Page 69 of A Temporary Bride for the Duke

“Yes,” he groaned softly. His fingers slid up from her hand to grasp her wrist. His other hand rose, and his knuckles brushed down the sensitive line of her neck, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. “I want to feel your mouth on mine. I want to pull you onto my lap, wrap my arms around you so tight it hurts, and finally find out how sweet you taste when you let go.”

The raw honesty of his words made Daisy’s head spin. The heat between them was suffocatingly sweet now, thick with a mutual hunger that had been building beneath the surface for weeks.

She licked her dry lips, a purely instinctive gesture, and saw Edmund’s eyes darken almost to black as his focus locked entirely onto her mouth.

“Daisy,” he breathed, his voice a ragged plea.

She didn’t answer with words. She simply nodded, her body aching for the distance between them to disappear.

Edmund let out a low growl, then leaned in and closed the final distance between them. His mouth swooped down, taking hers in a searing kiss.

Heavens.

It was a kiss that wiped her mind blank of all thought. She arched into him, kissing him back as well as she could. His hand reached out to cup her cheek, and he inclined his head, the better to plunder her mouth with ease.

She moaned into his mouth, her hand coming up to lie over his, clutching onto him as he kissed her thoroughly, painstakingly, and exhaustively.

She pressed her lips harder against Edmund’s, trapping the moan in his mouth.

His tongue flicked, running against her bottom lip before plunging into her mouth as his hands pulled her close. Daisy’s shawl slipped off her shoulders, and her breasts pressed against his chest. It was only then that she realized his shirt was half open, and he wore no coat.

The urge to touch, to know what his skin felt like beneath her fingers, was too strong. She moved her hand from his and trailed downward, feeling the strained muscles in his neck before pushing aside his collar so she could feel his collarbone. The hardness of his warm, broad chest, and the muscles flexing in his shoulder blades as he moved his hands all over her was miraculous.

Half of her was in disbelief that they were kissing at all, while the other half was hungry for his touch and shouting, ‘More! More! More!’

Her nails dug into the flesh of his back, and she almost growled with want. Daisy squirmed in his arms as his kisses moved from her lips to trail down her neck and follow the neckline of her nightgown until he was kissing the hollow between her delicately rounded breasts. Then, Edmund’s entire face disappeared into the soft, pillowy recesses of her bosom.

He reached up and pulled down her neckline so that her left breast popped out. Her rose-hued nipple was stiff as stone and begging for touch. His hot mouth closed on her breast, and she was hard put not to shout. Daisy clapped her hand over her mouth to swallow the sound in her palm, her body shaking in reaction.

He suckled her hungrily as his free hand played with her other breast. She thrust her hips toward him, wanting to beg for she knew not what.

All she knew was that what he was doing was notenough.

He straightened up, reaching for her lips again as he delicately pushed her backward until her head was touching the bricks of the stone archway. He scooted to the side on the bench so that he might deposit kisses all over her face before sliding downward slowly. His hands were everywhere, caressing, feeling, touching, igniting her flesh, and causing tendrils of want to rise in his wake.

Edmund sank onto his knees. Daisy stared down at him and saw a hint of a smile tickle his lips. Then, slowly, he pulled up her dress, and she gasped. Her eyes widened as his mouth came face-to-face with her most secret self. A vague embarrassment overtook her as she realized she was dripping, and she tried to bring her knees together so he wouldn’t see.

“Don’t hide from me,” he coaxed, his voice low and husky, before he scooted down and began tolickat the moistness.

She closed her eyes, torn between extreme pleasure and embarrassment.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a strained voice, even as she panted, her stomach squeezing with desire.

“I’m about to make you feel incredibly good. Do you want that, my sweet?” he asked, his eyes dark.

She could only nod.

“Good.” His tongue came out and flicked at a sensitive bit of flesh.

She arched upward, unable to stop herself from gasping. He gently eased her back down. Edmund buried his face in her warm wetness, and all she could do was revel in the pleasure that zinged through her body.

It was almost too much to take, yet the pleasure kept growing and growing, like a hot air balloon. She feared it might soon grow too much for her body, and she would combust into a thousand pieces.

When the combustion did come, she was barely prepared for it.

Her mind whited out with the intensity of it. She was a dandelion whose seeds had all been blown out, to form a cloud of ecstasy that fell slowly to the ground around her in silent, speechless oblivion.

She had not thought it was possible to feel so much. Her body trembled in reaction, and all she could do was sit there and pant.