Page 78 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
“You don’t sound very sure.” The tenderness in his gaze turned her blood to molten honey.
Juliet had imagined the sexual act would dominate the day’s events. It turned out that it was only one of the snares awaiting a yearning heart. She hadn’t expected this poignant sweetness after Lucas bedded her. A sweetness that ripped away the last of her ragged defenses.
She made an apologetic gesture. “You’ve already seen me. It shouldn’t matter.”
“I’d like to see more. Will you allow me that privilege?”
Her hand shook, as she loosened the sheet. Her cheeks felt like fire. Clearly, despite abandoning her chastity, she hadn’t lost the ability to blush.
“Juliet, you beggar my dreams,” he said when at last she lay bare. The raw emotion in his voice went a long way toward vanquishing timidity. That, and the glow in his dark eyes.
“I’m…I’m glad,” she whispered.
He dipped the cloth in the warm water and skimmed it over her breasts and stomach. When her nipples tightened in swift response, she exhaled in soft surprise. She waited in tantalizing suspense for him to devote his attention to her breasts, but he moved on to her arms and legs.
Then with a gentleness that threatened to break her already tattered heart, he parted her legs and began to wash her there, where his body had joined with hers.
His face was set with concentration. No hint of prurience. Whereas with every touch, her blood rushed hotter, and her skin burned for the touch of his hands.
Having him washing her in such a private place – good heavens, looking at her there – she should be in an agony of self-consciousness. She had been at first, but soon arousal drowned embarrassment.
On an incoherent complaint, she shifted against the sheet.
Lucas looked up with a frown, and his hand went still. “Am I hurting you?”
She bit her lip before confessing the shameful truth. “No, you’re making me…want you again.”
The delight in his smile made her feel as if the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone just for her. “Juliet, you make me so happy.”
He dropped the flannel in the bowl and came down over her for a fierce kiss. Even as she gave in to the demands of his mouth, she reached down and tugged the concealing towel away from his waist.
He was hard and ready. She waited for him to unite their bodies again.
But when his lips shifted from hers, it was to trail more kisses down her body. Discovering places that in her innocence, she’d never imagined might send her up in flames.
His lips traced a meandering path down to her navel. Her protest this time was louder, and she dug her fingers in his silky hair, as he dipped his tongue into the small indentation.
Lucas dropped a line of kisses above her pubis, then shifted lower to bury his head between her legs.
Consternation slammed through her. She was aware of heat and suction, and the flicker of a tongue in a place where she’d never thought a man’s mouth would venture.
Helpless to resist, her thighs splayed out on either side of his head. Each touch, each kiss set off a fresh burst of pleasure.
“Lucas!” She went rigid, and her knees rose around him.
When he looked up, she wasn’t so sure anymore that she appreciated the daylight. His eyes were heavy with desire, and his lips glistened after that intimate kiss.
“Let me do this, Juliet.”
“But…it’s perverse.”
He turned his head to place a kiss on her thigh. “I promise you’ll like it.”
“But why would you…” Her capacity for speech evaporated, when he dipped his head to lick her cleft with a voluptuous appreciation that she couldn’t mistake.
“Want to taste you there, where you’re most a woman? How can I resist?”
His words punched their way through her, demolishing inhibitions and leaving only curiosity behind. She sucked in a deep breath, and the tension leached out of her muscles. “Very well.”
