Page 133 of Bound By the Duke
He watched her with wonder, as though what was happening was too good to be true. As though that moment was too sacred for him to experience.
Unable to help himself, he lowered his head and brushed her lips with his. As if asking for her trust, for her acceptance of everything he was about to give her.
She shivered beneath him and clung harder to him in response. The fullness wasmaddening, ratcheting up her desperation. She needed him more than she had ever needed anything in her life.
Pulling back to stare at her with blue eyes that shimmered with love, his lips curved faintly. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he murmured. “I never knew love could feel like this. That I could feel this—so whole. You are my heart, Aurelia. I’ve spent my life running from love, but now that I have you, I never want to let you go.”
The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over. She was unable to find words that matched the depth of his feeling. So she pressed herself closer to him, as if to prove that she was his.
“I love you too,” she whispered shakily.
And that was all he needed.
Percival kissed her again, deeper this time, as though the words had unlocked something inside him. Something primal. Something that had always been there but had been too afraid to emerge.
He started moving. Slowly at first, pulling out and then pushing back in. Worshipping her, savoring every inch of her.
Her breath hitched on the first thrust, and then the second, and then the third. It was everything she wanted—devouring, consuming, burning, pleasuring.
As his groans mingled with her cries, she knew this was the end of their wait.
The night deepened, yet they didn’t stop. The sound of their slick bodies moving together echoed through the room, along with her loud cries of pleasure.
And as the moonlight slid over their nakedness, her soul knew that she could never grow tired of this man. Of his touch, his love, his madness.
She would burn with him, again and again, until there was nothing left but the echo of their devotion.
She would love him until the last breath they shared.
EPILOGUE
TWO MONTHS LATER
Love looked different under the morning light.
Aurelia sat in the carriage with her husband and daughter. The streets of London were bathed in golden sunshine, and she thought the world had never been so bright.
Perhaps it wasn’t exactly the world.Rather, it was the fact that she had her family with her. Even better, she would also be meeting her parents and siblings.
The day couldn’t be more delightful.
“You two are misbehaving,” Lottie declared, interrupting her thoughts.
Aurelia turned to look at the little girl.
Lottie wrinkled her nose in an exaggerated protest from the opposite seat, watching as Percival cradled her mother as though she would vanish at any moment.
“All you do is look at each other and sigh.. How am I supposed to survive this?”
The little girl tried to look serious, but she couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face.
Aurelia laughed, before deliberately leaning against Percival’s shoulder. “Is someone jealous?”
“Me? Never.” Lottie tossed her curls with a chuckle. “But if you kiss him again, Mother, I swear I’ll scream.”
Percival smirked as he turned to his little girl. “Then perhaps I should kiss her again.”
“Don’t you dare, Papa. It’s time for me to play with Mother. You have had her all to yourself for the day.”
