Page 56 of The Duke's Carriage Window
“Meredith, you desire me,” he whispered. “I know you do. I also know that you care for me…” He leaned down, his face nuzzling hers. The nearness of him, the heat of him, sent her senses spinning just as it had last night. She could feel that quickening in her blood as her body wound tight with the excited promise of what he could make her feel.
She hated that he was right. She cared so very much about him. She loved him. But that love was killing her because it wasn’t returned.
“I do care …” she admitted. “But that alone is not enough to tie us together.” She pushed against his chest, desperate to put space between them, but he would not budge. She could not think clearly when he touched her. “You would be trapped with me, the wife you never wanted, the wife that shamed you in the eyes of society.”
She could tell he still did not understand that marrying her would cost him his influence in society, or that a loveless marriage would destroy her. It did not matter that he had some affection for her. Affection was not the same as love.
“Send me away, Darius. Let me be a stranger to you once more. Then you will be free.” Her shoulders slumped, her body suddenly heavy with misery. She did not know where the words had come from, but she had nearly died inside saying them.
His eyes darkened as he curled his fingers around the back of her neck and rubbed the tight knot of muscles there. He lifted her chin with his other hand, forcing her eyes to meet his.
“You would have me abandon you?” The flash of fury upon his face was like a storm sweeping over the Yorkshire dales. She braced for his fury, but he simply waited for her to speak instead.
“I…” She didn’t know what to say. “Would it not it be better if you did?”
“Better for whom?” he growled. “Because it would not be better for me.”
“Darius, please. Lady Mary made it abundantly clear what society thinks of me, and she is far from alone in that opinion. You cannot fight the ton. Not for me.”
“But I thought that’s what you wanted of me. To defend you and fight the world for you?”
She did. Lord, she did. But she didn’t want him to come to her defense out of duty. She wanted him to come to her defense out of love. No one could truly love someone who forced them into such a situation.
“You shouldn’t have to defend me.” She tried to pull away again. “If I should marry, it should be to someone like Mr. Jordan Evers. He would?—”
Darius captured her mouth with his, assaulting her senses with his masterful lips. He trapped her wrists behind her back with one of his hands while he fisted the other in the loose curls of her hair and held her still for his sensual exploration. She became vaguely aware of him backing her up against his desk, then the sounds of papers being pushed off it in a flurry of chaos before he lifted her up and set her down on its edge.
She murmured a question against his lips as his hands pushed her skirt up to her waist.
“Hush, woman,” he said with a darkly commanding voice. She gasped as his fingers found their way between the folds of her sex, penetrating her.
“Oh!” She arched into him as he stroked her and teased her mercilessly. His mouth came down over hers again as he pleasured her.
“No one will touch this beautiful body but me, do you understand? You’re mine, Meredith. Mine to kiss, mine to pleasure…”
He nipped her lips, and the sting made her womb clench in excitement. She grasped his shoulders and then dug her fingers into his hair, desperate to hold on to him as his wicked fingers did magical, wonderful, sinful things to her. He rocked against her, mirroring the thrusting of his fingers as he continued to kiss her. His lips parted hers, his tongue playing with hers. An erotic warmth spread throughout her body.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Let me play with you.”
Her face flushed at Darius’s wicked words. He spoke as though she was only a plaything for his pleasure. But rather than feeling offended, it only made her wetter wherever his fingers touched her. She whimpered when he brushed his thumb over the sensitive pearl of her clit.
“Yes!” she panted. “More!” She wanted him to keep going, even as she twisted and writhed to escape the overly sensitive caresses. It was the most exquisite torture she ever could have imagined.
His low, rough chuckle against her kiss-swollen lips was like entering a dark heaven, tasting hedonistic pleasures in a way she never imagined possible. She couldn’t imagine feeling safe enough with any other man to allow him to touch her like that. No one but Darius.
They moved together, his hand on her hips, chasing that bright pinnacle of pleasure. It was as though she was racing uphill in the bright morning sunlight on a summer day. Her skin burned sweetly beneath the light and her breath came faster, harder, as her body reached toward the peak and then she was falling, rolling, spinning madly as her body turned into a splash of colorful pleasure that had stars shooting across her closed eyelids.
Soft, warm lips gently caressed her as she drifted down to earth, and when her lashes fluttered open, she saw only Darius’s handsome face.
The pure blue orbs of his eyes were like a summer spring sky gazing back at her with a possessive hunger tempered with tenderness. He stroked the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, and she realized his other hand was still between her legs, gently stroking her tender flesh, drawing out trembling little aftershocks.
Meredith clutched his shoulders, feeling the hard muscles of his body as they breathed together in the silence of the room. Then he withdrew his hand and wiped his fingers with a handkerchief.
“We shall be married, and soon. That is the end of this discussion,” he said. “I must meet with Warren to arrange things. I shall return this afternoon.”
Meredith was too sated from his touch to argue. Darius stole one last kiss from her before he left the study. She remained on his desk, still bewildered, her body limp and head muddled.
When she was able to collect herself, she fixed her skirts and walked on shaky legs to the study door. She had just a moment to see Darius putting on his coat and meeting Warren at the entryway before they departed. She approached the butler as he closed the door behind them.
