Page 37 of Dukes Are Forever
She might kiss and flirt like the devil, but she'd been honest: She was an innocent through and through.
And he needed to get a hold of himself.
Eyes glazed, he rested his forehead against hers. "I believe it is time formykiss."
"Do you think you earned it?"
"I know I did." He pushed closer, brushing his lips against her cheek, and trailing them across her ear. One hand slipped the cap sleeve of her gown from her shoulder. "But you can try and deny it."
Adele shivered. "Do your worst then."
She had noideawhat he intended.
Brushing his mouth across her bare shoulder, he slid his hands down to her hips. And then he hauled her up into his arms, and strode toward the bed.
"What are you doing?" she squeaked.
He tossed her down on the bed and knelt between her thighs, his knees trapping her skirts as he leaned over her. "You just threw down your gauntlet. I am merely returning the favor." A smile escaped him. "Did you think it would be that easy? An exchange of kisses?"
"No." Her eyes seemed a little wild.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
"What are you planning?"
"Use your imagination, Adele." He bent lower, breath whispering across the lace of her décolletage. "Maybe I wanted to see whether you were telling the truth, my dear."
"About?"
"Whether you were wearing a stitch...."
Capturing her knee, he dragged it up against his hip. Her skirts fell to her knee, leaving nothing but her stockings beneath his palm.
"It's the middle of the day!"
"Yes."He slid her skirts up slowly, so slowly. Thumb catching on her garter, he stroked back and forth, enjoying both the feel of the material and the sudden look on her face. "Won't the maids be scandalized?"
"You said—"
"Anywhere."
"Yes, but...." Her eyes widened. "But...."
He pressed a finger to her pretty rosebud mouth. "My choice, Adele."
A heated shiver ran through her as he dragged that finger down over her stubborn chin and throat. Hooked it in her bodice and tugged the garment lower, until her nipple threatened to escape.
"Here?" he whispered.
She lay utterly still, barely breathing, as if to see where that finger would end up.
"Or here?" He kept going, their eyes locking, as the fabric covering her abdomen shirred beneath his stroke, lower, lower—
There.
Adele froze.
And then her thighs clamped on either side of his hips, and that breath finally escaped her, as if she realized there was no escape.
