously bad pop song from their university days, as tuneless as ever. His cock had been rock hard and his grin had been wide, and a bigger fool could not possibly have existed on God’s green earth. And the desperate notion he’d formed over these last years when he only saw her sporadically, that familiarity would breathe a little much-needed contempt… If anything, the oppo