Page 70 of In Service to the Duke

My teeth ache as she stretches her neck back, tempting me with her shoulder. I bend low, licking the juncture where it meets her neck. How badly I want to claim her. The beast in me roars in frustration as I battle within myself.

I’ll probably claim her at some point, but not this heat. Not right now. There’s a lot more that must happen between us before I can trust her with my bond. It hurts. It’s an agony unlike any I’ve known before.

Even losing those I’ve loved has never gutted me like resisting the call of the claim is right now. It’s a pain I’ll never forget as long as I live. Hoping to ease the screaming in my mind, I set my teeth to her skin. All it does is make it worse. I need to bite, to claim, and to consume.

With an anguished cry, I pull away, needing to separate us before I do something I’ll regret. Pulling out of her welcoming heat, I turn her over, dragging her arse up to me and keeping her face and neck as far away from my teeth as I can.

Granted, I can mark her anywhere on her body. Not one bit of her flesh is safe. But I know in my heart where I want her to harbor the visual of my claim, and I will not settle for anything less. Gripping her hips, I angle my cock back into her and press forward, impaling her with one long stroke.

Feeling her quiver around me shuts up the voices, at least for now. I know it will get harder as I descend further into this madness. With each thrust, however, all I can think about is how she feels snug around me.

We fit far better than I expected. It’s as if she is made for me, made for this. I want nothing more than to spend my days and nights balls deep inside her. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I find her clit again and stroke it as I pound into her.

Her cries are like music to my ears. I drink them in, letting them soothe the savage beast wanting to come out. I throw my head back and roar as pleasure slithers down my spine and tightens my balls.

I’m close, and soon, my knot will lock us together. Indecision wars for a moment, delaying the inevitable. To turn her back around would be to torment myself with a mark I can never give. But to knot her like this could make her rather uncomfortable.

Choosing to do what’s best for Miss Gillet, I slide out again, ignoring her whimpers as I turn her over. “Hush now.” I playfully chide. “People will think you’re a wanton.”

Even in her haze of heat, she freezes as fear sours the air. She looks about, as if trying to see these people who could possibly hear her in such a state. Again, her reactions niggle into my brain. Something isn’t quite right. Though I cannot even fathom what it is, she shouldn’t be so fearful.

“Easy, love. No one can hear us. Cry out as loud as you want. Let me hear you scream your release.”

Sliding back in, I groan as her body wraps around mine. I nuzzle her neck, refusing to break this closeness because of my need to claim her. She’s so vulnerable, huddled in my arms.

I capture her lips with mine, purring as I feel my knot begin to tingle. This is the last bit she’ll have to endure. Once she takes my knot for the first time, everything else will be easy.

Sliding my hand behind her head to cup her close, I press her face against my chest, purring as loud as I can as my knot swells deep inside her, locking us together. I listen for sounds beneath me as I rock back and forth, breaking her open as cum shoots out into the condom.

But there’s nothing.

Apprehension niggles its way into my brain for just a moment before I feel the scrape of her teeth against my skin. Before she can latch on and claim me, I grip her hair and pull her back. I cannot allow her to do this.

It doesn’t matter that my actions cause her to rage against me, I cannot allow us to be joined this way. The only saving grace is that she’s so deep in her heat, she can’t possibly know what she’s doing.

Or does she?

Perhaps this was her plan all along, and marriage was just the means to it. My gut clenches as cum continues to spurt out, but my heart is no longer in it. Truly, this would be the greatest trap of them all. Have I almost fallen victim to her devious machinations?

CHAPTER 31

EMMA

Pinpricks of pain explode through my skull, setting my head to throbbing. But it’s nothing like the ache in my gums. I desire nothing more than to taste Blackport’s blood upon my lips. There’s no rational reason for it, and yet, somehow, I understand I’m far past reason.

I squirm against his implacable hold, desperate to bite him, but he refuses to allow me. It doesn’t make sense. The way he used me, broke me open, and made me feel things no proper girl is allowed to feel is far past the bound of impropriety. And yet, the oaf won’t allow me to do the one thing I yearn for.

It doesn’t matter that I don’t understand what’s driving me. There’s this feeling in the pit of my gut which tells me it’s the right thing to do. To feel my teeth sinking into his skin… it’s what I’m made to do. Dark whispers invade my skull until I can no longer drown them out.

Manic cries drip from my lips as I writhe under this beast of a man. His rough touch is the only thing quelling these unholy desires. It’s the only thing grounding me in reality. Still, I fear I’m far too gone to be saved.

Nothing is right. I have no words for what’s wrong, but I feel it deep in my soul. We’re supposed to be as one. It’s what’s whispered about amongst those who have mates and husbands.

Until today, I have never understood them. How can two become one flesh? How can I leave my mother and father and cleave unto a man? And yet, with his member filling me, stuffing me to the point where I can take no more, I finally understand. But even now, it’s wrong.

There’s something missing, something fundamental which is being kept from me. I should be satisfied with the pleasure humming through my body with every twitch I make, but I’m not. The thicker, rounder part of his anatomy grinds against some spot deep inside me, filling my body with immense satisfaction and gratification, and yet I feel empty.

“Please,” I whimper, not having any words or understanding of what I need.