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He kissed her lightly, rubbed his face all along hers, and wrapped her up in his arms. She in turn buried her nose in his neck, and his warmth spread as if into her veins. Pressed against him, she could feel his heartbeat adjust, and then hers until they matched in pace. She leaned back and laid a hand over his chest, even as he did hers.
“It is thesentio. It opened of its own accord, in response to your tumble into the pit,” Alwyn said. “Osborn told me it was easier to allow it to open than fight to keep it closed.”
“Everything about this is so simple.” Surely such life-changing events should be more complicated.
As if he read her mind, he said, “We can make it more difficult, if you prefer.”
“I do not.” She laid her head on his heart. “My preferences include selfless lion-men whose eyes crinkle when they smile, who laugh at the worst puns ever made, whose endless reserves of patience will be handy in the years to come.”
Alwyn undid the ribbon, his ribbon, she’d tied around her hair and loosened it from its bun. “Mine include selfless, if not reckless, human women who would stop at nothing for the one they…”
“The one they love.” That was easy to say, once risked. She cuddled into his chest. “That was manipulative in the extreme, Your Grace.”
“Do not fear the feeling is not returned, my love. My mate. Mine.”
In a seamless move, he hooked an arm under her bum and raised them both to stand. Tabitha could not be blamed for squealing, a sound that produced such hilarity in the duke—her duke—she did not regret making that highly regrettable sound.
Which she reproduced when he brought her into his home and dropped her on his bed, and then himself beside her. He ran his hands down her side over the buttons there. “I received a trunk full of clothes,” she said, as with dexterity he slipped each out of its buttonhole. “From Lady Jemima Coleman, I can only assume.”
“As did I.” Alwyn slid his hand through the gap in the garment and tickled her ribs. “She has a gift, for it all fits and I can dress myself. No valet for me ever, I fear.”
“I am happy to take on such duties.” She shimmied out of her walking dress and treated the placket of his trousers to the same treatment he had given her buttons. “Oh, my.” Her comparative matrix was to be found lacking in yet another area. She slid her hand around his cock and bit her lower lip. “I know what I would prefer to do with this.”
He stretched, exposing that belly, and had she ever seen such a well-defined example ofrectus abdominisin her life? She had not. “Have you had experience of this? A woman using her mouth on you?” Tabitha demonstrated her meaning, and the sinuous roll of his hips, in turn, demonstrated his appreciation.
“Do not. Not now. I won’t last, I can’t—” One last application of her tongue, a promise of future efforts, and she knelt up to fling her chemise to the side, even as Alwyn followed suit with his shirt. They tumbled into each other and down onto the covers. She wrapped her legs around his hips and used her heels to tug at his trousers, which made him laugh. She took it one step further and hooked her toes in the waistband and slid them down his legs, which had the excellent byproduct of bringing their hips together. She thought she scented mint, the heat of sun on stones, something like a bun stuffed with currants—oh, his essence. She tucked her nose into his neck and breathed deep. They were the most delicious things she’d ever smelled.
Tabitha tilted her head back as she arched up and ran the tips of her breasts over his chest, making him shudder. He slid an arm beneath her hips, the other hand tracing down to her cunny. “How I want you,” he managed as his fingers settled into the source of her heat.
Her hands flew to his hair as he laved her nipples, stroked her flesh, sucked, and kneaded. His eyes were hot with passion, and gripping him harder by the hips, she guided him into her even as she trembled. She wrapped herself around him, body and soul, and rose to meet him, as he plunged into her, again and again, heedlessly, wildly, and she urged him on, luxuriating in the feel of him against her, inside her, this man, only this man, here and now, forever. Feeling him reach his peak filled her with a sensual, magnificent power, and she stroked him, caressed him, ran her hands everywhere she could reach. In the aftermath they breathed as one, hearts beating as one, whispering words of love as one.
***
Alwyn spread a blanket on the floor before the hearth, the firewood within lit for her benefit. She sat wrapped in the duvet and leaned against the foot of the bed. Was this to be her future? Decadent lovemaking in the daytime hours and the unwavering attention of her mate? He made her a plate of assorted tidbits from a larger platter full of fruit and cold meats, bread rolls, and cakes. “I can help myself,” she protested, sleepily, it had to be said.
“It is an Alpha’s honor to tend to his mate.” He set her plate and a cup of wine beside her and joined her on the floor. “I have planned ahead, and our picnic is complete.”
“This is Mr. Giles’s cheese.” She took another bite. “I see you have made your peace with him.”
“And the others. Easily done, as I have won your favor.” How smug he sounded.
“I was impressed by the quick thinking of Mr. Giles, Beckett, and Padmore.”
“That was my work.”
“Was it?”
He nodded and grinned. “They had already done your bidding and were prepared to do mine, to your benefit.”
“You could not know that would happen.”
“You could,” he countered, “if you had been tutored by one Mr. Timothy Barrington in the lady author’s oeuvre. Knives figured largely.”
“I would not be surprised if he read them all in one evening. I have never seen anyone devour a book the way he does.”
“Will he stay here?”
“Yes, as we have agreed it is time we parted company and pursued our own ways through the world.” Her voice caught, and she bit her lip to keep her composure. She told him of their argument and then said, “I owe you an apology. You were only following your nature, and I took you to task before all.”
