Page 39 of Falling Into Bed with a Duke
He lowered his mouth, claiming hers, keeping himself suspended so that all she felt was a light brush of his chest against her breasts. Her nipples puckered painfully, strained against the cloth. She wanted to press him to her. Instead, she buried her fingers in his thick dark hair as he plundered. Surrender was such sweet victory.
To be desired like this was heady beyond all imagining. All her reservations regarding coming here drifted away. He was no longer a stranger. She knew he smelled of sandalwood. Knew the rasp of his bristly jaw against her chin in the hours just past midnight when he’d gone so long without shaving. She knew the deep rumble of his laugh, the way he could make her skin tingle with awareness with only his gaze focused on her as he stood a few feet away from her. She knew he marveled at beauty and wanted to capture it. When she was with him, she knew what it was to have a man’s undivided attention.
He lifted his mouth from hers. “Remove the mask.”
The request was a whisper, dark and full of promises. But she couldn’t risk the spell being broken. “No.”
He pressed his lips to the underside of her chin. How could the skin there be so sensitive?
“In that case, I won’t take your maidenhead, but I will gift you with pleasure as a means to express my appreciation to you for posing for me.”
He trailed his hot mouth down her throat, over her collarbone, then along the fall of silk that led to the swells of her breasts. Giving her a heavy-lidded, sensual gaze that caused her toes to curl, he smiled as though he fully understood how easily he could unravel her. Over the silk, he closed his mouth around her turgid nipple, lathing his tongue over it, dampening the cloth, causing sensations of pure delight to cascade through her. Then he caught the tiny peak between his teeth, and with the gentlest of bites, he had her hips coming up off the bed, reaching for him, searching for the hard ridge straining against his trousers.
“Not yet,” he insisted. “Not yet.”
Slowly, provocatively he glided down her body, providing only enough pressure to drive her mad, to alert her that she needed more, that release was dependent upon more. Finally, standing at the foot of the bed, he wrapped his arms around her hips and dragged her to the edge of the mattress. He lowered himself. “Now, you’ll learn what happens when I’m on my knees.”
His gaze holding hers, he placed her legs over his shoulders, eased the silk up until he bared what she had always kept most private. She gave no thought at all to objecting. When a man looked at woman as though she were his moon and stars, how could she protest? When a man’s eyes promised pleasure beyond her wildest dreams—
Turning his head, he pressed a featherlike kiss to the inside of one thigh, just above her knee. It felt so marvelous, so debauched. He gave attention to the other thigh, only a little higher up. This time, his tongue created a little circle of dew on her skin. An incredible sensation of wonder traveled from her tightening breasts to her curling toes. Back and forth he went, like someone climbing a ladder, taking her to heaven. When he reached the top, the juncture between leg and body, he locked his smoldering gaze onto hers. He held it for a heartbeat, two.
Then he lowered his mouth to the heart of her womanhood. Oh, dear Lord. Looking up at the mirror’s reflection, she saw herself spread before him like some feast, his dark head nestled between her thighs, his fingers pressing into her hips as he took and gave and caused the most exquisite intense sensations to course through her. It was all so decadent, all so magnificent.
His tongue swirled, his teeth nipped at her bud as they had her nipple. The heat of him scored her even as it delighted. He suckled, bit, laved, and applied pressure when she needed it, where she needed it. As though he were one with her, as though he could feel what she felt. But he could not possibly be feeling this. She didn’t know how anyone survived feeling this.
Pleasure coiled inside her, coiled so tightly that she thought she would break. And then she did. She shattered into shards of pleasure so rich, so remarkable that she thought surely this was death. Her cries echoed around her, her back arched, her body trembled. Breathing harshly, she was barely aware of him sliding up the bed, taking her in his arms, turning her into his chest, holding her tightly while her world slowly came back together.
“If we’re going to continue with this,” he said after a time, “the feathers need to go. They tickle my nose.”
With a soft laugh, she pushed herself up, took in the sight of him sprawled over the bed like some giant lazy cat. Reaching up, he wrapped strands of her silken hair around his finger, studied them. Could the shade give her away? It wasn’t uncommon. It was just hair.
“I want you to pose for me again.”
“Now?”
Releasing his hold on her hair, he shoved himself off the bed. “No, another night.”
Rebuttoning his shirt as he went, he walked to the sofa. There he slipped on his waistcoat, secured its buttons. He draped the strip of linen around his neck and began the process of creating an intricate knot.
Sliding from the bed, she padded over and brushed his hands aside. “I’ll do it.”
“An untouched woman skilled in tying a gentleman’s neckcloth?”
“I’m not certain I still qualify as untouched,” she said, finding it difficult to concentrate on her task with his nearness, his scent overwhelming her. “But I have a brother who is constantly in need of tidying.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
Without considering consequences, she’d spoken to a man with whom she felt incredibly comfortable. Danger rested with that thought. She had to be so careful not to give him too many clues regarding her identity. Her reputation, her family’s could be ruined. “Only one worth mentioning at the moment.”
Cradling her cheek, he tilted her face up. “You’ll trust me with your body but not your identity.”
“I dared to come here because I believed it could remain a secret.”
“Nothing ever remains a secret forever.”
Her chest tightened with the thought of how disappointed her parents would be if they ever learned she’d come here. How mortified she would be by the public acknowledgment of her desperation. She was half sister to a duke. She wouldn’t embarrass him for the world. “This must,” she stated with finality, touching her fingers to the secured knot at his throat to press home her point.
“I want you ... desperately. But I want all of you revealed.” Turning away, he snatched up his jacket, drew it on. “You’ll find me here tomorrow night if you’ve any interest in taking things between us further. But the mask comes off.”
