Page 40 of A Bride for the Wicked Duke

She moaned and her knees buckled. She shut her eyes and bit her lip. She almost moved to kiss him herself, taken completely by the sensation, the moment, the thoughts which besieged her like waves crashing on the shore.

“Now, I hope, you are starting to better understand,” the duke said as he released her chin and stood back up. “The consequences of your actions, Lady Hawkins.”

Aurelia understood well enough by now. Just as she understood that the duke hadn’t specified if the consequences were good or bad. If she wished to take his lessons seriously, then she could have very well tried to keep her mouth shut or not rise to the bait that he was laying. She was not a simpleton. She knew how to keep herself from saying the wrong thing.

On the other hand, Aurelia always had been a rather slower learner...

“Perhaps a little...” Aurelia made sure to be looking up at the duke as she spoke, her voice dropped to a whisper, the intent clear in her eyes. “But I have always been a slow learner.”

“Is that right?”

“Or perhaps you are just not a very good teacher,” she offered instead. “Why should I take all the blame myself?”

He clicked his tongue. “Again, you simply cannot help yourself can you?”

“What are you going to do about it?”

A knowing smirk crossed his lips, for he must have seen what she was doing. What was more, nothing about the way that he looked at her suggested he wished for her to stop. He reached up again, taking her under the chin, turning her face to the side as if he meant to kiss her neck once more.

She held her breath in anticipation. She closed her eyes, waiting for it. Only, it never came...

“Wh -- what are you doing?” she asked, opening her eyes to find the duke still studying her.

“I told you that I would kiss you, but I did not saywhereorhowI would.” He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She frowned. “What does... I do not understand.”

“You are insolent,” he said. “Purposefully antagonistic. You...” He moaned and took a breath, and she could see his body shaking. All this time Aurelia had been so concerned with what the duke was doing to her, she hadn’t considered what she was doing to him.

I’ve never had to before. I’ve never considered that I might have any effect on a man’s self-control and amorous desires. Just the thought that I do...Her thighs began to tingle.

“A simple kiss won’t be enough,” he said.

“Are you sure about that?”

Still smirking, he took Aurelia by both hands as he stepped to the side, forcing her to turn around so that the desk was behind her. Then, quickly, he stepped into her, forcing her back. The desk hit the back of her knees and she stumbled, forced to sit down. And still, the duke came for her.

He was between her legs, his hands going for her thighs. He grabbed them and squeezed, and she gasped.

“What are you --”

“Teaching you a lesson you will not soon forget.” He raised his eyebrow at her once more. “That is unless you promise to start behaving.”

Aurelia’s entire body was shaking now. She could hardly breathe from the anticipation. Her mind searched for answers to what the duke intended. Her tongue salivated. Her heart grew inside her chest.What is he... surely he is not... there is no way...

“I think we both know the answer to that,” she said, swallowing the lump which rose in her throat.

“Just as I thought.”

The duke took command of the moment without another word spoken. Still between her legs, he dropped to his knees suddenly, his hands squeezing her thighs tighter. On instinct, she attempted to scramble back, but he held her in place as he shuffled in as close as he could.

“You must promise me something...” Slowly, his hands moved down her legs to the bottom of her skirt. His fingers traced her ankles gently as he began to lift her skirt above her claves and toward her thighs. “The next time you even think of speaking out of turn or....” He moaned as he raised the skirt of the dress to her knees. She held her breath, spreading her legs because she saw now what he meant to do. The kiss he planned on giving her. “You are to remember this moment, and what it will mean if you do so again.”

“I thought...” She took a breath to try and calm herself. “I thought this was supposed to keep me from speaking out.”

He chuckled deeply as his fingers began to trace inside her thighs. “It will do,” he said. “As I expect the next time you think of this moment, you are going to have more than a little difficulty speaking at all.”

“Is that right?”

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