Page 23 of A Duchess Bound
Lady Dorothy shifted beneath him, drawing her thighs tightly together. She bucked her hips. The movement was small, subtle. Gerard smiled wolfishly. Was she trying to find pleasure by rubbing against him like some wild thing?
“Oh, mylady,” he purred.
Lady Dorothy arched her back and sighed. “You are saying the cruelest things to me, Your Grace. You should stop. Have mercy on me.”
He tightened his grip on her wrists, not nearly enough to hurt but simply to remind her that it washewho held her. If all went according to his wishes, he would soon see the lady bound to his bed.
He would torment her for hours, stroking her breasts and pinching her nipples, until she writhed against the bedcovers, desperate for him to grant her release. Gerard would give her precisely what she desired. Eventually. He was not a monster, after all.
“Mercy?” he asked. “Did you have mercy on me when you said those awful things about me to your sister? Did you give even a second’s thought to how I might feel at being branded as a rake?”
“Y—you are,” she rasped, stammering over her words.
“If I am a rake, what does that make you, my lady?” he asked.
Lady Dorothy groaned and shifted against him. Gerard hissed between his teeth as she brushed against his sensitive cock, already tight against the fabric of his trousers. He could take her right there.
But sometimes, delayed satisfaction was best. How would he feel if he took the lady right then and there, only to have her continue spitting at him with such fire and defiance? No, the pleasure would be greater if he tamed this creature and molded her into the perfect, obedient lover.
“You have done this to me,” she said.
“You are far too old to blame others for your errors, my lady,” he purred against the side of her neck.
He wanted her begging, and she was not ready for that yet. Lady Dorothy still wanted to deny her own desires. She still wanted to blamehim, as though he was the serpent in the garden and had come to tempt Eve with an apple.
He would change that. Gerard bucked his own hips very slowly, letting her feel his hardness against her stomach. Lady Dorothy groaned raggedly. “I cannot bear it!”
“All you must do is ask me to stop,” he said. “I promise that I will.”
Her breath came in hot gasps for air, and her lips remained parted, as if she meant to speak. “Please,” she whispered raggedly.
“Please? Please, stop?”
Lady Dorothy shook her head. “No, I—I do not want you to stop.”
“How wonderful,” Gerard said. “You are about to receive a rare education, my lady. I hope you are ready for your first lesson.”
CHAPTER 9
His Grace consumed all her senses. Dorothy could look nowhere without seeing him. Her lungs were full of the heady scent of his cologne, accompanied by something deep and masculine. And the warmth and weight of his body pressed against her. She ought to push him away. She ought to yell and fight.
Dorothy did nothing but move her hips, burning in an insatiable heat, while her core ached with a need unlike anything she had ever felt in her life. She tried desperately to soothe the fire curling inside her, but she could not manage to press herself against him hard enough to accomplish that.
The Duke of Greenway lowered his head, just as he had that night in the garden. Dorothy leaned forward, yearning for a kiss. He tilted his head back and smiled mockingly. “Your first lesson,” he said mildly. “I only reward good girls. Why did you come here?”
A lump rose in her throat. “For Bridg?—”
“Ah!” he cut her off. “Thetruth.”
She pulled against his wrists and arched her back, desperate to kiss him. He did not relent, only smiled at her with that familiar condescension. Her struggles, just like her arguments, only seemed to amuse him. Dimly, Dorothy knew he had promised to release her if she only told him to stop.
She should do that. She should demand her release, but?—
But she did notwanthim to release her. Dorothy wanted him to pull her into his arms, to rut against her and relieve her of the burning she felt inside.
“I—” Shame filled her. “I c—cannot say, Your Grace.”
“Oh, but you must. If you tell me the truth, I might reward you. Poor thing, I can tell that you need me.”
