Page 87 of The Heart of an Earl

But now that Des was next to her, not going anywhere, the questions didn’t sting as much. The panic didn’t seize her. Not when Des knew everything she was and accepted everything she was.

Jules took a deep breath. Her toes still stuck on the ancient wood floorboards of the corridor, she couldn’t pick up her feet despite Des’s squeezing of her hand. She looked at him as he stood with the top half of his body turned back to her. “Des…this is—”

His bottom lip jutted up. “If you dare to say to me this isn’t proper…I don’t know what I’ll do to you, but it will probably involve inducing some torture that will lead to some begging at an opportune moment that you will not care for.”

She let out an exasperated chuckle, her voice a whisper. “This isn’t the ship, Des. This isn’t a coaching inn. This is the Duke of Wolfbridge’s castle and there are rules of propriety that must be followed. I don’t want to cause scandal.”

“Jules—half the guests here aren’t sleeping in the bed they should. And I already set Reiner onto obtaining a special license for us to marry as quickly as possible.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “You did?”

“I did. I’m not wasting any time and I’m not taking any chances.”

“But—”

“But nothing. We scandal ourselves tonight and we have to get married or we sleep apart and still get married. It ends the same, but I would much rather take on the scandal beforehand than leave you in a cold bed.” His look narrowed at her. “Unless you think not to marry me?”

A crooked smile came to her lips. “Don’t even utter such nonsense.” A breath cut sharp into her lungs. “But Des, your title, you need an heir. Are you—”

“Don’t even utter such nonsense. I need you. That is what I need. Vicky is my heir and she’ll inherit everything that isn’t entailed. I care not past that.”

He turned fully to her, sliding his hand along the side of her chin and his mouth dipped to hers, brushing ever so lightly over her lips as he spoke. “And strike what I just said about separate rooms. A cold bed for you isn’t an option. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not for a night. Not for a day.”

His lips went fully onto hers and she could feel the pounding of the blood in his veins that sent searing heat into the kiss. Her mouth parted to him and he moved backward, dragging her with him.

She moved forward willingly, her body pressing into him, her lips molding under his.

How she had missed this. Longed for this. His touch on her body. His lips on hers. His shaft deep in her, swelling, filling her.

Too long. It’d been far too long and the quick tryst in the garden had only teased her body. Woken it up to all that she had tried to forget when she’d thought he was dead.

She had been content. Content to live out her days as a spinster for she knew no man would ever touch her as Des had. No man could.

As many times as Eliana and her friends had tried to thrust eligible men in front of Jules, she had resisted. It wasn’t fair to the men, to compare them to Des and to have them invariably fall short in every measure.

For they would, one and all.

Des reached past her shoulder and the door closed behind her.

He spun them as his lips descended to her neck, cutting across the line just below her ear that sent shivers along her back. Slow movements, long and languid, indulging in the time and place where there were no demands on them.

Just them.

Them and an enormous room with a robust fire and nowhere to be.

He shuffled her backward until the side of the bed pressed through her sapphire blue skirts into the back of her thighs.

A grin came to her face. “I don’t even know what to do.”

His lips slow to leave her skin, he lifted his head. “You seemed to remember well enough in the gardens.”

She laughed. “No—this—a bed. A real bed and we aren’t trying to escape anyone or hurry to my home or contort our bodies into tiny spaces.”

He leaned down, nipping along the edge of her chin. “I’ll have you know I loved that tiny scrap that we slept upon on theFirehawk.”

“I cannot complain on it—but this—this is decadent.”

“Decadent?” He lifted her and tossed her backward onto the bed. “I’ll show you decadent.”

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