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Millie explained that if a man did not release his seed, it could be painful for him, though she was quick to reassure Ivy that it wasn’t her responsibility to relieve a man unless she wished to do so.

Seeing Edward’s rigid body, every muscle tight with unmet need, his eyes still wild even as he tried to force his lips into an easy smile, she knew what she wanted.

Dropping to her knees, she gripped the heel of his boot and began to tug.

‘What are you doing?’ Edward’s alarmed voice would have been amusing in any other circumstance.

‘I’m taking off your boots.’ She freed his first foot, threw the boot behind her, and moved on to the second.

‘Why?’ He reached down to stop her, but she brushed off his hands.

‘Because we aren’t done.’ With his second boot in her hand, she rocked back on her heels and let her gaze linger on the outline of his hard, turgid cock.

She wanted to see it. The appendage her father had told her would cause such unmitigated pain.

She wanted to know what Edward’s penis looked like and decide for herself whether it was something she should fear.

‘Ivy, this is all new to you. Perhaps this was far enough for tonight.’

‘I haven’t said stop yet.’ Struggling to her feet, she took a step back, giving him space to also rise. ‘I want to see you. All of you.’

Edward raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t want to frighten you.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘I have faced off against an intruder, shot a man in the shoulder, and helped you track down a criminal. They may have all been the same man, but still. I’m not some weak-kneed ninny. You won’t frighten me.’

His eyes glinted in a look that should have frightened her. ‘All right. I shall show you all of me, but only if you show me your blush. Everywhere it stains your skin.’

Devious devil! He thinks I’ll back down. He’s wrong.

‘You first.’ One good threat was worth another.

Raising a dark brow, he bit his lip and Ivy desperately wanted to lick him.

Just there where his teeth dug into the firm flesh of his mouth.

‘I’ll hold you to that, Ivy. If I take these off,’ his finger hovered over the buttons of his placket, ‘then you remove your dress, stays, and shift. Swear it.’

God, she loved it when he demanded things from her. Which made absolutely no sense, but somehow his rough command empowered her. She could grant him this boon or deny him. Either way, he would honour her choice.

‘I swear it.’ She nodded at his pants. ‘Quit stalling, Commissioner.’

He shook his head. ‘Wicked woman.’ Slowly, Edward flicked open the three buttons holding his placard in place.

His erection bobbed free, and Ivy was certain all the air had been sucked from her room.

Untying the drawstring around his waist, he pushed down his breeches, stepping free of them.

In a gesture hinting at unexpected self-consciousness, he rubbed both hands up and down the outside of his hips.

Millie had tried to describe the male appendage to Ivy, but her words couldn’t encompass the truth of it.

The hard ridge of flesh was bulbous at the top, a hood of skin pulling back from the glistening, reddish tip.

The shaft was tight and pulsing, jutting upward.

A slit at the tip of it beaded with a creamy pearl.

The entire thing was far too large to ever fit inside Ivy, and all her father’s threats re-emerged.

‘How could that possibly…’ Ivy swallowed and tried to find words to finish her sentence.

‘Fit inside you?’ Edward passed a hand over his cock, hissing a breath as he did.

‘When you reached your climax, your channel flooded with fluid. It helps to ease my way. I know there is pain for a woman the first time, but there can be pleasure as well. There will be pleasure if you wish to go that far.’

As much as she wanted more, she wasn’t sure she was ready for that much more just yet.

‘Is that the only way to ease your… er… situation?’

‘No. I can stroke myself to release.’

‘What else?’ Millie described how a woman could take a man into her mouth and bring him relief that way.

She assured Ivy the experience could be quite empowering.

Ivy wasn’t sure how, but Millie had never lied to Ivy.

After everything she had just experienced, she was willing to try.

‘Can I bring you to climax with my mouth?’ The very idea should repulse her, but staring at the cream leaking from him, her mouth watered.

Edward’s cock jerked in response to her words as he clenched his hands into fists. ‘You don’t want to do that, Ivy.’

His words were like a gauntlet being thrown. Ivy agreed to let him take the lead, but she would be damned if she let him tell her what she did and did not want. Stretching her mouth in a smile, she licked the corner. ‘I haven’t said stop, Edward. You promised we would do everything on the list.’

‘This wasn’t on the list. If you want me to lick your sweet cunny, I will happily oblige.’

That gave her pause as Ivy imagined his dark head between her thighs, his strong tongue rasping over her newly discovered bundle of nerves, his lips pressing kisses to her cleft.

Oh my!

No. I won’t be distracted. He is clearly in pain. I want to bring him relief.

And if Millie was right, Ivy wanted to know the kind of empowerment controlling Edward’s pleasure in such a raw moment could bring her.

‘Well, it’s my list so I can add to it whenever I like. And I’m adding this. Now.’

Something dark and dangerous snapped in his eyes. A beast straining against the chains of control. ‘Are you certain?’

Ivy spent her entire life fearing everything a man might take away from her.

Overpowering her body, stealing her autonomy, and forcing her submission.

But fear held no sway here because Edward refused to take anything from her that she did not freely offer.

And he had already given her a moment of incandescent beauty.

She wanted to return the favour. Give him something in return.

‘Tell me what to do.’