The Duke's Forbidden Lover (Forbidden #1)

Chapter 29.

Only with what they used to have, and even then it was only a wistful memory.

Somehow...it was being overtaken by the presence of something else. Just before he could contemplate and mull about what it was, Elinor latched onto his arm tightly.

"Please, you have to believe me," she said, softly.

Alastair looked down at her, teeth grinding. He glanced down at her hand before wordlessly staring at her with a dangerous gaze.

She, realising that he did not like the fact that she had touched him without permission, immediately withdrew her hands away from him, biting down on her lower lip. Her large brown eyes looked up at him with guilt. Alastair could indeed see why he had loved her once; her beauty was incomparable to any other, but she was not the woman he had fallen in love with when he was but a young man.

He chuckled, darkly. "I stopped believing in you and those three words the moment you turned to Landon," he snapped. An irritated sigh left his lips as he ran a hand down his face in exhaustion. "Understand that nothing can ever go back to what it was years ago. I hold love for you no more. Only contempt and pity."

At Elinor's crest-fallen features, he turned and went to leave when she stopped him, her voice gentle but questioning.

"Is it because of that woman? That...Nalini or whatever her name is."

The name of the woman that both confused and infuriated to him no end caused him to still. His mind flashed back to the situation atop the horse and every other one before that. During the tea party, her words did touch him, no matter how many times he found himself convincing that it did not. In his room, when she had giggled, it was like listening to a thousand angels sing and he felt like laughing himself.

She made him want to do things he did not think he could do again, ever since Elinor and Adelia. Seeing her around the house, around his son, their conversations--it made life less tedious. 

Nalini was most infuriating, her behaviour resembling that of a child some days, but on others, she was simply exhilarating and so very amusing. Even he had to admit, he was beginning to develop a soft spot for her. He had never been that entertained in his life and he most definitely was never one for dark features, but her eyes...

He sucked in a sharp breath as he remembered the warmth behind those pools of black. It threatened to hypnotise him completely and he had to try his utmost best in order to control his breathing and to maintain a regular breathing pattern.

Alastair could still feel the warmth from her small figure that flushed against his own, her body heating up his. He had wanted to wrap his arms more tightly against her but did not deem it an appropriate move, especially considering that he was confused about why he was feeling that way in the first place.

His hands balled into fists at his foolish thoughts about his sons' governess and cleared his throat, slightly out of it. Elinor looked at him with a frown and a knowing glint in her eyes. He, on the other hand, was stuck on a way to answer her doubt. Alastair's jaw tightened.

But then, a chuckle left his taut lips. "She is Richard's governess," he replied calmly. "And that is all you need to know of her. What she does, who she is- that is all my business. And my business is of no matter to you."

"Alastair," she whispered, brokenly.

He ignored her and turned to Aria then, Elinor's friend, who winced at the dark expression on his face.

"Don't ever come to me with her by your side again, do you understand?"

She said nothing and he glared at her with an intensity that could kill.