“I was starting to think you wouldn’t come.”
May breathed out. So, he still did not know the truth of who she was. May had to tell him, didn’t she? That’s what she’d come here for. If she told Elias now, begged for his understanding, perhaps he might still let her earn her keep and get money for her mother’s necklace… even if it put an end to thisthinggrowing between them. Because then, she wouldn’t need to find it in herself to say no to him over and over again.
“Is there somewhere quiet we can go? I must talk to you,” said May.
She watched him summon forth an attendant. One short, hushed exchange later, they were ushered into a service staircase, the top of which led to a locked door. Elias revealed a borrowed key, and then, they were alone, amid a room full of draped paintings, statues, and furniture.
“I was glad of your note.”
This was her chance to come clean. But there was one thing she hadn’t stopped to consider until she recognized the duke’s heavy-eyed look.
“Why have you answered the invitation?”
He stepped closer, fingers trailing across the fabric covering a nearby table. “You know why. Because you have infected my every thought. You’ve rendered me senseless. If I am no longer myself, then let me be yours instead. Tell me you’ve come to set me free, May. Tell me, and I will willingly succumb to your whims.”
May closed her eyes, but not looking at him hurt. “It will pass. You do not know who you want—”
He was merely a hairsbreadth away from her now. His finger hooked under her chin, tilting her gaze so that she was a butterfly pinned under the full heat of the sun. “Do not tell me I am alone in this madness. I know it isn’t true. What are you afraid of?”
She looked into his face: the upward tug of his lips, the keen gray eyes amplified through those lenses he wore, the maddening bob of his Adam’s apple. The aroma of coffee and newspapers rolled off him, muddying her thoughts and undoing the last of her defenses. Her fingers went to his shoulders, as if he was hers to hold on to.
“I cannot afford you,” she whispered. There. The true reason behind her resistance. It would take everything she was to be with him, and still, it would not be enough. Did he not understand?
He met her forehead with his own, his breath mingling with hers, erasing the borders of their selves… like watercolors bleeding into one another. “I will pay the price.”
Everything in her screamed agreement. She was a fool twice over, forgetting what she’d come here to do. All that was left in her was one last attempt. “Your Grace…”
“No….” He put his finger to her lips and shook his head. “Not Your Grace. Just...”
“Elias.” She took one last steadying breath before tumbling off the cliff of her resolve. “I want you, whatever the cost.”
“Then have me you shall.”
Her kiss engulfed him in burning ferocity. He might have held half of London in the palm of his hand, but all he needed was here, in his arms. Elias wrapped May into his embrace as he answered her in turn, his tongue stroking hers until she uttered the lightest moan. He hooked one hand around her rear and lifted her against him. Her noise of surprise was destined to melt into another moan.
“You like this, don’t you?” He broke away for a breath and a smirk. He could not help teasing her; not when he had her in his grasp, wide-eyed and breathless. The vixen in question stretched her arms over his shoulders, locking her fingers over his nape only to pull him back into her lips.
With a growl building in his throat, Elias bit her lip. His free hand stretched to drag the dusty cover off a nearby table. That would do nicely. He carried her there, finding a good use for the stamina he usually hid from sight. Their lips broke apart, and he let her slide down onto the polished wooden desk. The sudden move made her breasts bounce.
The sight caused his cock to stretch taut against its confines. But would she be brave enough to seek its release?
“I am no innocent.” May’s hands abandoned his shoulders to hike up the skirts of her dress.
Fuck me.
She opened her legs to him. He did not wait a moment to press flush against her, his member pulsing with red-hot want.
“I’ve done this before.”
“But not with me.”
Elias moved his hips, his groin rubbing against the softness of her thighs. She bit her lip again, unable to conceal her panting. Did she not know it drove him to insanity?
“Are you that good?”
Oh, hewouldmake her come undone at his hand.
Keeping hold of her gaze, Elias shrugged out of his topcoat, taking care to fold it neatly before entrusting it to May’s arms. As her fingers tightened about the fabric, he loosened his cravat, regarding her from above. The press of her hips against him had grown stronger, unintentionally betraying her state. She was nowhere near as in control as she wanted to seem, and he preferred it this way.
