Page 35 of Dukes Do It Better
“Mal,” Emma’s voice turned breathy when his lips grazed her hip, then rounded to her inner thigh.
“Do you want me to stop?”
A short laugh burst from her. “No, but I want to touch you as well. Get naked. I’ve waited long enough to see you.”
His grin flashed white against her thigh before he sat back on his heels and stared at her hungrily. Emma propped herself up on her elbows and enjoyed the view of his tanned hands doing as she asked. Unwinding his cravat. Loosening his cuffs. Unbuttoning his waistcoat.
When he tossed the waistcoat in the general direction of a chair against the wall, then tugged his shirt from his breeches, Emma held up a hand. “Slower. I’ve imagined this too many times to have you rush now.”
“Imagined me naked, have you?” Mal teased, raising his bisected eyebrow.
Emma grinned, utterly unrepentant. “You’ve lived in my fantasies for a while, Captain.”
The smile he gave her heated as he unbuttoned his breeches. “As have you in mine. Did you touch yourself and think of me?”
Emma sat up to caress the long line of his thigh muscle with one hand. Her teeth sank into her lower lip. The flexing bulk of his muscles showed through the fabric of his clothing. The man was utterly delicious. Slipping her hands beneath his shirt, she sighed when her fingers met hot skin and grooves along his torso. When she raised her lips for a kiss, he happily obliged her.
“I have pleasured myself over and over thinking of you.” The ripples of muscle and bone under her fingers intrigued her as she pushed his shirt up, then off. Like the first time she’d seen him, she lost her breath.
“You’ve added to it. That’s unexpected.”
Mal cocked his head, and it struck her that this was the first time his confidence wavered. “Good unexpected or bad unexpected?”
His body was a piece of art. Not only the physique, which was remarkable in its own right, but the tattoos covering his chest and arms. Golden skin had been transformed into a literal canvas. Yet this canvas wasn’t a static display, but a growing thing, as evidenced by the new sea creature inked in his skin.
“You’re beautiful, Mal. It’s like a storybook, permanently on display.” Sea birds, fish, a mermaid who wore nothing but strategically placed swirling tendrils of hair, and the new addition—a creature she didn’t recognize. “Is this a unicorn whale?”
He blew out a laugh, and she tore her gaze from the lines covering his skin to see his eyes. “It’s a narwhal. They’re real. I’ve seen them only a few times, but they’re remarkable.”
“How fascinating. They look like they belong in myths, not our world.” The flash of vulnerability she’d seen made her ask, “Were you scared I wouldn’t like your new art?”
Mal shrugged one shoulder as if her answer didn’t matter to him, which she didn’t believe for a moment, then threw the shirt to land near the waistcoat. “I didn’t know what to expect. Some people would question why I continue to add new tattoos.”
With so much beauty in front of her, her hands had one clear impulse. Don’t stop touching him. “It’s your body, Mal. You own it; I just get to enjoy it. Now come here, and let me.” She tugged him down to the bed and lost herself in his kiss.
Tangled limbs, open mouths skimming over skin, and breathy encouragements were all that mattered in the world. His fingers sank into her wetness, bringing a curse from them both.
When Mal dipped his head to suck her nipples, the open front of his breeches allowed easy access for her hand. Wrapping her fingers around his impressive girth made the need within her flare even brighter. “Perhaps now would be a good time for me to get my reticule while you finish getting undressed.”
“Excellent idea.” Mal went to work pulling his boots off while Emma ducked behind the dressing screen in the corner with sponge in hand.
When she approached the bed a few minutes later, he was waiting with his hands tucked behind his head. She paused to lean against the post at the foot of the mattress. Goodness, he was a sight. Dark beard, overly long hair, wicked grin. Broad, tattooed, aroused. And hers—for now, at least. Emma crawled onto the end of the bed, then kissed her way up his body.
“I could feast on you all night,” she said, licking along the dark outline of an ocean wave cresting over one dark nipple.
Mal drew her hair over her shoulder to expose her neck and pulled her higher. “Likewise. But Em, I’m dying to be inside you.” His words were a hoarse confession between kisses along her shoulder to the sensitive place near her ear.
The way her inner walls clenched at his words confirmed Emma’s eagerness. Desire burned bright from his expression as she straddled his hips, and she couldn’t remember ever feeling more powerful. They inhaled together when he sank deep, then paused for a breathless moment.
A guttural groan sounding vaguely like a curse escaped Mal as his fingers flexed on her hips.
Words and coherent thoughts scattered in the wake of feelings, and for once, Emma didn’t mind being out of control. Her head lolled back as she closed her eyes, allowing his hands to guide her movement, letting herself enjoy the sensation of his rough fingertips as they found all the places that made her body climb toward that peak.
When he was too gentle with her nipples, she covered his fingers to show him how she liked to be touched. The breathless words of encouragement he offered pulled her toward the edge. It didn’t take long for her to tumble over, free-falling and crying her release as her body milked his.
Then he was rolling them over, sliding out of her to slip down toward her waist and cover her throbbing clitoris with his mouth. It was her turn to swear when his tongue urged her to climb one more time. Trusting him to bring her to climax, Emma let herself go. No working, no thought of how she looked, or what she should be doing. There were only feelings and instincts at the helm. Her inner walls were clenching anew when he plunged inside her once again.
Knitting their fingers together, he pinned her hands over her head in surrender. A random thought of pirates plundering made her grin up at him, and he smiled back, then nipped her bottom lip. It wasn’t hard to imagine him on board ship with a cutlass, wind blowing his hair free of its queue—not when his body overwhelmed hers so powerfully.
