Page 96 of Seven Nights with the Wicked Duke
His lips quirked into a grin. "There it is. That duchess steel I've come to adore."
"You'll need to get used to it." She shrugged before stretching her hands towards him.
"Oh, I plan to," he said, tilting his head, before pushing himself off from the railings. He walked to her and grabbed her hands. "Every damn day," he added in a whisper. "Join me," he requested before dropping a kiss onto her mouth.
She immediately wrapped her hands around his neck without questioning him. She trusted him fully and wholeheartedly.
He wrapped his arms around her before lifting her up in a bridal style. Theo moved into the house, leading them into the bathroom.
As he approached the glittering room and edge of the tub, Cecilia's eyes trailed down the sleek, wet lines of his chest. He looked like something carved of warm stone and shadows. She loved him with an ache that never quite dulled.
"How did you know I wanted a bath?" she sounded from where she cradled around him.
"Trust me. Reading your mind is all I wish to learn," he responded.
"Well, that would make thing easier for sure," she joked back.
She let him untie her robe and slide it down her shoulders. When it hit the floor, there was no awkwardness, no fear. Only skin meeting his eyes, hungry and soft all at once, taking her in.
As he placed her gently into the warm water, he pulled her gently onto his lap, her knees straddling him. The warmth of the water filled them like a breath, touching their skin.
And then she shivered. Not from cold, but from the sudden intimacy of being this close, in this new way.
Theo held her waist like she was something sacred. His hands knew her now. Not just her body, but her rhythm. He exactlyknew when she needed his touch, his silent assurance. And then she leaned into the touch like a promise.
"These seven nights…" he began, voice low, lips brushing her collarbone. "They were never meant to be the end."
She arched slightly, her fingers tangling in the wet strands of his hair. "No?"
"They were only the beginning," he murmured. "The prologue. What comes next, what we build, will be the story."
"And what kind of story shall we write?" she asked, tilting her head back as he trailed kisses along her throat.
"A dangerous one," he whispered. "Beautiful. Scandalous. The kind no one dares speak aloud, but everyone dreams about in the quiet of the night."
Her body trembled against his, every word brushing over her skin. "That's a very ambitious plan, husband."
"I am a very ambitious man," he said, and then he was kissing her fully, deep, reverent, as if the moment demanded something more than simple affection. As if it demanded surrender.
Cecilia responded with all the love that had filled her since that first night in the corridor, when he winked and walked away and changed the course of her life forever.
The bathwater moved around them in soft bubbles. She gasped slightly as he adjusted her position, his hands guiding her with careful patience. When their mouths meet again, there was no shyness or slowness.
"Ow!" Cecilia broke out a nasty sound when he playfully spanked and squeezed her butt.
"I want to please you, my lady. For the rest of your life." he sucked her throat.
And she, in turn, traced her hands across her spine, across his familiar scars near his ribs, while whispering his name softly.
Water moved gently around them, soaking their bodies with softness. This moment was nothing like the others. It was slow, intimate, and sacred.
They didn't speak for a long time. There were no words necessary to be very honest.
Theo pressed his forehead to hers and her fingers combed through his thick hair.
A moan escaped her when his fingers swam through the water and found her clit, rubbing gently and seductively.
But she was immediately silenced by another of his shuddering kisses.
