Page 80 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
Then, as easily as a petal tumbled from a rose, she slipped over into her climax. The soft moan that escaped her at that moment of surrender was the most beautiful music that he’d ever heard. For as long as he could, he held himself still as she spasmed around him.
But soon, too soon, the demands of his body claimed him. Evesham began to shift faster, more deliberately, until he reached the limits of restraint. He wrenched free of her body and prepared to leave the bed.
“Don’t go,” she said in a husky voice. “Stay with me.”
“Juliet, are you sure?”
He forced his reeling mind to function beyond sheer animal hunger. Almost impossible so close to his crisis.
She didn’t mean for him to spend himself inside her. But he’d felt like a lost dog when he’d gone behind the screen. Staying with her was better. Not as good as flooding her womb with his seed, but he couldn’t risk giving her a child, not until they had some plans in place.
With greedy hands, she drew him down and kissed him again, threatening to send him over the edge. “I’m sure.”
He thrust inside her once more, then pulled free to pump onto the pale curve of her stomach. Her hands flattened on his chest, over the place where his heart thundered with the sound of her name.
He collapsed at her side, laboring to fill his lungs. Sex had always seemed an easy pleasure. With Juliet, importance weighted every action. But the pleasure, too, was richer, more substantial.
She took his hand. More trust. Another wrench at a heart unaccustomed to playing a part in his affairs.
“That was…remarkable,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Yes, it was.” More remarkable still that the man of the world had to fight back a huge wave of emotion.
He’d thought copulation had no more secrets to reveal to him, the notorious rake. It turned out that he’d been an arrogant fool. Because every moment with Juliet deepened the mystery. And his fascination.
He rose on one elbow to kiss her with a leisurely enjoyment that expressed thanks and pleasure, and the promise of more pleasure to come.
When he drew away, Juliet regarded him as if she’d never seen anything so marvelous. The tender way that she cradled his jaw sliced yet another chasm through his soul. No woman had ever had this power over him. After that magnificent swiving, he’d returned to himself enough to understand that she had the ability to destroy him.
“I had no idea it could be like this,” she said, her voice laced with wonder.
“Neither did I,” he said. While he knew that she wouldn’t believe him, it was the unadulterated truth.
Another quick kiss, then he was out of the bed. “Let me clean you up.”
She hoisted herself against the pillows and pushed back the heavy fall of golden hair. His teeth and beard had marked her fine white skin. She looked tired but glowing, and so lovely that she stole his breath.
He bent to collect the towel to cover himself, but she made a pleading gesture with one hand. “Don’t. I like to see you.”
He let the towel drop. “I like to see you, too.”
“I liked feeling you…on my skin.”
He sucked in a relieved breath. Despite her cooperation, he’d feared that his masculine release might repulse her. “You’re a goddess, Juliet.”
Her lips quirked with the self-deprecating humor that he’d liked from the first. He’d arrived at Afton Park expecting to meet a woman with no laughter in her, a woman who took herself too seriously for smiling. “You flatter me.”
“On my oath, I don’t.”
This time, her smile held a touch of sorrow. “A goddess could make time stop.”
“When I’m inside you, I feel like time stops.”
Her eyes darkened, and he glimpsed some profound emotion that he couldn’t identify. He knew what he wanted to see, but wanting it so much meant that he couldn’t trust himself to interpret her feelings.
“So do I.”
He set the bowl on the nightstand with such haste, water splashed over its edges. But he had to kiss her now or perish.
