Page 32 of Her Devil of a Duke
“Take me,” she murmured. “I hardly thought I’d be the sort of woman to come visit you late in the evening and beg for your assistance.”
He laughed warmly at her words.
“I am very glad you did.” He lifted his claret glass to his lips, taking a sip, watching as she did the same. They held one another’s gazes throughout, the tension in the air palpable.
He was tempted to sweep to the side their dinner plates and what food remained. He could urge her onto the table, make a feast of her, and kiss her core again until she writhed and called his name out with pleasure. The night before, she had moaned his name with such desire that it had almost been his undoing. He’d scarcely managed to hold himself back from reaching for his own length and finding his release.
“Are you ready for your next lesson?”
“I am.” She leaned forward. “What is it you will be teaching me?” she whispered scandalously with a grin that met her eyes.
“Flirtation.” He leaned toward her too. “Now, contrary to what many women think, it is not purely lean forward and hope a man stares at your breasts.” She cocked a single eyebrow.
“You have looked at mine a lot, I seem to recall.”
He broke into a fit of laughter, stunned at her humor. For someone he had first thought so quiet in manner, she had wit to her. It was intoxicating really, as if he had to peel back the layers with Evie to discover who she really was.
“Well, it helps,” he whispered playfully. “You have more charms than a great many women I’ve had the pleasure of knowing, Evelyn, and when it comes to your physical attributes…” He pointedly glanced down her body, loving the way she blushed. “Yet, what many a man desire for just as much, is softness, tenderness. Even a gentle touch can drive a man as wild as a woman dropping her gown.”
“How so?” she whispered, her brow furrowing. “Let me see.” Rather than waiting for his answer, she reached down experimentally. His hand rested on the table with his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbow. She gently laid her fingers on his exposed forearm and wrist, tracing a soft path with the ends of her fingertips.
A contented sigh escaped him.
“Something like this?” she whispered.
“That is perfect.” He chuckled softly. “Are you sure you need lessons, Evie? You seem remarkably good at this already.”
“I need instruction,” she said simply.
“Say those words to any man and you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand.”
“Really? How so?” She drifted her delicate fingertips higher up his forearm, moving closer and closer to his elbow. The raising of those fingers made his chest heave up and down, his breathing growing labored.
“Men like to be in control. Of course, they like it when women take control too. But if you make the offer of a man to…dominate.”His choice of words made her brows shoot up. To his relief, she didn’t look afraid and continued to smile. “It makes men’s minds wander.”
His eyes drifted down her as he thought of dominating Evie now. He thought of making her plant her hands to the table, flipping up the skirt of her gown and entering her from behind. He wanted her to gasp in shock at the suddenness, then for her back to arch in pleasure as he drove into her, riding her body.
“Oh.” She sighed heavily, the movement making her breasts lift and fall. “It’s so much to learn,” she whispered. “Seduction… it is no easy path.”
“You make itlookeasy.”
“You seem more attentive than most, Rafe.”
Any happiness he received from her calling him Rafe was quickly dampened when he realized another connotation of her words.
She’s thinking of another man.
The idea that she was considering using this flirtatious touch with Mr. Windham drove him mad. Jealousy coiled in his stomach; the anger suddenly so strong that he had to stop things.
He laid a hand over hers on his arm, halting her movements.
“I think you should have better taste in men, Evie.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Laurence Windham?” He scoffed at the name. “You make me wonder what else you like in this world, to think you desired him at all.”
She immediately withdrew her hand from his, pulling back in her chair.
