Page 74 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
Though she’d gotten most of the buttons on her own, she wanted his hands on her.
“Would you?” Turning her back to him, she reached up to expose her nape, then glanced at him over her shoulder. “There should only be a couple more buttons.”
“You’ve no idea how much I wish there were more buttons.”
Bella let out a shocked chuckle. “You could unbutton these few slowly.”
She wanted him with an eagerness that made her body tremble, but she wanted to go slow too. To savor every moment.
He didn’t attack the buttons. First, he simply laid his hands on her back. Then his mouth came down in a searing single kiss at the base of her neck. Just as she suspected he intended, a chill chased down her spine.
“You smell like flowers and taste like salty sea air.”
Bella laughed. “Like a violet-scented sailor?”
“You would make for a fearsome lady pirate,” he whispered against her skin.
“Perhaps we should go into the bedroom?”
“We should.”
Yet he didn’t make any move toward the small room off of the cottage’s main living area.
“It’s that way,” Bella said, glancing toward the open door.
“Oh, I know where it is. I want you to lead the way. I can’t bear for you to have any regrets.”
She didn’t. She wouldn’t. Even if this day, this moment, were the only one they’d have free of rules and what was expected of them, she would not regret her choice.
Slipping her hand into his, she led him through the low doorway.
“You’ll show me?”
“Anything you like.”
“I have some idea but I don’t know—”
He stopped her with a kiss, and then he slid a hand around her nape, drawing her closer and stroking her hair as she moaned against his lips.
“You just feel, Bella,” he whispered before taking her mouth again. “No rules. No propriety. No duty.Just pleasure.” He stroked his hand across her shoulder and down the length of her back, a delicious trail of sensation and warmth that made her body pulse with need.
Why had she wished to take this slow?
She worked the buttons of his waistcoat free as she kissed him. He reached around and slipped the hooks on her skirt. Together, they made quick work of each layer of clothing. Only when there was nothing but his trousers and her chemise and drawers between them did she place a hand on his chest to catch her breath.
“We can stop—” The words emerged from his lips breathless and ragged.
“No.” Bella realized he misunderstood.
As difficult as she found it to speak of what she felt, in this moment she needed to. There could be no uncertainty between them, at least for today.
“I want this. I want you.”
“And I want you,” he said huskily, and then let out a hiss when she reached to unbutton his trousers.
She marveled at the way he reacted to her. Reveled in it. He might like her eagerness, but he waited patiently while she tugged at the fastenings and ran her fingers over the muscled ridges of his stomach. Then she dipped her hand lower. He was burning hot and hard and felt extraordinary under her fingers.
Though she’d never seen a living man unclothed, she’d seen pictures in books, sculptures in museums.Rhys’s body was made with a different mold. His chest was broad and muscular, his thighs too.
