Page 30 of The Wallflower and the Duke
“Open your legs for me.” He lifted her leg, kissed the inside of her knee, and pressed them wider. The cool air licked her skin. “Perfect.”
He brushed his fingers over her curls again, before sliding his fingers against that small pearl. Her hips bucked at his touch. Alfie grinned, ducking down to finally taste her. She slammed her eyes shut.
“Open, sweet. Let me see you.” His mouth hovered over her, his breath washing over her skin like a caress. “Don’t look away now or I won’t kiss you there.” He slipped two fingers inside slowly, curling them against her channel until she moaned. “I can feel you, so close. So tight around my fingers.” His tongue slid up her seam before he sucked on that one spot, and the fire which had been a low simmer suddenly flamed.
“Be greedy, Jo. Take it. I’ll be here to catch you.”
She shook her head, afraid, even as her body climbed higher still, and he slipped a third finger inside of her, and she screamed out his name into the rainy night.
A private moment, tucked away by the pond where he first asked her to be his wife.
The pleasure washed over her in waves, and she struggled to catch her breath, recognizing finally that she had fallen apart with his fingers still inside her, his mouth kissing her in the most intimate way.
“Beautiful, so damn beautiful,” he whispered.
Slowly, he removed his fingers and pressed one last featherlight kiss to her mound before he climbed upward, kissing her in slow, equal measure as she gathered herself.
He sat up over her and raked his hands through his hair with a grin on his face. His curls bounced, and she thought for a moment she would say something. Did you say thank you to someone after an experience like that? Then she spotted the small markings below the waistband of his buckskins.
She reached closer and pulled it down, tracing her fingertip over the small M.M. at his hip.
The air crushed from her lungs.
“Harry and I were in London. Before he deployed with his regiment, we paid for an artist to tattoo us.”
“Yes, but M. M., Alfie?”
“It was always going to be us, Jo. Whether you were with me or not. I was always going to love you. I still love you. Let me show you.”
She swallowed back the tears trying to fill her eyes. It wasn’t a time to cry. And yet he always said the most beautiful things to her, as if he was just going about his day asking about the book she was reading, or what she wanted for dinner, or if she would like to take a ride through the park.
He told her he loved her so easily she was beginning to believe she was someone who could be loved.
And that would forever be the most precious gift she could have from the duke next door.
“You’ve had this for years, and you never said anything.”
“I’m always thinking of you.” He placed his hand over hers, stilling her touch. Something about revealing this secret was the crumbling of his defenses against this woman. Marjorie had crawled back into his room, crashed onto the floor, and then broke his heart all over again that morning when he saw her face for the first time in years.
Someday, he would tell her how after they shared dinner together and she rode home alone, he had stayed up and finally read every letter she had written him over the years. Each word a sharp blade to his heart. But here she was before him.
So damn perfect.
For him, and him alone.
“Don’t leave me.” He swallowed, waiting to feel her push him away, but she remained. Instead, shaking her head and sitting up to help remove his buckskins.
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Not after… Did I really make all those sounds?”
He tucked his chin toward his chest to hide his grin. “This time louder, sweet.”
“You’ve been alone too long. You can’t just say things like that.”
This time, they both laughed, but his cock ached, and he was desperate to feel her. To drive inside of her. To hear his name on those sweet lips of hers.
“I love it. A secret tattoo for me.” Marjorie sat up and kissed the small reminder he had carried with him all these years, then tugged at his waistband once again. “Please, Alfie. Please don’t stop.”
The plea set off a whole new fire within, and he quickly stood and undressed, crawling back onto the bed. For all his bravado, he gathered she was nervous. Saw the way her eyes bulged at the sight of him.
