Page 21 of The Duke of My Desire

He smiled. “I’m fine.”

She gave him a dubious look. “The grimace you’ve been wearing on your face would suggest otherwise.”

He never had been very good at hiding his feelings. “I suppose I am a bit tired,” he admitted. “Sleeping in that chair left me with a rather sore neck.”

He gave his neck muscles a rub for good measure, waiting for the inevitable I told you so, but what she said instead surprised him—though it probably shouldn’t have. She’d surprised him at every turn from the first moment they met.

“Come, turn around,” she said briskly, “and I’ll rub your neck for you. I may not appear all that strong, but I assure you, I have very capable hands.”

Gregory hesitated a beat. A neck rub did sound tempting...for his neck, anyway. It was how the rest of his body would respond that worried him.

He was already in a state of discomfort. Allowing Justina to put her hands on him, even for something as innocent as a neck rub, was most certainly a bad idea.

Still, his neck was sore, and he was a grown man in full control of his faculties. Surely he could withstand her touch for a few minutes without embarrassing himself.

“If you insist,” he murmured, before turning in his seat so his back was to her. His movements were stiff and awkward, and his heart was thudding in his chest with both anticipation and dread.

“Take off your coat,” Justina ordered, her breath a warm caress against the bare skin at his nape.

Suppressing a shiver, he shrugged out of his coat and laid it on the opposite seat out of the way. Then he clasped his hands in his lap and waited for her to begin.

“Relax,” she cooed, her voice a near-whisper that seemed to touch him everywhere.

And then she did touch him, her hands settling on his shoulders, warm and gentle, her fingers flexing and gripping as if learning the feel of him.

Gregory swallowed and shut his eyes, willing his mind and body to relax as she’d instructed.

It is only a neck rub.

It is only a neck rub.

He repeated the words in his mind as her hands began to move, her fingers and thumbs kneading the muscles of his shoulders and upper back with thorough, expert strokes that were simultaneously sublime and torturous.

His muscles began to relax and unknot even as his thoughts took a different path, a wicked one, dotted with carnal imaginings and lustful yearning. He pictured her hands slipping from his shoulders, trailing down his back and sliding underneath his shirt to stroke his bare skin.

He pictured her fingers raking lightly down his sides, edging around his waist and down his abdomen to the falls of his trousers.

He pictured her loosening the buttons, freeing his cock and fisting him, her skin petal-soft against his throbbing flesh as she began to stroke him⁠—

“Is this all right?” she asked, her hands going still, and Gregory realized he’d emitted a sort of strangled groan without meaning to and he cleared his throat.

Get a hold of yourself, man.

“Yes. It feels fine.” He fairly grunted the words, but it was the best he could do while battling the growing threat of an erection.

He shifted in his seat and spoke again, softening his tone. “In truth, it feels marvelous.”

“Good,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “I used to do this for my husband, and I became rather good at it, if I do say so myself. He was afflicted with terrible megrims, but this always seemed to make him feel better.”

Christ. Here he was, lusting after her, imagining every wicked turn this perfectly innocent neck rub could take, and all the while, she’d been thinking about her dead husband’s megrims. Guilt roiled in his stomach.

“That’s enough,” he said gruffly, easing away from her touch. “Thank you. That was precisely what I needed.”

He reached for his coat, avoiding her gaze as he retreated to the safety of his corner of the carriage.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, her voice mildly perplexed. “Happy to be of service.”

Folding up his coat, he slipped it beneath his head to use as a pillow and closed his eyes. “In fact, I’m so relaxed now, I think I’ll take a nap.”