Page 38 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke
“I knew you could follow rules with a little persuasion,” he told her, leaning in towards her body. “Veronica, you frustrate me. Every waking moment you are there, meddling and causing chaos and… giving me pent-up desires. And even when I am asleep, I dream of you, still. Perhaps I should keep you tied up like this if it allows me your silence.”
“I thought His Grace wanted to hear me,” she said, her voice shaky, but she felt daring.
Her hands were tied behind her back, and with his waistcoat hanging open and his collar undone, the Duke looked the picture of desire, and despite him being the one on his knees, his smirk told her enough: he was the one in charge.
“Be obedient to me, and you will get rewarded,” he told her. “And Ishallhear you.”
She glanced around the hallways for servants. “But?—”
“I do not care about them,” he growled. “Do not hold back your noises for me.”
Before she could react to his order, his fingers landed gently on her ankle, and he lifted his hand further up her calf.
Veronica gasped at the position she had found herself in but did not want to fight back. Her shoulders strained at the ties around her hands behind her back, her fingers curling around the silk.
It was still warm from the Duke’s skin.
And the Duke himself… He had her nightdress pushed up to her thighs. Kneeling before her, he held her gaze for one more moment, and Veronica inhaled shakily.
“Part your legs for me,” he told her, his voice commanding yet softly spoken, a part of this seductive game.
Rough yet gentle yet hard, a combination of both sides that had Veronica’s desire sparking hotter.
She had not experienced pleasure before aside from her own ministrations. Her mama had taught her little, but she understood enough of how it worked.
But what the Duke intended, as he finally pushed her nightdress aside, balling it in his fist to pull her flush against him, her backside right at his face, made her blush deeply…
No book or whispered giggle between friends had ever told her such things.
The air brushed right between her legs, causing shivers of sensitivity to go through her the moment before the Duke’s mouth landed on the back of her thigh. The press of his mouth was firm, silently demanding of her attention, and she inhaled, bracing herself. His kisses trailed down to the side of her knee to the other leg and right up, burning a trail on her skin before he ever reached her most intimate parts.
Then he was there, hovering, and she felt the warm fan of his breath.
Veronica shuddered as he grasped her thighs, pulling her open further, exposing her in such a lewd way. His mouth lowered to her folds.
“You are positively soaked already, Duchess,” he said, his voice rough.
Her body tingled. He wasright there, a hair’s breadth away from where she ached.
“Has this been the cause of my teasing and kisses?”
There was a condescension in his voice, but she knew, when she looked over her shoulder at him, there was evidence in his breeches that he was just as affected at her.
Hot and hard where she was wet and soft, ready for the pleasure he would bestow.
He pinched her hip. “Answer me.”
“Y-yes,” she hurried to answer. “I cannot bear the teasing any longer, Your Grace.”
He hummed, pressing a kiss to the swell of her backside, trailing inwards. “I cannot help it when your anticipating silence is so sweet. Knowing that it is the calm before your cries of pleasure fill this hallway.”
And before she could say anything else, his mouth met her folds, and he had his first taste of her pleasure, and she swore she heard the vibration of a deep growl in the Duke’s throat.
One kiss, right in the center of her heat, and the Duke snapped, pulling Veronica’s hips back, right against his face. Her answering moan was stuttered and high, spilling out into the echoing hallway as he had told her to do. His mouth parted, allowing his tongue to push into her, and she wondered how she felt and tasted for him. Every swipe and lick of his tongue had her keening, her hips canting, unsure of what to do except be still and good for him.
Where he moved, she allowed herself to follow under his guiding hands. He moved her hips in order to slide his tongue deeper. With him behind her, and her chest flushed to the wall, she lost herself to the new sensations. When he groaned against her intimate parts, Veronica could not hold back her motions, trying to find more desire against his tongue. It flicked inside her, delving into her pleasure so thoroughly she could not even think to hold back her noises. Behind her back, her fingers curled into the silk ends of the cravat, needing to hold ontosomethinglest she become so ungrounded.
The Duke held her roughly, his fingers digging into her hips, keeping her nightdress held aside, so it did not interfere as he licked her like a starved man. His eyes had closed as he suckled at her heat, pulling her closer every time she accidentally moved away with the sensitivity.
