Page 25 of Dukes Do It Better
Thoughts of her only other lover acted like a splash of cold water, and she stiffened on the desk, while her thighs instinctively tried to close, clamping on the sides of Mal’s head.
“Where’d you go, Emma?” His question blew a hot breath of air against her inner thigh.
She blew out a sigh and forced her knees to fall open. “Nowhere you need worry about.” Thinking about the cad in her past would have to wait for later, when she wasn’t so pleasantly engaged.
“Want me to stop?” His hand slid along her calf, then up her thigh, gently massaging the tension out of her muscles.
“Don’t you dare.” Emma shook her head so hard, a hairpin fell to the desktop with a tinny tink.
Mal placed a gentle kiss on the inside of her knee. “You can stop me at any time. If you’re not enjoying it, I’m not enjoying it. Clear?”
She closed her eyes, grateful he likely couldn’t see the details of her expression in the low light. Dissecting the utterly foreign sweetness of his statement would have to wait as well. This was about seizing the moment and feeding her body the sensations it desperately craved, not feelings. “As clear as crystal, Captain. Now get to work.”
His huff of laughter blew against her core. “Aye, aye, ma’am.” And he did.
Emma sighed as a wave of pleasure rippled from her core, down to her toes, and up to her chest to settle in a fizzy feeling under her breastbone. Leaning back on her palms, she used the faint light available to watch the dark head between her legs. More shadows than anything, but somehow the lack of sight heightened every other sense.
The musk of her arousal mingled with his bay rum scent and the tang of lemon wood polish from the desk under her.
Mal’s tongue did something that sent a lightning bolt to her toes and she gasped. He did it again, then added a gentle scrape of teeth and a flick of his tongue to sooth the slight sting.
Large hands gripped the soft flesh of her inner thighs, keeping her open to his mouth. The pressure holding her to the desk was barely enough for Emma to let go of her carefully guarded control. The illusion of being pinned made her hips soften and her spine go weak, even as her breath shortened into panting little gasps.
For the first time during sex, Emma wished for more light. She’d like to see if his pale eyes darkened with desire. As it was, she relished the heated breaths against her tender flesh, the luxuriously soft tongue contrasting the firm, long-fingered hands keeping her hips in place. All of it combined to make the tension gather low, shimmering under her skin, until her nerves paused, waiting for one final push over the edge into oblivion.
Mal seemed to know. When he sucked her clitoris lightly, in rapid pulses, it destroyed any remaining calm she might have been clinging to. Even as her bones turned to jelly and her thighs quivered against his ears, Emma refused to stop watching the dark shadow of him until the final quake finished within her.
Slumping back to rest on her elbows, she closed her eyes on a contented sigh, letting her heavy head loll back as the release settled over her like the softest blanket. Lord, she couldn’t tell if she wanted to run laps around the garden or sleep for a month.
The soft silk of her skirts shifted to cover her legs, then she heard Mal rise.
“Give me a minute to catch my breath, then it’s your turn,” she said.
The warm presence of his body overwhelmed her senses. With her eyes closed, Emma focused on the many ways she felt him. His cologne carried on the stir of air as he leaned close, a butterfly-light brush of a kiss on the plump top of one breast, then the smell of her on his lips and the soft bristle of his beard on her chin when he hovered at her mouth, waiting for her to meet his kiss.
They tasted good together. Emma licked into his mouth lazily, welcoming the rise of desire again.
“Can you come to me tonight? I’d hate to meet your brother in the hallway outside your bedroom,” he said.
The idea made a snorting laugh burst out, and Emma covered her mouth to call back the indelicate sound. “Cal would kill you. As if he was any better with Phee. But yes, he’d kill you.” If she was going to keep to her plan for the Season and not hide things from her family, she’d probably have to be open about where she spent her nights. Eventually. Maybe. If asked.
That line of thinking made her close her eyes and take a breath. No. No lies to Cal and Phee. Besides, they’d need to be available to run interference with Alton. Because no way would she bring this affair to her bedroom, where her son could wander in and see a strange man in her bed. “I’ll come to you. First, I need to leave instructions at home in case Alton wakes and I’m not there.” Mal made a grunting noise she took as consent.
“How long do you plan to stay at the ball?” she asked.
“About thirty seconds longer than you. I’ll find Simon, say my goodbyes, and we can share a carriage if you like. We’ll stop by Hill Street first.”
“Then on to your house?”
“Then on to my house. The carriage is at your disposal to return home whenever you choose.”
Emma straightened, putting her bodice to rights, although it hadn’t shifted too much during their interlude. “I’ll tell my family I’m leaving early and meet you out front in ten minutes, shall I?”
She’d reached the door when she paused and turned. “Wait. On second thought, I’ll take the family carriage and send it back for Cal and Phee. Give me your direction and I’ll take my own transportation to your door later.”
That felt right. To not be beholden to anyone to get home whenever she chose. Perhaps by the end of their affair she would be comfortable with him having such power. But now? No thank you.
His kiss acted as a poker stirring the coals on a banked fire, and Emma sighed happily against his lips.
