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“In time,” he promised with a quick kiss to her lips. He teased her with a brush of tongue but no more. “Take off your clothes.” Once more, she did as he asked, fumbling to get the corset undone behind her. As she undressed, he did too. She could picture what his torso would be like, muscular and lean, due to his height.
When she was naked, his eyes glanced between her and the mattress. She didn’t need to hear the order to know he wanted her to lay down again. She did so then he moved between her legs.
“Hold onto me.” His order was a stern one. Maybe she should have been annoyed, but she wasn’t. She clung to his arms, preparing as he raised her legs around his hips. “Be ready, Marina.”
Then he entered her.
Marina woke up. She pulled the covers off her face in a flustered scramble, feeling a heat ricocheting through her body as she realized what exactly had happened in her dream. Everything was a blur for a few seconds. She saw herself on the bed, being pleasured in Lord Frampton’s room. She saw skin upon skin, her hands clutching a gentleman’s biceps.
No, it cannot be…
Then the dream came completely into focus. She had been about to make love to her husband, to James, the very man who had vowed not to touch her at all.
“Oh, this is ridiculous!” She turned over and punched the pillow in anger. It seemed that though James had forbidden touching her in the real world, it couldn’t stop her imagination running wild wanting it. Somehow the attraction she had felt to James since the first night they had met had grown. It didn’t seem to matter that he was arrogant, commanding, and she was sure he was also too business minded. She desired him anyway.
It was such a strong feeling that as she laid on the bed, she longed to satisfy the sensations and urges in her body. Her fingers reached down beneath her nightgown, and she pictured everything that had happened in her dream. Only this time, there was no stopping point. She didn’t wake up, and as James entered her in her imagination, it kept on going, never ending until she knew exactly what pleasure felt like.
Then frustration bled through her. He’d told her she could satisfy her desires with other men as he would satisfy his lusts with other women. That meant her dream would have to remain just that – only ever a dream.
How do I stop this desire?
CHAPTER9
“And this is the gambling hall itself. Do me a favor and stay close whilst we are in here.” James’ words were uttered near to her ear as he led her into the dark room. Marina suddenly felt no wish to be far from him as she looked around the room.
That day, she had struggled to meet his gaze, blushing every time he looked at her and frequently glancing away. She supposed part of her feared that he would be able to read what she had been dreaming of just by looking at her face. When he’d insisted on showing her the gambling hall, she hadn’t objected and was simply pleased he didn’t intend to run off from her as he had done the night before.
“It’s so dark,” she whispered to James as he beckoned her to follow him around the room. “Yet… it’s plush too.” She noted the fine armchairs and even a rococo settee at one end of the gambling hall where three men lounged in their cups with glasses of scotch and brandy hanging from their bottom lips.
“A man at ease and in comfort is more likely to spend his money here than at another gambling hall.” Once more, he beckoned her to follow. “Here are the tables.” He swept aside a red velour curtain, revealing a room that seemed almost scandalous as it had to be so hidden.
At the sight before her, Marina’s jaw hung open. At first glance, it could have been a look of awe, for the tables were full of cards, dice, roulette wheels and other gambling games. Men laughed and drank, adding more and more betting chips to the tables until their chinks could be heard audibly over the laughter.
The more Marina looked though, the more she saw the room for what it truly was. Men around the poker tables sat there hungrily like feral dogs, tongues hanging beyond lips and teeth gnashing.
“This is how you make your money?” Marina asked, aware that James took her arm and drew her back into the corner of the room. “The men… they seem all so…hungryfor the gamble.”
“They are.”
“Why did you do that?” She gestured at how he had pulled her into the shadows.
“I do not trust all of my clientele,” he said slowly, a small smile upon his lips. “As much as I wish you to learn the business, I do not want any gentleman to look at you and suddenly think I am offering fine courtesans.”
“I beg your pardon!?” she stuttered, panicked at the idea.
“Trust me. No man will touch you like that.” He took her arm and threaded it through his own. “Yet drunken men see what they want to see, and I don’t want them getting any ideas.” He led her around the tables.
“I feel rather like we are at the Tower of London menagerie, watching the animals as they try to attack one another.” She nodded her head at the dice table where two men began to argue over the dice.
“It is how I’ve often thought of it too,” he confessed with a smirk. Marina had no wish to let go of James’ arm and held on a little tighter, not because she was worried about where she was but because she was enjoying being so close to him. He didn’t seem to mind, for he didn’t respond to her tighter hold. “I might need to step in.” He nodded his head at the men arguing over the dice, but before he could, another man appeared.
This one was familiar to Marina, and it only took her a few seconds to recognize the face of James’ best man from the wedding. He said some quick words to the arguing men that made them fall still before he turned and found James, approaching him with a quick bow to Marina.
“Ah, I see you have brought your new Duchess tonight?” He clasped his hands as if preparing for mischief. “What delight! Will she get to gamble?”
“Behave, Michael.” James sighed at his friend’s antics though he revealed a small smile that showed he was actually amused. “Marina, this is my friend, Michael Hawkins, known to others as Viscount Thorne. He manages the establishment for me.”
“How do you do, Your Grace?” He took Marina’s hand with a little charm and kissed the back.
