Page 51 of Rules for Heiresses
“I’ve not had complaints.”
He wouldn’t. Her duke fairly emanated masculinity. The teasing hints of the strong body she’d glimpsed and felt while massaging him in his study had in no way prepared her for the banquet of sumptuous male flesh displayed in front of her now. She wanted to freeze this moment so she could examine his physique from every possible angle at her leisure.
Muscles upon muscles rippled from the top of his deeply bronzed chest down the stacked, ridged plains of his stomach. Crisp black hair curled over the top half, narrowing to a thin line at the start of his corrugated stomach and arrowing down, down, down. She hadn’t wanted to gawk before, but she could hardly stop herself now. Breath and good sense deserted her.
Thatpart matched the rest of him.
Long, thickly formed, and just as hard. She forced herself to take in his well-built legs below, though her eyes flicked back upward to the thatch of black hair at his groin and the mesmerizing piece of him that most interested her. Despite her own inexperience, thanks to her scandalous adventures on the high seas, she had a general idea of what parts went where.
According to chatter she’d overheard on the ship, a man’s tallywag, prick, or broomstick was meant to enter a woman’s lucky bag, prat, or cunny. She’d reddened and chortled at the scandalous names of the sex organs as well as the act itself: a bit of business, charver, swive, dip one’s wick, and her personal favorite, horizontal refreshment. Heat and lust sizzled through her, a hysterical giggle breaching her lips.
“What’s so amusing?” he asked.
Ravenna had a feeling that if she told him what she had overheard from the boatswains, it would not be as hilarious to him as it was to her. Biting her lip, she blushed. She really had no idea how Courtland was going to getthatmonster into her body. “You’re rather well endowed.”
“You can take me,” he said, which made her only want to giggle more.
Courtland knelt, one knee bracing on the edge of the chaise, and all amusement fled from her as his tall frame came to hover over hers. His mouth lowered and claimed hers in a hot kiss, and for a moment, Ravenna was lost in sensation as his lips glided over hers.
The man knew how to kiss. His tongue speared into her mouth, tangling with hers, licking at her like he couldn’t get enough of her taste. She couldn’t get enough of his! Brandy and darkness and utter sin. Pleasure flooded her nerve endings as his mouth left hers to trail down her neck. He sucked at the spot where her collarbone met her throat, making her moan and arch backward, thrusting her pelvis up into his hips. The searing contact of his hard sex to her inner thigh nearly made her stiffen, but then the brush of his lips over her breast made her forget everything but the hot, wet seal of his mouth closing over her nipple.
Gracious, she nearly came off the chaise when he sucked, his hot tongue lapping around the beaded tip. Wanton heat streaked through her all the way down to her core, throbbing between her legs and making her ache to be filled. Ravenna had never imagined such sensations…that a man’s mouth on her breasts could provoke such intense ribbons of need. Not any man’s mouth.
Courtland’s. Herhusband’s.
No other man had ever deconstructed her to this raw, carnal version of herself, transformed by his touch alone. She’d never let one get so close. Was this what Clara had meant when she vowed that Ravenna would one day find her match? That she would desire him in a way that was obscene, that went beyond anything she’d ever felt for anyone? Was this passion or was it something more? In truth, she feared the answer. Lust was acceptable. Anything else was…not.
She could not,would not, lose her heart to this man. It would be pure folly.
Ignoring her thoughts, she focused on the pleasure at hand.
And there was so much of it!
Courtland lavished her other breast, alternating between bites that made her toes curl and deep drugging sucks that she felt throb between her legs, until she was a roiling mess of want. Not one to lie idle, she wrapped her leg around his thickly muscled calf, digging her heel in to find purchase, to get more of the delicious friction she craved at her core. Her fingers scoured his hard back, the bunched strength there a testament to how careful he was being with her. Though she was not a small woman, a man of his size could crush her easily.
His mouth moved down her belly and she moaned, her body turning to cinders under his careful attentions. Courtland’s hands roamed the rest of her—skimming her ribs, cupping her bottom, squeezing her hips—before landing at the drenched heart of her. If she had two thoughts to rub together, she’d probably be mortified at how wet she was, but she didn’t care. Ravenna rolled her hips, seeking his fingers.
“Touch me,” she moaned.
“Touch you where?” he said, glancing up at her from where he nipped at her navel, gray eyes almost black with passion. His fingers skimmed her inner thigh. “Here?” They lifted to her crease, teasing the curls soaked with her arousal. “Here?” Then, they reached down, sliding through her folds. “Or, here?”
With each teasinghere, his voice grew huskier, and she grew bolder. With a wicked grin, her other leg wrapped around him and she rolled her hips up, gasping as his knuckles rubbed right against the center of her pleasure. “There.”
Rocking against his hand and taking what she needed without shame, it took mere seconds for her vision to go white. Her body seized and bliss tore through her like wildfire. His mouth came up to swallow her cries, his talented fingers drawing every quake, every decadent ripple of her orgasm to its breath-stealing end. A moment passed before she realized that Courtland’s hands were now gripping her hips and the thick part of him grinding against her sex was no longer his fingers.
It made her burn hotter.
“Courtland, now,” she commanded against his lips, needing him to fill her.
“Demanding little thing, aren’t you?”
“I know what I want.”
He gave it to her, sliding home with one hard, slick thrust.
* * *
Ravenna went still beneath him, a sharp cry breaching her lips. Courtland forced himself not to move, to give her time to adjust. She was so fucking tight, he could barely move. He glanced down, seeing her mouth parted on a gasp, those pretty eyes glimmering with a hint of pain.
