My Darling Duke

His mouth pulled, and the tug was felt low and hot in her belly. She held his head to her, her fingers gripping perhaps too tightly in his hair. The strokes of his tongue sent heated delight flushing through her.

He dragged the heavy, sodden skirts of her dress up, his fingers tangling into the material, inching it upward little by little. His touch lingered against her calves, her knees, her thighs, then skating past her garter along her thigh, and then he was at the wet, warm center of her sex. He was touching her there.

And it was glorious.

She cried out brokenly, her breath coming in ragged gasps. They both froze at the wicked, wicked act of intimacy. She felt the weight of his touch, the shocking pleasure, and the impropriety of it. Before she could process it all, his hand disappeared, and he urged her to recline. Kitty complied and braced on her elbows, staring at him in dazed arousal. She wanted to protest when he lowered himself, as surely his back and hips would suffer for it. She made to rise up, and one of his hands pressed against her stomach, the casual, dominant touch spiking lust through her veins.

She felt his smile of pleasure against her wet, aching folds…and then he kissed her even more carnally, taking her nub between his teeth and devastating her senses. She cried out sharply, unable to contain the sound. The urge to whisper to him beat at her, but what to say? If there were words that would encourage more of his diabolical debauchery, they eluded her.

Only incoherent sobs tore from Kitty. And pleasure—the exquisite pleasure was overwhelming.

Kitty arched into him, sobbing with the terrible need working through her system. She needed more to reach that unimagined pinnacle that hovered with such intensity. “Alexander, more,” she demanded huskily.

He licked her drenched sex, forcing a piercing pleasure through her swollen nub every time he caught it with his tongue in a sweet, carnal glide. He released her from the diabolical torment of his tongue and rose up so he could peer into her eyes. His features were savage, a grimace of male ecstasy.

“I want to see you, touch you,” she said shakily.

Without waiting for a reply, she removed his waistcoat and started to unbutton his shirt. Her duke went still, the expression in his eyes stark and wary, but she also spied his indomitable strength.

“You are scared,” she said softly, pressing a tender kiss to his lips.

“Only my doctors have seen me…” He leaned in and placed his forehead against hers. “I want you to…”

“My darling…thank you for trusting me.” She leaned back and held his eyes as she removed his shirt. The pain and agony painted on his body burned her throat with tears. There were so many scar tissues on his left side, from his chin down to his neck, chest, and stomach, disappearing into his pants. Kitty could not imagine enduring and surviving such pain. She glanced up from the scars on his stomach and met his eyes. With boldness and wickedness she had never dreamed herself capable of, she opened the buttons of his trousers. Even there he had scars on his hips….

She reached into his pants for that bulge that testified he wanted her with a similar need.

“Katherine,” he began warningly, his throat working in deep, almost nervous swallows.

She caught the thick, warm length and stroked him, at first clumsily and then with more boldness. He trembled in her embrace, his face a grimace of awe and lustful greed.

“This should not be possible,” he groaned, cupping her cheeks and kissing her with an almost violent passion.

Their lips pulled apart, only a scant inch between them. “Why not?”

“I…I…” He pressed his forehead against hers, his words missing. Cupping her chin, he stared into her face, his eyes searching, for what she did not understand, but she submitted to his need.

He was silent, watching her. But it was more than that. He had disappeared somewhere, inside that emptiness that had saved him. But she saw it now, peeking at her like a live entity. She could almost touch the wall of terrible isolation that surrounded him. She leaned into him and kissed his chin. “I am here, in this moment with you.” And forever…I want to be here with you forever. “You are so beautiful, Alexander.”

A small smile curved his lips. “You are still lovely even when you say such foolish things.”

Kitty kissed him, at first with gentle tenderness but then with all the passion and growing love in her heart.

“Open your legs for me,” he murmured against her mouth.

She complied immediately, snared by the command in his tone and the lust in his eyes. He pressed closer to her body, a hard, muscled thigh pushed between hers, spreading her legs even wider. Without breaking her gaze, he slipped one of his hands between them and down to her wet sex. In his eyes, she saw a hunger deep, wild, and so urgent, it scared her.

A very strange but sweet twisting ache stirred in her belly, and her heart quickened. He slid a finger inside her, a slow penetration that arrowed a thousand darts of fire to burn her from the inside. Another finger entered her, a pinch of pain that melted quickly, and then he began to move in and out while his thumb pressed and rotated against her nub of pleasure.

Kitty cried out and arched upward as an unbelievable sensation spasmed through her. Her body bowed, her breath catching on a near sob, as lust rose and splintered inside. He held her as desire made her body tremble, destroying everything she thought about herself.

Oh God. What have I done, and why do I want more…everything?

Yet she could not move from the warm shelter of his arms or the soothing touches against her back.

Chapter Nineteen

The agony in Alexander’s cock was…exquisite.