Page 75 of A Night of Desire with a Duke
He was waiting for her.
James stood near the desk, one hand braced on it, the other curled at his side. His coat was undone, his cravat slightly loose, and his eyes—those grey eyes—were molten, dark with something between fury and hunger. He didn’t look like a duke in that moment. He looked like a man barely holding himself back.
“This is madness,” she whispered, even as her feet carried her to him.
“This is necessary,” he said, voice rough velvet. “If I don’t kiss you properly, Catherine, I might lose my mind.”
Her stomach fluttered.He sounds feral.
“Dramatic,” she breathed, but her hands trembled where they clutched her skirts.
“Accurate.”
He reached her in two strides. His mouth crashed down on hers, and every carefully built wall she’d erected over the past two weeks shattered. This wasn’t a polite kiss; it was command, possession, hunger unleashed. She gasped against him, shocked at the force of it, at the way her own body arched instinctively closer.
This is what I’ve been craving. This. Him.
Her hands fisted in his coat, clutching him like the only solid thing in the room. He pressed her back into the shelves, his thigh sliding between hers, and she felt it—the unmistakable hardness of him straining against his trousers, hot even through layers of fabric.
He growled against her lips. “My goodness, I’ve missed this. Missed you.”
Catherine’s head spun.This is wrong. This is dangerous.But the thought was thin, weak, drowned out by the heatspreading through her body, by the wet ache growing between her thighs.
His hands were merciless. He gripped her waist, dragged her against him, then slid higher to palm her breasts through the silk of her gown. He pinched one peak, hard enough to make her gasp, then soothed it with a slow circle of his thumb.
“James...James, we can’t...not here.”
“I know.” His voice was a growl in her ear, hot and frayed with want. “But you’re mine, Catherine. I’ve been watching you smile at men, nod at matrons, dance with suitors, and every time I’ve imagined dragging you somewhere dark and doing this.”
He spun her with a single, decisive movement, bending her over the desk. She gasped, palms flat against the polished wood, her heart thundering.He’s lost control. He’s never lost control before.
His large hand pressed between her shoulder blades, pinning her gently but firmly. “Do you feel that?” His other hand slid up the back of her thigh, slow and deliberate, until he reached bare skin above her stockings. “Do you feel how wet you are already? Dripping for me?”
Her breath hitched.He can’t know. Can he?
“James...”
“Your Grace,” he corrected, his voice low and dangerous. He ground his arousal against her backside, and she nearly sobbedat the sensation—hard, insistent, straining against the fabric. “Say it. Say who you belong to.”
Her mind screamed at her to stop, but her body betrayed her. She was trembling, her breath coming in shallow gasps. “You. Your Grace. I belong to you.”
“That’s right.” His fingers found her slick entrance through the barrier of her shift, sliding through heat and wetness, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“You’re so soft,” he murmured, voice shaking with restraint. “So perfect. Do you know what I want to do to you right now?”
“Tell me,” she whispered, hating how eager she sounded.
“I want to spread you open on this desk and feast on you until you scream my name. I want to take you with my mouth, my fingers, my manhood—until you forget every other man’s name but mine.”
A shock of pure heat went through her at his words. She was trembling now, hips tilting back against his hand without thought.This is madness. This is heaven.
Suddenly a burst of laughter echoed from the hallway. Footsteps paused...too close.
Catherine froze, panic crashing through the haze of arousal.Someone’s there. Someone will see. We’ll be ruined.
James’s hand clamped over her mouth instantly, but his fingers didn’t stop their slow, maddening circles. “Quiet,” hehissed in her ear, his breath ragged. “Or I’ll make you scream louder just to let them know who owns you.”
She whimpered against his palm. Her whole body felt like fire, shame and desire twining until she could barely think.He’s going to make me come. He’s really...
