She hated how right he was. Her knees had started to go wobbly the moment he took his first step toward her, and had only grown weaker by the moment. Not willing to risk the embarrassment of falling at his feet, Caroline decided that it would be best to sit on the couch. Even as she sat down, though, her trembling did not stop, but instead grew more apparent.
“I wanted to have this marriage so I could protect you,” Damien stated, his voice dropping another octave as he leisurely stepped closer to her. “I expected some resistance, of course, and you made that apparent when you fled the city to avoid me.”
Caroline’s hands began to shake and sweat as she watched him pull his jacket away from his wide shoulders. She watched it be tossed to the nearby chair, then focused on his fingers as he loosened his cravat.
“What I did not expect, however, was the effect you would have on me once I found you,” he went on, his deep voice nestling into her mind and making her feel pliant and dizzy. “You have been driving me to the edge of insanity from the moment I laid eyes on you. You see, under most circumstances, I am a man who takes what he wants. Yet with you, I have taken nothing, even ifyouare what I desire.”
Arousal burned in Caroline’s lower belly as he made his confession. There was something so wicked about what he said, even if she could not quite put her finger on it.
“I... I do not understand,” she whispered, breathing through the heat spreading through her suddenly sensitive body.
Standing right in front of her now, Damien slowly lowered himself to his knees as he drew his shirt over his head in oneswift, unbearably attractive motion and tossed it toward his jacket. She could not help it. Her eyes swept greedily over his naked form, hungrily taking in the ridged planes of his muscles as her once-clenched knees fell away from each other.
Even through her long skirts, Damien must have seen it, for his smile returned, and he dragged his lower lip between his teeth.
“I think you do,” he whispered. “Because you feel that same desire even if you try so very hard to hide it. But this ends today.”
Yes.
Yes, she wanted to drop this act. This idea that she did not want him because she knew that was all it was. It was why he plagued her dreams; why she woke up gasping and sensitive, with a knot in her lower belly that begged for a release she did not understand.
“Spread your legs open for me,” he coaxed, placing his hands on the couch on either side of her hips.
He leaned in, and for a moment she thought that he was going to kiss her again—and for a moment she thought she was going to let him—but his lips never made purchase. Instead, he inhaled through his nose and brushed a small expanse of air between their lips, then traced an invisible line over her jaw and down her throat. He let out an aching groan, the sound causing a slick between her inner thighs and driving her wild.
The only thing she felt was the heat of his body and breath against her skin, yet even that was enough to make her dizzy with need.
Her defiance gone, she let her legs part further, sinking deeper into the couch as the outside of her thighs brushed against histhumbs.
“You smell so very sweet when you are aroused,” he huskily whispered next to her ear. “Did you know that? That your scent changes when you want me?”
A whimper escaped her lips as her lashes fluttered, his wicked words and voice making desire coil and burn between her legs. She knew she should be petrified that he could notice such a thing, but instead, she found it exhilarating.
“Such a beautiful sound,” Damien praised in her ear, making her sink deeper into the couch. “Pray, angel, make it again for me.”
She could not help but obey, the sound leaving her throat without so much as giving it a thought.
“Oh.Soveryperfect,” Damien groaned softly.
Then she felt his warmth pull away, if only slightly.
“Now look at me. Let me see those beautiful eyes,” he coaxed.
Her lashes rose unbidden, and her breath hitched as she saw him kneeling before her, palms on his large thighs, the swell of his muscles apparent even through his breeches. His cock stood at attention between them, straining against the fabric in a way that made her mouth water.
“Do you like this?” he asked as she slowly drew her gaze up to his dark amber eyes. “Seeing me on my knees before you?”
God, yes.
She nodded, unable to form the words on her tongue.
A low rumble of appreciation reverberated from his chest.
“I have kneeled for no one,” he explained, his deep voice lulling her. “No one but you.”
Such a realization only amplified the lust blooming in Caroline’s core. Such knowledge made her feel powerful, and her heart began to settle into a different, slower, more hypnotic pace as she reveled in the sight of him.
“Would you like to see what having me on my knees can do for you, angel?” he asked. “What sort of pleasure I can bring you like this?”
