by Stacy Reid
He couldn’t speak, for every one of his senses was focused on the woman in his arms, desperate to give her everything she hoped for.
Spearing his hands through her thick mass of hair, he tugged her head up and then down to meet his kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Four
A fire of need and desire swirled through Katherine’s veins. All her senses centered around the featherlight pressure of his mouth. It was as if he savored her, slowly and sweetly. Her throat ached, and her heart swelled with happiness that rivaled anything she’d ever felt before. His large hands cupped her cheeks, his touch almost unbearable in its tenderness.
“I love you, my Katherine,” he murmured against her mouth as his covered hers hungrily. Alexander ravished her lips with unchecked sensuality, and she responded, wantonly, eagerly, with soft moans of desire spilling from her lips to his. The hands that cupped her cheeks began to shake, and they broke apart, their foreheads pressed together.
She pushed her knees into the soft cushions bracketing his hips, and she twined her hands around his neck. His hardness nudged her at the swollen mound of her sex, and she trembled at the sensations that shot through her belly. Kitty raised trembling fingers to touch his mouth. “It physically hurts, the way I crave you.”
He brushed the lightest of kisses across her mouth. “I want to be gentle with you,” he whispered gravely. His face was drawn into hard lines of hunger and hope—stark and agonizing. “I want to bring you pleasure.”
She felt the trembling in his arms, the pounding of his heart against her chest, sensed the hope in his soul that they could consummate their union. “And I you,” she whispered, achingly pressing a kiss to his scarred jawline. “Let me love you, my darling.”
“We can wait,” he said, tightening his hand in her hair. “Until our wedding night…we can wait.”
“No.”
He brushed a gentle kiss against her forehead. “Katherine, my darling—”
She captured his words with her mouth, enticing him with deep, carnal kisses that went on endlessly. With a ragged moan, he surrendered to the wild passion beating between them. He trailed his fingers down her jaw, over to her collarbone, down to the underside of her breast. His palms cupped her breasts, his fingers tweaking at her nipples, plumping them. A jolt of exquisite pleasure lanced through Kitty, and she gasped. Alexander released her mouth to press kisses against her shoulder, her chin, down to the sensitive hollow of her throat.
Then he leaned in and sucked a pebbled nipple into his mouth. His lips closed over her sensitive nipple, his teeth rasping, tongue licking. She caught her breath and then couldn’t exhale, so exquisite was the sensation that pierced her most intimate part. “Alexander,” she moaned raggedly, aware of sweat slicking her skin.
Desire burned away all uncertainty and filled her with a ravaging hunger that desperately needed to be assuaged. She was terrified of what to expect and yet remarkably breathless. One of his hands slid around to her back and down to her backside, which he gripped tightly in his large hands…and squeezed. The other hand slipped between them, and she dazedly felt his fingers stroke along her inner thighs to the wet, aching center of her.
His thumb dragged against the inside of her thighs, creating little sparks of sensations that shot directly to the throbbing flesh between her legs. He dragged his fingers back down and then up again, never touching that empty place where she desperately needed him. All of Kitty’s awareness focused on the delicate, excruciatingly light stroking, as his fingers drawing along the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs had the sweetest pressure building between her legs.
Finally, he was there, and a moan of need poured from her.
With a soft glide of his fingertip, he stroked over her wet folds with delicacy. She jolted at the wicked contact, and his fingers slipped over her aching nub with even more firmness, and then he pinched down.
“Alexander!”
“Kitty,” he murmured tenderly, pressing a kiss to her lips even as his diabolical fingers worked at her nub, rubbing and circling, his questing fingers driving her mad with want. She trembled with powerful quakes, and her breathing became fast and urgent. Then he slid two fingers deep inside her narrow slit. Her core flamed at the sensual pain, and despite the sharp bite of discomfort, sensations peaked in her belly, and on a wordless cry, she shattered as bliss seared her.
“Look at me,” he said softly.
Their eyes met, and he reached between them and notched something hot and thick at her aching entrance. A dark flush accentuated the harsh sensuality of his face. “I’ll not be able to move,” he said hoarsely. “You’ll have to ride me.”
She placed her hands on his chest and slid them over the powerful muscles there, lingering with tenderness at the scarred side. “I know,” she said breathlessly.
“There’ll be some pain…but I promise there will also be pleasure. So much pleasure you will scream from the exquisite torment.”
He gripped her hips and rocked her down onto his cock. Kitty’s back arched, and a cry exploded from her as he sank past her resistance, burying his length to the hilt. Her muscles strained and quivered around him, struggling to accept the broad length suddenly filling her snug channel, her breaths puffing in sharp bursts.
She slipped her hands around his neck and held his gaze. There was an expression of awe and shock in the eyes that lowered to where they were connected so intimately.
“Katherine—” His throat worked on a swallow, and he abandoned speech to hug her tightly to him.
They stayed like that, kissing lightly, then deeply, until she jerked, wanting to sate the growing ache. Alexander groaned; his expression was a tight grimace of pleasure. He gripped her hips and slid her up and then down with excruciating slowness. Several times he repeated his sensual motions. She cried out at the overwhelming sensations.
He bit her bottom lip and then sucked at the erotic sting. Then he murmured, “Ride me, my Katherine. Slow and deep, or easy, or fast. However you want.”
“Slow and deep,” she whispered against his lips as she slid up and then down onto his throbbing length.
They groaned together at the incredible feeling. Then he pulled her into him and slanted his lips over hers in a deep, tender kiss. Without any urging from him, she rode him, rolling her hips in a rhythm that was instinctively sensual and decadent. Within a few strokes, she lost her slowness, and she rode her love with carnal greed. Alexander gripped her hips, encouraging her wicked motions with murmured praises against her lips, moans, and guttural groans.
Kitty sobbed his name, undulated her hips, whispers and hoarse cries ripping from her throat. The exquisite sensations built steadily, overwhelming her senses. Sweat slicked her body as his skin slid against hers, her fingers tangled in his hair, and her breath trembled from her lips to his as they moved together in the raw, beautiful, and primal rhythm.
A wave of breathtaking heat consumed Kitty, and she convulsed in his arms, screaming her pleasure into the crook of his neck.
He gripped her hips and rocked her onto his cock deep and hard. He kissed her fiercely, capturing her cries, and thrust her onto his thick length with deep, measured strokes. It was agony and ecstasy all rolled into one, and she didn’t want it ever to end. The pressure built inside, and far too soon pleasure rolled over her in hot, devastating waves. With a harsh groan, he tumbled with her, emptying deep inside her still-shivering body.
The happiness felt like a burst of sunshine that would never leave. “That was incredible, Alexander,” Kitty murmured with a wide smile.
He pressed a kiss to her temple before gently easing her from off his length, and she gasped at the tender ache, flushing. He reached for his discarded jacket, fished for a handkerchief, and cleaned her and himself. Alexander reached for her banyan, and she slipped it on. Then he tugged her onto his lap. They stayed like that, holding each other, for several moments. Her tre
mors subsided, and he tightened his arms around her, stroking her hair.
“Will you marry me tomorrow?”
She laughed lightly. “Is that even possible?”
He pushed some of her curls behind her ears. “I was coming to London for you, and I’d made arrangements for a special license. Unless you want a grand wedding?”
“I want you,” she murmured, snuggling even closer to his chest.
She felt his smile against her hair.
“I wonder if you’ll be able to lift me to the bed. I cannot allow Hoyt to see me in this ravished state,” he muttered.
Kitty straightened. “Alexander?”
His eyes danced with wicked mirth.
“You wretched tease!” she cried, laughing. “How I love you.”
“You have my heart, Katherine, always.” The words were soft, spoken almost at a whisper.
And with that promise, she drifted to sleep in his arms with a smile on her lips and an unmatched happiness in her heart.
Epilogue
Eight months later…
The River Nile
The private yacht Kitty and Alexander traveled on rocked lazily on the River Nile. She smiled, shifting on the bed as her husband’s lips kissed along her hips. She had the happiest news to share with him, but for now she hugged her secret close to her heart.
Kitty suspected she was with child, for all the signs her mother had told her about were present. Her breasts were tender to touch, her cravings for odd foods had increased, and this was the third time she had missed her monthly courses. Still, there would be no way for her to be certain until they returned to Scotland and had the doctors confirm it.
For the last four and a half months, they had been on a sea journey, taking them to several wonderful and exotic places. They’d first visited Paris, where Kitty had acquired a new wardrobe in the latest fashion modes and had toured the wonderful city with her love for three weeks. Then they had sailed on to Lisbon, then Venice. They had stayed another month in Istanbul, and now they would journey on the Nile without docking. After exploring the river, they would return to London, and it would be just in time for Kitty to help Penny and Judith select a new wardrobe for the upcoming season.
Kitty purred a contented sigh as her husband kissed along her spine. He effectively distracted her from future thoughts with his suggestive touches and slow kisses over her hips, and back and then down again. Soon she was wet and aching, trembling with a fever of need.
“Alexander,” she gasped when he bit into the soft globe of her buttocks.
Then his tongue traveled down to the shadowed valley of her thighs, where he nudged her legs wide and licked along her wet, aching sex. His touch disappeared briefly, then he gripped her hips and slipped a cushion beneath her. Her cheeks flamed as her legs were nudged even wider. The bed dipped, and her belly went hot with anticipation.
Kitty moaned with helpless delight as Alexander licked her folds, parting them, and then he covered her nub with his lips, sucking it delicately. The soft lash of his tongue as it circled her bundle of pleasure was too much and not enough. For blissful seconds, she lost all rational ability to think…to breathe. She could only cry out her pleasure for endless moments.
Since their marriage eight months before, he’d often loved and worshipped her body with his tongue and mouth, often reclining while she rode his tongue and then his body. It was naughty…decadent…and wicked sinfulness in one remarkable package.
Ripples of ecstasy danced over her skin, burning her from the outside in. Before she could speak, his warm, powerful body slid over hers and he blanketed her from behind. She turned her head on the silken sheets. “My darling,” she gasped, recalling that yesterday they’d spent the day on the deck resting and reposing on padded reclined chairs because of the twinges of pain in his lower back. “Let me—”
“No, I’ll be in control,” he murmured before easing a hand between their bodies. “I hunger for you like this.”
Suddenly his fingers caressed along her thighs, brushing and tugging at her folds and nub of pleasure. Then the hard, thick pressure of his cock pressed against her entrance. Her entire body quaked in response, and her hips arched into him almost involuntarily.
They usually came together with sweet, fiery passion at least once, sometimes twice per week, more frequently than she had anticipated. Kitty, however, always rode her love in exciting and inventive ways. There were nights and days where she peered into his eyes and took them on a slow, sweet glide, and there were days when, though she was on top of him, it was his hands that controlled her movements, slamming her onto his cock with ravaging bliss and directing the outcome of their pleasure.
It was beyond wonderful, and Kitty and the duke couldn’t have been happier.
Still, there were a few rare times when Alexander took control, by placing her on her back and coming over her. Or sometimes shifting both on their sides with him curved into her to make love. Never had he taken her like this, where he placed Kitty on her stomach and his wonderful strength covered her from behind.
He kissed her shoulder before nipping along her neck gently. To feel the strength and mass of him behind her made her feel small and vulnerable yet sensual and empowered. She could feel the tremble of his breath, sense the beat of his heart against her back, see the corded muscle of the forearm by her head.
He wanted her, desperately.
“Take me, Alexander,” she groaned against the lips that kissed along her mouth. The provocative urge was dragged from her heart, breathed into his mouth.
With his knee, he moved her thighs wider. With a steady push of his cock against her sex, he parted her. His hips flexed, and she couldn’t prevent her sharp intake of breath at the thick fullness that invaded her slick channel until he was seated to the hilt inside her.
“Alexander!”
He pressed a soothing kiss along her nape. Kitty gloried in the burn, in the possession.
Then he started to stroke inside her. Pleasure and a bite of pain scorched along her nerve endings, and she gripped the sheets in a fist, whimpering at the overwhelming assault on her senses. He wrenched low moans from her with each excruciating inward plunge, and the heavy pressure blended with the sweetest pleasure, and exquisite tension twisted in her belly.
“Katherine.”
Her name was a rough, sensual whisper in her ear.
“You are so hot and tight,” he growled against her nape. “So wet for me, my Katherine. I need more of you.”
“Yes,” she gasped, arching her hips and gripping the sheets.
And her love increased his strokes with piercing depth and strength. Sharp fists of pleasure pounded at Kitty, consuming her. Sweat slicked their skin, and the rich scent of his masculinity engulfed her, spicy and evocative. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, the tension broke, and she convulsed, screaming her delight. Seconds later, a guttural sound burst from his throat as he was spent inside her.
They stayed like that, their harsh breaths mingling together. His body lifted from hers, and then she felt the press of a cloth between her legs, cleaning her. Strong but gentle hands turned her over, and the most beautiful blue eyes ensnared hers.
He brushed a thumb across her bottom lip with such gentleness, her throat ached.
“Have I told you how much I love you, my duchess?” he murmured against her lips before pressing a tender kiss there.
“Every day, several times, and I love to hear you tell me, because I love you so very much,” she said shakily, still unmoored from the bliss shivering through her body. He made her feel beautiful, desirable, treasured. He made her feel so much. “I believe I might be with child,” she blurted, and held her breath.
For a timeless moment, he froze; then the tension eased from his muscles, and a harsh breath sawed from his throat.
Her whole being seemed to fill
with waiting. He dropped his forehead to hers and closed his eyes; then the most beautiful smile curved his lips.
“How you complete me, Katherine. Thank you for this future gift.”
Happiness burst inside like sunshine. She slipped her hands around his neck and held him tight to her. “We’ll know for certain when we return home,” she whispered, tears smarting her eyes.
He kissed along her lashes. “Are they tears of joy, my love?” he murmured huskily.
“They are,” she said with a soft laugh. “I love you so very much.”
“I love you, my Katherine, now and always.”
Then he kissed her and, to Katherine’s shocked delight, proceeded to make love to her again.
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Acknowledgments
I thank God every day for loving me with such depth and breadth. Nothing can take his love from me. To my husband, Dusean, you are so damn wonderful. Your feedback and support are invaluable. I could not do this without you.
Thank you to my wonderful friend and critique partner Gina Fišerová. Without you I would be lost!
Thank you to Stacy Abrams for being an amazing, wonderful, and super stupendous editor.
To my wonderful readers, thank you for picking up my book and giving me a chance! Thank you. Special THANK YOU to everyone who leaves a review—bloggers, fans, friends. I have always said reviews to authors are like a pot of gold to leprechauns. Thank you all for adding to my rainbow one review at a time.
About the Author
I am an avid reader of novels with a deep passion for writing. I especially love romance and enjoy writing about people falling in love. I live a lot in the worlds I create, and I actively speak to my characters (out loud). I have a warrior way, “Never give up on my dream.” When I am not writing, I spend a copious amount of time drooling over Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead, Lucas Hood from Banshee, watching Japanese anime, and playing video games with my love—Dusean. I also have a horrible weakness for ice cream.
