Page 64 of Tamed By her Duke

“Jesus, Grace, Christ, you marvel,” he gritted out, breaths coming sharply between each word. “Fine—ye bloody win—I cannae wait?—”

He lined himself up against her, then pushed slowly forward, the stretch uncomfortable at points, but never so much that Grace stopped aching for more. She tried to grasp at his shoulders, to pull him toward her faster, but he seized her hands, pressed her wrists beside her head, used the grip as his own leverage to move at his own speed.

When he was fully inside her, their bodies pressed together, one of her knees tossed insouciantly around his waist, she heaved in a breath.

“My goodness,” she said.

It was silly and missish as a thing one could say while in the midst of being taken for the very first time, but Caleb let out a little laugh that sounded almost fond and pressed a featherlight kiss to the very bottom of her earlobe.

“Aye,” he said, before drawing back and thrusting into her with force.

Grace saw stars—blindfold be damned. The carefully stoked fire of her ardor surged as though he’d tossed kerosene atop it, and with each merciless thrust little whimpers tore themselves free from her. Her mouth fell open; her head tipped back.

“Yes,” he told her. “That’s right, that’s my girl. Let me feel ye.”

And she did, for he shifted just a bit, the angle changing ever so slightly, until somehow, he was pressing against the sensitive places both inside and outside her body, all at once.

She screamed. She fell.

He kept moving within her as the pleasure plagued her, and her own ecstasy had only just started to wane when he called out his own, pressing his mouth to her neck to muffle his roar of satisfaction.

They came together, boneless, sated. He released her wrists and pressed a kiss to each spot where he’d held her.

“Let me—” he began, shifting his weight away.

“No,” she said. “Stay. Please.”

She didn’t know if she was allowed to ask for this, but she couldn’t stop the words in time.

He hesitated. “Aye. I’ll stay.”

He settled his weight, his head coming next to hers on the pillow. She could feel his breath flutter against her jaw. She didn’t move a bit, not even to remove the blindfold, as if believing that, if she stayed perfectly, perfectly still, time would not notice her and this moment could last forever.

Sleep tugged at her, however, the nerves and confession and lovemaking all too much for her body to go without rest, too. As she drifted, she clung to one terrible, selfish thought, sent up a fervent prayer that she had not conceived, had not yet given her husband the heir he so desired—if only so she could have this for just a little bit longer.

CHAPTER 19

“Good Lord,” Grace said, stunned. “I did not think I’d ever say this but…thank you for dragging us north the absolute instant we were wed.”

Caleb gave her a speaking glance. “Do ye recall how ye keep assuring me that ye’re not frightened of me? Is there any way I can change that?” he asked dryly.

Grace grinned. “There is not. You’ve shown your hand, I’m afraid.”

“Bollocks,” he grumbled before walking deeper into the most decrepit townhouse Grace had ever seen.

The outside had beenmostlyrespectable, which Grace assumed was the only reason Caleb’s neighbors hadn’t been camped outside with pitchforks, demanding that he update the place. The façade was neat, for all that she had immediately pinpointeda half dozen places that she could, with very little effort, modernize the place.

It was also a terrible lie designed to fool Grace into a false sense of complacency.

Come inside, it said.It’s nice in here. You can have a pleasant rest after your journey back to Town.

She didn’t even follow her husband further into the house, too stunned by rooms that were positively crowded with…wellthings, she supposed, as there was something of nearly every category of item she could think of, as well as several things she could not categorize at all.

“Welcome, Your Grace.” This was Mrs. O’Mailey, looking grim and sardonic. She and a few of the more adventurous maids had left Montgomery Estate two days ahead of Grace and Caleb so as to ready the London property.

Grace had initially been surprised that the house was not staffed, even minimally. Now she was distracted by wondering what it had looked likebeforethe highly competent housekeeper had been working for over a day.

“I…feel like I don’t even know what I’m seeing,” Grace told the other woman. “I… Who decorated this?”

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