Page 39 of Taken By the Beastly Duke

He laughed again and pulled her to him, kissing her soundly, hands reaching down to her buttocks. He squeezed then in one burst of strength lifted her. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his torso.

She was only vaguely aware of him moving before she felt him lower her to the bed. Now he was atop her, her heart thudded at a rapid pace as she felt the evidence of his desire at her most intimate place.

"You do not seem very bold again, wife." He whispered close to her face.

She opened her eyes and was startled by how close his face was to hers. She didn't even know when she had closed her eyes. Swallowing deeply, she tried to school her expression into an unbothered mask but he laughed at her.

"I am not afraid." She answered with a pout.

"I find that hard to believe." He smiled down at her. "You've gone as stiff as a day old loaf."

"That's not very romantic, now is it your grace?" She scolded playfully relaxing.

His weight sank her deeper into the bed and she found she didn't overall mind it. He was warm and broad and she found it almost comforting.

"I wasn't aiming for romance dear wife." He winked. "If I were, you would already be naked beneath me. Not that you are very clothed right now."

His eyes trailed a hot path down her body and she saw the areas his eyes stopped and studied longer. She had felt foolish when she had been gifted this night garment by her sister and cousin but now, under his appreciative scrutiny, she felt some bit of pride.

She had seen the way his eyes had drank her in when he had first seen it and if he were a man of little control, she knew he would have claimed her by now.

But her husband was a man of restraint which was one of the things she had added to her gradually growing list of things she liked about him.

"My sister and cousin thought it would make you pleased with me." She told him, not knowing why she did.

"Hmm." He answered kissing the side of her mouth then her cheek then her jaw bone.

Soon he nipped her ear and she gasped at the foreign sensation.

"Are you pleased with me?" She asked.

She tended to rabble when she was nervous and now she was in all ways anxious for what was to come. She had read about what it was to feel like and her cousin had told her a little but she still didn't know if she just lying still was enough.

"Very much so." He answered, meeting her eyes with his that had turned a dark shade of blue. "Why would you try so hard to please me?"

His eyes were vulnerable and she wondered why her answer would mean anything to him. Didn't he know how eligible a bachelor he had been?

It would be foolish of any woman to offend him especially when he could easily end the marriage.

"Because you're my husband."

"Is that all?" He asked.

"No." She answered honestly. "I also wanted to see if you would desire me the way a man desires a woman. The way I desire you."

She bit her lip and looked away from him. She had been very honest in admitting that she wanted him earlier and she knew it was no proper way to behave but she was already fully baked before him. What propriety needed to remain?

Besides their whole relationship had started with an improper conversation and then a kiss that had stunned her.

She had been unable to read the novels that she had once scoffed at without feeling unquenchable heat between her thighs and the painful hardening of her nipples.

There was no need holding back now, especially not when she was so close to knowing if he would be able to quench the fire that threatened to consume her.

Her answer seemed to set off something in him because when he kissed her, it was more tender than any they had shared. He cupped her face in his hand and pulled her up till she was straddling his thigh.

She was only vaguely away of his hands removing the scraps of what had been her night gown and then palming their way up her body.

One hand stilling her hips which had begun grinding into him of their own accord and the other moving to cup her breast. They groaned together and he squeezed her again, firmer, his thumb playing with the hard peaks of her nipple.

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