Page 44 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
It was not lost on Axel that she had just called him by his name for the first time.
Jasmine’s touch had a relaxing effect on him, and he was able to keep calm enough to consider telling her the truth.
“I was positively smitten by her when I met her. Ours was a whirlwind romance, and within just a few days after we met, we were engaged. Not long after, we got married, and that was when we started getting into arguments,” he started. “I believe that she realized a little too late that she did not love me, and the things that attracted us to each other were simply mundane. She wanted something better and said as much during one of our arguments. After this, I tried hard to win her back but was met with a brick wall. Nothing I did could get through to her.”
“What happened?”
“One day, three years ago, I returned home to see a letter from her telling me that she was leaving me for another man.” Axel’s heart beat rapidly as he recounted what was easily the worst event of his life. “I took after her, bent on winning her back. And then...I...I...” Axel shook his head rapidly, tension wracking his body. “No, I cannot talk about it.”
“I understand,” Jasmine said before she suddenly hugged him.
They stayed there in that position, Jasmine offering Axel the best comfort he had ever gotten. He closed his eyes as he savored the warmth of her body, deriving comfort from it. Eventually, he felt the tension slowly ease off his body.
“Thank you,” he replied, “I am sorry I cannot tell you what you need to know.” They finally disengaged, and Jasmine stepped back from the hug.
“It would be best if you only talked about it when ready. To compensate for not telling me, you have to tell me something else, anything,” she said.
“That is a good deal. What do you want me to tell you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I do not care. You can tell me anything.”
“Fine,” Axel said, “when I said that I reacted that way earlier because of guilt, the guilt was not just because of my wife’s death. The guilt was also because seeing you hold the vase, an object that holds the last memory of her, I realized what I felt for you. And the realization that I feel strongly for you made me feel guilty that, somehow, I was betraying my wife, who was already dead.”
Axel felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulder after he finally confessed. Jasmine nodded.
“So, you feel strongly for me?” She asked, smiling.
“I do.”
“That is such a shame,” she replied, frowning, “because, for you, I ache. My body aches and yearns for you even when I know it should not.”
Axel’s heart skipped in excitement.
“As you already know, there are demons that I have been running away from, demons that I cannot deal with, and for the past few days, you have become one of them. The thought of you, the image of me taking you, has become one of the things that simply plague my thoughts. Thoughts of you plague me all of the time. It does not matter if I am awake or asleep. All I can think about is you,” he uttered.
“What are you thinking about at this moment?” Jasmine whispered.
“Let me show you,” he said in a husky voice.
Axel inched forward, and his nose nestled softly against hers.
He tugged at Jasmine’s lower lip, and a soft moan escaped from her. When Axel finally claimed her mouth, the feeling was everything that he had always imagined that it would be. Jasmine squirmed against him, and this motion drove Axel even crazier.
“You will be the death of me if you keep doing that,” said Axel before kissing her with even greater fervor.
ChapterFourteen
From the romance novels that Jasmine read often, she had read a lot about kisses, and due to this, she had imagined what her first kiss would feel like.
No book she had read prepared her for what she felt while kissing Axel. It felt different from what she had ever imagined...in a good way, of course. She moaned and held Axel’s face. She could not seem to get enough of him, his lips, his taste, all of him.
For such a tough-looking man, Axel’s lips were soft like silk. His breath slowly grazed her face, and her body tingled when she felt his hand running through her hair. They breathed each other in, and Jasmine felt ecstatic, like she was simply floating.
She tugged lightly at his tongue, and he took up the challenge, his tongue locked in a romantic dance with hers. Their bodies pressed together, and the heat of it consumed Jasmine. They breathed heavily as their lips, tongues, and bodies danced in sync.
Jasmine could feel the thud of both of their heartbeats. Warmth blossomed in her heart, and she could feel the famed butterflies in her belly. This was beautiful like nothing she had ever felt before, and no matter how long they kissed, Jasmine only wanted more and more. She never thought she could get tired of kissing this man that awakened things in her that she never knew she had the ability for.
She felt Axel move away from her, and she groaned in disappointment. Her disappointment, however, did not last long because she felt his breath on her neck, and then, the next moment, his lips were on her neck. Jasmine squirmed as a pleasurable jolt ran through her body. He lightly bit her on the neck, and Jasmine groaned. Next, his tongue got to work before moving downward.
