Page 87 of Claimed By Her Forbidden Duke
She fought back a smile, not sure if they were teasing or fighting, not sure if he would push himself inside her again, or if he would let her continue her distracting ministrations over his clothing, but she enjoyed it. Embers sparked between them.
“In fact, I do not think I have seen half the danger you possess.” She wet her lips. “And I would like to.”
“Tell me what you imagine.”
Penelope pretended that her hand didn’t tremble with her worry over her lack of experience as she pulled his length free of his breeches and wrapped her hand around him as she had done earlier.
“I imagine you holding me as you did the first time. Holding me down, I mean.”
Her teeth caught her lower lip. That stoic defensiveness was slowly ebbing from Edmund’s face as she stroked up and down his length slowly, experimentally thumbing over the head.
“I imagine that if I move my hands from where you pin them, you will bind me. I-I like that.”
Edmund let out a stifled noise. Penelope used his reaction to stroke him harder.
“And then I think about you perhaps blocking my sight, leaving me in anticipation of where andhowyou will touch me. You would command me to be good and obedient, but not in the way that some women must. This… I would willingly give you that power over me. I imagine you handling me roughly because I would like it. I am not breakable, you would not break me, but I would like to see you try to.”
“Penelope,” he groaned, tipping his head back to look down at her from hooded lids. “Heavens, Iwouldbreak you.”
“Try,” she dared. “Try, for if I break into pieces, it will only be into that sweet oblivion you give me.”
He was hot in her hand, his length twitching, and she suddenly had the thought to taste it. To draw him into her mouth as he had with her heat. But she could not ignore the ache between her legs, ever craving him.
Straddling him right there in the hallway, Penelope lowered herself onto him once more, crying out as the tension from moments before erupted into pleasure.
Her hips rolled, and Edmund thrust up into her, this new angle and position making her see stars.
She took him like that until those stars exploded behind her eyes, and she realized how much he liked the thought of being rough with her.
When they were finally panting and sated, and Penelope wondered how they had made it to the stairs, Edmund pulled back, glancing towards the front door.
“It will be dawn soon. I must send you back home—you must be exhausted.”
“We could…” She hesitated. “We could always fall asleep here. The chamber where?—”
“No.”
The sharp refusal struck her, and she flinched. He saw it, and his face softened.
“I do not wish to risk you not making it back home. If we do not wake up in time… I won’t be able to live with myself.”
“Then perhaps we truly must make this the last time. A second one-night arrangement.”
Edmund nodded. “I agree.”
And they both nodded again, as they had earlier that night before collapsing into one another’s arms.
Edmund leaned down to kiss her, but it did not feel like a last kiss.
ChapterNineteen
“Penelope,” Edmund growled, crumpling the paper in his hand.
Her name had been on his lips for the past hour in annoyed grumblings, for he could not focus. The woman was not even in the room and she still stole his focus, as she had done ever since the night they’d met.
He began his plan again, trying to work out his next moves against Cyrus Reed. Gregory, the trusted servant who had been scouting the Poseidon warehouse, had not reported anything worthwhile yet, and Edmund knew he needed more avenues to work with. Julian had given him no other information, and he had barely thought to continue scouring the gambling hells and taverns.
Penelope drifted through his thoughts once more, and he knew that his need to have her was clouding anything else. He could not complain, for when he did not chase her, he craved her with his whole being, but when he did not have her, he couldn’t push thoughts of her away.
