Page 53 of What's a Duke Got to Do With It
For tonight only, a cruel part of her mind whispered. She hastily shut it up tight. She would not allow reason to diminish this time with him. Tonight he was hers. And she was his.
Though her heart would remain with him for so much longer than this one stolen night.
His skin was slightly salty, and so very warm, and she reveled in the feel of him beneath her mouth. His muscles bunched and twitched beneath her greedy fingers as she skimmed over his abdomen, memorizing each delicious inch of him. When she reached the fall of his trousers, however, suddenly his hands were on hers, stopping them.
“Katrina,” he rasped, his voice agonized in the quiet of the room.
She raised her head, gazing up at him, knowing her love for him shone from her eyes and not caring. “I want you to love me, Sebastian,” she whispered.
But he was shaking his head. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I do.” She smiled, for she had never been so sure of anything in her life. There was no feeling of wrongness in what she wished to do with Sebastian. In fact, nothing in her life had ever felt so right. She loved him. And however dire or heartbreaking her future may be, she knew she would never regret claiming a night with him.
“I do know what I’m asking,” she repeated. She cupped his cheek with her palm, feeling his jaw clench beneath her touch, proof of his tightly held control. “I want you, Sebastian. I want to have one beautiful night with you, to forget everything and everyone else. I want to pretend, just for a few hours, that all is right with the world, that I belong to you and you alone.”
He closed his eyes and groaned, a tortured sound, turning his head and pressing a desperate kiss to her palm. When he looked back at her, there were tears glistening in his eyes, shining like precious diamonds in the low firelight.
“Yes,” he breathed, his gaze trailing over her face, the most precious caress. “For just tonight, you are mine. And I am yours.”
And then his mouth was back on hers, more desperate this time. How was it, she wondered blearily as their lips and tongues clashed and their hands roamed over one another’s bodies, that a person could feel equal parts joy and heartbreak? That one could simultaneously get everything one had ever wanted while knowing everything one ever dreaded was soon to come?
But she would not focus on the heartbreak of their inevitable parting. No, tonight was for joy, and coming together. And love. For she would never love another as much as she did this man, the other half of her.
Their desperate fingers made quick work of their clothes as they blindly stumbled toward the bed, leaving a trail in their wake: first her gown, then her corset, then his trousers. Before they tumbled to the mattress, however, Sebastian stopped and pulled back. For a moment she feared he had come to his senses and would put a stop to this once and for all.
But no, there was only gentleness and desire in his eyes as he drank her in. Then he reached down, grasping the hem of her chemise, and pulled it up and over her head.
She should perhaps feel shy, or ashamed, or scandalous as his eyes roved over her naked body. But as his gaze turned hot and his breath quickened, she felt only pride that he desired her.
“You are beautiful,” he whispered, stepping closer, his hands skimming up her torso, light as a butterfly wing, trailing over her rib cage, along the side of her breast. She held her breath, her eyes growing heavy and her legs going weak until, finally, he cupped her breast in his palm. A low moan escaped her lips as his thumb grazed her nipple and a shaft of pure fire blossomed between her legs.
“No, you are more than beautiful,” he rasped, his other arm coming around her to bring her close. “You are exquisite.” And then he dipped his head, taking her nipple in his mouth.
Katrina arched her back over his supporting arm, the only thing keeping her upright even as her fingers dove into the soft, dark waves of his hair, holding his head prisoner against her breast. She bit her lip to hold back the cry that rose up in her. Dear God, she had never expected something like this. She had read of the sensations that the human body could feel in the throes of passion, of course, the pamphlets and books that Lady Tesh had supplied to the Quayside having given her a fairly comprehensive idea of what could occur between two people in bed. And Bronwyn’s recounting of her intimate moments with her husband, Ash, as minimal and evasive as those were, had made her aware that the sexual act between two people who truly loved one another could be indescribably beautiful.
But she had never in her life imagined this was possible, this ecstasy that was quickly stealing through her body, filling her with both a heady languidness and a frantic need. And then he lifted her in his arms and lowered her to the bed, quickly divesting himself of his smalls before coming down over her, and she knew this was only the beginning.
At the feel of her bare skin against his, so damn silky and smooth, Sebastian shuddered. Dear God, she was heaven in his arms. He had never in his life experienced something so exquisitely beautiful. Was this what love did then? Did it bring a closeness previously unimaginable, making it seem as if his heart beating against her own was somehow in synch, that they were of one mind, one heart?
When her legs parted to accommodate his hips, however, he lost all ability to think coherently. Ah, yes, this was heaven, right here on earth.
“Katrina,” he managed, his lips brushing hers, taking her rapid breath into his lungs before trailing his mouth over her cheek to the long, arching column of her throat. “Katrina, what you do to me.”
But as her sweet voice breathed his name, filling his heart, he also knew he had to hold onto a semblance of reason. She was upset and hurting. He could not take advantage of her.
And she was not his to claim.
Pulling back, he gazed down into her flushed face. Which may have been a monumental mistake. With her kiss-bruised lips and pale hair in a tumbled halo about her head, she was so beautiful his chest ached.
And then she opened those glorious eyes of hers, the clear blue of them filled with so much love and trust he nearly fell back into the spell of her without a second thought.
But her future happiness was too important to him. He cared too much for her to see her have even a moment’s regret from this.
No, he more than cared for her. He loved her, with his entire body and soul.
“Katrina,” he murmured, smoothing a lock of hair back from her cheek, “we have to stop. We cannot do this. For once it is done, there is no coming back from it.”
Which should have been like ice water to their passions. Surely now she would see the folly of their actions and put a stop to it once and for all. Which made him want to simultaneously weep and curse.
