Page 43 of The Wayward Duke
After double-checking her calculations, Caroline gave a decisive nod. “Definitely French for the latter portion. Eight single alphabets total, by my estimation.” She straightened, rolling her shoulders again beneath Julian’s idle palms. “Would you like to help me determine the Vigenère alphabet for… each…”
Her words trailed off as she glanced up, finally noting the naked want burning in Julian’s stare. He surged forward to capture her mouth with his. Nipped at her lower lip, coaxing until she opened with a shuddered gasp. He swept his tongue alongside hers, and she arched into him, nails biting into his bare skin. He swallowed her moans, tracing fingertips down her throat.
A memory, that kiss. Their bodies were a language they shared, unchanged even after all this time.
Julian drew back to press his forehead to hers. “You solving cryptograms is the most erotic thing I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.”
A flush darkened her cheeks. “It’s just statistical analysis,” she demurred.
“Mm.” He leaned in to brush his lips along the shell of her ear, eliciting a visible shiver. “Employing Kasiski examination and identifying isomorphic alphabets. Talking maths and logic and order while perched on my thighs.”
Before she could respond, he twisted his fingers through her elegant chignon. Julian’s teeth grazed the skin over her frantic pulse, mapping the graceful arch of her throat with lips and teeth. “I love watching you work,” he said. “What would you do next?”
Caroline’s response came on a panting exhale as his hands rucked up her skirts. “Write out possible permutations for each column until the letters are revealed.”
Julian’s lips curved against her fevered skin. Even now, poised on the crux between logic and desire, that formidable intellect would not yield.
She was a challenge, his wife.
Sliding his palm down to her breast, he murmured into her ear, “Quantify the letter values, and I’ll slip my hand beneath your skirts and make you come.”
“I want more than that,” she said. “You left me unsatisfied last time.”
Unsatisfied?He’d have to remedy that. “Me inside you? Is that what you want, my duchess? Very well, then. Quantify the letter values, and I’ll fuck you on this divan.”
An answering wickedness sparked behind her eyes. “Youquantify them.” Caroline extricated herself from his embrace and stood up. “For every five letters you can decipher based on my frequency analysis, I’ll undo a button. Solve the entire cryptogram, and these undergarments come off.”
There stood his wife, debauched and daring, using her prodigious intellect in service to desire. She wore a deep blue dress, her luscious curves visible beneath the fabric. She hadn’t bothered with a corset or petticoats this morning – fewer garments to remove.
This game was in his favour.
“And then?” he asked.
She gave him a wicked smile. “I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.”
Caroline Hastings completely at his mercy. He almost groaned.
Control. Just a bit longer.
Julian snatched up the cryptogram and set pen to foolscap, attacking it with single-minded focus. Logarithms and letter frequencies soon filled the page in bold slashes of ink. The orderly rows and columns made sense, each one bringing him nearer to the prize of Caroline stripped bare before him.
Letters correlated to numerical values, frequencies converted to probable words. Julian’s pen scratched over the paper as his mind formed connections – code and pattern and mathematics coalescing into meaning. His reward came button by button. Pale skin unveiled inch by devastating inch. The slope of her collarbone. The swells of her breasts. The indentation of her waist.
The dress hit the floor.
Julian’s breath fractured at the sight of her flawless skin, clad now in only a thin chemise and drawers. Christ, she was exquisite.
Caroline raised one challenging eyebrow as if to say:Is that the best you can do?
Common letters formed common words.Je. De. Un. Est.Index of coincidence correlated probable phrases as the remaining letters took shape. Julian scribbled faster.
At this point, he would write out the entirety of Dante’sInfernoif that’s what it took to get her naked.
As the last word fell into place, Julian tossed the papers and pen aside. He grabbed her, tearing the gossamer fabric of her chemise in a violent motion that bared her naked body to his starving gaze. All patience shattered. Hauling her down onto the divan, Julian claimed her lips in a fierce kiss, a conqueror revelling in his spoils.
He rocked against her, his cock nudging between her thighs. They had drifted far too long, twin planets sprung from alignment. But gravity was reasserting its claim. He needed her too much for tenderness.
Fortunately, Caroline did nothing by halves – she responded to his claim with equal fervour. “Tell me precisely how you want me to reward you for solving that code.”
