Page 28 of A Duchess Bound (Dukes of Dominance #2)

“ A re you certain that you want this?” Gerard asked.

Dorothy’s eyes lingered over the pale blue ties held in his hand. “Yes,” she said. “I want all of you. All your wildness and dominance, all your promises and depravity. Please . I have waited for so long for you to take me properly.”

“So you have.” His voice was low and sultry, promising to do all manner of dark and delicious things to her. “You have been so very good.”

He took her right ankle in his hand and kissed her calf.

His fingers traced over her skin, so lightly that it set her senses ablaze.

He tied the length of silk around her ankle and knotted it.

Then, he fixed it to the bedpost. She was tied firmly, but not uncomfortably.

Dorothy flexed her ankle, testing the bond.

She could not move her feet more than a couple of inches.

“If this experience becomes too intense or if you wish to stop for any reason, you have only to say so, and I shall.”

She nodded, but her core pulsed with need.

He moved to her left leg, caressing her calf all the way down to the sole of her foot.

Then, he tied the silk around her ankle and fastened it to the bedpost. She was spread open and unable to close her thighs.

Her breath gave an anxious hitch, and the ache between her legs curled so tightly that it seemed impossible for her to endure it for much longer.

He reached for her left wrist, stroking the delicate underside of it. Gerard kissed her knuckles and pressed his cheek against the back of her hand. He inhaled deeply. Dorothy tensed as Gerard tied the length of silk about her wrist and bound it to the headboard.

“Nearly finished,” Gerard said, smiling. “Oh, how lovely you look! I enjoy the sight of you all tied down and at my mercy.”

Dorothy forced down the lump that rose in her throat. Her heart hammered against her ribs, like a caged bird desperate for escape. Gerard seized her right wrist. His eyes gleamed as he bound her wrist to the bed. Then, he stood back, as if admiring his work.

Dorothy’s eyes drifted down, her breath catching in her chest when she spied the bulge between his thighs. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

“I seem to recall saying that I would punish you again,” he mused, crossing his arms. “And you did chastise me earlier for not keeping my promises.”

“But you…”

He chuckled. “Do not make the situation worse, my sweet.”

Gerard slowly removed his jacket and cast it to the floor.

Dorothy inhaled sharply, hungrily tracing the line of his broad shoulders with her eyes.

Next, Gerard’s fingers went to his waistcoat.

He seemed to move with agonizing slowness.

She was certain that he had removed her own clothing with far more efficiency!

Gerard reached for his shirt and pulled it slowly over his head, revealing tantalizing glimpses of his muscled stomach and chest. He was wonderfully built, like some great marble statue.

Now, Dorothy understood how and why this man was a rake.

Gerard was absurdly handsome. Of course, women fell for his charms.

After an eternity had passed, Gerard removed his boots and stockings. Dorothy squirmed on the bed, pulling instinctively against the bonds. Her core twitched, burning with need. She had never seen a man in such a state of undress before.

His hands unfastened his trousers, and Gerard’s manhood sprang forth. She gasped. He seemed impossibly large. Perhaps, he had been right to caution her, for he was massive. Were all men quite so well-endowed?

“Do you want this?” Gerard asked, once he was entirely nude.

“Yes,” she rasped.

Gerard chuckled and climbed into the bed. He took his manhood in his hand and rubbed his tip against her entrance, through the small mass of curls. Dorothy whimpered. Her thighs instinctively tried to press together, but the bindings prevented it.

“Oh, you want this so much. I might be mistaken,” Gerard said. “How can you be a good girl? You have such wicked thoughts.”

“Please,” she whispered.

“Please,” he said mockingly. “Look at how wet you are! If I am not careful, you will find your release before I have even entered you.”

“I will try not to.”

“You will have no choice.”

Gerard pressed his tip inside her, and Dorothy’s muscles tensed.

Her hips tilted upwards as far as the ties would allow, which was only a few inches.

He pushed himself deeper inside, her wells stretching.

It was not quite painful, but the sensation was tight and uncomfortable.

A whimper escaped her throat, and Gerard froze. He was only half-buried inside her.

“Shall I stop?”

“No!” she exclaimed, horrified at the notion. “No, just…give me a moment.”

He did, waiting as she adjusted. She shifted her hips, drawing a groan from his mouth. Dorothy shivered at the sound, for it seemed as though he found her movements very pleasurable, indeed.

“I am ready,” she said.

He grasped her hips and pushed himself to the hilt. Dorothy gasped, her fingers searching to grasp something, but she found only empty air. She had the sensation of being unfathomably full , her walls stretching and struggling to accommodate his girth.

Gerard pulled slowly out and pushed back in, every movement the picture of caution. Dorothy’s breath quickened. Her body wanted to shift and move, but because of the bindings, she could not. She tried to shift her hips up to meet his thrusts, whining when she could not.

He quickened his pace, and her body relaxed.

Her inner walls clenched around his length, and she no longer experienced the painful tightness that had accompanied his first thrust. Gerard pushed in and out, falling into a rhythm.

She fought to match him, her hips jolting up and meeting his.

They moved together, her body jolting over the bed linens with each thrust of his manhood.

She tossed her head back, groaning in pleasure as that familiar and welcome sensation of climbing stirred within her. Dorothy’s back arched, her thighs quivered, and her limbs strained against the binding silk.

“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes!”

She gasped for air. Her body moved without a thought, desperate to reach that familiar release.

Gerard withdrew. Her walls clenched wildly, and she gasped. “No!”

He laughed and moved onto his knees, his manhood trembling and damp with the evidence of her arousal. “I promised that I would punish you. I think it will be some time yet before I let you experience the pleasure that you so ardently desire.”

Dorothy tried to press her thighs together to curl the frustrating, aching pulse of her core, but to no avail. “Please,” she begged. “Please, let me come.”

“I will.” He took himself in hand and pressed against her entrance once more. “Eventually.”

Her core eagerly clenched around him and sought to draw him in. And they began again. He drove inside her, quickening his pace. His movements were brisk and fierce, and she screamed in pleasure.

Dorothy’s body quivered almost at once, her muscles all going tight with the exertion of their labors.

She looked down, spying her trembling breasts and her hard, elongated nipples.

He gripped her hips, and she watched his body as he moved.

His muscles were taut and his jaw clenched.

As he gazed at her, his eyes were as hard as stone and seemed to blaze into her very soul.

Dorothy curled and uncurled her fingers, gasping breathlessly as he drove into her. She closed her eyes, as she neared the pinnacle of her bliss, and he?—

He stopped. Dorothy’s eyes snapped open, a little knot of despair curling in her chest. Her inner walls still clenched around him, and she bucked her hips, trying to find her release without his aid. It was not enough. With a dismayed wail, she struggled and shifted against him.

Gerard shook his head. “Poor girl,” he said. “I only taught you to use your hands and my manhood, and you cannot make use of either them or me.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and a little whimper escaped from between her lips. “Please, Gerard.”

He jolted his hips forward once and no more.

“Please, I cannot bear it!” she cried.

Gerard smiled fondly and rubbed the inside of her thighs. “You can, and you will.”

Dorothy forced her hips upward, as much as the ties would allow, and groaned. Seeing the futility of it, she let her body fall back onto the bed linens. “I cannot!”

He thrust into her again, moving with agonizing slowness.

Dorothy groaned. Gerard caressed her thighs and moved himself steadily in and out of her, moving too slowly for her to find release.

Dorothy was half-mad for want of him. She struggled and shifted.

Inarticulate sounds tore from her mouth.

Dorothy was too lost in the sensations of him to make a proper plea for mercy.

He halted once more, and Dorothy cried out. “Please!”

Her whole body trembled. Everything was too much; all her senses were consumed by him.

Sweat pooled at her back, sticking the linens to her.

He was drenched with sweat, too. She saw drops falling down his chest, chasing the finally carved abdominal muscles, all the way down to where their bodies met.

“You have not done as well as I might have hoped with this,” Gerard said dryly. “All that crying and begging.”

“Gerard…”

He dipped his head and kissed her stomach. “Fear not, my sweet. I will indulge you.”

Gerard shoved into her. He straightened his spine and drove quickly in and out. Dorothy gasped, startled by the sudden swiftness of his movements. She screamed and bucked against him. Her release came almost at once, like a wave slamming into the shoreline. White light obscured her vision.

For an instant, she forgot how to breathe. Dorothy shuddered into her release, gasping for air as she rode that wave of bliss. Gerard kept driving into her, and she clenched around him.

Impossibly, she seemed to be approaching yet another summit. She shouted and cried out without shame, not giving even a moment’s thought to the fact that they might be overheard. Gerard’s thighs trembled.

“So beautiful,” he gasped between clenched teeth.

His hips jolted against hers, and warmth surged within her. Dorothy gasped, shaking as yet another release swept over her. It was calmer than the first—almost peaceful. She threw her head back, her chest heaving. Her body was boneless and well-used, and Dorothy smiled lazily at Gerard.

He withdrew from her with a wet, lewd sound that sent a fissure of delight coursing along the path of her thigh.

“Magnificent,” he said.

“Yes,” she breathed.

Gerard patted her thigh and shifted further down the bed on his knees. He reached for the tie that held her right ankle in place and undid it. Dorothy flexed her ankle, and he gently rubbed the place where the tie had been.

“Did you like it?” Gerard asked.

“Very much so.”

He pressed his lips to her knee, rubbing his jaw against her shin. “I am glad. I enjoyed myself immensely as well.”

Gerard untied her other ankle and gently rubbed Dorothy’s ankle, where the silk had been.

Faint pink lines were left there, and Dorothy shivered, feeling deliciously daring at the sight of the marks.

She had let him bind her to the bed! Dorothy might be a spinster, but she was now one who had experienced the pleasures of the bedroom.

She shivered. It was a pity that she could tell no one.

Gerard reached for her right wrist, and her breath caught in her throat, as he loomed over her. The scent of sweat mingled with his cologne. A lump formed in her throat. He understood her body and her mind so well.

“You are exquisite,” he said, tracing his knuckles over the side of her face. “Anyone who says otherwise is a fool.”

She laughed. “You are offering me too much praise.”

He released her left hand and linked his fingers with hers. “Not so,” he said, placing a light kiss on the back of her hand. “There is no such thing as too much praise when it comes to you.”

Gerard went onto his side beside her, smiling at her with such gentleness that Dorothy’s own heart quickened. She did not want to end this. With something like dread, she realized why.

Dorothy did not want to relinquish this relationship, the connection that she had with Gerard. If anything, she wanted it to be something more , something greater. Dorothy stared at him with wide eyes. She might be?—

She was rather?—

Genuinely falling in love.