Page 29 of Denying a Rakish Duke
Vanessa debated whether or not she could tell him to leave. On the one hand, no interactions between them since the scandal would have given him any impression that she desired him. On the other hand, he was here and not with the harlots that he had threatened her with.
“I have been over and over it,” he started finally as if picking up the train of thought from inside of his head, “every terrible moment of it, and I cannot come to the conclusion of how we went from that eventful evening— to this.” He motioned with his hands to the space where he stood but only paused his pacing for a moment. He looked at her, hopeful that she might catch his meaning, but it was obvious that she did not; she looked frightened of him, of his sudden outbursts. “You are my wife; this is our wedding night and with that comes obligations,” he said firmly.
Her eyes widened, but she did not move when he crossed the chamber to her. This was the part that she did not allow herself to think about. Apart from the things that she had overheard in her sisters’ conversations, she was unprepared which was both hers and her mother’s fault.
Though she knew the look on his face; she knew now what was coming even before his hand lifted to cup the back of her neck. The pillow fell from her hands to the floor between their feet, forgotten, as her chin lifted to meet his lips, and he bent to kiss her.
Things seemed to make so much more sense when he held her. His other hand slid around her waist, pulling her closer to him and holding her to his body until not even oxygen could fit between them. The fabric of her dressing gown was pulled tightly around her waist, tighter as he balled the fabric up in his fist. The bitter, anxious thoughts in her mind quieted down first into a dull roar, and then they faded away into nothing. She was brightly aware of the places his fingers pressed into the curve of her back, pulling her closer as her hands hovered, curled at the elbow, unsure how she should respond.
Slowly her hands lowered to his biceps, the firm muscle holding her tightly. She supposed that she was allowed to touch him now; he was her husband. Perhaps she had been too harsh on Joseph as he had actually married her as a result. He could have left her to ruin.
Tentatively, her hands slid up his arms and around his shoulders. The tension he held there melted away under her touch; he could breathe again as he took her slight movements as both forgiveness and permission. There was still much to be said, but she tasted so sweet on his tongue. For all of her bitter words and scathing remarks, for all of the anger that she possessed … she tasted like his own personal ambrosia. She was promise and spark, his whole future in his hands, and he could touch it.
He walked them the three steps to the bed and lowered her backward onto it. He lifted her easily with one arm, sliding her further up the space so that he might join her. Her hands rounded his neck, and tangled in his short hair, reluctant to be parted from him as he pushed her knees apart with his own.
Such a strange, exciting sensation to be underneath him, the weight of him stretching her inner thighs as he held himself above her. He lowered until she could feel the heat of him against her core, a sensation building in heat and pressure below her navel. “I do not—” she muttered as their lips broke apart. She felt so vulnerable admitting that she did not know what she was supposed to do.
Joseph smiled comfortingly, “Just do whatever feels good. There is no wrong way, and if something is unpleasant for you— tell me, and I shall amend it instantly.” He punctuated his words with a kiss to the corner of her lips then her jaw, and he slowly started to kiss the side of her neck, trailing the brush of his lips with a sweep of his tongue, a soft, suctioning pressure that left her eyes fluttering closed. “Does that feel good?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together and nodded. “Mmhm.”
He pulled the sleeve of her dressing gown down over her shoulder and bit the soft skin gently. “And this?” Fingers danced over her arm and to the curve of her breast, cupping the skin in his palm and massaging firmly. “Speak, Vanessa.”
She was breathless but nodded. A soft cry forced from her lips as he found her nipple and rolled it between his fingers.
“Yes, do not hold yourself back,” he spoke between kisses. “Soon, when you are ready— I will not have to hold back either, and I can do all of the wonderfully sinful things that I have fantasized about doing to you since the first moment I first laid eyes on you.” He glanced up at her and pulled the dressing gown down lower, exposing her peaked breast to him. He was ravenous for her and captured the rosy skin between his lips and sucked. Vanessa’s head fell backward heavily into the pillows.
“W…what things?” she spoke to the ceiling of her bed.
“I have wanted to touch you, to have you in my bed. I wish to consummate our marriage on every surface of this house and then some. I wish to fill you with me until we have an Estate full of children that are beautiful combinations of us. Margot, I—”
Vanessa froze. Her hands yanked back to her person as she scrambled to pull herself away from the man on top of her. She roughly jerked at the dressing gown to pull it back into place before she managed to find her footing. She planted one foot against Joseph’s chest and shoved as hard as she could to dislodge him.
“No— Vanessa, no, please— I did not mean to; it was a mistake,” Joseph attempted to apologize, over and over again the words poured from his lips.
“So that is her name, is it? Your mistress that you intend to keep warming your bed with?Margot?!” Vanessa’s teeth bared as she grimaced through the word. “Is that the same sort of sweet nothings you place in her ears? Generic but empty promises? You thought that I could be appeased with the same thing as all of the other women? Out. Get out!” she shouted as she clutched her dressing gown tightly to herself.
“No! Please! It was a mistake! I would not ever say something like that to her—”
“You have made your opinions and intentions quite clear, Your Grace. I had thought that I made myself perfectly clear— I will not be courted or won by a man who cannot give me his whole heart, and that has not changed! I thought that you had come here toapologize!”
“I had! I had thought that—”
“Get out,” Vanessa commanded.
“If you could give me but a moment to explain what has happened! Please! You must understand!”
“I do not have to doanything! Get out at once!”
“You and I still have duties to perform, duties that shall be expected of us from our wedding night!”
Vanessa picked up the closest pillow to her and threw it at Joseph’s head with as much force as she could possibly muster. “I will not have you in my bed, not until you come to your senses! Getout!” she shouted.
Joseph could feel his temper flaring, and he stormed out of her chamber. The door nearly shook in its frame with the force of the slam.
ChapterEighteen
“What is going on here?” Vanessa asked the nearest servant beside the entrance to Evan’s Manor. “I understand that I had not written ahead to announce my arrival, but I thought that it should be like every other uneventful afternoon here. What is all of the commotion about?” She pulled her bonnet from her head and the gloves from her arms and handed them to the girl she spoke with who seemed rather uncomfortable with the whole situation.
