Page 65 of The Duke of a Thousand Desires

“I am a wretch.”

“Yes, at times you are.”

“A clumsy wretch.”

“You provoked me.” She leaned forward, deliberately not only exposing her décolletage to his view, but tugging the neckline down indiscreetly with her hand. “I am most provoked.”

“My goodness.” He sat upright, his gaze dark with understanding. “You’re sitting on your cloak. You’ll catch a cold uncovered like that.”

She sighed deeply.

He settled next to her in a heartbeat. “There is something you desire of me?”

Surely a duchess would be mortified to admit her intimate needs outside the boudoir? “I might be hungry. We rushed through supper.”

Simon refuted her feeble explanation. He took her face in hand and stared at her with the faintest smile. His gloved thumb stroked her bottom lip until she quivered in readiness. “May I satisfy your appetite?”

“In the carriage?” she asked doubtfully. “As you said, there is hardly room to stretch one’s legs.”

“Are we not resourceful?”

“We are almost home,” she whispered, captured by not the strength he exuded but the potency of his stare. She would dearly love to pull off his evening jacket and use him to her advantage. She turned to the window to conceal this wayward thought.

Startled, she felt him slide closer to her, felt his hand cradle the curve of her breast. “I have no willpower when it comes to you,” he said in her ear.

Her stomach tightened as he eased his arm around her waist. “Simon, this is the wrong place,” she said without conviction. “Ignore my untoward suggestion.”

“Ignoring my wife would be bad manners.”

She dropped back against his arm, releasing her breath. Deftly he raised her dress to her hips. The silver taffeta glinted against his dark jacket sleeve as he briefly lifted his hand away. His gaze holding hers, he tore off his glove and worked open his trousers.

She leaned beneath him in a daze. Fire infused her veins as the thick head of his shaft pressed between her folds. He tugged off the other glove with his teeth. His warm hand glided across her tuft of curls, slipped lower, and found her pearl. His fingers pinched and plucked her delicately.

She arched, stifling a moan of sheer erotic surrender.

“Is this what you wanted?” he asked, massaging her with his masterful touch.

“Yes,” she breathed, subsiding beneath his shadow. The intensity in his eyes mesmerized her. Who had initiated this act? Her thoughts blurred. Her insides knotted.

She moved to encourage, entice him, and quite honestly, to lock them together against the jostling of the carriage on the cobblestones. “Perhaps this was a poor idea,” she said unevenly.

“Loving you is always a good idea,” he replied, and bowed his head to cover her upturned face and the tops of her breasts with kisses.

She struggled to remember where they were, that she could not cry out, nor implore him to hurry. “We’re almost home,” he said as he licked the nipple that had escaped her bodice. Sharp desire lanced to her spine. He thrust harder. Her back bent into a bow so tense that she quivered. “The driver is drawing up to the stables,” he added in a wickedly deep voice.

She caught her breath, so close to release that her heart ceased to beat. Almost. Now.

Then the carriage slowed.

He sighed in helpless apology, withdrawing from her and fastening his trousers before the vehicle came to a complete stop. Ravenna swiftly drew down her dress and attempted to hide her feverish discomposure from the footmen who flanked the vehicle’s folding steps. She ached unbearably, insatiable woman that she was.

“We will continue in the house,” Simon promised behind her as the carriage door opened.

How could he sound so cavalier?

She shuddered. Her entire body felt hot, engorged, and unfulfilled. She turned her head to reply to him, but the raw hunger in his eyes stilled the words in her throat.

Her gauche attempt at seducing her husband had not been the complete failure she’d feared. Embarrassment slowly evolved into determination. She would study a street map of the metropolis as part of her education. And make demands of Simon earlier in the journey the next time they ventured abroad.