Page 28 of A Tale of Two Dukes

Richard was waiting for her, dressed in his robe, and he came to her as soon as she entered. ‘The maid has been and warmed the bed with the pan,’ he told her. ‘We are safe.’

‘If only that were true,’ she said, and pulled down his head so that she could kiss him with fierce urgency.

It was different, doing that here, both of them lightly clad, both of them knowing that they need not stop.

She gave free rein to all the desire that she’d been feeling for him over the last week or two, her tongue in his mouth, her hands fumbling for the fastening of his robe.

She found it and released it, pushing it from his shoulders so that it fell to the floor, and discovered that he was gloriously naked beneath it.

‘I want to touch you,’ she said against his mouth, her hands exploring his broad chest. ‘I want to know you, and for you to know me. I want you to show me the things that people do when they aren’t coming together with one purpose in mind, and that purpose very little to do with pleasure. ’

‘Viola,’ he said, ‘my love, my darling, it shall be exactly as you wish. We don’t have to do anything at all that would fit with Edward’s plans, if you don’t want to.

There are many, many things that we can share that will give us both all the pleasure in the world and yet not risk giving him what he wants from us.

’ He was unfastening her robe too as he spoke, and caressing her body through the thin fabric of her night-rail.

‘I want to do everything,’ she said, unfastening the buttons of the flimsy muslin garment, aware that every minute was important when the time they had was so brief.

‘These two nights with you will be all I have, I fear. I want to know passion as I have not yet, and if it does bring me a child, whether it is his precious heir or not, that will be a comfort too, and a reminder of you when you are gone. I had reconciled myself to having his child – why in the world would I not want yours instead, as long as I am able to choose it freely for myself? But I don’t want to think about him or talk about him any more, only about you.

There is no one in the world but you and me tonight. ’

‘Come to bed, my love.’

They slipped naked between the sheets, and he pushed them back so that he could look at her, all of her; they had neither of them blown out the candles, and this was new for her, and exactly what she wanted.

‘You are so beautiful, it breaks my heart,’ he said, and then his lips claimed hers as his hands explored her.

Edward had never kissed her as he kissed her – she had not wanted to make comparisons, but it was impossible not to, because she had never felt worshipped before, and the pleasure she had known had been but a pale shadow of this.

She touched Richard too, and explored his beloved body with her mouth and her hands, imprinting every inch of it upon her mind so that she would always remember.

And when their passion had exhausted them, they slept naked in each other’s arms, and that was new for her too.