Page 75 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
Juliet watched Lucas’s expression change from eager excitement to overwhelming emotion. Desire remained. He’d looked at her with desire from the first. On stage, he’d made such a powerful Romeo because he’d done nothing to hide his craving for her. On stage, she hadn’t had to hide how much she wanted him either.
On stage. And now.
She stretched up to kiss him. To her surprise, the kiss was as sweet as it was passionate. Just as the glow in his eyes spoke of feelings that extended beyond physical hunger.
Juliet warned herself against tumbling into a fool’s paradise, where the man she gave herself to genuinely cared for her. But what else could she think, when Lucas gazed at her as if she made every dream come true?
He rose on his elbows and stared down into her face. “Hold onto my shoulders.”
Her fingers clutched the top of his arms. His skin was hot under her touch, and he breathed hard. Even in her innocence, she recognized his fight for control.
Juliet bent her knees, cradling him between her thighs. “I’m ready,” she whispered.
He dipped his head for another kiss of such unabashed appreciation that it made her arch upward. When she felt heated pressure between her legs, she released a whimper against his lips.
More pressure. A tinge of discomfort.
At the sight of his nakedness, she’d wondered how her body would cope with his size. Now she knew, and it wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped.
Her fingers dug into his straining arms, as he pushed further. The stretching sensation sharpened, and she bit her lip until she drew blood.
His entire body had gone rigid, not just the part that penetrated her. His words emerged in jerky gasps. “Is it too bad?”
“No,” she forced out.
He kissed her quickly, his tongue soothing the sting of her torn lip. “Such a pretty liar, my love.”
His love?No, she wasn’t that. But his humor leavened the painful intensity. Her body lost some of its stiffness. When he pushed deeper, it wasn’t so painful.
“Don’t…don’t stop,” she said, desperate to know his possession, in spite of the awkwardness. She’d ventured too far along this path to lose her nerve now.
“You’re marvelous.”
She didn’t feel marvelous. She felt needy and restless and inept.
He bent and kissed her with a fervent passion that went some way toward banishing her fear that she made a mess of this.
When he plunged forward, she opened to welcome him. The pain was brief and close to forgotten by the time that he raised his head. His kisses always swept her away into another more radiant world.
He stared down at her, as if he’d never seen anything as perfect in his life. “Juliet, are you all right?”
While he joined his body to hers, she’d held her breath. Now she released the air pent up in her lungs and hefted a great breath. The musk of their arousal tinged the warm air.
When she shifted, he growled with approval. Her frantic clutch at his shoulders loosened, and she stroked down his arms and over his back.
The closeness was indescribable, beyond even her wildest imaginings. Her theoretical understanding of what happened between a man and a woman crumbled under the impact of the act itself. The closeness was extraordinary. Breathtaking in its completeness, as though she and Lucas became one in the flesh, but also in heart and spirit.
“I feel…made anew,” she murmured, adjusting to this glorious invasion.
Juliet watched his eyes change. Concern vanished, replaced by a masculine satisfaction that assured her he found no complaint with her inexperience.
She’d always imagined this act taking place under cover of night, but she loved being able to track the nuances of his expression. Especially when, as now, she could revel in his pleasure in her.
“There’s more.”
She trailed her hands down that firmly muscled back and dared to trace the firm globes of his buttocks. Carnal curiosity had tormented her from their first meeting. It dawned on her that he’d given her the right to explore his gorgeous, vigorous body.
“Show me.”
