Page 10 of Dukes Are Forever
Her gaze came back into focus as she realized she was staring at her husband. Or more precisely, at the insolently lounged figure who would possibly lie atop her quite shortly. Her breath hitched. Malloryn made a harem pasha look rigid. There was always something vaguely relaxed about him, yet she caught hints of tension there now, in his thighs, in his hands, and about his soft mouth.
Their eyes met, and Adele found herself blushing for perhaps the first time in a decade. All of a sudden, her dress was too tight.
"Are you actually blushing?"
"No," she blurted, though her cheeks felt hot enough to cook an egg. "I'm just surprised. And... curious."
"Curious?"
"It's not as though I do not know what to expect. I attended all the lectures."
"You're untouched." He didn't look entirely pleased with this deduction.
Go to hell.She knew what the world thought of her. "You sound surprised, Your Grace."
"I was not the first man to be caught alone in a garden with you," he replied. "You were quite well known for it."
Not by choice. "Consider me an inexperienced expert of men's desires and what they want from me. I know the value of a woman's virginity. Without it, I'd never have been married. I went to great lengths to preserve my innocence."
"Yes, but it's one thing to know of such matters, and quite another to experience them."
"Don't worry, Your Grace. I am prepared to suffer through the entire affair."
His eyelids lowered, as if he considered something. "I thought you were jesting, but you honestly think I will hurt you."
And just like that, any sense of desire dried up. She felt sick.
"Perhaps you do not know what it was like for a debutante before the queen overthrew her husband." A bitter laugh broke free. "Of course you do not. You're a duke, you're a blue blood, and you're a man. You've never experienced a ball where you're little more than a young girl just ripe for the picking. If I'm untouched, then it's not for lack of lords trying. You're the predator. You have no concept of what it's like to be prey, to have very few means of protection but to submit and hope they do not hurt you too much when they take your blood...."
Adele looked away, fighting the urge to say more as she stared out at the passing London streets. He was still watching her. She could feel it. And she wanted to hit something, suddenly, at the memory of everything she'd thought she had buried.
Malloryn shifted, and it was like a snake suddenly striking. Adele flinched, but he had only reached out toward her, gesturing for her to take his hand.
"Come here," he said.
Where? She looked at him blankly, but he caught her fingers in his own and gave a tug. Adele slid across the intervening carriage space and found herself on his lap.
"I am not going to hurt you." He still seemed affronted by the idea.
Adele's spine remained stiff.
It was the closest she'd been to him since... well, that time in the Ivory Tower.
"I am the Duke of Malloryn, and no woman who's ever been in my bed has left it wanting."
"Even me?" she challenged.
Another long, slow, steady look. "Especially not you."
"Please. Don't exert yourself unnecessarily."
"And now I know you're untouched." The faintest of smiles played at the corner of his lips. "It would not be exertion, Duchess. In fact, I think I would enjoy it."
Her heart started beating a little quicker. "You would?"
Reaching up, he began to undo the buttons at her throat. "I have been remiss in my duties, I see. I was quite irritated by your ploy. I never wanted to know why you were so desperate to marry me."
"It certainly wasn't your pretty manners or your charm," she said, swallowing as he continued down each button, slowly spreading the collar of her high-necked green frock open until the smooth, pale skin of her chest was revealed.
