Page 49 of Duke in Darkness

And then he took the pink peak between two fingers, and pinched it.

His wife gasped, her whole body quivering. “Yes, Colonel.”

Gabriel froze. “What?”

“You wish to t-take me rough and hard like a soldier,” said Lilian, and her backside shimmied against him a second time. “I am g-giving you permission to do so.”

“You don’t know…what you’re saying. I’ll mark you. Use you. Not once, over and over. Until you’ve taken…every drop…of my come.”

“I’m a grown woman and know exactly what I’m saying, thank you very much,” she replied, sounding highly affronted. “Now. Perhaps less chatter and more, um, how did you say…fucking?”

Pert. Little. Minx.

“So be it,” Gabriel snarled, and tightening his grip around her waist, he jerked her off her feet and unceremoniously carried her from his chamber to hers.

With one hand he yanked back her sheets and quilt, then deposited his duchess in the middle of her bed. She braced her hands behind her and stared defiantly up at him, those pretty pink nipples tempting him immeasurably, before boldly parting her thighs. “I’m waiting.”

He sucked in a ragged breath, excitement making his blood pound. Yet he couldn’t risk her touching him. He was far too on edge, too unstable, too raw. “Take off your chemise.”

Lilian instantly obeyed. Seconds later he’d torn the garment in half, and used the two pieces to bind her wrists together, and secure them to the bedpost. Christ. What a decadent and erotic sight, his duchess naked and waiting for him, restrained, nipples rock-hard, and thighs spread to reveal that crisp golden bush and the pink of her cunt. Not like a proper lady. Like an eager lover.

“Now?” she said softly.

Gabriel leaned down and took her face in his hands, capturing her lips in a brutal, possessive kiss. “Now…we begin.”

KNOWING there were no words comforting enough, and that she couldn’t hold her husband or stroke his hair, she had instead offered her body for his pleasure. Only time would tell whether it was the best or worst thing she’d ever done.

Lilian swallowed hard, her lips tingling from Exton’s kiss as he knelt on her bed between her spread thighs, and unfastened the buttons to release the fall of his breeches. A proper duchess would never permit such behavior. Being stripped bare. Having her wrists bound and secured above her head with a section of torn chemise. Yet she couldn’t even claim this as a selfless act of altruism, where she dutifully submitted only for her husband’s sake. The truth was far more shameful: she wanted this.

Wanted to be taken.

Something wild and wicked had sparked inside of her when she’d removed her dressing gown and nightgown in Exton’s chamber as he watched. The desire that flared in his eyes, banishing the bleak despair, had given her the confidence to be even bolder and bare her breasts. Never had she felt so seductive, than standing there, half-naked, with her husband’s hungry gaze practically devouring her and his cock tenting his breeches. And then, when he’d said those forbidden, naughty words about wanting to fuck, rough and hard like a soldier…

Well. She wouldn’t even require oil. Already she was embarrassingly hot and damp between her legs.

“So beautiful.”

His rasped words made her feel beautiful, and his fierce gaze, the way his jaw clenched, as though she held the allure of a Siren.

Lilian squirmed on the bed, actually aching to have him inside her. While the flap to Exton’s breeches hung down, his male part was still tucked to one side, bulging and wetting the fabric, and she shot him a curious glance. “Are you going to, ah…”

“Not yet. I’ve waited far too long…to taste your nipples.”

Her eyes widened. Exton greatly admired her breasts, she knew that, but he wanted to put his mouth on them? “I…er…”

“Arch your back,” he growled, as he leaned down, bracing one hand on either side of her body. His size, the way he loomed over her, his barely-leashed lust, should have been frightening. Indeed, her heart pounded. But all she could think about was the sinfully delicious things he might do. He’d shown in the past how skilled his fingers were. Now he wanted to use his lips and tongue?

Lilian obeyed his order, shivering as he exhaled and a puff of breath danced over her right breast. “L-like that?”

“Mmmm. Look how pretty your nipples are. So pink. So hard. I’m going to…make them harder,” he finished, before lashing the taut peak with his tongue.

A jolt went straight to her mound. “Ahh!”

Exton nodded to himself. “Sensitive.”

Then he engulfed her entire nipple in his hot mouth, and she couldn’t think at all. The suction, oh Lord, the rhythmic, forceful suction of his lips as his tongue lapped and darted and his teeth scraped would send her straight into madness. Dampness became wetness between her thighs as moisture trickled from her burning center, and she wriggled and shifted, enticing him to penetrate her and ease the pulsing ache.

Just when his ministrations verged on the point of pain, he moved his head, rubbing his cheeks against her soft flesh of her breasts so the slight prickle of his jaw rasped her skin and left dark pink patches on her ivory skin.