Page 70 of A Duke to Undo her
“In the right setting for the goddess Flora to be stolen away and ravished by her husband,” the duke teased, making Josephine’s belly contract and her blood rush in her veins.
As Josephine stood, she seemed to see the him once more as he had been that day in the woods a few weeks earlier when she had been lost with a lame horse and Cassius had found her.
Again, his hair was disheveled from riding in the open air, his jacket was unfastened and his stock awry. The worry of that day was gone from his face now, but a certain tension was still present, and Josephine could still detect the same hunger in his eyes. With a delicious shiver, she remembered how desperately his hands had sought her body under that unyielding riding habit.
“Are you coming down to join me? Or are you inviting me to really carry you off?” the duke prompted with a raised eyebrow.
“Both,” Josephine answered very honestly, desiring nothing more than to be in her husband’s arms. “As long as we stay in the woods. I don’t want to go back yet.”
After a short laugh, Cassius reached up and pulled her down into his arms as Josephine’s arms twined around his neck for a long and loving kiss.
“Your wish is my command, and my desire, Duchess Josephine,” he told her with a grin. “They made us wait and now we make them wait. Let us find a comfortable spot.”
“Shall I walk?” Josephine offered, not yet entirely sure what Cassius was planning or how far he could reasonably carry her.
“No, I can’t have you escaping me again,” her new husband announced and tossed her easily but carefully over one of his shoulders so that she squealed with surprised laughter and lost all concern over his ability to bear her weight. “This time, you will be mine, Josephine.”
In a small grove a little way from the path, Cassius set Josephine back down on her feet again, laughing and breathless with her dress off one shoulder and little doubt left in her mind now as to his intention.
The duke lost no time in kissing her bared shoulder as he shrugged off his jacket. When he looked up again, Josephine covered his face with light kisses, hearing and feeling the sound of his breath beginning to strain with desire and wanting him to know how much she returned his longing.
“Promise me you won’t stop this time,” Josephine blurted as his hand settled over one of her breasts and his mouth sought hers. “I couldn’t bear it, not now. I want you to show me everything that men and women do. Promise me, Cassius.”
Josephine’s sudden anxiety was real. She had been intimate with Cassius before, but had been pushed away each time before either of their hunger was completely assuaged. The idea of melting into his touch and being abandoned yet again felt too cruel.
“Even if you get with child?” he asked her tenderly, stroking her face. “You know that is a consequence of our fullest pleasure?”
Josephine nodded, meeting the questioning gaze of Cassius’ dark blue eyes.
“I’m aware of that, although I do not understand entirely how it happens,” she confessed to him. “You will have to show me.”
“I swear I will give you all that you desire today, Josephine,” he told her, moving now as though to draw her down with him onto the mossy ground. “Do not fear.”
“Oh, my dress!” Josephine suddenly exclaimed in vexation, causing the duke to yelp with laughter, despite the intensity of the moment. “It will get marked, won’t it?”
“I never thought I would see the day when Lady Josephine worried overmuch about the condition of her dress, especially not at a moment such as this.”
“Constance gave it to me,” Josephine tried to explain. “I would not want to ruin it, especially since we must see her back at Ashbourne Castle.”
“Well, then,” answered Cassius with twinkling eyes as he unfastened the button at the back of her dress and slipped it from both shoulders along with the fine petticoat beneath. “The solution is obvious, is it not?”
Moaning lightly, Josephine pressed herself into the stroking of his hands on her bare back, her arms and then her breasts. It took only a moment more for Cassius to unfasten her sash and then let fall the white silk skirts and cotton petticoat entirely. It was a warm late summer’s day and she wore nothing else beneath the dress except for her stockings and garters.
“That is better,” Cassius pronounced, his voice deepened now with his lust as his hand slid over Josephine’s rounded bottom and then drew up one of her legs to stroke as he kissed her mouth. “Much better…”
“You must be naked too,” she gasped, her hands urgently working at his buttons and collar fastenings. “Both of us.”
“Yes,” the duke agreed, his own hands already helping her, almost ripping off his collar in his eagerness.
As soon as his waistcoat and shirt were pulled away Josephine covered his dark-haired chest with kisses, just as she had covered his face a few minutes earlier. This man was hers now and she was his.
“God, yes…” Cassius groaned his enjoyment as Josephine deepened her kisses on his torso, feeling the powerful beating of his heart beneath her lips and tongue. “Your mouth, Josephine, yes…”
Despite the distraction of these kisses, few seconds later, the duke had discarded trousers and socks too. When they embraced again, it was skin against skin, hot, damp and urgent in a way that made Josephine’s most intimate parts throb almost painfully.
Dazed and panting, Josephine pulled back for a brief moment to look on her husband with eyes that were both lustful and curious. Tall and well-built, Cassius Emerton’s body was as handsome as his face, its shape and form at once both unfamiliar and dear to her. She wanted all of him, including the thick male shaft protruding so proudly at his groin.
His manhood pressed against her as they kissed again, sending hot waves of need through Josephine’s belly. Cassius did not not now stop her from touching him and learning the shape of his male parts with her hand, only groaning his appreciation between kisses.
