Page 24 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)
Leo pushed her hands aside and gripped her breasts as she had done. When she looked down, she noticed that his manhood was straining against his pants. It gave her pleasure knowing that she could arouse him as he did her.
“With your mouth,” she added.
Leo laughed and trailed kisses along her collarbone.
“Now, you are getting the idea,” he said, kissing his way up her neck. “What else would you have me do to you?”
He pulled back and looked her in the eye. She sensed that he was issuing a challenge, and she was never one to shy away from a challenge. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes.
“I want you to taste me,” she said, a slight tremor in her voice. “I want your head between my thighs.”
“You mean, you want me like this?” He knelt in front of her and parted her legs so that he could sit between them. Pressing a kiss to the inside of her knee, he looked up at her.
Margaret could not hide how badly she thought this would undo her. She tipped her head back, her eyes still closed, a moan tearing from her throat.
“Leo, please,” she whispered.
“Please what?”
“Please don’t make me wait any longer to feel you,” she managed to say in a rush.
She tried to open her eyes and force herself to look at him. He smiled back at her, but it wasn’t with joy. It was a wolfish expression.
He was a Beast, she reminded herself.
“Your wish is my command, My Lady.”
Leo kneeled between Margaret’s legs and watched what his proximity did to her before he even touched her. She had been eager for this moment, and he intended to make it last as long as possible.
Judging from the way she moaned his name at the smallest of touches, he knew it would not take long to undo her.
He pressed another kiss to the inside of her knee and then moved a centimeter higher. Instead of a kiss, this time he nipped her and licked up her thigh. Margaret gasped, rocking her hips to meet him.
“Are you in such a rush?” He was teasing her because he already knew that she ached for him to deliver on the promise of Olympus and his little book club.
“I don’t know how much more I can take,” Margaret whimpered.
She arched her back, and he took in the full view of her ample breasts. With one hand, he reached for her nipple, rolling it between his fingers.
“I aim to make this last,” he told her, but continued kissing up her thigh, switching to her other leg.
“Leo, please,” she begged once more. “Please taste me.”
“You mean like this?” he whispered, his lips brushing the lips of her sex.
She moaned again, and her hips bucked against him.
Leo was certain that she did not know how much she tempted him to do more than simply taste her. He had told Aaron that he wanted to break her, and this was how he would do it—at Olympus, in his little book club. Their story came full circle.
But when she thrust her hips up toward him, he could no longer hold back. His tongue traced her bud, swollen and wet for him. He flicked it with his tongue and relished the taste.
Margaret cried out, and her body began to shake as pleasure built up inside her. Leo loved knowing that this was all it took to make her change her mind. She would not want anyone the Earl would choose for her in the same way she wanted him.
Who else would be able to give her this—the pleasure she was so desperately in need of? Margaret may have thought she was going to be a nun, but it was so clear to Leo that what she craved was touch.
She needed a man who could handle her. And Leo knew only one man who could do that.
He pulled back from her and trailed kisses up her belly and over her chest until he made it to her lips.
“Do you want to taste yourself?” His voice was a mere whisper against her lips.
She nodded, suddenly shy with him so close to her.
He kissed her then, parting her lips with his tongue. He traced the corners of her mouth with his tongue, hers hesitantly coming to meet him. He pressed harder into her, his kiss insistent.
He broke their kiss to sit beside her on the settee rather than kneeling between her legs. Roughly, he grabbed her by the hips and pulled her into his lap. As she sat astride him, he heard her gasp.
“Do you feel what you do to me?” he said, his voice rough.
He thrust his hips up, allowing his cock to brush her sex. Only the thin fabric of his pants separated him from her.
She had to know how desperately he wanted her—all of her.
“I did not think that you could feel this as much as I do.” She rocked her hips against him, letting him feel her.
He had to close his eyes and focus on the sensation, willing himself not to grind against her and spill into his pants.
He reached between her legs and circled her bud with his thumb. If she could not take any more of this, neither could he. He needed to get her off of him before they took things too far.
It was what a gentleman would do.
She closed her eyes and arched her back, pushing her breasts toward his face. He took one nipple in his mouth and swirled his tongue around it as he stroked her bud with his thumb. Her moan told him that she was close, so he stroked her harder and faster.
Finally, he felt her climax. Her weight pushed him deeper into the settee, and she collapsed on top of him. Her body had shaken when he pressed his mouth to her sex earlier, but this was a new level of physical exhaustion.
She was spent, and he knew that he had done this to her.
How could she possibly think that she was going to get away from him when he was the only one who could do this to her?
He chuckled to himself and pressed her against him. He whispered in her ear, “Do you remember now who you belong to?”
Margaret pulled back from him and looked him in the eye. Then, she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. His lips parted beneath hers, and she continued to kiss him until they shared one breath. He wanted more when she finally pulled away from him.
He took one look at her face and knew that she had already made her decision. Her warm brown eyes were soft and glassy, a telltale sign that a tear was about to trace its way down her cheeks.
Just a moment ago, she had smiled at the pleasure he brought her, and now…
Now, she looked as though she might never smile again.
“This was a lovely goodbye,” she said. She allowed her fingertips to trace the planes of his face, along his cheekbones and his jaw. “But you have made it clear that you do not want to marry me. I can hide no longer.”
“You mean to tell me that this was not enough to convince you that the Earl of Riley would never be able to satisfy you with the man he chooses?”
He was genuinely shocked that she would do this with him and still want to wander into the lion’s den.
“I contented myself with being a woman of the cloth. Perhaps the man my grandfather chooses for me would be an improvement over the discipline I received at the hands of Mother Superior.”
She reached for the dress she had thrown to the floor so eagerly just moments ago. Leo had no idea how long they had been in the library, but he knew it was not enough. Not if she still thought she had to marry the highest bidder.
Stepping into her dress, she pulled it up over her hips and slid her arms into the sleeves. She hid her body from him once more. The only difference was that he now knew what she looked like and what she tasted like.
He would never be able to forget this moment as long as he lived.
“Let’s return to Devishire Mansion,” she said.
She walked to the library door and unlocked it. Resigned, Leo rose from the settee and walked over to her.
He grabbed her by the wrist to keep her from walking out into the hall. He pulled her into him and kissed her passionately, hoping that his lips could convey the message that his words could not—that she belonged with him.
That she belonged to him.
“Leo,” she breathed. “We must get back. Theresa and Aaron will wonder where we have gone. Last they knew, you were in my rooms and we were without a chaperone.”
“What our friends think is none of our business,” Leo told her, pressing one more kiss to her lips. “But if it would please you, we can return to the estate. This was, ultimately, about your pleasure.”
He could not help but smirk once more as the color rose in her cheeks. Her embarrassment over the depth of feeling she had for him would never fail to amaze him. She could come undone for him, but she would be embarrassed to hear him speak of it.
“We should return,” she finally said, sounding more resigned than confident. “I have much to pack before my departure.”
“Just remember that you are still under my protection. You could belong to me, and I would ensure that your grandfather does not do to you what he did to your mother. He does not have to have this power over you.”
Leo tucked a lock of her hair back behind her ear. She bit her bottom lip, as if considering his offer. When she nodded, he understood that she was acknowledging his offer and choosing to reject it.
“I see. We should leave then,” he said, the words feeling bitter in his mouth.
How would he go back to his life with the girls and at Olympus without her? But she had the freedom to make her choice, just as he did.
He led them out of the library and unlocked the front door to let them pass through. Out in the sunlight, he realized that Margaret’s dress was still askew. He straightened her sleeves before anyone else could notice.
The walk back to Devishire Mansion was silent, but it was very different from the tense silence that they had walked to Olympus in. Then, Leo knew what he intended to do to her, the air around him charged with anticipation. Now, it was full of resignation and sadness.
When they walked into the mansion, Theresa greeted them with her arms crossed over her chest and an impatient foot tapping on the floor. It was almost identical to the expression she had had the day Margaret pulled him into that corridor to say that she would accept his offer.
“Where have you been? I left you in your rooms with Leo, and when I came back to check on you—”