Rose listened as he continued.
“He called it passion, but it was poison—destroying her spirit, our home, until there was nothing left but ashes. I swore I’d never let myself be that weak, that foolish.”
His gaze met hers again, vulnerable now, and in that moment, the air between them thickened with fresh understanding.
Rose watched the flicker of the firelight dance in the dark hollows of his eyes. He looked, for the first time, like a man who had been holding his breath for twenty years.
“You should—” Rose started, her own pulse fluttering in her throat. She stepped into his space, her silk skirts whispering against his boots. “You should let yourself be foolish, Felix. Just once. The world won’t end if you stop being a fortress.”
She reached out, her fingers trembling as she traced the sharp, rigid line of his jaw. He didn’t pull away. Instead, he leaned into her palm, his eyes closing as if her touch were the only thing keeping him grounded.
“Rose,” he warned, his voice a low, frayed rasp. “Don’t be kind to me. I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Then don’t do anything,” she whispered.
He opened his eyes, and the sheer intensity of his gaze made her breath hitch. He caught her wrist, his grip firm but not crushing, his thumb finding the frantic beat of her pulse.
“If I start,” he murmured, his face inches from hers, “I won’t know how to stop. Is that what you want, Duchess? A man who finally stops caring about the rules?”
“I think,” she said, her heart hammering against her ribs, “that I’m tired of the rules.”
His hand tangled into the hair at the nape of her neck, not to hurt, but to anchor her. He leaned down, his nose grazing hers, his voice dropping to a velvet shadow of a sound.
“You don’t want the rules, Rose? Fine.” He pressed his body into hers, ensuring she felt every hard, demanding inch of him. “From this moment on, the only thing you have to obey is me. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she breathed, the word escaping her not as a reply, but as a soft, broken moan of surrender.
The sound seemed to snap the last of his restraint. Felix let out a guttural growl and closed the distance, his mouth crashing onto hers with a starving, desperate heat.
Then, Felix’s hands found her shoulders to deepen the kiss, pulling her closer until she was pressed against him, feeling the hard planes of his body through the layers of fabric.
Her pulse raced as his mouth opened, his tongue delving in a way that made her knees weaken. She gasped when he broke away, his eyes dark with desire, and guided her back toward the settee. His hands deftly loosened the neckline of her dress.
The cool air kissed her skin as he exposed her. His lips trailed down her neck to the swell of her breasts, teasing her sensitive skin. Her whole body lit up with sensations both strange and completely welcome.
Rose could feel the innermost parts of her thighs trembling as he trailed tiny bite marks beneath the line of her dress. It was a place no one would see, wholly their own. She pushed at his shoulders, gripped at his hair, but nothing stopped the unmooring curl of desire in her stomach.
“Felix,” she breathed, pleading for more.
He responded with a heated grin before sinking lower. His hands parted her thighs with reverent care, casting up the skirt of her dress until it splayed around her hips. His breath was warm against her core, and when his mouth found her there, his tongue circling her with deliberate strokes, a wave of pleasure crashed over her.
She tangled her fingers in his hair, nearly ripping it from the root. The sensation built, his lips sucking gently as his fingers teased her entrance.
The room faded away, leaving only the raw, unabated sensation.
“That’s a beautiful sound. Give me more of that,” Felix groaned into her and slid a finger inside her, curling it just right to stroke a sensitive, perfect spot deep within.
Waves of heat radiated from her core. Her breaths came in sharp, ragged bursts.
Rose could only whisper his name like a prayer as the tension coiled tighter. Felix’s movements grew more insistent.
Suddenly, the ecstasy hit a peak, and Rose cried out. Her body convulsed in release, pleasure crashing over her in relentless pulses that left her trembling. Her inner walls clenched around Felix.
He eased her through it, his touch tender now, kissing her thighs with reverence before pulling back to meet her gaze. His own face was flushed.
Felix’s fingers entwined with hers.
“Come,” he whispered, the single word carrying more vulnerability than any of his earlier confessions.
