Page 57 of How the Duke Saved Christmas

He chuckled softly against her mouth and whispered, “Soon, my love.” Then he sealed that cryptic promise with a sweep of his tongue between her lips.

Giving over to a wanton urge, she closed her lips around his tongue and sucked hard to draw him deep into the wet warmth of her mouth.

A groan rose from the back of his throat, and his hand between her legs moved faster against her, even harder and deeper than before. She whimpered with need, and he responded by delving his thumb into her folds and rubbing hard.

Her hips bucked off the mattress. “Michael!”

“Enjoy it,” he whispered huskily and rubbed against her again. “I hope you let yourself enjoy every pleasure I plan on giving you, tonight and always.”

The sweet torture of his hands and words gripped her, and she dug her fingers into his shoulders to hold on as need flared through her. She tensed, and her folds clenched hard around his fingers as they continued to caress into her, as his thumb persisted in its wicked ministrations against that most sensitive part of her.

Release came like an ocean wave that rolled her over and over and threatened to drown her beneath its force. Her breath tore from her, and her thighs quivered as pleasure pulsed through her. Only several moments later did she realize that she’d cried out his name, that he’d swallowed the sound by kissing her. Now she could do little more than lie beside him on the bed, listen to the roar of blood coursing through her ears with every racing beat of her heart, and wonder how she would ever be the same again.

He slipped his hand away. With a tender kiss to her lips, he shifted to slide off the bed.

“Don’t leave.” She tightened her arms around his neck. “You said you wanted to stay with me.”

“I do. And I will. But I’d also like to take off my clothes before we go any further.” Then he rakishly arched a brow in challenge. “Unless you’d like to remove them for me.”

The thought of having her hands on him and baring him to her eyes one piece of clothing at a time thrilled her. She bit her bottom lip and teased her fingers through the short hair at his nape. “You don’t mind if I do?”

He laughed and placed a quick, hard kiss to her lips, one that tasted of amusement, affection, and permission.

Not knowing where to start, she reached to untie his neck cloth and strip it off. She held it out over the edge of the bed and let it fall onto the pile of her discarded layers on the floor. Knowing that their bodies would soon become as entangled as their clothes sparked a yearning in her belly, and she hurried to strip his jacket away, unbutton his waistcoat, and pull it down his arms and off. Her hands trembled as she slipped his braces off his shoulders and let them dangle around his hips, and then she freed his shirttail from the waistband of his trousers and lifted it off over his head.

He was bare from the waist up, and she feasted her eyes upon him. Dear Lord, he was beautiful, and she couldn’t help but trace her fingertips across his shoulders and the hard planes of his chest. In all the time they’d spent together before, he’d never been more undressed than in shirtsleeves with his waistcoat undone. But this…simply magnificent.

She lifted her head to take his flat male nipple between her lips and suckle softly at him the way he’d done to her.

He inhaled sharply through clenched teeth. Even as she kept her mouth on his chest, her hands wandered down his body and below his waist. She touched the hard bulge through his trousers and teased her fingers along the stiff ridge. When he jumped against her palm, she impulsively bit his nipple.

“Christ,” he blew out on a harsh breath, and his hand darted down to grasp her wrist to still her fingers. “Keep doing that,” he warned in a suddenly hoarse voice, “and this night will be over far too soon.”

She frowned. Had she done something wrong? “What do you mean?”

“I mean this.” He deftly unbuttoned the buttons of his fall and guided her hand inside his trousers. She caught her breath when her fingers grazed his erect length. Slowly, he moved her hand over himself to show her how to stroke him. “Keep surprising me like that, and I’ll be spent before I bring you all the pleasures you deserve tonight.”

“Oh.” She continued to caress him, and he grew larger against her hand, the soft and warm skin belying the steely hardness underneath. When she squeezed him tightly and pumped her hand along his length, a drop of liquid formed at his round tip and slickened her fingers.“Oh…”

She pumped her hand along his length again in curiosity to see if she could draw another bead of his essence from him. This time, a low groan fell from his lips as he squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head between his shoulders. He shook with tension, his muscles tense.

Concerned, she kissed his cheek. “Michael?”

“Boots,” he rasped out.

She blinked. “Boots?”

“Have to remove them…to remove…my trousers.”

But when he began to once more move away from her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kept him right there with her, lying shamelessly in the cradle of her thighs.

“No,” she whispered, not wanting to separate from him for even that small amount of time. Her body ached for his, and she knew now why she’d felt frustrated before, why she craved even more than the pleasures he’d already given her. She flashed hot and achy, and her sex throbbed for his hard length to be inside her. Boots be damned.

So she grasped his trousers and pulled them open wide to let his erection spring free.

“Now, please. Like this.” She leaned up to graze her teeth against his throat, as she wrapped her good leg around his waist. “I’ve waited two years to be with you. I don’t want to wait a moment longer.”

“Clara,” he murmured and reached between them to position himself against her core. With a deep breath, he lowered his hips and slid inside her.