Page 82 of The Duke of Deceit

Jess held her breath. If she could freeze just one moment of her life forever, it would be now. At this moment, he belonged to her, she to him, the future couldn’t hurt them, and in only a few moments he would be inside her, filling her, loving her. At that moment, her world was perfect.

Then time moved on, and Lucien pulled her forward, sliding her smoothly down his hard length and filling her so swiftly in one glorious plunge that she gasped. She clung to him, unmoving, as bright lights flashed before her eyes. Slow, steady breaths…she forced herself to focus on the rise and fall of her lungs as her trembling body adjusted to having him inside her again. Where he belonged.

“Jess?” Concern thickened his voice.

With a nod that she was fine—oh, more than fine!—she slipped lower down his steely shaft until her thighs pressed tightly against his hips, until he penetrated impossibly deep inside her and filled her to bursting. She smiled against his mouth as the muscles inside her relaxed and radiated a faint sensation of release through her, only to clamp around him once more when she felt him flex inside her. Then she melted into a sigh, only to feel him stir again. Clench and release, clench and release…neither of them moved, yet a wonderful, wanton waltz danced inside her and brought a sob to her lips.

Then, she began to move. At first, she gave just small, testing slides of her hips that pulsed softly up and down his thick shaft. Then she began to take longer and faster glides. With his hands still resting on her hips, Lucien didn’t complain about her lack of experience or that she was experimenting upon him as she learned how to move in this delicious, new position. He was patient and oh-so devilishly handsome when he quirked a grin up at her, and she paused in her thrusts only long enough to swoop her mouth down to bite his bottom lip, earning herself a wolfish growl.

Her confidence built along with a mounting need that demanded release, and her movements grew harder, faster, and far more intense. With a guttural sound of frustration rising from her throat, she grabbed the top of the seat with both hands for leverage and rose up on her knees to thrust her pelvis as hard as possible against his, only to slide back teasingly until his length nearly pulled completely out of her before plunging forward again. Each time she sank over him, she took her own breath away.

“That’s…good,” Lucien murmured, his hands tightening around her hips in encouragement. “That’s so…damn good…”

With a wicked smile, not slowing her movements, she leaned down to kiss him, only to smother a soft moan of pleasure against his mouth as he lifted his hips and swirled his hard length inside her in wanton reward. A pulse of throbbing electricity surged through her, and she bore down upon him, now riding him shamelessly as hard and fast as she could. She was galloping toward bliss, and she pursued it eagerly.

This wasn’t at all like when they’d spent the night in his room in Ealing, when they’d both felt healed from being in each other’s arms. That night had been patient, affectionate, loving. But what they were doing now wasn’t making love; this was fierce and passionate. Raw. Animalistic. She welcomed it with every pounding beat of her racing heart and every pulsating clench of her body around his.

Her thighs tightened like a vise against his hips, and her body clasped hard around him, to draw him even deeper, to bury him inside her and never let him go.

“Take your pleasure, my love,” he cajoled as his hands on her hips encouraged her to keep pumping herself over him by pulling her forward and back, to keep riding him toward the edge of release that was rushing toward her. “Take all you want of me, now and always. I’m yours.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, as if she could somehow mold their two bodies together until they were one, existing beneath the same skin, breathing the same breath, and throbbing with the same heartbeat. With her body tightening, all her muscles tensing, she rubbed herself against his lower abdomen where their two bodies joined, grinding the aching point at her core against his hard muscles—

“Lucien!” she cried out breathlessly as raw joy surged through her.

Bliss swept over her like a tidal wave. With a violent shudder, she tossed back her head and arched herself against him. She was aware of his deep groan as his hands grasped her bucking hips and pulled her down over him as he pounded up hard beneath her. Then she felt him shudder as his hard length jerked inside her, followed by a rush of hot liquid that stole her breath away. This new sensation was exquisite, and the tiny muscles inside her clenched and released around his thick length in pulsating waves of residual pleasure as her body greedily milked his, to prolong his release and shamelessly claim every drop.

He collapsed, exhausted, against the squabs behind him, but he continued to hold her perched on his lap, his spent length still buried inside her as if he, too, didn’t want to part. Gradually, his breath slowed, but she could feel his heartbeat continuing to pound in his chest against hers, a fierce and steady testament to the ferocity with which he loved her.

The same love she felt for him.

“I keep trying to turn good,” he said on a breathless sigh, “but you keep bringing out the devil in me.”

“I can’t help it.” She felt the heat rise in her cheeks at how wantonly she’d just behaved—in a carriage in the middle of Mayfair, no less! And how thoroughly she’d enjoyed it, too. Anembarrassed little smile pulled at her lips as she confessed, “I want you too much.”

“Me too.” He stroked his thumb across her bottom lip and stared hungrily at her mouth, as if he were contemplating ravishing her all over again. God knew she’d let him. Even now, her body tightened its hold around him as faint rumblings of need rose again inside her. “I didn’t intend to come inside you like that. But you felt too good, and I lost control.”

She lowered her gaze to his cravat, which she’d ruined in her rush to undress what parts of him she could. She knew what he meant. They hadn’t been careful, and he’d released his seed inside her—No, she’d driven him to it, wanting that moment as much as he had. And yet…

She whispered, suddenly sad, “That can’t happen again.”

He tipped up her chin and placed a kiss of promise to her lips. “I’ll be much more careful in the future.”

Her shoulders slumped, and she shook her head in anguish. “We can’t make love again.” Her voice was little more than a breath on her trembling lips. Her fingers shook as they fussed with his cravat. “It’s simply too much risk.”

“We can make arrangements to eliminate that,” he tempted as he smoothed back a curl of her hair that had come loose from her chignon and fallen against her cheek. “Then we can make love in carriages all over England without having to worry about the consequences.” He grinned mischievously. “I’ve always wanted to visit the Scottish borderlands.”

His teasing didn’t lighten the grief laying heavily on her chest. “I won’t be your mistress, Lucien.” The wretched whisper tore from her. “I deserve better.”

“I meant becoming my duchess, although I’m not certain it’s better,” he mused in a deep voice that rumbled into her. “In many ways, it’s probably much worse. You’ll have to live under the same roof with me and pretend in public that you like me.”He paused, suddenly serious. “But if we’re married, no one will care if you get with child.”

Her shoulders fell, and she corrected in a strained whisper, “I didn’t mean because of the risk of getting with child.”

She meant losing her heart forever.

Drawing upon every ounce of resolve she possessed, she slowly untangled herself from his embrace and slipped off his lap. She smoothed down her skirt and straightened her bodice as she sat on the bench across from him. Yet she couldn’t help but stare even as her eyes began to sting. The way he sat there, slumped against the squabs with his cravat and hair mussed, his trousers unbuttoned and his shirt yanked up, with his manhood laying so shamelessly in view against his inner thigh… He looked utterly delicious, and it was all she could do to keep herself from climbing right back on top of him, to once again make time stand still.

“Would you please…” She waved a hand in his direction. “Straighten yourself?”