“Oh, I can still go on for hours.”
“Can you?” The words left her lips so fast. Her eyes unwittingly dropped down to his britches. The bulge was still there. She raised her gaze back up and flushed, utterly breathless against his wicked grin. His thumb brushed light circles on her wrist. May sighed as the sensation rippled through her. He made the gentlest of touches into a forbidden delight she could not resist.
“Let me show you.” The duke slowly lifted her wrist to his lips and kissed the inside of it, letting his tongue dash up across her veins.
May gasped.
That was too much.
That was not even nearly enough.
“Your Grace...”
He looked at her, eyes black as onyx. “Call me Elias.”
The wall between them collapsed. They crashed against each other like waves, merging until there was no telling limb from limb. May’s hands tangled in the folds of Elias’s shirt. His lips went to hers, hardly needing to coax her mouth to open for his hungry tongue. Distantly, she registered the hand that went to her waist and hoisted her closer. She needed support and leaned into him hungrily. There was nothing beyond her desperate need for him.
Elias’s fingers found their way to the nape of her neck, lingering to caress the tender spot under her earlobe. Their kisses turned to rasped breaths and bitten lips. She kissed the corner of his mouth as he forged a seductive path down her spine, sending shivers with each gliding touch. The pressure built, and she finally slipped past the pesky fabric of his clothesto run her hand across his smooth pecs. She could count the ridges across his abdomen as she went on, but her head was beyond numbers.
She was falling out of control and into him.
The press of May’s breasts against his chest drove Elias into a frenzy. He could not get over how attractive she looked, undone in his arms, hot and bothered, in her night clothes, with the mess of her hair sweeping about her face. The hot rush of her breath pushing her perfectly round breasts against him was the confirmation he needed.
She gasped under his expert touch, arcing into him. He was there for her. He let go of her hand to sweep his finger across her collarbone, sliding under that flimsy nightgown of hers. With one easy flicker, it slid off her shoulder, revealing more of the thin chemise beneath. Elias uttered a guttural sound in admiration. The moonlight shone through the fabric, illuminating every curve. The sight of her erect nipples straining against the cotton sent him reeling. Yet somehow it was not enough.
He ached to see the entirety of her.
To feel the press of flesh as he delighted in the glory that was her. Heaven, he needed to fuck her.
Now.
His hand trailed down to her thigh, and then, her leg, where the accursed gown finally ended, and, finally, under.
As his fingers brushed the softness of her thigh, she pushed his chest away with a gasp, bracing herself against the desk behind her.
“Wait—what... what do you intend to do?”
Elias stilled. Her face was buried in shadow. Yet despite her outstretched hand keeping him at bay, her fingers curled about his shirt, keeping him in place. Somewhere deep inside, he knew they were dangerously close to crossing a line that should not be crossed. But he no longer cared. Not now, not after he’d held her in his arms and felt her lips part for him.
“I intend to get rid of that meager fabric so that I can part your legs and lick the juice off your hungry lips.”
Her gasp was audible.
He took a tiny step toward her. “That’s right. I intend to bring you pleasure, the likes of which you’ve never allowed yourself. I will not relent until you are undone at my hand.”
“Your Grace...” Her fingers tightened more, pulling at his collar, beckoning, her head falling low. He took another step.
“If you grant it, I will fuck you every way I know how. And I will not stop until I hear my given name leave your lips, Lady May.”
His fate hung in the balance.
At last, her fingers uncurled, her arm fell away. But the slump of her shoulders warned him off coming closer.
“We cannot.” She turned away. “I think… we should stop. Now.”
The haze lifted from his eyes instantly, her words a cold shower to his mind, even as his body protested at the very idea.
She’d said no.
