Page 58 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“Yes?” he said, his voice slightly muffled by the kisses to her skin.
“How else do you like to make a woman smile?”
“That might take a while to explain.” He held a playful smile as he lifted his lips and looked her in the eyes. Her expression was serious though as she shook her head, ever so softly. There was something in her eyes he hadn’t seen before, a restlessness that meant they wouldn’t stay still. They were passing over him, moving from his chest across the stubble on his jaw, his lips, and up to his eyes.
“No, Asher. I do not want you totellme what you do. I want you toshowme.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Are you sure?” Asher’s question gave Penelope the chance to refuse if she wanted to, only she didn’t want to. “You once made me promise not to push you into sharing yourself with me, Penny.” His voice had turned deeper. “I have vowed not to unless you wanted it.”
His words made her lower her hands a little until they were resting on the flat of his chest.
“I do not mean show me everything; I mean… show me something of what it could be like. Please?” she asked breathlessly.
“Thank God for that.” He reached up and kissed her, showing his assent with the action. The kiss was the most heated they had ever shared. Nothing was still with hands running over each other and their bodies moving.
Penelope moved her body against his, experimenting with the feeling of the excitement that coiled in her chest and travelled somewhere much lower. With one arm firmly around her waist, Asher lifted her from him. She made a small sound of surprise into their kiss, but the noise was quickly swallowed by Asher as he pushed the kiss further, claiming her tongue.
He rolled her over until her body was pressed beneath him on the rug with their tongues dancing together, finer than any waltz. She was aware of his hands moving, pushing the bucket of strawberries and melted chocolate pot away on the hearth of the fireplace. The whole time, her hands were on him, tangling her fingers in his brown hair.
His hands went for her dress, dragging the skirt of it upward. Penelope felt the silken skirt of the dress and the shift beneath being dragged around her hips. She didn’t mind she was exposing her bare legs to him. The intimacy felt right, as though they belonged in this way.
He parted from their kiss, lowering his eyes as he concentrated on his task of bundling the skirt around the tops of her thighs. She lifted a hand to the necklace, tracing the emerald with her fingers. She had never expected him to do anything so thoughtful as to buy her a gift that was so wholly focused on her.
‘They match your eyes.’That’s what he had said, and that’s what he had been thinking when he had purchased the gift for her.
Asher, you make resisting you impossible!
In that moment, she didn’t care if Asher was courting Margaret, or if this could only last five nights. She just wanted to know more of him, to know how they could be together and experience something of the excitement that could be between them.
When her legs were bare, he nudged them to the side, so that they fell open. Then he rested himself forward, making them both gasp as she cradled his hips with her own, and her knees were lifted around his hips.
“Do you trust me?” he asked in a whisper as he bent down over her. She blinked a few times with her legs trembling around his hips. He passed a palm over one of her thighs, eliciting another one of those excited shudders and making her smile.
“You are asking me to trust a rake?” she teased.
“I guess I am,” he chuckled softly.
“Yes.” Her answer came a moment later.
“Then close your eyes,” he whispered to her, placing a brief kiss to her lips. She made the kiss linger a little longer before letting him part from her. She kept her eyes firmly shut, biting her lip and wondering what he was going to do.
She felt him lower himself down even more, his breath tickling the exposed skin of her cleavage. Her breath picked up, her chest heaving quicker as he began to travel down her body. She was very aware when he hovered around her legs. With her skirts raised so high, he had access to her, and the mere thought of it made a wetness pool between her legs, longing to know how it could feel if he touched her there.
Penelope felt him nudge her legs softly upward, so that her skirt fell around her waist with her chemise, revealing her body completely to him. She closed her eyes tighter, imaging how he must look as he traced his hands across the curve of her hips and down to the tops of her thighs. She bit her lip, holding in a moan.
“You do not need to be quiet, Penny,” he whispered to her. “Fortunately, the staff are all downstairs tonight.” She giggled though she kept her eyes closed, just as she had promised.
He distracted her with his hands, softly brushing his fingers over the tops of her thighs and her hips. At one point, he went near her center, taunting her with the promise of what they could share. Her back arched off the rug when he did, desiring it, her body curving toward him.
She was aware of Asher moving again, his body lowering down to her. Yet his fingers were not the first thing to touch her center, it was his lips in a kiss. Penelope’s eyes shot open in surprise. She had not expected the touch Asher gave her to be something so intimate. He was kissing her in the most personal place possible, and it was far from chaste. He was beginning to dive deeper, exploring her with his tongue. Each brush made the thrill in her stomach grow.
Soon, her body was frantic with that pleasure. She was reaching beneath herself to the rug, grasping the Persian threads in her hands and wrenching them between her fingers with desperation to grab onto something.
She had to look down at what he was doing to her. When she saw his chocolate brown hair in the unruly curls on his forehead bent down between her legs, the pleasure grew, especially when he looked up to her, connecting their gazes as he continued to kiss her. The sight made her moan and force her head to drop back down to the rug again.
He grew animated. He took hold of one of her legs and hooked it over his shoulder, angling her body more upward to him, then one of his hands found her center as well. The dual feeling of Asher’s hand and lips on her made her peak come closer and closer at a fast pace.
