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But Xavier didn’t elaborate as he leaned forward, intent clear as he gazed between my legs. Instead, I captured his face and forced him to look at me.
He was so beautiful. It was easy to forget. His body was so large that sometimes his size masked the fact that many of his features were deceptively delicate. The sharp cheekbones beneath my stroking thumbs, the porcelain quality of his skin, the blue of his eyes that in this light glimmered like translucent Murano glass.
“Xavi,” I said. “Please, talk to me.”
He opened that full mouth, and for a moment, I thought he might name the beast that was thrashing inside him. Give it some shape and form. Allow me to help him vanquish it.
I so wanted to try. After all, princes (or in this case, a very upset duke) didn’t have to do all the saving. Sometimes a man needs to be rescued as much as any damsel.
Instead, he shook off my hands and tugged me to the edge of the desk.
“Kiss me,” he ordered.
Skin pebbling with the thrill of his touch, I couldn’t help but obey.
It started off soft but almost immediately turned into something much more insistent. Xavi might have been positioned below me, but his arms had me pinned to the desk, and his lips were glued to mine through some kind of magic I couldn’t comprehend.
“God,” he croaked after a few minutes. “Will you—”
I swallowed. There it was. The start of the question part of my heart was aching to hear. I fought down the words. I didn’t want to force him. I wanted to hear him ask me of his own accord.
“I just—” He kissed me again, like he was seeking the answer without finishing his request. “Francesca, will you—”
Just before he could, there was a swift knock on the door, which opened abruptly. I swallowed a litany of curse words as I pushed my dress back to my knees.
“Kip? Oh! And Francesca, hello.”
We both twisted around to find Imogene entering the room, clearly shocked to find me sitting on the desk in front of a very shirtless Xavier.
Perhaps I should have felt ashamed, but I really couldn’t. Not with her. Not with my own boyfriend in his own office behind closed freaking doors.
Hadn’t she ever heard of knocking?
“Hello, Imogene!” I said in a sharp voice that sounded like it was trying way too hard to be nonchalant.
I tried to close my knees, but the hands on my thighs were iron. Then one slipped between them while the other pulled my ruffles back over his arm.
I whipped around to find Xavier biting his lower lip while he slipped a hand farther to brush against the edges of my underwear. And to my complete shock, one finger breached the fabric and slid into me completely. The devil himself smirked up at me. His hand disappeared under my skirts, where his thumb located my clit and started to circle.
“What are you doing?” I mouthed.
Xavier’s smirk deepened before he looked around me to speak to Imogene. “Did you need something? Ces here just came in at the end of my workout.”
“Er, yes.” A glance over my shoulder told me that Imogene was trying very hard not to look at the effects of the workout, but even her polished manners couldn’t prevent her gaze from sliding over my man’s muscles. “Right. Mummy sent me over to have you check the seating order for tomorrow night. I have you and Franny next to the Murray-Harts and Sir John de Lesseps. Will that do?”
“I think so,” Xavier said amiably as a second finger joined the first. “And it’s Francesca.”
I gasped through my satisfaction. Generally, I was the one who had to correct her.
“Of course, of course,” Imogene seemed to stumble. “Francesca, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said over my shoulder in a voice slightly higher pitched than normal. “Xavi is just helping me, uh, stretch my ankle. I rolled it coming down the stairs to show him my dress.”
Xavier chortled but continued what he was doing. Inside me, the fingers curled, a silent admonishment—or perhaps congratulations—for the lie. Xavier’s thumb located my clit and flattened against it, pressing and rubbing in a slow, clockwise direction.
I bit my lip. His gaze zeroed in, and he shook his head infinitesimally with an arched brow. It drove him crazy when I did that.
I grinned.
