Dukes Are Forever Read online

  Embarrassment stole through her at his words, her cheeks burning with mortification that he would pick this moment to tease her when she was already uncertain and vulnerable.

  “Don’t make fun,” she scolded, pushing his hand away from her waist.

  Undeterred, he took her hand and lifted it to his lips, to flick his tongue across her palm, and the sensation shot straight down her arm into her breasts, drawing her already hard nipples into impossibly tighter points. “I am not making fun.”

  When he shifted his hips forward against her, his arousal pressed into her lower back, hard and large, and she shuddered at the desire in him. For her.

  “Don’t you realize how much I want you?”

  She exhaled a shaky breath as her head spun, her world turning upside down. Just days ago, he had threatened to take control of her life, both infuriating and frightening her, the same man who was now telling her how much he wanted her. And she knew it was true. Because she burned with the same demanding need for him.

  “I’ve never met another woman like you.” His hand brushed in slow circles over her bare stomach, and she inhaled a ragged breath of anticipation each time his hand swept down closer and closer to the throbbing ache between her thighs. “I have to touch you, Kate. I need to feel you.”

  She thought she heard his voice tremble, but when he unfastened the breeches and slipped his hand inside across the smooth skin of her lower belly, the only thing she knew for certain was the scintillating excitement boiling just below his fingertips, how much she wanted him to touch her down there—

  “Please,” she begged, then shifted to part her legs wider in invitation.

  When he finally stroked down through her curls to touch her wet heat, she shuddered. She bit back a moan as her hands grabbed for his hard thighs steadying her from behind, her fingernails digging into the sculpted muscles as his fingers teased lightly against her and increased the sweet burn flaming out from between her legs.

  “That feels so good,” she panted. “I never knew…”

  “It gets better,” he promised, then knelt behind her to peel the breeches slowly down her hips and thighs, pushing them along her calves and off, baring her body completely to the firelight.

  He kissed her at that spot where her buttocks curved into her back, then flicked his tongue up along her spine as he slowly rose. Oh, sweet heavens, he was tasting her! Relishing her bare back the way a hungry man savored a feast. With a shudder, she moaned her pleasure, never believing that a man’s mouth could feel this wicked and wonderful at the same time.

  As his mouth caressed up her body, he brushed his hands tantalizingly along the back of her legs, up her thighs to her round bottom, then around her hips to her front and down through her curls. This time when his hand slipped between her legs, nothing hindered his seeking fingers from taking the long, deep caresses into her cleft that she so desperately craved. Nothing stopped him from nudging apart her legs from behind with his knee, to give him even more access to her sex, to gently part her folds and slide two fingers inside.

  “Edward!” She tensed, then relaxed against him as he began to stroke gently but insistently while his other hand caressed her breasts, and the startled cry of his name on her lips melted into a whimper.

  “Sweet Lord, angel,” he groaned, lowering his forehead to rest a moment against her bare shoulder. “You’re ready, and so soon…”

  “Ready?” She quivered around his fingers, every nerve ending in her body shooting down between her thighs where his fingers continued their gentle exploration. She fought back a pleading whine for more as his thumb delved down into her folds.

  “For me to be inside you.”

  “But you’re already inside me,” she panted as his swirling fingers heated her from the inside out.

  “Not the way I want to be,” he corrected in a hot rasp.

  She knew what he meant—he wanted to take her innocence.

  She should have been terrified of what he wanted from her, of the control he wanted her to surrender. But as she felt the pulsating fire swelling up to explode through her, starting from the tiny nub beneath his rubbing thumb and spreading out across her belly and breasts, she welcomed it eagerly with every inch of her existence.

  Her tiny muscles clenched down around his fingers in a breathtaking spasm—she gasped, and Edward caught her in his arms as her knees buckled and she sank toward the floor, lowering her gently onto the rug before the fireplace.

  As her breathing and heartbeat slowed, she sighed deeply. Pleasure unlike any she’d ever known before radiated through her, and she laughed with utter happiness. Unashamed that she was lying naked beneath his hungry gaze in the light of the fire. Unashamed that she had let him touch her so intimately. And wanted him to do so again.

  When Edward slowly slid his body up the length of hers, having stripped out of his trousers and cast away the last remaining barrier between them, she wasn’t ashamed then, either.

  He brushed a damp lock from her forehead. “Did you like that?”

  “Very much,” she sighed, her body satiated.

  “Good.” Pleased, he kissed her tenderly. “Because it gets even better.”

  Kate smiled at him, even as she knew there couldn’t possibly be a better feeling than the pleasure he’d just sent sweeping through her. It had been so wonderful. Simply breathtaking. Oh, she certainly wanted him to do that to her again, to feel once more the yearning ache until it burst through her in a flash of heat and light.

  But to be even better? Impossible.

  “I want you, Katherine, and I mean to have you.” His dark eyes flickered in the firelight as he stared longingly down at her. “So if you want to stop, you have to tell me now.”

  Everywhere his body touched hers, her skin turned electric, tingling and hot, and the last thing she wanted to do was stop. She whispered breathlessly, “Kiss me.”

  “My pleasure.” When he captured her mouth beneath his, she wasn’t prepared for the intensity of him, for the rush of arousal that pulsed through her in a way that made her feel seductive, possessed, and completely desired all at once.

  He had been holding back before, she realized, when he kissed her in the field and the sitting room. Even when he’d been stroking his fingers inside her and bringing her to release just moments ago, he’d carefully kept his own desire checked.

  But now, no restraint remained in him. Hands stroked over her breasts and hips, teeth bit at her throat and shoulders, lips sucked hard at her nipples, the tip of his tongue traced the curve of her ear—and a low moan tore from her throat as her body pulsed hot and cold with each fierce kiss and demanding touch. Fire flashed through her at the same time goose bumps sprang up across her shivering skin, and the hot swelling between her thighs beat in rhythm with her racing pulse. Sweet torture, the most exquisite pleasure-pain she’d ever known.

  Hot and openmouthed, he kissed her. His tongue pushed between her lips to ravish the moist depths of her mouth the way his hands plundered her body. The pulsing ache between her legs began to match the rhythm of the deep and insistent thrusts of his tongue until she could no longer tell if the relentless throbbing came from inside her or seeped into her from him. Nor did she care as long as he kept kissing her like this, stoking the delicious fires inside her.

  She gasped for air as his mouth tore away from hers and traveled down her throat, his teeth nipping at her tender skin.

  When his lips found her breast, she shuddered, panting fast and shallow with each agonizing flick of his tongue against her already sensitized nipple. Then he suckled at her, hard and long, and she writhed under him, unable to remain still beneath his wicked mouth.

  “So luscious,” he murmured against her as he shifted to her other breast, to swirl his tongue around the aching point there.

  She arched toward him, her fingernails digging into his shoulders to bring him as close as possible, until he was lying with his full weight pressing down over her body. But even that wasn’t close en
ough.

  “Edward.” His name was a confused plea. “I want…” She struggled to form the words, her lips thick with arousal. “I want…please.”

  “This?” One large hand pressed against her bare shoulder, pinning her to the rug to hold her still while the other stroked up between her thighs. She jumped at his touch, bucking her hips off the floor and shamelessly spreading her thighs wide beneath him.

  “Yes,” she panted out. She writhed against his fingers as they traced over her, carefully circling her but not touching her where she craved it most, teasing her mercilessly and keeping from her the exquisite pleasure he’d given her before. “Edward, please!”

  He lowered his tall body and settled himself between her thighs. With a throaty whimper of need, she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist to cradle his hips against hers. Then he reached down between them, this time to spread her sex gently with his fingers and open her wide to him. She felt the hot tip of his manhood touch against her, nestling down into her outer folds, poised at her entrance and ready.

  Holding her breath in anxious anticipation, she closed her eyes and felt his hips press gently forward, his hard erection slide inside her.

  Inch by torturously slow inch, he sank into her, and she sighed tremulously, her aroused body craving the moment when he would fill her completely. But instead of moving deeper, he retreated until only his engorged tip remained inside her.

  “No!” She grasped at his shoulders and tilted up her hips to pull him back inside her where she desperately needed him to be.

  “Slowly, love,” he warned, his body tense with restraint. “We have to go slowly this first time.”

  “I don’t want to go slowly. It feels so—”

  She moaned deeply as he stroked down into her again, this time an inch deeper than before, staying inside her a moment longer before withdrawing again until he had almost come completely out of her.

  She whimpered in protest, her hands clenching into frustrated fists against his back.

  “Trust in me, angel.” He dipped his head to briefly press his lips against hers.

  Another slow plunge, another answering moan…He repeated the carefully controlled movements, and she felt herself slowly expand as her body took him deeper inside her, both surrounding and surrounded at once.

  Then he paused, holding himself above her on his forearms.

  “It will only hurt once,” he murmured, his own eyes closing in an almost pained expression. “Just this first time.”

  “But it doesn’t hurt. You were right.” She trailed a line of kisses across his shoulder, tasting the salty-sweet perspiration on his skin. “It did get bet—”

  He thrust forward and plunged into her, tearing through the thin layer of resistance until he was sheathed completely inside her, his hips seated against hers.

  A gasp tore from her at the sharp but fleeting pain, and she tensed, her body stiffening and her fingernails digging into his back.

  He held still for a moment, kissing her forehead and murmuring her name until her breathing steadied and her fingers loosened their hold, and then he began to move, to rock his body against hers. She relaxed beneath him, and the discomfort was replaced with a sensuous pleasure that stirred a heat from low in her belly up to her breasts.

  A deep breath, a long sigh—then all she knew was the wonderful sensation of his body stroking smoothly into hers, his strong arms enveloping her and holding her close, and the weight of him pressing down. It was pure possession, and she surrendered blissfully.

  “Move with me,” he urged. He took her hips in his hands and showed her how to lift to meet each thrust, to unite in the primal rhythm of their joined bodies.

  She moaned and buried her face against his shoulder. Amazing—she couldn’t believe how good it felt to be this close to him, to have him inside her, filling her so completely. Simply heavenly! He was making it perfect for her, and she felt the tears wet at her lashes as emotion overcame her.

  No one but Edward would have been this tender with her, this patient, and she would never regret giving her innocence to him tonight.

  Then their rhythm changed, and his movements became more urgent and intense. Each thrust brought him harder against her, swelling the fiery throbbing inside her until flames licked at her toes. Every muscle in her body clenched and pulsed in time with the engulfing ache, with his quick and insistent thrusts inside her. Her ankles locked together at the small of his back, her arms clung around his shoulders, and she held on desperately against the sensation that she was falling over a cliff, plummeting away even as he pressed her harder into the floor beneath him.

  With a swirl of his hips against her spread thighs, he growled and ground his pelvis down against her sex—

  She shattered beneath him in a cascade of heat and shivers, crying out against the sound of the storm raging around them as her body shuddered violently.

  Grabbing her arms and lifting them over her head, he drove fast and hard into her now, pumping furiously with need. With a last deep plunge, he groaned his release, and she gasped at the raw sensation of his liquid fire pulsing into her, of the sudden clench and release of his body around hers.

  He sank down on top of her, his body spent and satiated. For a few minutes, neither moved. Then his heavy weight shifted away as he rolled onto his side beside her.

  Opening her eyes, she found him watching her and reached up to brush his hair off his forehead, damp with perspiration and rain. As the dissipating waves of release dulled deliciously inside her, she felt connected to him, satisfied to simply lie there surrounded by the warmth and strength of his arms, without a single thought of the world outside the cottage. She’d shattered in his arms, and the feeling had been so amazing that she couldn’t bear to think of him not feeling it, too, or that he didn’t feel just as connected to her as she felt to him in this new, wonderful way.

  And when he touched his lips to hers, more tenderly than she could have imagined, she knew he felt it, too. “Are you all right, angel?”

  She placed her hand on his chest to feel the beating of his heart. For her. “I’m perfect.”

  “Oh yes,” he murmured as his arms tightened around her and pulled her close, “you certainly are.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The hay cart swayed with a loud creak over a rut in the road, and Edward reached out protectively to clasp Kate’s hand as she lay on the straw pile next to him. Although he reclined casually, staring up in silence at the passing treetops and white clouds, there was nothing casual about the thoughts spinning through his mind.

  He hadn’t said much to her since they’d awakened at first light, preferring contemplative silence this morning. Luckily, one of the farmers driving from Buxtonby offered them a ride in the back of his cart, which meant that he wouldn’t have to break his silence. The nearness of the cart’s driver prevented them from beginning the serious conversation they needed to have, which meant he had a short reprieve from considering the full ramifications of last night.

  But lying together on the hay like this, with silence stretching between them, was the most awkward moment they’d shared since he’d ordered her to remove her dress. Ironic, how she was more comfortable around him when she was naked.

  Well, then he would just have to make certain that getting Kate naked happened often, and for great stretches of time.

  His chest swelled. At long last, he had something in his life that made him happy. And it wasn’t just the sex, although that had been amazing. It was her laugh, her wit, her charity, even her stubbornness—she drew him unlike any other woman ever had.

  “You’re awfully quiet this morning.”

  The corners of his lips tugged upward. He should have known she couldn’t remain silent, not her, but instead of being irritated, he found her endearing. “Just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  In reply, he arched a brow, his silence speaking volumes.

  “Oh.” She blushed, and he knew it wasn’t the
crisp morning air that colored her cheeks. “Do you regret it?”

  “Absolutely not,” he answered quickly. Then hesitated, “Do you?”

  “No—you made it…” She squeezed his hand. “Perfect.”

  More pleased by the simple compliment than he had a right to be, he tucked her hand against his chest, knowing even as he did that she could feel his heartbeat. Good Lord, how she made his pulse race last night! And the second time he’d taken her, when he woke her at dawn and slowly, tenderly, gently rocked himself into her, when she climaxed not with a shatter but a sigh—she’d sent his heart racing once more.

  “I’d never done…that before,” she admitted so softly he barely heard her.

  He shifted toward her on the straw and lowered his mouth to her ear. “It’s called making love,” he murmured, unable to hold back a grin at her inexperience.

  She looked at him through lowered lashes, in an expression of half innocence, half seduction, and his cock stirred. “I’d never…made love before,” she whispered.

  “I know.” Risking that the driver might glance over his shoulder and catch them, Edward touched his lips to hers, then rolled away, putting a respectable distance between them.

  “So I don’t know—I mean, I’m wondering…” Another deep breath. “What next?”

  He was silent for a long moment, then mumbled toward the sky, “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.”

  “You cannot remain as my guardian now.”

  “Actually, I can,” he answered quietly, although he knew it wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. There were no laws against a man bedding his ward, and he’d known a few men who had taken advantage of their situation to turn their wards into mistresses. However, he would not be one of them. “It’s a binding contract.” Which couldn’t be voided. Not unless he asked for her father’s consent to be released from the agreement, which he would never do. Destroying the guardianship meant returning her to her father’s custody and leaving her unprotected, and he would never give her back to that bastard. Especially not after last night. “But we have a few options.”