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“What would you do if I take you here?” he whispered. “Would you scream, despite all those who might hear? Would you be so desperate for me?”

“Yes,” she groaned as his fingers moved down her skirts, his hand finding its way up her calf and her inner thigh—slow, tortuous, andoh so good.

“Beg me, Duchess,” he murmured. “You once told me that you never would, but I think tonight, as you shiver beneath me, you are too eager to deny me.”

Her mouth fell open in shock as, with a final thrust, his fingers met her folds. He smiled as he felt how ready she was for him.

“You are so wet for me already,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire. “I could push inside you now and make you scream my name, and you would be powerless to stop me.”

Alicia’s head fell back against the chair as his fingers pushed against her, flirting with her entrance as her legs fell open.

“Beg me, Duchess.”

Alicia swallowed, a denial rising up her throat. But she knew she could not utter those words.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please touch me.”

The Duke thrust his finger inside her as his other hand covered her mouth. The quiet moan that broke free was urgent and filled with lust as he pushed into her, his body half on top of her.

The music swelled beneath them, as if a thousand voices suddenly rose together, and the Duke released her mouth as he pushed another finger inside her.

“Moan for me,” he commanded against her ear. “I will hear when no one else can. Moan, beg me, shake for me as I pleasure you.”

Alicia let out a cry—a decadent, impossible sound that should have had every eye in the room upon them. But the music drowned out all the noise.

The Duke’s fingers were exquisite inside her, moving so deep and swirling in place that she could barely contain herself.

His other hand moved to his breeches, and he released himself, gripped her wrist, and put her hand on him. “Touch me. Feel how hard I am for you.”

Alicia moaned again as her fingers closed around his thick length, the moisture at the tip easing the glide of her hand as they rutted together.

The darkness around them, the blanket of music on every side, made it feel as if they were somewhere far from the rest of the world.

She was not in a box at the theatre, with half the ton a few feet away. They were alone, in the dark, pleasuring each other as the need and desire between them reached a fever pitch.

The Duke pulled her skirts up further so that she was entirely exposed, and she gasped, glancing at the curtain beside them.

“I will never let you be disgraced,” he said, even as her fingers stroked him and he dove deeper into her body. “But I cannot hold back any longer.”

He leaned fully over her, and suddenly, his length nudged her folds, rubbing against her entrance as once again his hand covered her mouth.

She writhed beneath him, the wicked glide of him obliterating every thought in her mind as their eyes met.

“I will take you soon, Duchess, and you will feel the pleasure a thousandfold.”

He shuddered, his eyes closing as he almost reached his peak. She could feel her own climax rushing through her, too potent to deny.

The voices beneath them rose in chorus, all-encompassing in the heat between them, muffling every sound as the Duke cried out at the same time Alicia found her release.

She felt her walls tighten around his fingers even as the wet heat of his release hit her thigh.

His lips crashed into hers, his tongue thrusting into her mouth over and over as he ravaged her, sucking on her tongue and groaning.

Their gazes locked and held as he pulled back, and the music faded behind them. Electric heat pulsed between them like nothing she had ever known.

CHAPTER 29

The rest of the opera passed in a blur.