When to Dare a Dishonorable Duke (Romancing the Rake 7)

He tilted his head to the side, a flicker of interest crossing his face. “Explain.”

“Again?” A small smile tugged at her lips. “Is that what being with a duke entails? A great many explanations?”

She felt the change in him. His energy went from relaxed to hungry in a moment as every line in his body tightened. “No. That isn’t what it would entail at all.”

Her own breath caught and not sure what to do with herself, she picked up her fork and took another bite of her succulent duck. His change in demeanor was both exciting and intimidating all in the same moment and she didn’t know quite how to respond.

Silence fell again but this one far more tense than the last. Several more courses were delivered. A fish course, a vegetable course and then a custard. She barely ate and certainly didn’t taste what she did.

After they set down their silverware and their plates were removed by the unobtrusive servants, Damian pushed back his chair. He moved around the table and offered his arm. “I think we need to have a more private conversation.”

“Private?” she asked, her lips trembling. “We were the only two people at dinner.”

He eyed the butler, frowning. “We were not.”

She hesitated, her hand hovering near his arm. “I’m not certain this is a good idea.”

He made a sound deep in his throat. Was he irritated? She dropped her hand. A woman on her own had to be careful. And now that he’d started making a list, that was a check in the column of reasons this was a bad idea. The energy pulsing between them had a dangerous edge.

She knew the emotion she felt wasn’t akin to fear, but she also sensed he was a threat to her for different reasons. Her reaction to him, for example, would color her ability to make a sound decision.

He shifted, bending lower. “I have something I’d like to show you.”

“What?” she asked, still hesitating.

He dipped closer to her ear. “Another reason to accept my offer.”

His suggestive tone washed away her last bit of hesitation. Frightened as she was, she was more curious. She slipped her hand into his arm as he gently pulled her chair back. But the moment her fingers touched his skin, tingling started dancing down her arm along her spine and straight to the junction of her legs.

She’d never experienced pleasure with a man before, but this made her wonder if it was possible.

If she were a different woman, she might have asked the duke currently escorting her out of the dining room. She was certain he knew the answer. Her mother’s education on the topic had involved a discussion about how she must bear a man’s touch and to try not to cry or push him away.

She shook her head. The advice had not served her particularly well.

In fact, she’d been woefully unprepared for the marriage bed.

She nearly tripped on her own feet and he caught her, steadying her with one muscular arm. Could this man teach her how to make a future husband happy? Perhaps being his mistress could actually prepare her for a successful marriage after all.

She’d hated how angry John had become over the course of their marriage. The way he’d thought of her as a failure in their marriage. Their marriage bed.

She’d been a failure as a wife.

She shook her head as Damian led her back through the music room and out to the terrace. They moved past the ring of light and into the shadows at the back of the garden. “You really did mean private.”

“I don’t want to be interrupted.”

Her hand shook a bit as it rested in the crook of his arm. Was she scared or excited? She wasn’t entirely certain. “What are we going to do that requires this level of privacy?”

He stopped then, next to a waist-high stone wall that surrounded a stone terrace. “I’m going to kiss you again. But this time, I’m going to be thorough. I’m going to make you understand the level of passion that could develop between us.” And then his mouth swooped down and captured hers.

Never, in all her life, had one set of lips said so much without uttering a single word.

His mouth was firm, warm, commanding as his lips moved over hers. She met him touch for touch, losing herself in the pleasure he evoked. And when he pressed open her mouth to swipe his tongue across hers, the ache that had begun inside her throbbed with a greater need. A desperation for so much more than she’d imagined possible.

He pulled her close to his body and she fit against it, the feel of his lean muscles somehow satisfying and intensifying the passion growing within her. Cassandra wrapped her arms about his neck, wanting to draw him closer.

Over and over he kissed her, ravaging her mouth in a way that only made her want more than his mouth on hers, but on every inch of her skin, which fired longing to her core. And when he finally lifted his head, her mouth followed his, not sure she wanted the kiss to end.