The Duke's Reluctant Bride

He came down over her, balancing on flattened hands, and bent to kiss her. She met him readily, darting her tongue into his mouth with a daring that set his blood swirling with need. When she trembled beneath him, hot and feverish, he ran his hand across her belly and touched her between her legs. Triumph thundered through him when he found her slick and ready.

Carefully he slid one long finger into her, testing the silky heat, the tight muscles clenching around him. Another finger, gently stretching. She breathed in humid little gasps that fired his need. He rose over her and parted her legs.

Very gradually, he eased into her. He met the barrier of her innocence and paused, gasping for control.

She sighed and hooked her hands over his shoulders. “Don’t stop,” she whispered, so low he barely heard her. He could wait no longer. He wanted her so much. He tightened his hips and thrust. She stiffened and whimpered. Her nails dug into his damp, bare skin.

Then on a cry, she arched to meet him, bringing him deeper. In unmistakable welcome, she contracted around him. This time her sigh was long and saturated with enjoyment. She tipped back her head until her breasts brushed his chest.

Again he thrust, more purposefully. This time she shifted, changing the angle, and his hunger sharpened to the verge of agony. Still she stroked him, urged him on, told him with fluttering sighs and touches that she wanted more.

He abandoned himself to the fierce, vital rhythm. Fiery thunder shook his world as he claimed his wife. He’d think he acted the complete barbarian if not for her whispered words of encouragement and delight.

She shuddered on her climax and cried out, the sound sharp and triumphant in the firelit room. Then on a mighty rush, Alexander lost himself in a release unlike anything he’d felt before. He flooded her with his seed and forever united his life to hers.

“Emma,” he murmured then kissed her lips. “I love you.” “I love you, too,” she softly admitted. She probably loved him from the moment she met him but hadn’t realized it until now.

Raising his upper body on his elbows, he studied her face. “Do you?”

A smile tugged at her lips. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

“I wouldn’t have either.”

“I believe you.”

He smiled in return then kissed her again, this one much more gentle, but just as intoxicating.

Emma watched her sleeping husband, with quiet delight. He had been so tender, and though it had hurt slightly when he entered her, she knew that it could have been much worse. “Stop looking at me,” Alexander growled, reaching out a strong arm, and drawing her to him.

Emma wriggled with pleasure as he pressed himself against her – surely he couldn’t be ready again?

“You are incorrigible,” she said with a laugh, as he began to kiss the back of her neck, sending shivers down her spine. “You are irresistible,” Alexander countered, his hands cupping her breasts, teasing her excited nipples.

“Shall I leave?” Emma asked with a giggle, and her husband growled again, rolling her so that she was once more underneath his powerful body.

“Never,” Alexander said with a wicked smile. “Never again shall you leave this bed, I won’t let you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Alexander,” Emma laughed, delighted with his proprietary air. “We shall have to leave at some stage, even just to eat.”

“No,” the Duke of Daventry gave his wife a wicked smile. “And there’s no use trying to fight me. Did I not tell you once before that I always get what I want?”

Emma smiled, he had, but staying in bed with him forever was something she wanted too.

“I love you,” she whispered again, as he slid inside her.

“I love you too,” Alexander groaned, his voice filled with need and desire.

How convenient, Emma thought, when it was all over and she was lying in his arms, that this marriage of convenience had worked out so well for all involved.

Epilogue

???

The sun had long since set and the moon was on the rise. Stars twinkled in a clear sky, and a soft breeze brushed Emma’s skin.

She sat cross-legged in the big armchair that Alexander had pulled up to the window when they had first arrived in their cottage by the lake. She shivered slightly ... the breeze carried the remnants of the cooling, refreshing rain that had fallen all evening.

A sound behind her made her turn her head, and she saw her husband smiling at her.