Page 30 of Duke in Darkness

“Very well,” she said, scooting back to lie on the sheet, her head resting on the pillow. In truth she remained wary of this task, and the hot, unruly sensations it created inside her.

“Lift your nightgown. Slowly.”

An odd instruction, but mentally shrugging, Lilian sat up and obeyed. Grasping the hem of her nightgown, she pulled it upward, revealing her ankles to start, then her knees. Once her thighs were revealed a blush heated her cheeks, and she couldn’t look at her own body anymore. Instead she looked at Exton, and nearly gasped at the lust on his face. Such a hungry gaze directly focused between her legs, waiting for her to uncover her womanly parts.

An imp of mischief overcame her, and she halted to see what might happen. “Is that enough?”

Exton made a growling sound. “All the way.”

Falling under the spell of the moment, Lilian lifted her hips, and bunched the nightgown at her waist. Even though the fire in her chamber burned bright and warmed the room, the cool air on her womanly parts made her shiver. Although not as much as when her husband parted her thighs and began to stroke the scented oil into her flesh. Up and down. Around and around. Skating that acutely sensitive place at the top of her mound, penetrating her core with his finger, teasing the soft folds of her sex. It felt good. Too good. The pulsing between her legs became stronger and stronger, and her hips shimmied as she fought the urge to rock against his hand.

Only whores enjoy the act.

Reaching up, Lilian touched his arm. “I’m r-ready.”

Shockingly, Exton ignored her words. Instead, he pressed his thumb harder against that sensitive spot at the top of her mound, and increased the speed at which his middle finger thrust inside her. Even more shocking, moisture gathered at her core, and the air became fragrant with a light, spicy perfume. Thoroughly unnerved, she opened her mouth to demand he stop at once.

All that echoed in the bedchamber was a ragged, needy moan.

“Yes, that’s it,” rasped Exton, as his wicked fingers continued to dip and swirl and stroke between her legs, coiling the delicious tension to breaking point. “I want to hear you. Want to see you come.”

Lilian writhed on the bed, her heels near-gouging the sheets as her body demanded more, more, more of the sensation. Just when she thought she couldn’t bear another moment of the sweet throbbing ache, her world splintered, and a low cry burst from her lips as pleasurable rhythmic pulses started at her core and rolled outward, like waves onto a lake shore.

For a second she lay languid, boneless in the aftermath as she struggled to gather her scattered senses. Then panic set in. Was she now a whore? Had she killed an innocent baby in her enjoyment of this act?

Wait. No.

Exton hadn’t yet put his male part inside her or released his seed. This was just, as he called it, preparation. As long as she didn’t take any pleasure during the rest of the time he remained in her bed, it would be fine.

Relief hit hard, and all the air whooshed from her lungs. Despite the intense intimacy of the act, shyness overcame her, and she could hardly meet Exton’s gaze as she gave him a tentative smile. “Thank you. That was lovely.”

HE’D ACHIEVED A VICTORY, given his wife her first orgasm, and in perfect duchess form, she’d graciously thanked him like it had been an adequate night out at the theater. If his cock wasn’t hard to the point of agony at the sight of her pink and glistening cunt, damp not just with the oil, but her own fragrant juices, Gabriel might have laughed.

But whether Lilian realized it or not, she had just confirmed what he’d suspected. She might be inexperienced and repressed, but a passionate woman lurked beneath the proper shell. And now he knew she could unshackle herself from rules and propriety and surrender to pleasure, he could do nothing less than teach her exactly what her body was capable of. Not a mere low cry, but screams of ecstasy. Not just dampness, but so wet that juices trickled down her inner thighs. Not gentle, pulsing orgasms like the one that had just caressed his finger and thumb, but wild, wrenching spasms that launched her to the stars.

Oh yes, he would teach her. And also about erotic points on her beautiful body that she probably didn’t even know existed.

“Glad to hear it,” he replied, reluctantly removing his hand from between her legs.

Lilian blushed. “I wasn’t told of preparation being like that.”

“Of course not. If all ladies knew about orgasms…they would demand nothing less. Husbands would have to step up. Or lovers be found. Pleasure a goal, not a sin. Imagine.”

“I think perhaps many ladies don’t have patient and considerate husbands,” she said, giving him that shy smile again as she rolled her shoulders and flexed her toes.

Hell. Every time she shifted on the bed, a fresh wave of spicy scent invaded his senses. The temptation to lean down and suck her clitoris, to lap the wetness from her swollen labia so he could etch the taste of her in his memory forever, was near overwhelming. But his cock would shortly explode. He had to be inside her.

“Indeed. But there is more,” said Gabriel, stroking the back of his knuckle against her inner thigh.

Her eyes rounded. “More?”

“A lot more.”

Lilian shivered, looking very nervous, and yet there it was again, that endearing spark of curiosity in her eyes. “Perhaps…perhaps you should take me now? I’m sure you’ll want to retire for the evening soon.”

Damnation. It seemed nerves had won for the moment. He might have argued the point, that no, he would be quite happy to spend all night here between her thighs making her come, but his neglected erection could be used to hammer a nail right now.

Gabriel’s hand went beneath his robe to fist his cock, already slick with his own moisture, then he halted. “Alas, I cannot. There is an issue.”