Page 51 of The Duke's Stolen Heart
“It isn’t,” she insisted. She licked the head of his cock. He grunted. Malcolm dug his fingers into the soft mass of her hair as she worked her hot mouth over his hard length. Wet, warm heat smoothed the way for her to work the thin barrier over his cock in firm strokes. “My history is the reason we met,” she whispered against his earlobe.
Malcolm’s arms skimmed up her back to draw her close. Antonia nibbled his earlobe. Her teeth scraped down his jaw line to his throat. Lush lips closed around his jugular. A nip sent a dart of heat straight to his cock. Malcolm grunted. “Fuck, Toni.” It wasn’t true. His history had played just as large a role in bringing them together, but desire had stormed his body and stolen his words. Malcolm was left with incoherent scraps of thought.
With a single syllable, she stole even that.
“Yes,” she whispered. She straddled his thighs his cock in her hand. An insouciant smile played over her lips. Welcoming heat made his hips flex halfway off the couch. An instinctive, ineffectual thrust. Antonia sat back, taking all of him inside her slick pussy.
They exhaled as one.
“I have wanted you so badly,” she declared breathlessly.
“You have me.” Malcolm grunted. His hands were full of sweet woman, one hand on her hip, another on her shoulder as she rode him. Beneath the sleek skin was tensile strength. Maybe she was right. He couldn’t hurt her the way his father had dismantled his intelligent and sensitive mother. But there was always a way to leave a mark on another person’s soul if you looked hard enough for a means to do harm.
Antonia moaned. The rumble of her pleasure chased the thought away.
“All I want,” he panted, “is to make you feel like this every day.”
She threw back her head and undulated over him. Malcolm would never forget the sight of her body moving in time with his. She whimpered through her release. With his own riding hard behind hers, Malcom stroked the nub at the apex of her sex. Antonia uttered a feral half moan. Darkness fuzzed behind his vision.A little more. Closer.
She dug her nails into his shoulder and panted. No shadows behind her eyes now. The only thing left was pure, radiant joy. Malcolm let himself be swept away in their shared bliss.
When he was cogent again, he found himself staring at where their bodies were still joined. Antonia moaned, lifting and lowering her exquisite breasts. Dusky nipples puckered in the firelight. If only the world would let them be like this.
“I would marry you if you wanted it,” he said with unsteady honesty. “But you don’t. That means we cannot do this again.” He stroked the silk-velvet skin of her upper arm. Her long hair cascaded over his shoulder to tickle his chest.
Antonia grasped the sheath at the base of his cock and squirmed off of him. His body shuddered with the aftershock. “I might marry you if you felt more worthy of me, Malcolm. Because you deserve everything a proper wife could give you. Children. A love so true it will see you through the grim darkness that swallowed up your mother and which I see you trying to hide.” She shifted so her head laid on one elbow, peering down at him with dark eyes soft with emotion. “Yet I fear I would be the one to push you away when you needed me most. Or worse, do what I do best.”
“Which is?” he prompted.
“Run.” Antonia laid back down, burrowing against him. “I am not known for staying to fight. I take what I need and flee to battle on another day. Look at how I abandoned Margaret just as she was learning to stand up to her brother and sister-in-law.”
Malcolm tried to kiss away her grief.
“All my life, I have run away the instant life turned difficult. You need a wife—a lover, someone—who will see you through the hard moments.”
He pulled back. “You could do it, if you resolved to stay.”
“But I wouldn’t keep my word, Malcolm. The worst part about me isn’t that I am a thief. It’s that I’m a liar and a fraud. I don’t know of any other way to be.”
She slipped away from him, leaving Malcolm alone with his damp, satisfied cock and still-yearning heart.
