Page 47 of The Duke's All That
The sound she made was erotic enough, especially said in that husky voice of hers that he felt straight to his toes. But she gave a little stretch, arching against him, her leg rubbing between his and fairly melting his bones from the heat that scorched him.
“Lass,” he choked out, rubbing his hand over the silky-smooth skin of the arm she had wrapped around his waist, “if you continue to do that, you shall not be leaving this bed anytime soon.”
She stilled, and he cursed his loose tongue for ruining the moment. No matter how delicious this was, last night was all there would be between them; he had best get that through his thick skull.
But she shocked him by smiling and dipping her hand beneath the sheets. Her slender fingers wrapped around his quickly hardening cock.
“Perhaps I wouldn’t mind that so very much,” she replied softly. “Would you?”
“God no,” he groaned before his mouth found hers.
This was no slow rediscovery. It was fast, and hard, and not at all graceful. Hands fumbling, kisses clumsy and quick, their bodies were more than ready as he slid between her thighs. He entered her in one swift, smooth motion, their breaths hissing from their lips in mutual satisfaction. He felt as if he was claiming something taboo, a moment that should not have been, a gift that he should have never received. And yet it was all the more precious for it. She wrapped her legs about his waist, tilting her hips, drawing him farther in, and he shuddered at just how deeply and totally he was inside her. Would that he could take his time, that he could focus on remembering every kiss and caress.
But with her hot whispers in his ear, her hungry hands roaming his body and encouraging him to ride her harder, faster, he could do little else but succumb. And when her inner muscles tightened about him as she found her release, only to be replaced by her hands as she pushed him from her sated body and rolled him onto his back to pump him to completion, he gave himself up to it, and gladly.
That soul-shattering ecstasy, however, was not to be held on to. Even as he reached for her to pull her back into his arms, a sudden muffled squawking started up, coming from Seraphina’s bedroom. Phineas, awake and looking for attention.
“The damn pigeon,” he groaned as Seraphina, having heard the call of her pet, quickly rose from the bed and gathered up her nightgown, further increasing his torment as her delectable body was hidden from view.
But no matter how sated he might be, or how morose he was watching her slip on her spectacles and smooth downher hair as she headed for the damned parrot, none of that mattered when, reaching the door and pulling it open, she turned back to him with a small, intimate smile that had his body stirring to life once more.
“I know we did not intend for things to go beyond what we shared last night,” she said, even as her hot gaze roved over him naked in the bed. “But I do think this morning proves there is still a bit more of a particular scratch we need to itch. And as we still have one more night before we reach Edinburgh, would you be open to—”
“Yes,” he replied before she could finish what she was going to ask. “God yes.”
Her smile widened, filled with promise. “Well then. I’ll leave you to dress and pack and shall see you in a bit.” And with that she was out the door. And Iain leapt from the bed, more eager for the day than he could remember being in too many long, lonely years.
“Tell me about your circulating library.”
Seraphina glanced up at Iain, who was walking at her side along the pale sand beach near Dunbar, their afternoon stop on the way to Haddington. “The Quayside?”
“Aye.” He picked up a small rock, lobbing it out over the waves. “I wish to hear all about it. It is nae small feat, opening such an establishment.”
A sudden self-consciousness overcame her. “Nonsense,” she replied brusquely. “If I can do it, anyone can. It just took a bit of determination.”
“And hard work, and daring, and strength of character,” he added, his lips quirking as he gazed down at her.
Seraphina’s awkwardness increased at the admiring look, her cheeks warming uncomfortably. “You give me too much credit.”
“Nae,” he said, his voice soft and gentle. “I daresay you do nae give yourself enough. Now, tell me about this Quayside of yours.”
She shrugged. “I needed a stable income to support my sisters, and when we arrived on the Isle of Synne I took a position at the local circulating library. But it was a pathetic thing, with an owner who did not care if it failed or not. When she saw my passion for it, she offered to sell the place to me. I knew I could not pass up such a chance, so I agreed and turned it into the Quayside it is today. It has been mine and my sisters’ ever since.”
“Such a venture cannae have been easy.” Iain’s voice took on a different cadence, a sharp interest coating his words, his gaze equally sharp on her profile. “It must have taken quite a healthy bit of capital.”
That, finally, made her smile, and not only for the sudden businesslike mien he had adopted. No, the remembrance of just where that capital had come from had her smiling as well.
“I was lucky in that,” she replied. “I, of course, did not have nearly enough funds to purchase it, but when Lady Tesh, a permanent resident and the self-proclaimed matriarch of the Isle, heard of the possible change of hands she approached me. She offered to put up the rest of the funds, if I supplied the unmarried women of Synne certain periodicals to… educate them in subjects often lacking in female education.”
He blinked. “Subjects of an… intimate nature, I assume?”
She grinned. “You assume correctly. Lady Tesh is of theopinion that a woman can better protect herself in life if she has the proper tools. As it is an opinion I share, we made a partnership that has become lucrative for both of us.”
Iain returned her grin. “She sounds like quite the woman.”
“Oh, she certainly is.”
“And so you have this Lady Tesh for a patroness. And you are friends with a duchess.”
