Page 70 of A Duchess to Unravel
“Yes, Your Grace!” She whispered loudly, her heart beginning to flutter wildly as she fought harder to breathe.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Alistair loosened the fabric and sagged against him. She whimpered as she heard the inhale of his breath against her ear, felt the tip of his nose caress against her lobe.
“Mmm,” he purred, sliding the cravat up to her eyes. “That’s my good girl.”
Alistair drew the cravat over her eyes snugly, shrouding her vision in darkness. As he took away her sight, Theo felt all her other senses amplify. She felt pleasure in feeling his even breaths at her ear, nearly trembled into a mess upon the floor as his fingertips brushed over the back of her neck and her mouth watered as she drew in the wild scent of her husband-- musky and feral.
She wanted to turn around, grab whatever part of him she could find, and kiss him with abandon. She wanted to delve her fingers into the silken strands of his hair, tear at his fine clothing until she could feel those heated, hard muscles she knew laid beneath--yet she did none of that. Instead, she stayed still. Waiting for his instruction.
“This is not going to happen quickly,” Alistair’s deep voice whispered into her ear. At her back, she felt his hands find the hooks of her dress and begin to free them one by one. With each one that was freed from its lock, she shivered with growing sensitivity.
“You are not going to move,” he told her as his fingers continued to free her from her gown. “Not unless I move you. Tell me you understand.”
Theo felt her dress fall into a puddle at her feet, then Alistair’s hands went to the strings of her corset.
“I understand,” she breathed, then added, “Your Grace.”
A sound of pleasure erupted from Alistair’s lips, and she was rewarded with a kiss just below her ear that made her nipples harden painfully.
“Ye are learning,” he praised, dropping her corset.
She felt his body move away from her then, and though she stood still, she whimpered in protest. An overwhelming relief took over her when she felt Alistair’s strong hands at her calves, and his deep voice commanding her to lift one foot, then the other. She heard the rustle of her clothes being lifted from the floor, then tossed.
Then she heard nothing. Her ears perked to the silence, straining to hear even just the soft huff of Alistair’s breath. Nothing. Had he left? Had he abandoned her in the room without her sight or clothes?
Her heartbeat suddenly spiked at the thought.
She flexed her fingers. Felt nothing. Just the warm air sizzling against the entire expanse of her bare skin. She was naked. Blind. And alone. And somehow, that made her feel more vulnerable and timid than ever before. Theo felt herself shrink from the intensity of such feelings, and she moved to cover herself.
“Do not,” Alistair’s harsh command broke through the silence.
Theo dropped her arms to her side. The hairs on the back of her neck stood. Yet she let loose a breath of relief and felt the gathered tension ease from her tightened body.He was here.
A shuffle on the carpet spiked in her ear. A footstep, purposeful and heavy. Another. Theo felt warmth leech into her neck, and she breathed a sigh. A soft wind whispered across her pebbled skin, starting from behind her ear and down the nape of her neck. A moist heat settled onto the small, white, almost-invisible hairs that covered the slope of her shoulder.
Kiss me,she silently begged, knowing that it was Alistair’s breath; knowing his mouth had to be mere centimeters from her flesh. She wanted to feel his lips. His teeth. She wanted to feel the sting of his bite and soothing swipe of his tongue afterward.
“Alistair,” she breathed.
“I didnae say ye could speak,” he murmured into her ear. His voice sent a tremble of desire down her spine, but before the sensation could even reach the middle of her back, Alistair’shand was clamped over her mouth and his teeth were sinking in her neck.
Theo let out a noise that made her blush. The harmonies of both pleasure and pain twisted into strange melody that hit the barrier of Alistair’s hand and resounded back into her. Her body spasmed uncontrollably at the delicious feel of Alistair’s love bite, and she felt her knees weaken and give out. Then suddenly pain, sharp and white-hot, erupted into her left buttock. It caused her knees to straighten immediately and she released another pain-filled moan into Alistair’s hand.
“Shhh, little love,” Alistair coaxed in her ear, his forearm like a bar around her hips so she could stay upright.
“Breathe. The pain will subside.”
Theo then felt Alistair’s hand, soothing and warm, slip from her hips to glide over the painful sting at her backside, and her moan turned into a whimper as she sagged against his touch.
“Are ye starting to learn, little kitten?” Alistair asked, his hand massaging magical, healing circles into Theo’s backside.
Drawing in deep breaths from her nostrils, Theo nodded enthusiastically.
“Very good,” his deep, whispered voice praised, then Theo felt his fingers caress from her mouth to her chin. Alistair turnedher head abruptly and possessively crushed his lips to hers in a demanding kiss.
Pleasure sparked through Theo’s veins once again, but before she could lean into the kiss, give herself fully to it, Alistair was tearing away from her--and again she was alone. Felt nothing. Heard nothing. Not even Alistair’s breath.
The loneliness once more slammed into her with force, and she blindly turned her head left, then right, wanting to sense just the littlest bit of him. Wanting to know he was still there.
