To Desire a Wicked Duke (Courtship Wars 6)

lesh?”

Tess’s lips parted at the enticing image he’d awakened in her mind.

“I would like very much to be inside you, Tess, giving you pleasure.”

Yet she wanted to give him pleasure this time, Tess realized. The thought strangely excited her.

“You said I should lead,” she reminded him, surprised by the husky intensity of her voice.

“As you wish. What do you propose doing?”

“I want to taste you.”

His lips curved in a slow, sensual, heart-stopping smile. Something inside her stirred, responding as naturally, as inevitably, as breathing.

“Then taste me,” he said.

He relaxed back against the pillows, giving the appearance of surrender. Yet evidently she affected Rotham, too. She could feel the fine tension in his body as she bent over him and pressed a kiss to the bare skin covering his heart.

And when she cupped the soft, velvety pouch of his loins, his body tensed visibly. Then her fingers curled around his hard shaft, and the thick length surged in her hand. Encouraged by his involuntary reaction, Tess couldn’t help a gratified smile.

Still kneeling, she kissed her way further down Rotham’s body, letting him feel the drag of her heavy sable hair over his stomach and groin. When she took him in her mouth, his rampant member jerked reflexively, and she felt another faint measure of triumph.

Control was somehow empowering, Tess realized, and liberating as well.

More eagerly, she slid her lips fully over the thick head of his shaft, swirling her tongue lightly over the taut, heated skin. His body clenched, and although his resulting groan was soft, she felt his hand twist in her hair.

After enduring several more moments of her seductive ministrations, though, he issued a ragged protest. “I knew it … you came here to torment me.”

“Am I tormenting you?” she whispered.

“Yes … and I cannot take much more.”

She relished the thought of making Rotham lose control. Yet apparently he wouldn’t cede all the power to her.

Holding her upper arms, he eased his rigid length away from her caressing mouth. Then, pulling Tess up to him, he guided her knee over his thighs so that she sat straddling him, face-to-face.

At her look of surprise, his gray eyes smiled into hers. “This way we can both enjoy the pleasure,” he said huskily.

Tess couldn’t find her own voice, however. The searing heat of his arousal against her stomach had made her throat dry and deprived her of speech.

Reaching up, he took her breasts in his hands, lifting the swelling weight in his curving palms. Then leaning closer, he covered her mouth with his.

Just the taste of him sent her pulse leaping more erratically. He invaded her mouth with bold strokes of his tongue while his fingers plied her nipples with a gentle plucking motion. The eroticism of it stole her breath. His mouth, his tongue, his hands—all combined in a powerful assault on her senses.

Wanting grew inside her. Her heart pounded as he sent waves of heat to every part of her body.

Then Rotham unexpectedly drew back. His eyes had darkened, Tess saw before he glanced down at her breasts again.

His lids lowered, he deliberately bent his head and closed his mouth over one engorged peak. At the same time his hand dipped between her legs to find the creamy wetness there.

She gasped as his teasing fingers stroked her sex. The strong pull of his mouth on her nipple created a hot, echoing throb deep inside her very center … a throb that intensified when he paused to whisper huskily against her skin, “You’re wet for me. Your body is eager for mine.”

It was true. Her cleft was already slick and swollen and aching for him. And Rotham was clearly intent on making her longing even greater. Still caressing her, he left off suckling her breasts to watch her face. His smoky gaze held hers, never wavering as he explored her more thoroughly, his fingers probing between her feminine folds, the rough pad of his thumb gliding back and forth over the sensitive bud of her sex.

She nearly moaned at the sweet torment. “Rotham … you are making me so …”

“So what?”