Page 11 of Dukes Are Forever
Malloryn glanced up from beneath his dark lashes. He was shockingly beautiful, in an unsettling, masculine way. He always had been. And then he smiled. "Wasn't it? Nor my obscenely large bank account? Or the oak leaf laurel I wore?"
"Any duke would have done," she replied, pressing her hands lightly against his shoulders for balance. The shock of cool air against her bare skin made her nipples harden. Adele shivered as he brushed the back of his thumb against her throat. "Any lord would have done. Anyone kind. Or someone like you, who was not kind, but staunchly opposed to the new fashion of blue blood lords simply taking what they wanted, instead of agreeing to a proper thrall contract where a debutante would be protected."
"Someone like me," he murmured, leaning toward her with an intense look in his eyes. Just before his mouth met her skin, his gaze dipped, and then the shock of his cool lips against her throat made her fingers clench in his shoulders.
She'd had lords force her down onto her back on cold stone benches in a garden, where but feet away swirled dozens of dancers inside a ballroom. She'd had them slash at her throat to drink her blood, and she'd fought and cried, and in the end none of it had mattered. She'd grown hard instead. Let them do what they wanted, while inside she pretended it would all be over soon, and her agile mind tried to find some way—any way—to escape this life of hers.
Then she'd found it.
She'd foundhim,and a rash decision had seen her throw herself at him, at his mercy, at his reputation. And wonder of wonders, he'd actually married her. She'd been safe for months, and it was a wonderful feeling. One she couldn't begrudge him credit.
She'd thought she could do it again, simply allow a man—herhusband—to take what he wanted from her body and her blood, but what she hadn't expected was the faint stirring lash of his tongue against the thumping pulse in her neck. His teeth pressed firmly against her skin, a silken threat, and then his hand was sliding down over her breast.
It was happening again.
Adeleachedeverywhere. It was a horribly confusing emotion, for she had expected pain, expected to endure a little bloodletting and perhaps some groping.
She was wrong.
On all counts.
Her lord husband did not intend to drink her blood. His bite mark soothed instantly as he eased away from her, swiping his tongue over the flushed imprint. Adele shifted with a gasp. She liked the feeling. She liked the stroke of those slow fingers over her soft flesh. It was all a tease. A kiss against her throat, then lower, dipping into the hollow there. Another one painted against her collarbone, then lower. Lower... always lower. His lips brushed against the lace of her stays, and he licked her again, a long, slow swipe that left her breathless.
"Relax," her husband whispered, his breath stirring against her wet skin.
"What are you doing?" she whispered back, and realized his hands were curling around her wrists.
Slowly Adele found herself being lowered onto her back on the carriage seat. She kept her fists clenched in front of her chest when he let her go.
"Testing my theory." Malloryn straddled her hips, pinning her skirts with one knee and leaning heavily onto one hand over her. With the other hand, he brushed the back of his knuckles against her barely restrained breast. "What are you thinking about, Adele?"
"You're going to ruin my coiffure!" she blurted.
"Really?" Malloryn mock frowned. "Oh, I see I'm going to have to work harder than this then."
He curled over her, his shirt straining over the hard planes of his chest.
Malloryn's lips trailed across the sensitive skin of her throat, tracing little butterfly kisses there even as his thumb rasped against the turgid press of her nipple in slow, teasing circles that made her want to press her knees tightly together.
An odd sort of yearning swept through her. She was half-tempted to turn her head, to brush her mouth to his. He'd never truly kissed her. He'd promised he never would.
But all she could taste was Lord Devoncourt stealing that kiss from her, and she wanted, suddenly, to replace the memory with one of her husband.
Wishful thinking. His hands and mouth might be wreaking havoc across her willing flesh, but this had nothing to do with tenderness or stolen kisses.
"What's wrong?" he whispered, glancing up at her as his breath whispered over her skin.
Adele released the breath she'd been holding.
"I was wondering what I was going to buy with my newly increased pin money," she managed to say with a husky voice.
The smile on his mouth held all sorts of wickedness. "Maybe you can buy new undergarments, once I'm done with these?"
She looked down sharply.
Malloryn met her eyes as he tugged the edge of her bodice down, his perfect white teeth sinking into the scrap of lace that hemmed her chemise. The sharp ripping sound it made cut through the roughened exhale of breath.
And then he was tugging both her bodice and corset lower, revealing the flushed pink of her nipple.
