Page 33 of Duke's Daring Bookworm
He turned to tell Frankie something, and then it was just us. A fluttery feeling worked its way through me at the sight of him. Something no other man has ever inspired. Just watching him take off his coat captured my attention, the way his muscles moved under his shirt. His broad shoulders, narrow waist, taut ass. My mouth went dry.
I was clearly insane. I swung from panic to raging horniness from his presence alone.
Duke turned to me and caught me staring. Rather than tease me for it, he leaned back against the door and smirked, letting me drink my fill.
The ass.
He must have just come from work because he wore dark slacks and a white button down. Usually, he dressed more casually around me, but something about the way the top buttons were undone and his forearms flexed as he rolled his sleeves made my mouth go dry.
I could see his tattoos peeking out around the shirt, reminding me he isn’t the buttoned up, stuffy executive he pretends to be.
I followed the path of those tattoos and that exposed skin up his arms, across his chest, and to his face, where he smiled at me. Genuine and soft. Like he didn’t mean for me to see it.
He straightened up when he noticed I finished examining him and the smile vanished.
“Wine?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen.
“Frankie probably has an opened bottle in the fridge.” I followed him in, glad that our interactions were back in familiar territory. He always helped himself to our kitchen when he visited, as if he didn’t have his own personal chefto keep him well stocked.
“Found it.” He held the bottle aloft as if it were a trophy. “Want a glass?”
I hesitated before nodding my head. I needed all the extra courage I could get tonight.
“I think that would be fine. It would probably take the edge off. I’m so nervous.”Shit.I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but since I had. “I know I shouldn’t be, but I can’t help it. I guess that’s how emotions work—you can’t always control them. Though imagine how nice it would be to have perfect control over your emotions so you could just will yourself to not be nervous.”
I laughed, and it sounded awkward and forced. He looked amused as he poured me a glass. The white wine was bittersweet on my tongue as I swallowed down entirely too much.
“You don’t have to be nervous with me. We don’t have to do anything except hang out, if that’s what you want. You can tell me all about your latest book or project at work and I can order us takeout from anywhere you’d like. Actually, I should do that anyway. I’m betting you didn’t eat.” He muttered the last part to himself.
He knew me well enough to know that I had forgotten all about eating. The knot that had been twisting and turning in my stomach all day untangled itself and I set my wine aside, no longer needing the liquid courage to settle my nerves.
Duke knew me. He knew me as well as anyone ever could. Sometimes, I think he knew me better than I knew myself. He cared about me, too, enough to wonder about my projects at work, what new books I’d read, or whether I’d eaten that day.
I waited until he put his phone in his pocket before Iwalked over to him, grabbed him by the shirt, and pulled him in for a kiss.
I must have surprised him because he stood there staring at me before he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in tight, taking over the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding onto him, needing to anchor myself to him before I lost myself entirely.
This one wasn’t slow and sensual like our other kisses. This one burned a fire that consumed me from the inside out.
Duke tore away from my mouth.
“Tell me to stop,” he practically begged.
“No.” I didn’t want to stop. I never wanted to stop.
I slid my hands down his chest to the buttons on his shirt. My hands shook slightly as I undid each one, leaving a small kiss on the pieces of his chest that I exposed. He tasted like salt, and I needed more.
“Lily.” He sounded pained, but his eyes were intense and the hands in my hair urged me to continue. I licked a stripe down his chest to the top of the hair on his belly. I knew where that hair would lead, and I followed its call.
A small bit of pain radiated from my knees when I dropped to the floor in front of him, but I was too eager to be gentle with myself. His answering grunt only spurred me on. He tilted my head up to look at him while I undid his belt and the button on his slacks.
“Do you know…” I knew that look on his face. He held something back. I could guess the rest of that sentence, though.
“I’m a voracious reader of all things romance. I may have never done it, and I may need… instructions, but yes, I know.”
He groaned again when I ran my hands down the frontof his pants, unbuttoned but still zipped, found his hard length, and gave him a light squeeze. His hips bucked, but only a little, as if he didn’t want to push me.
“Want me to lick it?” I asked.
