If the Duke Demands

by Anna Harrington

  “You are beautiful,” he whispered as his hands roamed languidly over her, up her body from her bare toes to her neck and slowly back down. He was touching her as if discovering her for the first time, and she trembled at the intensity of it. “How did I never notice that before this season?” he murmured, his fingertips lightly tracing down her arms, over the curve of her hips and along her thighs.

  “You weren’t looking,” she whispered, heat rising beneath her skin.

  “I’m certainly looking now,” he assured her. Goose bumps sprang up on her skin wherever he touched, like magic. And when he lowered his mouth and placed his lips against her bare shoulder, all of her shivered with liquid heat. The sensation was pure heaven.

  Releasing her, he slid down to kneel before her on the floor, his hands splayed wide as they slowly caressed down her thighs. When he gently nudged apart her knees, her hands shot out to grab his shoulders and stop him.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, sudden alarm knotting her belly.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” he explained gently, lowering his mouth to caress his lips across her knee.

  Heavens, he wanted to kiss her there! She shook her head adamantly, her hands clenched into fists against his bare shoulders. Oh no, he simply couldn’t! “I don’t— I mean, I don’t think that you want…” Embarrassment choked off her words.

  “But I do,” he assured her, taking another caress of his lips against her leg, this time moving higher up her thigh. “Very much. You are lovely, Miranda, and I want to kiss you everywhere.” When she shuddered with nervousness so intense that all of her stiffened, he rested his head on her lap to gaze up at her. “I won’t if you don’t want me to, but…” His blue eyes softened with understanding. “Why don’t you want to, sweet?”

  “It’s different from what we’ve done before,” she whispered. She was certain that every other woman he’d been with knew exactly how to please him, but she simply didn’t know how. The frustration and jealousy of that mixed with her embarrassment and sent a hot blush into her cheeks. “What if I disappoint you?”

  “You could never disappointment me,” he answered, his voice strangely hoarse.

  She gazed down into his eyes, wanting desperately to believe him. And yet…“I don’t know what to do.”

  “Then I’ll teach you.”

  “But you’re—” You’re never going to spend another night with me like this. But she couldn’t bear to admit that aloud. The pain would be insufferable. “You’re not very patient,” she amended, not wanting to spoil the night by voicing truths better left unsaid. After all, dawn would come soon enough and expose them all.

  “Trust me, sweet.” He lowered his mouth to her thigh, continuing his path toward the ache throbbing at her center. “I am very—” He placed a kiss at the top of her inner thigh. “Very.” The tip of his tongue traced along the crease where her thigh met her pelvis. “Patient.”

  His seeking lips found her, and her breath tore from her throat. A shiver of nervousness and excitement sped through her, making her gasp at this incredibly intimate kiss that electrified her to the ends of her hair and tips of her toes. This scandalously wanton contact made all they’d done last night pale by comparison, and she couldn’t help tensing in nervousness.

  But when his lips continued to softly kiss her, all her doubts seeped away, and she relaxed beneath his mouth with a shuddering sigh. What he was doing to her was absolute heaven! And from the way he made soft sounds of appreciation against her, he also liked it. Very much.

  “Sebastian,” she whispered. Her hands, which had been pushing at his shoulders to hold him back, now dug into his muscles to encourage him. Never in all her fantasies of what men and women did together, how their bodies came together to give pleasure, had she ever imagined anything as decadent as this. This new type of kissing made her entire body shiver and shake, and she slumped boneless in the chair.

  “You are delicious,” he murmured against her between soft kisses, “and very delectable. Like icing on a cake.”

  Her arousal-fogged mind could barely understand…“Icing?”

  He licked her, his tongue sinking deep into her cleft.

  Her hips bucked beneath him. “Sebastian!”

  But he only chuckled at her protest, refusing to relent in this sweet torture, and his large hands on her thighs held her legs open wide as he continued to take swirling licks. She closed her eyes, and all her existence faded until she was nothing more than the heat of his soft mouth against her, his tongue sweeping across her and delving deeper in slow, teasing circles.

  “That feels…oh, that’s nice,” she panted out. “That’s…” Rendered speechless, she moaned as his tongue plunged deep and sent the aching between her thighs flaring out to her toes and fingertips. Oh, it was simply wonderful!

  The need for him flamed inside her, stoked even higher by all those wet noises his mouth made against her. She couldn’t keep her own whimpers of need and moans of pleasure silent, not when her desire pulsed so hard that she couldn’t breathe beyond rapid panting, not when she could no longer sit still in the chair and writhed herself against his mouth. Every inch of her pulsed, electric and alive.

  His lips found the aching little nub buried in her folds, closed around it, sucked—

  The soft sensation pounded through her. She gasped, losing what little breath she had left.

  Then he sucked again, longer and harder, and the pleasure that shot through her was paralyzing. Her body tensed instantly, then released so hard that she cried out. Helpless, she crumpled in the chair, her body shuddering with each undulating pulse of pleasure that passed through her.

  He rested his cheek against her thigh as she slowly regained her breath. She had the strength to do nothing more than lift a hand to touch his cheek in gratitude as the love she felt for him blossomed hot inside her and grew until it filled every inch of her, right down to her soul. If giving herself to him tonight was her last opportunity to show him how much he meant to her, how deep her feelings for him ran, then she would do it. She couldn’t bear not to.

  “Sebastian,” she breathed softly as she blinked back the hot tears at her lashes, “make love to me.”

  “Whatever you want, sweet.” He lifted her from the chair and lowered her melting body onto the floor with him.

  He laid her on her back across the thick rug in front of the fire and moved away only long enough to strip off his trousers, then he covered her with his naked body and gently parted her legs. She tensed as he lowered himself into her, remembering the pain of last night, but his erection slid smoothly inside in one deep stroke. This time there was no pain. There was only the wonderful sensation of being filled by his warmth and strength as her body expanded knowingly to take him in. And this time, when he began to stroke inside her, she moaned in complete capitulation.

  “Miranda,” he groaned in her ear, careful to keep his weight from crushing her even as she wrapped her arms and legs around him to pull him closer. “You feel so good…you have no idea how much.”

  Oh, but she did know, because if she felt half as good to him as his body did to hers—heaven. And she never wanted to come back to earth.

  “So warm and tight,” he murmured. She wiggled beneath him, and he laughingly growled his pleasure. “So damnably eager.”

  She laughed with happiness, unable to stop herself. Sebastian was making love to her, and she wanted to impress on her mind every detail of this moment…the musky scent of their bodies uniting, the rippling of the hard muscles in his back beneath her fingertips, the masculine groans that he breathed into her ear each time he plunged deep inside her and made her folds quiver around his thick length.

  But she wanted even more. She wanted to find some way to brand him onto herself so she could carry him with her beyond the dawn. “Teach me something new,” she whispered, caressing her hand across his cheek. “Something special.”

  He stilled and gazed down at her, his blue eyes dark with pleasure as he se
arched her face in the firelight. “All right.” He placed a kiss against her palm. “Something special.”

  Without pulling out of her warmth, he clasped his arms around her and rolled onto his back, bringing her up on top. Surprised at the quick movement, she straddled his waist as she perched on him, his manhood still inside her.

  She stared down at him, and her lips parted in a stunned O.

  As the realization slowly sank through her for why this was special, that in this new position they would be able to see the sheer happiness each brought to the other, her lips curled into a smile. With a gleeful laugh, she began to move, at first only in testing little swivels of her hips that elicited low pants of pleasure from him, then bolder thrusts that had his hands gripping at her hips to fight for restraint. Tucking her legs beneath her for leverage, she lifted up and down, raising and lowering herself along his hard length in a smooth slide that nearly brought him out of her, only to plunge down and bury him fully within her warmth again.

  She tossed back her head with joy, her hands on his chest curling her fingers into the hard muscle. Oh, what a devilish position! The pounding of his heart beneath her fingertips, the pulsing of his manhood between her legs—she wanted to be wicked, wanton, and wonderful, and all for him. There was no hesitation now, only freedom to tease with her body and be teased in return, not satisfying the need for release but flaming it.

  He leaned up on his forearms, raising his back from the floor until he kissed her. “Come now, sweet,” he urged as his hips continued to roll and rock beneath her, his voice a hot whisper. He licked across her lips. “I want to see you find your pleasure.”

  His words cascaded through her, spilling into a thousand fingers of heat that swirled through her and lit her on fire. With a soft cry of desperate need, she began to ride furiously over him. Each thrust was sheer pleasure and greed, demanding and hungry, and she galloped hard, racing toward the oncoming release—

  She shattered. Tossing back her head, she cried out his name as the wave of release took her, only to moan again as she felt him thrust up deep inside her and grind his hips against her to prolong the moment for her. Her folds quivered around his still-hard manhood as her body milked his to claim each pulse of shivering pleasure.

  He thrust up beneath her in a plunge so forceful that he lifted her off the floor. She clung to him, desperate to join her soul with his, desperate for him to feel how much she loved him. A second release gripped her, a second cry of surrender tearing from her throat. Then he joined her, slipping from her warmth to shudder out his own release a heartbeat later.

  He fell back onto the rug, and she collapsed onto his chest, utterly spent and completely satiated. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, not from exertion but from the overwhelming emotions swirling through her. Engulfing her, sending her spinning through space and somersaulting her heart beyond control…

  When her breath returned and she opened her eyes, she was again on her back, with Sebastian once more lying over her, as if he, too, didn’t want this moment to end. With his fingers entwined in hers, he held her arms out from her sides, pinning her there beneath him. He stared down at her. His eyes were bright in the shadows, and his lips were parted, as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.

  For a long moment, they remained like that, the only sound their heartbeats echoing into each other.

  Then a sob tore from her.

  “Oh God, Miranda,” he whispered gently, rolling his weight off her and turning her in his arms to cup her face in his hands with concern as she cried softly. Self-recrimination darkened his face. “I’ve hurt you.” He tenderly kissed her lips and her cheeks, as if trying to take all her pain onto himself. “I’m so sorry—”

  “You didn’t hurt me.” She pressed her eyes closed but couldn’t stop the tears, no longer able to hold back the torrent of emotions cascading through her. Her heart simply hadn’t been prepared for him, for the rush of happiness being with him brought. And the terrible anguish. “You were wonderful.”

  He kissed away her tears, but his distress for her was still palpable. “Then what is it? Tell me.”

  She shook her head, fresh embarrassment surging through her and coloring her cheeks. “I’m just being a silly cake,” she whispered. She buried her face against his shoulder to hide from him, afraid he would see the truth in her…that she loved him, despite knowing that he would never love her in return. “I wasn’t prepared for that.”

  “Are you certain that’s all?” Concern sounded thick in his voice as he encircled her with his arms and drew her protectively against him. “You’re trembling.”

  “I’m cold,” she lied, unable to bear telling him the truth. Even now, with the masculine scent of him imprinted on her body and the physical pleasure he brought to her still lingering inside her, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “What can I do to help?” He caressed his warm lips against her forehead in a gesture so tender that new tears formed at her lashes.

  She touched his cheek, trying to ignore the unbearable desolation clawing at her heart. “Put me to bed? I’ll be warmer beneath the covers.”

  He gathered her into his arms and lifted her from the floor. “You’re not leaving tonight,” he told her gently but firmly as he carried her into his bedroom. “You’re spending the entire night this time, understand?”

  “I can’t,” she whispered regrettably, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “I have to return to Audley House before the household wakes and notices I’m gone.”

  “There will be plenty of time to take you home.” He murmured possessively against her temple, “But I want to greet the dawn with you in my arms, Rose.”

  Rose. She warmed with love. For the first time, he’d used the nickname not mockingly, not in tempting seduction, but in affection, and her heart pounded so fiercely for him that her chest ached.

  She nodded against his shoulder, not wanting to leave him. Not tonight, not tomorrow…

  Pulling back the coverlet with one hand, he placed her onto the bed. He leaned over and kissed her, his lips nibbling at the corner of her mouth in promise of more pleasures yet to come before the night was over.

  “Sebastian?” she whispered tentatively.

  “Hmm?” He nuzzled the nape of her neck as he settled in behind her and tucked the coverlet over them, her back along his front, his large body enveloping hers in its warmth and strength.

  “You should be happy.”

  “I am,” he murmured, his hand stroking possessively over her hip. “Very happy.”

  “No, I mean…” She pulled in a deep breath and whispered, “I love you, and I want you to be happy.”

  She felt him tense against her, although his body never moved. His arms kept their same, secure hold around her, his lips still resting against her nape, but she sensed the change in him, so well did she know him.

  “I don’t expect you to feel the same,” she whispered, hoping that if she kept talking that her heart wouldn’t break from the silence that came from him. “I know you don’t, but—” Her voice choked.

  Slowly, he rolled her onto her back so that he could look down at her. His expression was inscrutable in the shadows, but his bright eyes matched the glowing coals in the fireplace for intensity as they searched her face. For a painfully long moment, neither of them moved, and the only sound was the pounding of her heart and the rush of blood through her ears. She held her breath. Oh, she’d made a terrible mistake! So utterly foolish to tell him…

  Then he lowered his head and kissed her so tenderly, with such affection and sweetness, that she trembled from the intensity of it. He’d never kissed her like this before, and her silly heart didn’t know whether to leap for joy or shatter irreparably.

  “No one has ever…not once…” he murmured against her mouth, and she could taste the surprise on his lips.

  He lifted his mouth from hers just far enough to trace his fingertips affectionately over her lips, as if he didn�
��t dare let himself believe that she’d uttered those words. Then he grinned at her, a boyish smile of pure delight, one that melted away her worry and replaced it with warmth. And hope.

  He cupped her face against his palm and languidly brushed his mouth back and forth across hers. “You make me happy, my sweet Rose.”

  Her heart soared, this time because she knew she didn’t have to worry any longer about coming in second to Lady Jane or any of the other society ladies from his list. She could love him now, freely and openly, and he would realize that she would make as fine a wife for him as any society daughter. More—because she truly loved him, the man beneath the title.

  “You have no idea how special you are, do you?” His hands stroked lovingly down her body. “And you are special to me, Miranda, more than you realize.”

  As he continued to kiss and caress her, she closed her eyes against fresh tears. Her heart filled so completely with love for him that it burned, with a pleasure-pain that threatened to consume her.

  “Then show me,” she whispered.

  As he murmured her name and lowered himself over her to make love to her, the world around them faded away, until only the two of them existed. The shared rhythms of their hearts heralded in her joy like the pounding tattoo of drums, and she clung to him, never wanting to let go.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Sebastian opened his eyes and smiled. Miranda was still in his bed.

  The morning sunlight fell dimly muted into the room from behind the pulled drapes but brightly enough for him to enjoy the sight of her naked body beside him, her back to him as she slept on her side with her strawberry-blond hair covering the pillow like silk. The poor thing was exhausted, and he was responsible, because halfway through the night he’d aroused her again to repeat the special trick he’d taught her. This time, thank God, there had been no tears, only cries of passion. He didn’t think he could have endured seeing her sob in his arms a second time.