Page 79 of Would I Lie to the Duke
He brought one of his hands around her hips. His fingers found her clitoris, circling it, rubbing against her sensitive flesh as he fucked her steadily.
“Oh, God,” she gasped. “I—” She let out a long, full-throated moan of release.
A moment later, he pulled out. He grunted as his entire being was suffused with pleasure, and his seed shot from him.
She collapsed onto the bed. He grabbed a cloth from the washstand and cleaned her, before setting the fabric aside. He lowered down beside her, and then, sated, exhausted, exhilarated, he gathered her up in his arms. She snuggled against him, her breath soft and warm against his chest.
“How?” he murmured. “How does it keep getting better and better?”
“No idea,” she said drowsily. “But it does.”
Time slipped away and he couldn’t stop it. He had power over so many things in life, but not that. Having her in his arms now, he could not imagine the nights ahead where his arms held only his memories of her. He needed her as he needed sunshine. Existing in permanent grayness was possible—but she would bring brightness and joy.
“You should see this place in the winter,” he murmured. “Sometimes it snows—not abundantly, but enough to cover everything with sparkling diamonds.”
“How marvelous.”
“It is, rather.” He rubbed his lips over the crown of her head. “My friends, the Union—this is a place for us. When we were younger, wilder—”
“Thisis a tamer version of you?” She shot him a wry look.
“Quiet, madam, or I will hold you down and fuck you with my mouth until you scream yourself hoarse.”
“I fail to see how that’s supposed to deter me.”
He nipped at her shoulder. “As I was saying before a saucy minx interrupted me, I bring my close friends here, but no one else.”
“Yet you opened your doors to the Bazaar.”
“I opened my doors toyou,” he amended. “They happened to come along. That happens often—crowds gather around me. Always more and more people.”
Leaning on her elbow, she propped her head on her hand. “You’re a popular man. Everyone wants to bask in your radiance.”
He lay on his back to stare at the canopy. “Everyone wants something from me. They’ve told me whatever I wanted to hear, stuffed me with falsehoods and pretty fabrications, all to advance themselves. It’s been that way since...” He mulled it over. “Since always.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“Sometimes.” He turned his head to look at her. “I’ve got Rowe and Curtis and McCameron and Holloway—you haven’t met him yet. They’re genuine. In twenty years, they’ve never once fed me beautiful lies.” He snorted. “Can’t dine forever on untruths. You feel full, but you wind up starving to death.”
“It’s an empty diet,” she said softly.
“That’s why I don’t stomach it anymore. I used to, but the older I became, the less acceptance I had for it. The deceivers and the lying sycophants have no place in my life. I don’t have to endure that kind of dishonesty.” He captured her hand with his own and brought it to his lips. “There’s nothing to endure with you. Every moment with you is the best I’ve known. I know you, Jess. I trust you. With everything.”
Now is the time.She had to feel how his heart sped up as he spoke the words he had never said before. “I have feelings for you, Jess. Strong feelings. I don’t want you to go to the Continent.” He held her steady with his gaze. “Stay here, with me.”
Her soft, loose-limbed body stiffened. The moment he felt the change in her, icy fear stole through him. That fear grew and became monstrous as she disentangled herself from his embrace.
She rose from the bed. Lifting himself up on his elbows, he watched her as she hunted down her nightgown and drew it on. Her face was a tight mask and she blinked hard, as if chasing away tears.
“Jess?”
“I—” She grabbed her shawl and threw it over her shoulders. When she finally met his gaze, her eyes were tormented, and her lower lip trembled.
Remorse. That was what he saw in her face. A scouring sorrow that took the beautiful pleasure they’d made and turned it into something ashen and cold.
She dashed her knuckles across her eyes. “I can’t, Noel. I can’t—”
Then she was gone, fleeing so quickly she barely had time to close the door behind her. Alone, naked, stripped bare of everything that had once protected him, Noel lay back in his vast, empty bed and stared at the canopy overhead.
