If the Duke Demands

by Anna Harrington

  Then his hand slipped away. The sudden loss was unbearable, and she whimpered and wiggled her hips invitingly to coax him back.

  “Shh,” he murmured, his lips resting against her temple as his hands stroked soothingly down her arms to her hips. “We’ve got all night, sweet. No need to rush.”

  “But I want—”

  “So do I.” He lifted her off the floor to carry her across the room to his bed. He laid her on the mattress, then followed down on top of her. “Very.” He kissed her lips. “Very.” His mouth slid down her throat to kiss into the hollow between her breasts. “Very much.”

  “Sebastian,” she moaned plaintively as fire flared inside her fluttering belly, her fingers combing through his silky hair as he continued to cover her cleavage with kisses. To have Sebastian’s attentions on her was so much more wonderful than she could have imagined, this time alone with him far more precious.

  “You wore the masquerade dress,” he mumbled, then he placed a savoring kiss on the inside curve of her breast.

  “Yes.” She fought to breathe, not understanding how a simple kiss could steal her breath away. “You’d said you liked it.”

  “A great deal.” His lips curved into a devilish smile at her thoughtfulness. “Lady Rose.”

  She couldn’t resist running her fingertip over that smile, then laughing as he bit playfully at her finger. So unlike the Sebastian who had been so glum and reserved since his father’s death, so unlike the duke who had been so stern and cross with her these past few weeks. Oh, she very much liked this version of him best. This was the man whose arms she wanted to be in tonight, whom she wanted to give herself to, knowing how tender and careful he would be with her.

  He lifted onto his forearm beside her to flutter his hand along the side of her body. “You know what’s even better than you in this dress?”

  Heat rose everywhere he touched. “What?”

  “You out of this dress,” he murmured hotly.

  Her breath hitched at the pulse of nervousness his words sent spiraling through her. He’d seen her uncovered from the waist up. But he’d never seen all of her.

  He gently tugged at her skirt. “It’s only fair.” The heat in his eyes as he stared down at her set her on fire. “Since I’m not wearing anything.”

  Sweet heavens, he wasn’t! Her belly knotted with trepidation. While she hadn’t looked at him, not there, she had the feeling that he very much planned on looking at her everywhere. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “But what if…”

  “Hmm?” Another caress of his hand up and down her body, this time pulling the skirt higher up her thighs.

  She trembled as goose bumps covered her bared legs. “What if you don’t like what you see?” she whispered aloud her fear, so soft her lips barely formed the words.

  His eyes softened with understanding. “But I will like it,” he assured her even as his hand inched up the skirt until the hem lay just beneath the juncture of her thighs. “I’m positively certain, in fact.”

  She trembled, all of her tensing in sudden apprehension. She didn’t want him to stop, but…“But what if you don’t? Can I—” She choked as he inched the hem even higher, exposing her triangle of feminine curls to the cool night air. Thankfully, his eyes never left hers. She didn’t think she could have borne it if he’d looked down at her at that moment. “Can I put the dress back on?”

  He chuckled, and the warm sound rumbled into her. “Yes, you can.” The fabric slid across her hips to her belly. “But you won’t want to.”

  As he untied the ribbons at her shoulders to release the bodice, then slid the dress over her head and off, she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see his expression when he saw her completely naked for the first time, if he compared her to those fine ladies he’d been with before and found her lacking—

  “Dear God…you are so beautiful.”

  She smiled as a soft laugh of happiness and relief bubbled from her. Sebastian thought she was beautiful! Even wearing nothing at all. She was right—he would make tonight wonderful for her, the way no other man could.

  She opened her eyes. Wildfire tore through her at the raw desire she saw on his face as he gazed down at her, and she shivered from the intensity of him. Everywhere his eyes lingered on her body flames prickled beneath her skin, the force of it nearly overwhelming.

  “I’m sorry to tell you this.” He rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip and said with teasing solemnity, “But the dress stays off all night, I’m afraid.”

  “Sebastian!” she scolded, her cheeks flushing with an instant blush.

  Laughing, he lowered his head and nuzzled his cheek against hers, and his midnight beard scratched tantalizingly across her soft skin. So very masculine. And for this moment, all hers. Her heart soared with the joy of that.

  “Have I ever told you how much I enjoy the way you blush?” He placed a kiss on her lips before she could answer. “How inspiring I find it?”

  Which only caused the blush to deepen and left her speechless.

  “It starts here.” He brushed his lips across her cheekbone. “And lingers here.” Then down her jawline to her neck. “And here.” Down farther until his mouth was on her breast. “And ends right here.”

  When he took her nipple between his lips and sucked, she arched up off the mattress with a strangled gasp. Oh, his wicked mouth! He knew exactly how to torture and pleasure her at the same time, how to softly suck yet generate a fierce ache all the way down between her legs. How to make her whimper for more beneath the breathless onslaught of licks and sucks and nibbles.

  “Such a beautiful blush,” he mumbled against her breast. “Which makes me wonder…”

  She bit her lip to hold back her curiosity as long as she could, even knowing he was baiting her— “Wonder what?” she asked, unable to help herself as her fingers ran wild over his shoulders and bare back, loving the feel of his muscles rippling beneath her seeking fingertips.

  “If other places on your body also blush.”

  She tensed. Surely he didn’t mean—

  “Like here.” He lowered himself to lick at her belly in slow, languid circles as his hand stroked along her inner thigh. “Or here.”

  Oh heavens, he did mean…And he couldn’t—simply couldn’t! Not there of all places.

  With a push at the headboard, she slid herself down beneath him, until her eyes were level with his, her bare toes touching his calves. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders to keep him right there.

  “Do you blush?” she asked, as seductively as possible despite the nervous twitter in her voice as she turned their playful conversation onto him. “How about here?”

  She placed a kiss in the middle of his chest, and he chuckled. But when she slid her mouth sideways and captured his flat male nipple between her lips and sucked at him the way he’d done to her, the laughter strangled in his throat.

  Turnabout was fair play, after all. He shuddered as she took his nipple between her teeth and nibbled—oh, how very much she enjoyed their play!

  “Or here?” she whispered, running her hands down his bare back to cup his hard buttocks against her palms.

  When she squeezed, he inhaled sharply. Her name came as a soft warning on his lips. But he’d been warning her all week—all season, in fact—and she was tired of his warnings.

  If he truly wanted to warn her, then she’d give him something to worry about. “Here.”

  She slid her hand between them and folded her fingers around his erection, and a plaintive groan tore from him. She gave a devilish laugh and stroked along his length the way he’d shown her in the carriage.

  “Sweet Lucifer,” he murmured as he rose up onto his hands and knees over her to give her room to work her pleasures on him. His head bowed low, and his eyes squeezed shut.

  He hung large and stiff in her hand, and with each stroke, he seemed to grow impossibly larger and harder. Like magic. She twisted her palm around him, teasing him with her fingers the
way she wanted him to do to her again before the night was over. All night, he’d promised her. And she planned on savoring every precious moment of it.

  Tentatively, yet urged on by the low growls of satisfaction coming from the back of his throat, she slipped her second hand down between his legs to cup his testicles against her palm. He shuddered at the contact, and she thrilled with it. A wantonness swelled inside her that she’d never known before, and as he rested heavy against her palm, with her other hand still stroking his shaft, she gently squeezed.

  His hips bucked as a curse shot from his lips.

  He grabbed her hands away and lifted her arms over her head. “Keep doing that,” he cautioned in a husky voice, “and the night will be over sooner than we’d both like.”

  She laughed and rose up to lick her tongue across his collarbone. The delicious taste of him made her even more bold, even more confident in herself. Testing his resolve, she wiggled her hips. He let out a growl of warning and pinned her to the mattress with his hips.

  “I’m sorry,” he rasped hoarsely against her lips as his mouth found hers again, kissing her hard and urgently. All of him shivered hotly.

  “For what?” She stilled instantly, and her heart pounded with a mix of nervousness and arousal. Had he changed his mind? Did he not want her after all?

  “I can’t wait any longer for you.” He reached down and hooked her right leg around his waist, then the left, until his body hovered just above hers in the cradle of her thighs. “I wanted to savor you, but I need you too badly.” His hand caressed between her legs, and she trembled at the delicious feel of his fingers against her, the wonderful caresses she so much enjoyed. Only Sebastian could make her feel this special. “You’re so wet and warm already…” He sucked at her bottom lip and purred, “Good.”

  “Good?” She was mortified that he would mention that, and the blush flared up across her cheeks again.

  He groaned. “Very much so.”

  When she felt his fingers parting the soft lips of her sex and the tip of his erection settling against her, she realized what he meant. “Sebastian,” she whispered, and touched his cheek, trying to show him how much she cared about him, how special he had become to her. Without hesitation, knowing tonight was good and right only because of him, she begged for what she wanted most— “Please.”

  He lowered his hips and sank inside her, one unhurried inch at a time.

  Holding her breath at the slow invasion, she tightened her arms around his shoulders and buried her face against his neck as her body expanded to take him in. With each inch he sank deeper, the cradle of her hips widened around him, and she shifted uneasily to make herself more relaxed. Not painful, not exactly, but the growing pressure was decidedly uncomfortable. She forced down the sting of disappointment that this new intimacy wasn’t nearly as pleasant as what he’d done with her in the carriage. Still, being close to Sebastian was wonderful, and she sought to drink in the quiet strength and delicious warmth of him.

  Then he stopped moving and lay motionless above her, still raised up on his forearms.

  She opened her eyes, expecting a smile from him, but hard-won restraint hardened his face, with his jaw clenched tight and his eyes screwed shut. Every inch of him was tense and taut, hard and smooth as marble. Her heart pounded with uncertainty.

  “Sebastian?” she breathed, and the soft sound of his name fell through the silence between them, mixing with the joined pounding of their hearts.

  He opened his eyes and gazed down at her, and the raw need in their blue depths ripped her breath away. Then he whispered her name and plunged his hips down against hers, thrusting fully inside her and tearing through the thin resistance of her maidenhead.

  Miranda gasped at the sharp pain of being filled so completely so suddenly, at the weight of his hips fully seated against her spread thighs—but his mouth covered hers in the sweetest, gentlest kiss imaginable, and soothed away the cry on her lips. The contradiction of sensations sent her spinning.

  Then he began to move, this time rocking his hips against hers to stroke slowly and smoothly inside her, and the pain dissolved into utter pleasure. Oh, it was wonderful! He was doing to her with his body what his fingers had done in the carriage, only so very much more…more filling, more silky smooth, more delicious weight pressing down on her. His entire body caressed hers with each plunge and retreat, as if making love to her with his entire being. Any doubts that still lingered about giving herself to him tonight and expressing with her body the feelings she didn’t dare utter aloud vanished like fog beneath the morning sun.

  She buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in deep the sweet smell of him that filled up her senses, taking a quick lick of his sweat-salty skin to taste him. Delicious. It was impossible that any other woman had ever felt as complete as she did with Sebastian inside her, impossible that any other man could be this much of a perfect fit with her, both with her body and with her heart. She nearly laughed as sheer joy bubbled inside her. Sebastian Carlisle, the most impossible man in the world for her, had proven to be the perfect man with whom to share this moment.

  “You are so beautiful, Miranda,” he whispered against her temple, and his sweet words made tears gather at her lashes.

  “So are you,” she choked out.

  He laughed softly at her slip of the tongue and kissed her, so heatedly, so possessively that she shuddered at the intensity of it. How could she not care for this man when he made her feel this special? Did he even realize the effect he had on her? She slid her mouth away from his to caress her lips across his cheek so that he couldn’t see the flash of emotion on her face, because she knew that she could never tell him.

  He groaned, and his large hands grabbed her hips, guiding her in a shared, primal rhythm. Her body instinctively knew what it needed from him, arching off the bed to eagerly meet each thrust of his hips with her own until she nearly exhausted herself. Yet she still craved more, still yearning for the wondrous release he had given her earlier, the same release she was certain his body was capable of giving her now.

  “Sebastian,” she whimpered, shifting beneath him in an attempt to bring him impossibly closer to the throbbing spot inside her, helpless against the aching intensity spreading through her body and the warmth blossoming in her heart.

  “Yes, sweet,” he murmured, as if knowing exactly what she needed. He hooked his arms beneath her knees, lifting her legs and rolling her onto her upper back. “Whatever you wish.”

  He lifted his hips and thrust hard, grinding his pelvis against her and shooting a jarring shudder of pleasure through her. She gasped at the intensity of having him so far inside her at such a new angle, joining the two of them impossibly closer and stealing her breath away.

  He pulled back until only the tip of him remained inside her, then he drove forward again. And this time, oh, sweet heavens, this time—

  Dark spots flashed across her eyes. Sparks shot through her, flying out the ends of her fingers and toes. Her body convulsed violently around his, her intimate folds quivering as all the tiny muscles inside her bore down around him, then released with a shudder so intense that a cry of pleasure poured from her.

  He kissed her and drank in her cries as he continued to stroke inside her, but she was unable to do anything more than simply lie there trembling as the undulating waves of release spread over her. Now his thrusts came fast and deep, soft little growls of his own need for release filling her senses, swirling inside her head and engulfing her.

  One last, powerful thrust—then with a groan, he pulled quickly out of her. His arms clasped her tightly to him as he shuddered, and she felt a rush of liquid warmth against her inner thigh as he spilled himself onto the mattress beneath her. He collapsed on top of her, his heavy body pressing against hers and his forehead resting against her bare shoulder as he struggled to regain his breath.

  Amazed by what had just happened between them, for a moment not believing that it hadn’t been only a dream, Miranda lifte
d her hands to caress his back. Beads of perspiration wetted her fingertips. She smiled as she kissed his temple and tightened her arms around his trembling body. How could she have ever been wary of this wonderful, amazing man when she had the power to make him tremble so helplessly like this? How could she have been so blind to him for so many years?

  Caught up in the exhilaration of being in his arms and of the astonishing pleasures he brought to her, she laughed a soft little giggle of pure happiness.

  He lifted his head to smile down at her, his blue eyes bright with satisfaction and soft with affection. “What is it, sweet?”

  “I was just thinking,” she admitted as she brushed her fingertips at the sweat-dampened lock of blond hair that fell across his forehead, “that a love scene would have made Hamlet perfect.”

  He laughed and lowered his mouth to hers, to kiss her with a sultry languidness that tasted of happiness, pleasure, and…Was that possession? But she supposed he had a right to feel that way, since she’d given herself to him tonight in every possible way, all the way down to her soul. And she didn’t regret a moment of it.

  But when he shifted his weight away to lie beside her on the bed, Miranda knew she had to be careful with her heart. Sebastian would never think of her as belonging to him beyond the physical passion they’d just shared. He’d been very clear about that. Oh, certainly he would be kind and caring as much as he could, but they could never have more than this. She knew that; she’d accepted that before she came here tonight. And yet, as his strong arms wrapped around her and drew her back against his chest, his lips nuzzling against her nape, she had to admit that belonging here with him was nice.

  Very nice, in fact.

  So nice that she could easily become used to being with him like this, the protective strength of his arms encircling her, the warmth of his breath tickling against her neck, his heartbeat pulsing quietly into her bare back. As if he didn’t want to let go of her.