Page 56 of An Inconvenient Duke

“That I care about you,” he admitted sincerely. “That I only want to make you happy.”

Another nod, this time with a curl of her lips in a nervous but happy smile.

“Then trust me, Danielle.” He pulled the chemise down her arm, baring her right breast to his heated stare. When he grazed the already taut nipple with the pad of his thumb, she shivered. “And let me make you happy.”

He leaned up and placed an affectionate kiss to her nipple. She stiffened for a moment, her fingers digging into his chest, then the tension eased out of her when his lips closed around her and suckled. With that silent permission, he tugged down the other shoulder strap to bare both breasts to his seeking lips.

“This,” she forced out between quickening pants, “makes me happy.”

He chuckled against her flesh. The sound formed goose bumps on her bare arms, like magic. Which made him wonder where else he could make her tingle with his touch.

Pulling her skirt up around her waist, he slipped his hand between her open thighs to caress her intimate folds as she straddled him.

“And that?” he murmured.

Her ragged mewls of desire answered him. If this was happiness, he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his days making her happy.

Good God, she was so supple and warm against his fingers as he stroked her intimately, her folds wet with arousal. When he flicked his fingertip against her sensitive little nib, she gasped, and her thighs clenched against his hips. With a soft exhalation, she relaxed and smiled, an expression of such joy and trust that it melted him.

Tonight would be wonderful for her, he would make certain of it. He would ensure that she found her pleasure first—

When she wiggled out of the chemise and pushed it down around her waist to bare all of herself to him from the waist up, he groaned at the hot yearning that little movement shot down his cock.

Ifhe survived that long.

She stilled. “Is this…all right?”

More than all right. “Perfect,” he rasped out huskily and felt the tension drain from her. “You are absolutely perfect.” He suckled at her breast as he continued to tease his fingers between her legs. “In every way.”

To make his point, he slipped a finger inside her tight warmth. She gasped at the sensation of having part of him inside her, then the sound turned into a throaty moan as he began to tantalizingly stroke in and out of her.

Unable to sit still, she began to move her hips over him to meet each thrust of his finger. He rewarded her by slipping a second finger inside her, stretching her feminine lips wider and filling her even more.

“Marcus.” His name fell from her lips, half the sound a guttural cry of passion, the other half a begging plea for more. She grasped at his shoulders for leverage as she instinctively began to ride his hand, to claim the pleasure waiting for her.

“That’s it, darling,” he encouraged as he rested his other hand on her hip to guide her. “Take whatever you want.”

Instead, she surprised him by raising her hips so she could reach between them and unfasten his trouser buttons. Yearning for her tight warmth, his hard cock sprang free, and he sucked in sharply as his sensitive tip grazed the smooth flesh of her inner thigh.

She leaned down over him to place a kiss to his neck as she shyly whispered, “I want you.”

With a growl, he pulled her into his arms and rolled her onto her back. He nestled his hips between her wide-open thighs, clasped his length in his hand, and guided himself inside her.

* * *

Dani drew in a mouthful of air as he sank into her. There was no pain like she’d expected. But he filled her so completely that she was stretched uncomfortably wide, with his weight pressing down onto her pelvis.

But then he began to move in slow and exploring little plunges and retreats of his hips against hers. The stretching eased, and the discomfort faded until all she knew was the wonderful sensation of him gliding smoothly inside her.

“Marcus,” she whispered and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold him close.

This wasn’t at all how she’d thought this moment would be. Not in an old, empty building with only his coat beneath her to protect her from the hard, cold floor. Not with both of them still wearing their clothes, with Marcus fully dressed and the fabric of his trousers rubbing against the insides of her thighs with each plunge of his body into hers. And not any other night but her wedding night.

But even though tonight was none of those things, it was still simply wonderful! Because of Marcus. Because she lay in the embrace of a man whom she had loved since she was a girl, a man who had promised to protect her and make her happy. Tonight, he was doing just that.

There was no other man she wanted to give herself to, and no other place she wanted to be in all the world but right here in his arms.

Wanting to bring him even closer, she wrapped her legs around him.