Page 45 of Would I Lie to the Duke
“Stay,” she said with urgency. Then, more calmly, “Please.”
The massive pleasure he felt from her urging him to stay was entirely unreasonable, definitely not ducal, but he didn’t care. “As you wish.”
“Do you know what I was doing here?” she asked after a pause. “I came here—to this place, away from the others, away from the Bazaar—because of how I feel about you. Because I want you.”
The pleasure he had felt moments earlier was dwarfed with this new elation. She brought him tothe heights of joy with an ease that ought to have panicked him—and yet he felt no fear.
A long, shuddering breath left him. “Four words,” he murmured. “That’s all it took from you and I’m as primed as a pistol. But, love, if you want me, why come out here?”
“Ishouldn’twant you,” she said ruefully.
He stroked the tips of his fingers down her cheek, then along her throat, where her pulse sped. “I’ve never been much interested inshouldsandoughts.”
She gave a soft laugh. “Because you’re a duke,” she said. “You can do anything you want and there’s no one to gainsay you.”
“Untrue.” He tilted her chin up so that their gazes met. “I met a striking young widow with a mind more cunning than any mechanical device. She told me to go slow, and I obeyed.”
She glanced down at where his knees met the stone floor. “You don’t have to kneel at my feet.”
His voice was deep and gravelly, even to his own ears. “Perhaps I want to be on my knees before you.”
Her mouth opened slightly, and the very tip of her tongue ran along her lower lip. A bead of perspiration traveled down the length of her neck to settle in the hollow of her collarbone.
They both considered what he’d just said, what he’d revealed. He was torn between arousal and rare apprehension, his cock already half-hard, his body aching for her.
“Tell me what you want,” he rasped. “Tell me, and I’ll do it.”
She sucked in a breath. Her gaze moved over his face as if searching for something, an answer or the question itself. In the quiet of the conservatory, her ragged inhalations mingled with his own.
He’d never wanted anyone more. “Jess.”
“Kiss me.”
No sooner had she uttered her command than he readily obeyed, leaning close to cup his hands around her jaw. She angled her mouth up to meet his.
There was the briefest pause as they held themselves in suspension. It was a mutual savoring of the moment—the last second of rational thought—before their lips came together.
This time, they did not linger on preliminaries or gradual submersion. It was reckless and blazing as they opened their mouths to each other. He groaned when her tongue immediately met his. She could not wait to lap at him, just as he needed to devour her now, in great, greedy draws. Each kiss shot straight to his cock—he was now so hard it verged on painful, but it was the kind of pain he welcomed, making him feel alive and fully present.
He knew her taste now, and only when her flavor filled him again did he realize how much he craved it.
He positioned himself between her legs that had fallen open, and she arched against him, rubbing the length of her torso on his. Every lush curve of her seared into his flesh. Yet he had better means of learning the feel of her. He skimmed his hands down her neck, along her arms, molding his palms to the curve of her waist and then cupping her breasts. Her nippleswere drawn into firm points and she moaned when he stroked them—through her bodice, then her bare flesh as he dipped his hands beneath the neckline of her gown. Softly, he pinched her nipples.
“Harder.” She lapped at him hungrily. Then, “God, yes,” when he did as she demanded.
“More,” he growled. “Give me more commands.” Ever since she’d verbally sparred with him the first day of the Bazaar, she had been the one in control. Having had a taste of bending to her mastery, he wanted to serve her forever, binding himself to her will so that he lived only to give her pleasure.
He was too inflamed to be shocked by this sudden need. It felt so perfect.
“Touch me,” she gasped into his mouth.
“Where? Tell me where you want me to touch you.”
“My...” She swallowed hard. “I want your hand on my pussy.”
He jolted with arousal. “You want me to make you come.”
“Do it,” she gasped. She dug her fingernails into his back, sharpening his need even more.
