Page 50 of An Inconvenient Duke

“Then soon. But we will.” She hesitated. “And then?”

His heartbeat skipped as he realized that she wasn’t asking about matters of justice or how they would turn their information over to the authorities. She was asking about the two of them.

He simply had no idea what the future held, except that he couldn’t bear the thought of no longer seeing her. She’d come to mean a great deal to him, and more than as a friend of his late sister, more than as a source for discovering the truth behind Elise’s death. More than as a beautiful woman whose kisses and caresses affected him more deeply than any other woman’s ever had.

During the past few weeks since they’d been working together to find answers, she’d given his life purpose.

“Then we worry about it later. For now, we should only worry about this evening.” He slipped his hands beneath her skirt to encircle her legs and bring her against him as he looked up at her. “And this evening, there is nowhere else I would rather be than right here, with you.”

He meant every word. Since he’d returned to England, he’d longed to be back in the field with his men, where he knew exactly who the enemy was and how to fight against him, where outcomes were certain and decisive.

Except when he was with Danielle.

She ran her fingers tenderly through the hair at his temple. That simple touch confirmed silently that she felt the same.

She kissed him again, and this time without any uncertainty. He seized her mouth with his in an eager, openmouthed kiss that left both of them shaking.

“Danielle,” he murmured hotly against her mouth, longing to touch her intimately as his hands slid up the backs of her legs.

She answered with a sighing whimper and closed her eyes.

He caressed her calves, running his fingertips over the silky smoothness of the stockings. He smiled—the same stockings he’d given her. The masculine rush of pride and possession that she’d worn them tonight was impossible to tamp down, or the desire that rose inside him.

As she continued to bend over him, eagerly kissing him from above, his fingers teased at the lace hem of the stocking, tied to her thigh by a ribbon. He wiggled his fingers down inside her stocking and drew a surprised gasp from her lips, only for the sound to turn into a full-throated moan when he pulled loose the ribbon and pushed down the stocking, baring her entire leg to his hands.

“That’s…very nice,” she murmured as his hand traced invisible patterns up her leg, from ankle to thigh.

“No, it’s heavenly.” He punctuated that correction by doing the same to the other stocking. But this time, instead of touching her leg with his hand, he pushed her skirt up out of the way and dipped his head to repeat the caresses with his mouth, placing featherlight kisses against her bare skin.

By the time his lips reached her thigh, her breath came in quick little pants, and her fingertips dug into his shoulders. “So…is that.”

He chuckled. She was a delicious mix of confidence and innocence.

“And this?” He nudged her gown and chemise higher, exposing the juncture of her thighs to his gaze. He sifted his fingers slowly through her feminine curls, then bit back a groan when she seductively mimicked that gesture by combing her fingers through the hair at his nape.

“Yes,” she whispered and leaned against the stone wall behind her for support.

The musky scent of her sex filled his senses, and he knew before he slowly slid his hands up her inner thighs to caress his thumbs between her legs—

Sweet Lucifer, she was already wet.

“And this?” As he teased his thumbs over her folds, he leaned back to watch the expressions flitting over her face. He would stop with a single word if she bade him. But he prayed to every saint and angel in heaven that she wouldn’t. He wanted this moment with her too much to deny either of them the satisfaction it would bring.

“Yes.” She shifted her legs farther apart to open herself to him. “Yes, Marcus.”

Not an agreement this time but permission. He dipped his head between her legs. Her gasp of surprise melted into a whimper of desire, and her hands tightened on his head as he explored her with his mouth.

At first, he worshipped her with light and delicate kisses, but as the taste and scent of her engulfed his senses, his restraint dissolved. The worshipping changed into plundering, the light kisses into hard licks, pulling sucks, and deep plunges of his tongue as he attempted to discover every secret part of her.

“Marcus!” Her body shook so fiercely with desire that her hands grabbed at his shoulders to keep her balance.

He shoved her gown out of the way and hooked her left leg over his shoulder. As he teased her folds with his fingers, he stared up at her, thankful as hell for the mask he still wore. God help him if she ever saw his need for her on his face.

“Hang on tight, love,” he whispered, flicking his thumb across the sensitive little nub buried at the top of her folds and eliciting a wiggle of her hips against his hand in response. “And don’t let go.”

This time when his mouth captured her, he slipped a finger inside her tight warmth. She cried out in surprise, but her arms tightened around his neck and her leg clenched tightly across his back as she arched against him.

He sucked gently at the little point at the center of her femininity as his finger continued to tease inside her. Evidence of her need for release slicked his hand, the taste and feel of her exquisite. She was so close that he could feel her quivering against his lips, could feel all those little muscles inside her tightening around his finger as he continued to stroke inside her. One more pulling suck of his lips—