Page 74 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

“And that something is...?” She studied him curiously... and a little nervously.

“Kiss me.”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Since the moment I met you, you have... annoyed me. Frustrated me. Made me want to go buy a gun and --”

“Yes, yes, I get it,” she cut him off. “What is your point?”

“That is the only you who I have ever known. From that first day that you ambushed me in the carriage...” He took a deep, steadying breath and she smirked to herself, knowing exactly what was going through his mind. “All I have been able to think about is you.” He smirked slightly. “And what I wanted to do with you.”

“With me?” She cocked an eyebrow. “I think you meantome.”

She laughed and squeezed her hands. “The point is – even when I was treating you kindly, trying to placate you. What I was really trying to do was calm myself down. Clearly, it did not work.”

“And we have God to thank for that.”

“But we can’t spend the rest of our lives fighting.”

“But these last three days...” She grimaced.

“Kiss me,” he said again, squeezing her hands and licking his lips. “Now?”

“Is that a command?” she cocked her eyebrow again.

“No,” he said seriously. “Kiss me because you want to. Not because you are angry. Not because you want me to punish you. Kiss me because you’re my wife and you don’t detest me nearly as much as you pretend to.”

Isabella couldn’t explain why but her heart was racing. Her palms were sweating. And her mouth was salivating. And her eyes... well, those flicked to Duncan’s lips.

Nothing about this should have been arousing. Nor even that tempting. Awkward, perhaps. But the idea of her husband asking her to kiss him as if worried she might say no? It was the exact opposite of what their entire sexual relationship was built upon. Perhaps that was why it struck her the way that it did.

These past few days, Isbella had thought that she needed the fire. That she had to have the anger. That the only way to enjoy her husband was through wickedly debauched scenes of such excess that she often had to pray for forgiveness after lest her soul be damned for eternity. But what if she had been wrong?

What if... was it possible that she and Duncan could enjoy one another without the spanking? The choking? The gagging? All of it? Surely not...

“Alright, Duncan,” she said, squeezing his hands and stepping into him. “I will kiss you.”

She licked her lips and looked right up at him. This close, she could feel his heart beating in his chest and she could hear his breathing; she could feel it on her skin as he leaned in towardher. A hand cupped on her chin, soft and gentle, guiding her lips into his.

It was not their first kiss. Not by a long shot. But as skin grazed skin, opening to lips, accepting tongues which gently lapped and played with one another, Isabella just about pulled away and gasped; such was the sensation that took her. Her heart might have leapt through her mouth if it was not busy. Her loins exploded as if they had been set on fire. That warmth ran so hot it swept over her body in a way that had Isabella wanting to tear her clothes right off.

Or maybe that was just because Duncan’s hand moved to her waist, taking it gently, and his touch always did that to her. No matter how rough it was, apparently.

The kiss lasted for seconds, and Isabella savored every minute of it. When Duncan did pull away, she followed him, chin shaking with temptation because she missed his taste already.

“Duncan,” she said.

“Yes?”

“We have to leave, right now.”

Duncan smiled. “Is that so? It is quite the ride home. Do you think that you can last that long?”

Isabella considered the question. She assessed how she was feeling. She pictured exactly what she wanted to do to Duncan and how she was going to do it. And then, she came to an important decision.

“You’re right, I do not think I can.”

Unable to control herself any longer, Isabella threw herself at Duncan, her husband, wrapping her arms around her neck as she pressed her body into his and wrapped him in her legs. There was no way that she could wait until they arrived home. Even the carriage felt too far a distance.

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