Page 16 of Married Off by the Duke
“If only you knew how often your presence puts me in this condition. It has been the most vexing thing to want you so badly, despite your constant abuse—” He nuzzled her neck. Emma giggled.
“I wasn’t that bad!”
“I have never been likened to a turnip before.”
“Nor I to a pudding.” Relenting, Emma added, “Perhaps I was too eager to take you down a peg.”
“Finally, she admits it.”
Her grin wavered.
“I cannot fathom why you, a handsome, titled, obscenely wealthy lord, would take the slightest interest in an illegitimate nobody like me.”
If this was all an elaborate joke to humiliate and ruin her, Emma would change her name, move to the Continent, and never return to England again.
“I should never have said that. I’m sorry, darling.” His expression darkened. He rucked her petticoat up far enough to get his hand beneath the layers of cotton and murmured, “What can I do to demonstrate my remorse?”
For once, Emma had no words. How alarming to realize she already believed his sincerity. It was written in the worshipful way he looked at her, in the slight unsteadiness of his hands as he touched her in ways she’d never imagined.
Max made quick work of the tiny buttons, hooks, and ribbons holding closed her petticoats and pantalettes. He stripped them down her hips, leaving her naked on the bed. He knelt between her thighs, his hot gaze snagging on her stomach as he skimmed down her body.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
He traced one finger up her center. Emma gasped. All thoughts evaporated from her head when he slid two digits inside her. Her fingers curled around his forearm, clenching in time with each stroke as he pumped in and out.
She hadn’t known she needed this. Emma gave in, tilting to meet his rhythm. Little frantic wails burst out of her.
“Shh, someone will hear us.”
Oh, God, everyone in the household would know where Max slept last night and what they were doing now. Emma couldn’t bring herself to care. This was the biggest adventure she’d ever dared to imagine, and she wasn’t about to back out of it now. She’d deal with the consequences later.
Even if it meant marrying Max.
He lay beside her, half on top of her, curling his fingers to hit a spot inside her that made Emma’s back arch off the bed.
“Like that?” he growled.
She moaned against his shoulder. The climax hit hard, stiffening her muscles and dragging a low wail from her throat. Max grunted and delved deep, keeping a steady rhythm that drew out her pleasure for so long that it left her gasping when it finally subsided.
He chuckled with evident satisfaction and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then rolled away. His cock tented his trousers, visibly. Emma frowned. “Wait. What about you?”
“Another time, darling.”
Emma lay there, stunned, while Max shrugged into his shirt and sneaked out of her room like a common thief. She never would have expected her arrogant duke to give pleasure so generously, and then deny himself the same.
Clearly, she had misjudged him.
Or had she?
CHAPTER 9
“A-choo!”
Emma’s nose itched. It ached on the inside before each dust-induced sneeze. Had she known her first day at Kiefer’s Fine Books would involve climbing onto step stools, balancing while she leaned out to reach the books at the end of the shelf, and bending down to get to the bottom row, she would not have had her maid lace her corset so tightly. Not that she exactly wore her lacings tight in the first place.
Worse, her new day dress was covered in gray smudges. As much as she resisted being too invested in clothing, she was dismayed to realize what she’d done to a brand-new dress. Though she’d never gone wanting, it was a rare treat to have nice things.
“Are you ill, Miss Willis?”
