Page 48 of The Wolf and the Wildflower
Jules swallowed. “Find them…experience them. They are the ordinary things in life that will help you reclaim the part of yourself you had to leave behind to survive. You craved touch because you were deprived for so long, James. Do not be alarmed if the other things coming to you speak to your basic heart or baser self. Trust in those wants and needs and see them fulfilled. Some measure of normalcy might return then.”
He dropped his hand from the latch. “I want to taste a woman…I want to take her mouth against mine, savor the feel of her lips, enjoy the glide of her tongue against mine, feel the vibration of her moan against my mouth.”
“I am sure there are many ladies who will eagerly oblige,” she whispered, shocked that she hated the image of him kissing another.
“You?”
Jules’s heart thumped. “No, of course not!”
“And if I want it to be you?”
“Once again spoken like a true duke,” she said, feeling a measure of amusement. “Be aware that while many ladies will be eager to fulfill all your wants, there are some who will also deny you, Your Grace.”
He turned around, and in two steps, he was right there, touching her. Her heart started to pound its harshest beat as he reverently cupped her jaw, sliding his thumb to the fluttering pulse at her throat.
“James?” she gasped, her pulse tapping even faster at his intensity.
“I do not wish it to be you because you are convenient, Jules Southby. The desire cuts its way deep into me simply because of you.”
The words shouldn’t have sent a thrill racing through her chest, but they did.
“Do you understand what I am saying, Wildflower?”
She was silent, still, for long seconds. “Yes.”
The duke tugged her into his arms and pressed his mouth against hers. They stilled against each other, the awareness of his actions seemingly washing over them at the same instance.
He is kissing me, she thought dazedly. “I want more,” she whispered.
James groaned, flicked his tongue along her lips, and she gasped.Oh God. From his mouth Jules tasted something dark and dangerous, something frightening yet also exhilarating.
The kisses against her mouth were small, provocative nips that should have felt questioning, but it was clear he coaxed her with arousing knowledge. Raw pleasure rushed through Jules like a petal unfurling inside her chest. She moaned, rising onto her toes to slip her arms around his neck. He caged her against the door and kissed her deeply, fisting the short strands of her hair, sliding his tongue against hers. Jules felt consumed. There was a terrible hunger in his embrace, but there was also a reverence in the way his mouth moved atop hers, a slow savoring of her taste as if he wanted to greedily suck her in but instead tenderly held her close.
A crackling liveliness surged inside Jules’s veins, energizing Jules from the inside. She fisted her fingers through the thick strands of his hair, responding with helpless greed. It felt as if he surrounded her, stealing the air and all the logical reasoning that had guided her for years. Want and fear wrenched through her, tugging her in different directions. The duality of the needs clashing terrified Jules.
Do I run to you or away from you? Do I chase this feeling or hide from it?
She felt his heartbeat as if it was hers, and she didn’t want to ever lose that feeling.
Their kiss grew wild and desperate. Their tongues tangled hotly, then slowed to a more provocative dance and glide. It felt as if he ravished and also savored her. It was an impossible heat, a delight that singed her from the inside and sent her into a swirling quagmire of want and lust. That invisible yet potent power went even lower, tugging at that secret place between her thighs.
Her want for him was exposed in the soft breathy whimpers from her mouth to his and how she trembled against him. Jules felt vulnerable…yet powerful, for the duke also trembled against her.
James pulled his mouth from hers, breathing raggedly. Her chest rose and fell, her breathing a bit fractured. James dragged her into his lungs, dipping and sensually running his nose over the curve of her neck and down…
Jules squeaked, her shock visceral when he went down to her navel and lower still to her quim. He pressed his nose to the space between her legs and inhaled. A fiery blush covered her entire body. “James!”
“You are wet, Wildflower. And your scent…fuck!”
His voice was a rumble of sensual want, and her belly grew hot and tight. Jules knew what he wanted, and she wanted to give it to him so badly, her body shook.This is madness.
Gripping the strands of his hair, she tugged, knowing he obliged when he rose, for she had not the strength to move him.
“This must never happen again,” she whispered, shaken by what she had allowed.
Those dark eyes held hers for an unending minute. “Have you ever felt this before?”
“Never,” she said, granting him the honesty he demanded with his steady regard.
