Page 42 of His Duchess' Wicked List

The Duke coughed. “My Lady?” He picked up her queen, waving it in the air as if it were a trophy. “I am waiting.”

Maddie glared at him. She was very irritated with him, but also so very aroused by the game they had been playing. The game within a game. Seeing his arousal as she shed her undergarments, one by one, was intoxicating. For the first time, she realized the small power she held over him. But it was more than that—shewantedto see his admiration as her body was slowly revealed to him, to hear his sharp intake of breath, to witness the fire darkening his eyes.

The air was thick with sensual tension. She looked at the queen in his hand. She could barely breathe.

“Very well,” she said, standing up, shrugging his jacket off her shoulders. “I agreed to your terms. And I am a woman of my word.”

She looked him straight in the eye as she shimmied out of her chemise, squaring her shoulders, tossing back her hair, which had fallen loose.

Let him look.

She heard his sharp intake of breath again. The hand still holding her defeated queen gripped the chess piece tighter, his fingers wrapping around it so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

“Oh, yes,” he breathed, his eyes feasting on her body. “You are even more glorious than I imagined. And I have been imagining how you would look likea lot. It’s been all I can think about.”

Maddie felt her nipples stiffen at his words, the longing within them, as he kept gazing at her. She knew she should be ashamed of herself, standing entirely nude before this man. In her wildest dreams, she had never anticipated their dangerous game would go so far.

Quickly, he stood up, crossing the short distance between them. His face contorted with desire. Her senses leaped to life once more. It took all her strength to remain standing before him, to not let herself fall limp into his arms.

He reached out, twisting her hair into his fingers, bringing her face towards his. He was breathing heavily.

“I hope you understand now that you are mine,” he murmured in an anguished whisper. “That your glorious body belongs to me andonlyme.”

She couldn’t reply. Her voice seemed to have vanished entirely. Her eyes were locked on his as if by a magnetic force. She couldn’t have looked away even if she wanted to.

She sucked in a breath sharply as his head bent, seeking one of her nipples, his fingers tightening in her hair. She felt the sudden warm wetness of his tongue, flickering like a snake, teasing her nipple. A shuddering bolt of desire snaked through her body as he kept suckling, pulling at her, gently at first and then so frantically that she felt like he was going to devour her entirely.

She didn’t know how long they stood there like that, his mouth suckling her nipple, before she felt his arms around her, lowering her to the floor, laying her out in front of the fire so that her hair spilled around her like a halo on the rug.

He was above her, gazing down at her, his eyes narrowed in arousal. His face was flushed. She held her breath as he dipped his head again, assuming that he was seeking her nipple once more, wanting it so badly that she felt as if a firestorm was raging inside her.

But he didn’t linger at her breasts. She felt his mouth trail kisses down her stomach—hot kisses that felt like a brand. His hands trailed lower, gripping her derriere and squeezing it, before slowly opening her legs. To her shock, his head was venturinglower still, to the mound of her dark curls, nipping and kissing her flesh.

Maddie cried out in shocked alarm as she felt his tongue probe her tender, moist flesh. He buried his face between her legs. Her back arched upwards like a cat. Her hands gripped the rug beneath her, her fingers clawing at it helplessly as his tongue flickered against her most intimate place.

She gave a strangled gasp. It felt so amazing, so powerful, that she could barely stand it. And when he started suckling her folds, just like he suckled her nipple, she truly felt as if she might faint right away.

Her head tossed from side to side, and she drew a hand to her mouth, biting hard, to keep herself from screaming with stunned delight. What sweet madness was this? Was it decent?

She had never,everheard of such a thing!

But the shocked, almost incoherent ramble of her mind was dismissed entirely as sensation started to overwhelm her. She felt as if she were climbing a very high tree, every branch bringing her ever so closer to the top, which she couldn’t see. She felt sweat break out over her entire body. Her body was bucking now, straining against him, yearning for a release that she couldn’t name.

Vaguely, she felt his hands gripping her tighter still as he suckled harder. Suddenly, she swung towards that far-off, high branch, straining and sweating…

It crashed over her, so hard that it was like a thousand stars exploding simultaneously in the sky.

“Oh!” she cried, unable to stop herself, before biting hard on her hand again, to stop herself from screaming aloud.

Her body twisted, shuddering violently, as sweet release coursed through her. It seemed to last forever. In her delirium, sheneverwanted it to end…

She blinked rapidly. She was descending back to earth. Her hips fell to the ground. His tongue flickered against her again, lazily this time, drawing out the last tremors of her release.

Maddie sighed, her eyelids closing in that delicious aftermath that she well remembered from the night before in his lair. She felt the warmth from the fire against her hot skin. She wanted to curl up and just drift off into a languorous sleep…

She sighed again, feeling his body slide upwards, taking her in his arms so that her back was pressed against his chest. It felt good to rest against him like this. It felt so right being in his arms that she couldn’t imagine it any other way. She was on the verge of drifting off when she felt his hot breath on her skin.

“Happy?” he whispered in her ear.

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