Page 36 of A Bride for the Rakish Duke

All throughout the opera, she had not been able to even out her breathing, feeling the press of his muscular thigh against hers. If someone had asked her what the opera was about, she would not have been able to tell them, for she had been daydreaming about the man beside her. She had imagined wild, glorious things in that private box, all of which would have not just seen her name in the scandal sheets but cast out of Society altogether.

The carriage ride had been equally interminable, feeling his burning eyes on her. And the way he had carried her up the stairs to this very room with such ease—who wouldnotswoon at such a thing? Yet, she had forced herself to play the part of indifferent temptress, but the façade had well and truly vanished now.

She kissed him with every ounce of that stored-up hunger, pressing herself against him, exploring the contours of his unfairly athletic physique. There was no hesitation this time, until it was unclear who was leading and who was following.

With his strong arm around her, he walked her back to the nearest wall and pushed her up against it. She gasped at the light bump, or perhaps it was his searing lips on her neck that coaxed it out of her. Either way, she clung to him, bucking her hips against his as his tongue tasted her skin.

A moment later, she was breathless under the ebb and flow of his kiss once more, surprised as that hot, teasing tongue slipped into her mouth. It was an unusual sensation at first, but as he kissed her more fiercely, she followed his lead. And as she grazed her own tongue against his, she understood the thrill of it, teasing and tasting and drawing back.

“I ought to punish you for the rules you have broken,” he growled, sliding his hand up the valley between her breasts, running it all the way up to the column of her throat.

There, he gently curved his hand. If she had been in her right mind, Lydia might have seen it as a threat, but she could not—it felt like exactly what her wolf-pirate should and would do. Let her know his power without exerting it.

“I broke no rules,” she panted in reply. “If you believe I did, you ought to have worded them better.”

He laughed darkly. “Careful, kitten.”

“I cannot help that it is the truth. You should have been clea—Oh, Will.”

Any reprimand died on her lips as he wrenched aside the neckline of her gown and took her nipple into his mouth.

She bucked against him as he sucked on that erect flesh, her eyes closing as sparks ignited. They darted across her chest and fizzled down into her belly, where they caught the fuse of a blissful blaze. It crackled through her veins, her legs trembling with the rush of such a feeling.

“I ought to punish you for wearing this gown, too,” he murmured, before tracing his tongue between her breasts and drawing her other nipple between his lips.

“Do not… dare… tear it,” she managed to gasp.

A rumble of amusement came from deep in his chest, his hand threatening to defy her as it skimmed over the swell of her backside. His palm eased down her thigh, his fingertips gathering up the cascades of fabric until they were bunched at her hip.

But he did not ruin her fine gown, though a secret part of her might have liked to know how that felt. Instead, his hand moved beneath those gathered skirts, lightly caressing her inner thighs.

She grasped his hair and pulled his head up to kiss her again, crushing her mouth to his as her lungs burned and her body ached for more. Without a word, he gave her just that, as if he could hear every inch of her yearning for him.

“Oh… Oh, Will!” She buried her cry against his neck, kissing his throat, his jaw, his lips, his chest, as his fingertips touched a part of her that no one had explored before.

Catching her mouth with his, he began to caress that secret bud in slow circles. So measured, so unhurried, and yet so ferocious in its effect. That fire burning inside her became an inferno, her grasp on the world slipping, as her mind whirled and her entire being was flooded with what could only be described as paradise. A sensation of truly being alive.

“Will you obey?” Will growled, kissing her harder.

She gasped out her reply between the press of his lips and the strumming of his fingertips. “Yes. Oh… oh, yes!”

He smiled against her mouth, and though she was certain she would regret her words tomorrow, she did not care. There was something greater than her predicament to think about, and it was building inside of her with each stroke of his fingers.

A feeling that rose higher and higher, familiar to her and yet different from the more muted version she had felt before when turning the pages of her beloved, illicit books. Her blood coursed in her veins like liquid fire, her head spinning, her skin warming to a feverish heat while her legs trembled and her breaths came in short, rasping pants. She knew she was not unwell, but she feared the intensity of what might be about to happen. Indeed, she worried it might tear her apart.

Will seemed to sense that she was on the brink of her conclusion, for at that moment, he dipped his head and drew her nipple into his mouth once more. As he sucked, he strummed, and she finally relinquished herself to paradise.

Euphoria exploded in the very core of her being, surging outward in crackling waves, as if she had been struck by lightning. The most glorious, pulsing lightning that pummeled through her limbs and danced across her chest, giving her just enough breath to cry out once more.

Will slowed his strumming as that swelling fire swept through her again and again, teasing her until it ebbed to embers. And as it did, he kissed her slowly and grazed his fingertips against her inner thighs, before sliding them between her legs.

He paused at her entrance, and whether it was the clarity that came after the dizzying euphoria, or whether it was the uncertainty surrounding that part of her, she suddenly grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away. It was too soon. Far too soon for her to have any leverage to gain what she wanted.

“No more,” she rasped. “If there is more, it will lead to more, and… my rule is still in place.”

His throat bobbed. “It is?”

“You were right.” She struggled to slow her breathing. “We must earn one another’s trust first. So, please, leave me be.”

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