Page 69 of The Duke of Deceit

“What do you need?” Somehow, he managed to keep his voice from cracking.

She closed the door behind her and whispered, “You.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Iwant you,Lucien,” Jess repeated, as if there could have been any misunderstanding about why she was in his bedroom. To make her point, she removed her hair pins and shook out her hair until it fell loosely around her shoulders.

He didn’t move, didn’t say a word. But he kept his gaze riveted to her.

Her belly knotted. For heaven’s sakes! If he didn’t stop staring at her as if she’d just admitted to attempting to kill the king, Jess feared she might just scream.

But why should he be shocked? He might not be the irredeemable rakehell society pegged him to be, but he certainly wasn’t an innocent boy. The look she passed over him, noting the broad shoulders, hard muscles, long legs—the increasing bulge beneath his breeches that she didn’t dare look directly at—all certainly proved that. And the way he swallowed, so hard that she could hear it from several feet away, proved he wanted the exact same thing.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight.” She stepped out of her shoes. “I couldn’t bear it, not after all we shared this evening. I want to be in your arms.”

She reached beneath her skirt to untie her stockings, then rolled them down her legs and off, letting them fall away. She felt the heat of his gaze slide down her body. Otherwise, he didn’tmove at all. Not even to drop his hand away from the waistcoat buttons he had begun to unfasten.

“I want to feel alive and desired, and I know you’re capable of making me feel that way. Because you already have.” She reached a trembling hand behind her back to untie the two ties at her waist and neckline. “The difference is that we won’t stop this time, if you’d like.”

She shrugged the dress off her shoulders. Lucien said not one word, but his eyes followed its cascade to the floor at her feet. She saw his chest flex as his breath hitched hard.

“If you’d like,” she repeated softly to make certain he understood what permissions she was granting, then removed her petticoat and corset. She stood before him now in nothing more than a thin cotton shift. “Would you like that, Lucien?”

Slowly, he stalked his way across the room to her, and she backed up, caught between his large body and the closed door. He put his hands against the door on both sides of her shoulders, then leaned in to bring his face level with hers, his mouth so close that the heat of his breath tickled her lips.

“I would like that,” he murmured, hoarse with desire. He reached behind her to flip the lock. “Very much.”

His mouth captured hers in a hungry kiss that plundered her lips, then teased them apart until his tongue slipped between them. His right hand held her cheek to keep her head still while he feasted on her mouth, and his left hand swept down the side of her body and heated her skin as if the thin cotton wasn’t there at all. He brushed his hand over her outer hip and thigh, then back up to cup her breast and tease at her hardening nipple with his thumb. A soft sound of need spilled from her lips, and he drank in the sound, leaving her breathless.

When she tore her mouth away to gasp back the air he’d stolen, he slipped his arm around her to pull her close as he led her across the room to the massive oak bed with its thickmattresses and heavy drapes. Every step was matched with a soft caress of his body against hers in a deliciously wanton waltz. When they reached the side of the bed, he pulled her close, and his pelvis pressed into hers. There was no mistaking the hard bulge that rubbed against her lower belly or what it meant.

“Do you know what men and women do together in bed?” he murmured as he brushed his mouth over her cheek and back to her ear, where his tongue swirled around its outer edge before plunging inside and sending an electric pulse out to the ends of her fingers and toes. “How they join bodies?” The masculine scent of him, of brandy, leather, and cigars, overwhelmed her senses and left her clinging to his solid body. “What pleasures they take in each other?”

“Yes,” she whispered, tilting back her head to give him full access to the soft skin behind her ear and her neck below. Her sudden yearning for him filled her with a strange exhilaration that left her lungs breathless, her pulse spiking, and the intimate place between her legs throbbing relentlessly. “But…”

He stilled instantly, his mouth remaining on her even as he asked, “But?”

She attempted to swallow down her nervousness. It didn’t work. “But…are there ways to keep from getting with child?”

She felt him smile with relief against her skin, then lift his head to stare down into her eyes. “I will protect you, Jessamyn. Always.” He placed a kiss to her lips so gentle that her eyes stung. “I promise.”

She closed her eyes and nodded.

His hands moved down her body once more. But this time when they swept back up, they brought the hem of her shift with them, over her belly and bosom, and off over her head. The cool night air tingled her skin—or perhaps it was from his nearness, now that she was completely naked to his eyes.

“Dear God,” he whispered, “you are beautiful.”

Pleasure warmed inside her at the compliment, yet she protested, “No, I’m n—”

He silenced her with a kiss, then he nuzzled his lips against her hair. “Youarebeautiful, Jessamyn,” he insisted. “And I will prove it.”

He lifted her into his arms and placed her onto the bed. With one last lingering kiss, he pulled away to stand at the side of the bed. He yanked off his boots and let each one fall to the floor with a determined thud. Then the half-undone waistcoat, his braces that peeled off over his shoulders and dangled tantalizingly around his hips, his shirt that he yanked off over his head and tossed away… He stood deliciously bare from the waist up and paused to let her look her fill of him. She greedily did just that, letting her eyes trail over his broad shoulders and chest, then follow the dusting of dark hair down his ridged abdomen to where it disappeared beneath his waistband.

She let her eyes linger at his waist, too. She couldn’t help herself, utterly fascinated by the way his body reacted to hers, to the large bulge pressing hard against his breeches and the way it seemed to throb beneath her stare. Shamelessly, she reached to touch him—

A soft groan rose from him when her fingertips stroked the soft buckskin fabric, but he didn’t step away or push down her hand. Instead, he stood perfectly still, letting her curiously fondle him as she traced the outline of his steely length through the breeches. Touching him like this mesmerized her, and she stroked harder, then felt him jump against her palm as she cupped it over him.

With a low growl, he lightly snatched her hand up to his lips to kiss it. “Keep doing that,” he warned, “and I’ll be spent before I’m even in bed with you.”