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Her words shifted something in Edward. While she wanted to be commanded, he shouldn’t agree to this request. Just imagining her mouth wrapping around his cock was a fantasy he couldn’t possibly deserve. He must convince her to see reason.

‘Not all women enjoy this. I don’t want you to do something you find unpleasant.’

‘You promised you would let me take the reins. That you wouldn’t stop until I told you. I want to do this.’

Edward was doing his best to be a good man. An honourable man. But he could only resist so much temptation. Listening to Ivy repeatedly demand to take him in her perfect mouth pushed him beyond his limits.

If I am going to burn eternally for my sins, I might as well take this memory with me to hell.

Hardening his expression to one of complete command, he straightened his shoulders and gripped his raging cock.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this hard.

Just brushing his palm over the tight skin nearly caused him to break.

But he vowed to maintain control. He wouldn’t rush her, and he wouldn’t embarrass himself.

Despite what she asked, this act could overwhelm even an experienced partner.

If she pulled back, asked him to stop, he would honour her command, even if it shattered the very foundations of his soul.

‘Take off your dress.’ If they were going to do this, he was going to hold her to the promise she made. He refused to leave her room without seeing every inch of her creamy skin.

Ivy’s hands shook, and he almost backed down, but she pressed her wide mouth into a determined line. The confidence he saw flashing in her eyes encouraged Edward to stay the course. She wanted this.

Thank God for that.

Turning, she presented her back to Edward once more.

‘Will you unbutton me?’ She had no lady’s maid and was probably used to managing her dresses alone, but her request nearly undid him.

Now his hands shook, though thankfully, she couldn’t see his fingers as he fumbled with the buttons.

As the edges of her dress parted, revealing her pale shoulder, Edward couldn’t stop from bending forward and pressing a kiss to her shoulder blade just above her stays.

Ivy swayed toward him, but he steadied her and stepped back. ‘Turn around, Ivy.’

She did as he asked. Her crystal eyes were almost swallowed by black pupils as her chest rose and fell with quick breaths.

Edward let his gaze roam. ‘Take. Off. The. Dress. Now.’ While he was a man used to leading, he had never displayed such dominance with any of his previous partners.

But something about Ivy’s permission to teach her called to a darker desire within him.

Her response fanned that flame into a conflagration as she shrugged out of her dress and let it pool at her feet.

She stood in her stays and shift. The blush he so desperately wished to map over the contours of her body splashed across her clavicles, spreading over the pale skin of her chest before disappearing into the thin cotton shift.

Her stays were laced tight, pressing her small breasts up like two sweet offerings peeking from the low cut of her shift.

Edward didn’t think it possible to become more aroused, but his body hardened further, and he stifled a groan of need. He would not spill his seed like some untried youth. Biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste iron, he exhaled a long breath. ‘Now the stays.’

Reaching behind her, she pulled a few times on the laces, then tugged. The stays loosened, and Ivy shimmied the padded cotton down her body, bending over to step free. Her shift gaped at the neck, and he caught the mesmerising glimpse of dark-pink nipples.

I want to taste them. Lick and suck those sweet buds until she screams my name.

His desire roughened his words. ‘Your shift. Take it off.’ He needed to see her bared to him more than he needed his next breath.

Ivy pulled one arm free, then the other. He saw the quiver in her bottom lip, but he also saw her chin thrust forward as she let the shift slither down her body.

‘Fucking beautiful.’ His words were not gentle, but neither was the emotion he felt. And her quick smile was a benediction.

Her breasts were perfect. Small, firm mounds tipped with dark-pink nipples straining toward him. Strawberry splotches painted her skin in a masterpiece of cream and crimson. Her lean torso and long limbs highlighted Ivy’s strength and athleticism no doubt honed by Philippa’s training.

I want to feel her legs wrapped around me while she rides me into oblivion.

He could spend the rest of his life staring at her. ‘Touch your breasts, Ivy. Show me what feels good.’

‘I thought I was going to?—’

‘Now,’ he growled, feeling feral with need. But still he watched her for signs of fear.

Her crystal gaze flashed with temper instead.

Good. Push back if you wish. Tell me to leave. Tell me I don’t deserve this moment.

Because Edward was balancing on a razor edge.

If he could keep the focus on Ivy, her needs, her pleasure, he could allow himself this moment.

But if she made this about him, he would have to stop her.

Tell her the truth. Wait for her judgement and inevitably retreat back into isolation.

And goddamn it. He wasn’t ready to walk away. Not yet.

Lifting gracefully shaped hands, Ivy tentatively touched her breasts.

Her eyes widened with discovery as she toyed with her nipples.

When she pinched one between her thumb and forefinger, rolling the bud until she hissed and curled in on herself, Edward knew he’d passed the point of retreat.

Only her request to stop would turn him back now.

‘Come here.’ He reached his hand out and Ivy blinked heavy lids. Lost to her own pleasure, it took a moment before she responded, stepping forward on unsteady feet.

‘Do you still wish to take me in your mouth, or would you rather I suck, nibble, and bite those sweet nipples of yours until you reach another crisis?’

Her lips formed a perfect pout that he was desperate to dismantle with kisses. ‘You’re trying to distract me. I told you what I wanted.’

Unable to resist temptation, Edward bent his head and sucked a perfect nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the puckered flesh, sucking hard enough to make her gasp.

She was so responsive, he knew he could make her come just by playing with her breasts.

And God, did he want to make her fly apart. To claim her next orgasm as his own.

He pulled back just far enough for his lips to brush over the tightened bud as he spoke.

‘Are you quite certain?’ Blowing cool air on the now wet flesh, Edward savoured Ivy’s lean body shuddering in his arms. A corresponding burn of pleasure coalesced at the base of his spine.

He could feel his balls tightening as his cock pulsed again.

One stiff wind and he would be jetting his seed.

‘Yes.’ Her answer was the low keen of a woman drowning in desire.

‘Yes, what? Tell me Ivy. What do you want?’

‘I want to take you in my mouth.’

Damnation!

He didn’t want her to do this. This act was focused on his pleasure, not hers, and he wanted tonight to only be about Ivy.

But some women also enjoyed sucking a man to completion.

Mayhap she was one of those fabled few. It mattered not.

Despite Edward’s resolve to ignore his own pleasure for hers, he was no match for her determination.

What man could resist such a request?

Certainly not Edward. Harnessing his frustration against his own weak will, he clenched his jaw and stepped away from her perfect body.

Looking around the room, his eyes fell on her pillow.

He strode to the bed, grabbed the pillow, returned to Ivy and dropped it on the ground between them.

‘On your knees.’ Maybe she would come to her senses.

Tell him to stop. For a woman who experienced trauma in her past, this couldn’t be something she wanted.

But she dropped to her knees in front of him, looking up expectantly. ‘Now what?’

She had never seen a cock before, let alone touched one, and Edward was going to have her sucking him like a courtesan. He was a bastard, but she refused to be swayed. So he would find a way to make this good for her.

Stepping closer, his cock jutted in front of him. Her eyes grew wide, and he thought she would pull back. But instead, she reached out, gripping his hot length in her clever hands.

‘It’s so hard. Is it always this way?’

Edward thought of ice-cold water, spiders in his hair, writing reports, anything to distract him from the bliss of her soft fingers gripping his aching flesh. ‘No. Only when a man is aroused. Ivy, many women don’t enjoy doing this. There are other ways I can find release.’

She leaned forward and before he could force another word from his mouth, she pressed her lips against the sensitive tip of his cock in a chaste kiss.

The bead of cum glistening there now painted her lips.

Flicking her tongue out to taste his seed, Edward was quite certain his body would explode.

She wrinkled her nose, but did not pull away.

‘Tell me what to do.’ Her wide eyes looked at him with total trust.

I won’t last. There is no way I can last. I must last.

‘Suck me into your mouth as deep as you can. If you gag, pull back.’ He took her hand and gripped the root. ‘You can stop whenever you want to, Ivy.’