Page 48 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

This was nothing. It was the way their marriage had always been headed. They both wanted children. They had agreed on five, blast it; it meant sleeping together often and frequently, which was exactly what he wanted. And it would be cruel to simply shove her away afterwards.

Robert would have to ask Thornston what the right amount of cuddling after intercourse was if you did not want to give the woman the impression that there could be more between you than physical intimacy. Robert groaned inwardly at the thought of his friend laughing his ass off.

“Can I stay in your bed tonight?” he found himself asking in a hoarse voice, which was decidedly the wrong thing to say he was certain, yet he was not ready to be out of Jo’s orbit.

He felt Jo’s body stiffen against his – and not with the aftershock of her climax. She did not answer immediately but remained still against him.

“What would happen? If you slept in my bed,” she asked in a low voice, no more than a whisper.

Robert figured it would be best to have this conversation without his hand lodged between her legs and gently pried it out. The whimper Jo made at the movement went straight to his balls and he could feel his cock stir again. Bloody hell, it had been far too long since he had been with a woman.

“Whatever you wish,” Robert told her.

He could sleep beside her without them having intercourse. He was not that much of an animal. Being allowed to stay in Jo’s bed and the chance to pleasure her again would be worth the ache it might cause him.

Jo sighed deeply before she sat up. The sight rendered Robert speechless. Her artfully done hair was mussed, her lips were swollen from their kisses, her beautiful, perky breasts with the large, dusty pink nipples were proudly on display, being thrust even further up by her corset, the pearl nestled between them in her cleavage, but the most beautiful thing was her eyes. Her grey-blue eyes were still dazed and had a look of wonder from her orgasm, yet he could see that it was making way for a more analytical look.

He wished he could lean forward and kiss it away immediately but refrained. He should not kiss her unless he was trying to arouse her, he told himself.

“I think I might…” Jo began as she tugged her breasts into the cups of her corset and tied the string again. “We could maybe…” Her cheeks were flaming red and she was not meeting his eyes as she spoke. “We could perhaps do what we did… in my bed…” She looked away toward the window, but Robert kept his gaze on the side of her face. “But I would also like to… you know…” she mumbled as she started pulling the exquisite sea blue dress up. Robert reached out to help her button it.

“What would you like?” he finally had to ask, when her dress was back in place and she had been biting her lip for several minutes.

“To give you…” she cleared her throat, then whispered without meeting his eyes: “Pleasure”

Heavens. She was amazing. Virginal and knowledgeable at the same time. She was clearly uncomfortable with mentioning it, yet she forced herself to do so, because she knew it was important.

“I would like that very much,” Robert said in a hoarse voice. He kept still beneath her, afraid that Jo might feel his cock growing hard again beneath her lush bottom.

Jo looked at him shyly and smiled a little.

“How much do you know, Jo?”

He should have checked this, before he placed his fingers between her legs, Robert thought glumly as he cursed himself. She seemed so knowledgeable that it had not crossed his mind that she might not know what happened between a husband and wife in the bedroom. Although most young women were kept in the dark until their wedding night, her list had indicated that she had at least some knowledge, but they had married in haste, and Jo did not have a mother who could tell her.

“Know?” Jo repeated, and then her cheeks colored a furious red as she seemed to catch up. “Yes, yes, uhm, yes, I… Beatrice, she… at least the broader strokes…” She looked frantically at him as she tried to explain this.

“Good. Why don’t I ask Robinson to serve our dinner in your lounge and then we can see what happens?”

Jo’s eyes shot to his, wide and horrified.

“The dinner,” she breathed. “It must be ready; they are all waiting. What will they be thinking?”

She tried to rise from his lap, but Robert gently held on to her. He felt pleased when she sat back, even though she could easily have pried herself away.

“We are married, Jo. They are all grown people. No one will fault us for having dinner in private.” He could not help but smile at what he hoped would happen later. He knew he would not be sleeping with her tonight, but the chance to pleasure her again seemed very possible.

“Right,” Jo muttered and looked away from him. “Right,” she told him again, then met his gaze with a tentative smile and anticipation coursed through him even stronger than before.

Robert told her to go to her room first. He needed a moment before he felt comfortable being seen by a member of his staff, and it would be much quicker if Jo were not present. Besides he wanted the chance to quietly slip away to his own room and change his breeches and small clothes.

The duke and duchess’ suites were arranged at one end of the second floor of the townhouse, their bedrooms at opposite corners, his facing the garden, and Jo’s the street. Each of them had a connecting lounge and a dressing room that also served as their washroom. The two bedrooms were connected by a door, but Robert had never used it in the six years he had lived in the house since he reached his majority and fully took over responsibility for the dukedom.

He opted to use the door from the hallway to her lounge rather than the one between their bedrooms.

“Come in,” Jo called from inside, and he thought he detected both a slight tremble of nerves as well as a smile in her voice.

Robert had never been in the room before, only looked at it from the doorway once, when he first moved in. The furniture had been covered in Dutch covers and it had been impossible to see that his mother had ever lived there.