Page 23 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)
Margaret blinked, willing her eyes to adjust to the light so that she could get her bearings. Leo marched purposefully forward. His fingers were still wrapped around her wrist, his touch rougher than usual.
She did not mind nearly as much as she protested.
When they left the gardens and turned onto the main street, he finally dropped her wrist and picked up his pace. She scrambled after him, still not sure where he was leading her after their confrontation in her rooms.
“When will you tell me where we are headed?”
“To the one place you have begged me to let you in,” Leo said, glancing back at her.
His eyes were darker than usual. Even though his expression was often severe, Margaret could not help noticing the firm set of his mouth now.
The one place I have begged him to let me in?
Margaret could not think of any place. They had walked through the orangery and gone to the opera. Where else could he possibly be taking her?
They walked in tense silence through the streets. Leo walked with a sense of purpose, and she could see why so many people feared him. But she could not bring herself to be afraid of him. She could not find it within her to worry about where they were headed.
Finally, he paused at the entrance to the building she stumbled upon that fateful night they met. He had brought her to Olympus.
He took the key out of his pocket and opened the large door for her, ushering her inside. He closed the door behind them and locked it, ensuring that no one would be able to follow them inside.
Margaret felt a small thrill of anticipation run through her veins. She had wanted to be a part of his life here at Olympus, but now she was not as sure that she was ready for it. The Earl would claim her life.
Olympus felt like it existed in another world.
Leo stalked through the dark halls until he came upon the library where she had met him. Briefly, she remembered how the timbre of his voice shook her to the core when he discovered her at his book club.
He led her in and locked the door behind them. She could not help but think it was an unnecessary gesture, given that they were the only two in the building.
Leo marched across the room as Margaret stood there, watching him. She did not know what he intended to show her here. She already knew that her life in the convent had sheltered her from the world. There was nothing more he could show her that would demonstrate that point.
He sat down on the settee, draping his arm over the back of it. In this library, he looked perfectly at home.
Leo stared back at her before he picked up the book that sat on the table beside him. When she still did not move, he finally spoke.
“Dress. Off.”
“Excuse me?”
Surely, she had heard him wrong. This was a much more forward request than any he had made of her so far. The idea of taking off her dress, of what he would do to her, sent a lightning bolt through her body.
She knew he would touch her, that she would feel the pleasure he had already shown her once.
She wanted to take her dress off.
“You wanted to be a member of my book club, did you not? We do not permit clothes in this room.” His voice was husky but commanding.
Margaret knew that there would be no arguing with him. Worse, she knew that she did not want to argue with him.
She did the one thing that she thought she should do: reach up and untie the laces on the back of her dress. As the bodice loosened around her, she tugged the dress down her shoulders, freeing her breasts from their confines.
Cold air rushed over her, and she hesitated before she pushed the dress down over her hips. Leo’s eyes did not waver from her figure. He watched intently as she freed herself from her gown, his eyes lingering on the parts she had already bared.
Heat flooded through her at the prospect of him seeing her like this, pooling between her legs.
She shimmied out of the gown and let it fall to the floor.
Leo flipped through the pages of the book in his hand, letting his eyes drop from her figure. She stood there, awaiting his next command. As his fingers stopped flipping the pages, he turned his attention back to her.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing to the spot beside him. “You wanted me to read my books to you, and now you will know what they have to say about pleasure.”
He turned back to the book, holding open the spine with one large, capable hand. The other rested on Margaret’s bare thigh, gripping it intently. The feel of his skin on hers reminded her of their last encounter.
She could hardly wait for another.
Before he even started reading the words on the page, she started feeling warm at the idea of Leo in this library. She looked over his shoulder at the pictures in the book he held and blushed. Would they be doing that?
“He reached down and placed a hand on her knee,” he read. He moved his hand to her knee and traced a line up her leg to the place where he started. “Then his fingers trailed higher and higher.”
Margaret swallowed hard. She knew where this was headed, but she could not deny the fact that she loved hearing his voice. It was so sure, so confident.
He was confident that she would allow him to do what he wanted to her—and she was confident of that as well.
“Slowly, he brought his fingers to the slick place between her legs and traced circles around her sex. She was wet for him, and he felt his cock strain against his pants, his hardness aching for her softness.”
She hoped, as he read about pleasuring a woman, that he would indeed do the same to her. But she was disappointed when his hand did not move to the place between her legs that was just as slick as the woman in his book.
“But merely touching her was not enough for him. He got down on his knees and kissed his way up her thigh, his tongue tracing patterns on her smooth skin.”
This was the part she remembered from the book—the man with his head between the woman’s legs. It was something that she had not heard of before, but she found herself longing to try it with Leo. If it was in his book, surely it was just as pleasurable as it sounded.
Maybe even more so with someone like him.
“He brought his lips to her sex, his tongue lapping at her folds and tasting every inch of her. He circled her with his tongue and felt her grow more excited, felt her squeeze his head between her strong thighs.”
Yes, I could get used to this.
Sitting here in this library, with his hand on her thigh, her life outside of this moment seemed like nothing but a distant memory. That had to have been Leo’s goal this entire time—to make her want him so badly that she questioned what was right for her future.
He continued reading, talking about the way the man tasted her skin. How he moved from the place between her legs to the swell of her breasts, to her nipples. She desperately wanted Leo to reach out and touch her there, to feel her nipples pebble between his fingers.
He read on, his hand gripping her thigh harder and harder as the story progressed.
“When he was sure that her body was ready, he reached down and freed himself from his pants, his cock proud and ready for her. The man covered her body with his, every inch of their skin pressed tightly together. Feeling how wet she was for him still, he pushed into her.”
That had to be what the nuns had warned her against. She was not to know a man that way if she were to take her vows. But they had said very little about the other acts in this story.
As long as she did not allow Leo to take her maidenhead, she thought she could still take her vows. She could still marry whoever the Earl would choose for her without worrying about her virtue.
She ached to feel Leo’s mouth on her.
He read how the man thrust into the woman, and a small moan escaped her lips. She did not miss the smile that tugged at Leo’s lips at the sound of her pleasure. He slid his hand slightly higher, but still not high enough to bring her relief.
“Does this story satisfy you, My Lady?”
Leo smirked and shut the book with a loud snap. As the pages and pictures disappeared from view, she was left reeling. He had brought her to Olympus to read her this story. To demand that she take off her clothes.
He had to mean to touch her, did he not?
“Not half as much as I would like it to,” she said, her voice small in the large room.
She blushed as she spoke, not wanting to betray her desire. Leo was not one to show his cards until he was ready, and she did not intend to be the one to initiate what came next. She wanted him to be in control.
“Tell me then,” he murmured into her ear, his breath tickling the delicate skin. “What would satisfy you if this story did not do it?”
She took a ragged breath at the feel of his warmth on her ear. It was all she could do not to imagine his warm breath on other parts of her. Her nipples pebbled, thinking of how he could pinch them and roll them between his fingers.
“I fear that I don’t know what your silence means,” he said as he pulled back from her.
She almost tumbled sideways at his sudden and very unexpected withdrawal. Margaret had not realized how much she had leaned into him, hoping for his touch.
“I want you,” she said finally. She could not bring herself to look him in the eye as she said it.
Leo hooked one finger beneath her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. Determined not to let him see her stumble, Margaret took a very deep and steadying breath before she made eye contact with him.
“A very vague request,” he growled. “I’m afraid I need something more specific.”
“I want you to do to me what the man did in your story.” She tried to keep her cheeks from flaming pink at the brazenness of her request.
“Not specific enough.” Leo shrugged and released her chin. “It must not have been that interesting a story if that is the best you can do.”
“I want you to touch me here,” she said, her hands rising to her breasts and cupping them.