Page 10 of A Villain for a Duke

And who should be there, but Astrid.

She was standing in the middle of the room, her hands running down her nightrail.Pulling the nearly transparent fabric tight against her curves.Her breasts.Her hips.Her bottom.His lips instantly remembered the feel of her, and his hands were restless as his sides.

“What are you doing here?”He didn’t give her time to answer.As he closed the door, he asked, “Haven’t you done enough already?”

“Excuse me?”

It was too little and far too late, but the adrenaline coursing through him was taking logic for a ride.“We had our moment.It was a mistake.”

She glared at him.

He might have thought she would cover up.Act ashamed for coming to his room at this hour to seduce him.Again.But no, she rolled her shoulders back and stalked toward him.

“It was most certainly a mistake.Perhaps the most significant of my life.I don’t see it affecting you too greatly though.”

He scoffed.She couldn’t know how the erroneously innocent memory plagued him.She didn’t know that his lips had yearned for a taste of her every day for months following that first kiss.There was no possible way for her to understand how long it had taken him to extract her from his woolgathering thoughts.And it was inconceivable that she could even have an inkling as to how many times he had woken up hard as granite after a torturous night of dreams about her.

But he wouldn’t say any of that.Now that he knew who she was, a wanton woman, he was not interested.

“It has cost me, though admittedly not the way it has cost you.”He almost felt the sadness he detected in her eyes, but then he remembered that it was her actions that had triggered the scandal.“You only did this to yourself, Astrid,” he muttered.

“You are not the judge of me, Michael.You don’t get to enforce punishment on me for my actions.”

They were so close together, he was breathing her air.He was agitated with her.And at the intense tightening in his gut.And the swelling between his thighs.He wanted her.Desperately.

Impulse took over his body, boxing logic out of it.“Maybe I should be.”

“What?”

“Maybe I should be.You have been a bad girl, Astrid.”His hand gripped her waist.Her supple curves.He wanted to sink his teeth into her.

“I-I—”

“Just answer one question.How bad have you been?”The temperature in his body was hot enough to boil an egg.His heart was hammering his chest.She was wanton.Eager for the physical.The sensual.And he could show her so much more.

He almost choked on the words he had been desperate to ask her, “Do you need me to spank you?”

He watched the flush creep up her neck.He was wild.Out of his mind.At first he thought it had been rage.But now he could feel the sexual frustration.His body wanted her, even though he couldn’t have her.But she had come to his room wanting something, so he would give her something she would never forget.Unless she said no.

A breathless, “Yes,” crossed her lips.

Without a second thought, he pulled her close and sunk into the chair.He laid her across his lap.His arousal now hard as steel.Whipping up her nightrail, he shuddered when he saw her creamy bottom shining up at him.

Gently, he placed his hand on her cheek and rubbed a few circles.Then, SMACK.

She let out a small cry.“Michael!”

His hand covered the redness and smoothed it out while she moaned.

“Have you learned your lesson, Astrid?”

“No.”

Shock swept through him and he could feel his sack tightening.

“This is for your behavior tonight.”

SMACK!

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