Page 31 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars (Ton’s Beasts #1)
T heresa knew that they would never be able to avoid consummating their marriage for long. Each time he touched her, she felt her skin light up with sensations that had been dormant all her life. Not only did she want the pleasure he gave her, but she wanted to return the favor.
Could she make him feel as good as he made her feel?
She shook the thought out of her mind and surrendered to the moment.
Aaron pushed on her shoulders until she plopped down on the settee. Then, he went down on his knees before her.
He kissed her breasts and did that thing with his tongue again, swirling it around each nipple. Theresa had no idea that her breasts could be so sensitive to touch, so sensitive to heat.
But the best moment was yet to come, as he trailed kisses down her belly and toward the apex of her thighs.
His tongue lapped at her. He was unable to share his feelings with her in words, but that did not mean that Theresa had no inkling of what his feelings were for her. Surely, a man could not express himself this way with a woman unless there were some underlying affection for her.
She let out a loud moan, not caring if anyone was standing outside the library, listening in.
“Aaron,” she panted. “Please, more.”
He pulled his mouth away from her to give her a devilish grin.
“What are you doing? Please, don’t stop,” she begged.
“I can’t have you finish like this,” Aaron said with a smirk.
He stopped touching her. She felt his absence immediately, cold air rushing in to fill the empty spaces. She gravitated toward the fire, its warmth and its light.
“Turn around, wife,” he instructed.
She dared not disobey him now.
Theresa turned on the settee so that her back was facing him, but she did not know what to expect. This was like the first time he touched her all over again. She shivered with the anticipation of what was to come.
A brief silence fell between them, and she wondered what he was doing behind her. Then, she felt him take a step closer, and his manhood pressed against her sex.
“Are you ready to truly be my wife?” His voice came out as a growl.
Theresa arched her back in response, offering herself up to him.
“Aaron, please,” she moaned, not sure she could wait any longer.
She was nervous because no one had ever prepared her for this moment. No one had ever explained to her what happened in the marriage bed.
The sisters had told her that making babies started with kissing, something she found that she enjoyed immensely. They had never told her that her husband would slide his fingers inside her, that he would lick and kiss and suck on her most sensitive parts.
Perhaps they had left out something else.
In one smooth motion, Aaron showed her exactly what she had been missing out on. While she wished to see him, there was no room for her to ponder that thought once he thrust into her. He filled her up in a way that she did not know was possible.
“Theresa!” He moaned.
She could scarcely believe that this felt as good for him as it did for her. And yet he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
Aaron gripped her hips and pulled her into him so that he could push deeper inside her. Then, his pace quickened, and his breathing grew labored to match her own. When she thought it might be almost over, he suddenly stopped and slowed his pace.
She recognized that he was taking his time, that he wanted her to enjoy this for as long as possible. For this, she was grateful because she could spend the entire night in this library with him. She could spend forever making love to her husband.
It was not the shameful act she had thought it would be, but rather an incredibly intimate one. Sex with her husband would bind them together for a lifetime, but it was nothing compared to the sheer pleasure that she felt travel down her spine until even her toes curled in response to his body.
“Aaron, please,” she begged.
“Tell me what you want,” he growled. His fingers sank deeper into the soft skin of her hips, but his own movement had ceased. She practically cried out to get him to resume his thrusts. Theresa angled her body back toward him, trying to show him what she wanted.
“More,” she finally managed to say.
“If that is what you want, dear wife.”
And then he rocked into her with his hips, his manhood filling all the spaces inside of her. She moaned his name, encouraging him to keep up his work to pleasure her, making it impossible for her to say anything else of substance.
Finally, she could take it no more and felt herself tip over the edge.
But this time, it felt more intense, and it was the only thing she could think about.
Pleasure swept through her, more than anything she had ever experienced.
It was not like tasting the sweet strawberry pastry that the cook made for her or the freedom of riding a horse.
This was something wholly new to her.
It was a pleasure that she would take again and again if her husband was willing to deliver it to her.
Theresa did not think about the fact that they were in someone else’s home or that there was a crowd waiting on the other side of the door. She just wanted to hear Aaron moan her name again.
She did not have to wait long.
He thrust into her again, and then she felt him start to shake. He leaned over her, pressing his chest to her back. He grabbed her breasts and kissed down her neck.
“Now you are truly mine,” he growled against her skin.
When he pulled back, the cool night kissed her skin. She shivered, wishing he would stay close.
She admired his body as he dressed, something that he had not done in front of her before.
His chest was broad and strong, etched with the hard lines of muscle that she had felt pressed against her back.
Even now, she wished that she could reach out and trace a hand over his musculature, letting her fingers trail down to his abdomen.
She noticed that his abdomen was cut in such a way that his hips clearly led into the dip of his pants. Theresa longed to explore those lines, to see his manhood for herself as she had not done with him behind her.
His arms were strong. That much she knew from the way he gripped her and moved her where he wanted her. Still, she was not prepared for the way the muscles covered them, the way the veins spread over his skin.
She wished to kiss her way down his biceps, appreciating every small piece of him.
But she had a more pressing concern on her mind.
Theresa smiled sweetly up at him and made no motion to put her gown back on. Instead, she took a step toward him and said, “If I am yours now, then prove it.”
She lifted her hand to his mask. He allowed her to get closer than he had before, her fingers brushing against the scar that extended from beneath his mask. But he instinctively took a step back from her before she could undo it.
“I see how that is, husband .”
Theresa tried to hide the hurt and anger by busying herself with putting on her gown, but she required his help to fasten the buttons. She refused to face him.
After everything they had shared, he still insisted on rejecting her?
“What is it that you see?” Aaron asked, his fingertips skimming the back of her neck as he lifted her hair to fasten the first button on her dress.
“I don’t think you fear scaring me away. You just don’t want to show me all of you because you can’t give me all of you. Is that why you made love to me in this dim library? So that you couldn’t see that I am not Lady Isabella, after all?”
Aaron’s fingers halted on the buttons, and he did not speak for a moment.
Theresa could no longer hold back the tears; they spilled over her lashes and streamed down her face.
They had made love, had consummated their marriage so that she would not return to her old life. Had she known that she was right, she would never have shown him all of her. She would never have given him that gift.
Aaron tried to turn her around, but she dug her heels into the floor. She was not one of his servants. She had every right to refuse his command to turn around.
She was a duchess every bit as much as he was a duke.
“You are still not over her,” she concluded bitterly.
Her voice quivered, the words almost failing her. Her voice was quiet, so quiet that she feared he would not hear her. She wanted to hold her head high and act as if this did not bother her, but she could not.
She had been thrust into this life straight from the convent. She had learned that she was the daughter of a marquess and had a sister moments before her father had marched her down the aisle to a stranger.
Back then, she could have accepted that Aaron was in love with another woman. She had no idea what marriage would be like. She had no idea what it was like to be touched, to be seen by a man.
Now, she could not go back to not knowing.
Somehow, that made it all the worse. He was in love with a woman who would always be more poised and more graceful than her.
Theresa had no doubts that Lady Isabella would have made a better wife for Aaron. She would have been a true duchess who already knew how to navigate Society. The Dowager Duchess would not have had to teach her how to curtsy.
To curb the tide of tears, she held her breath for a moment. The pieces clicked into place.
“Did she leave you when this happened, and you assume I will do the same?”
“She did not leave me. I left her,” Aaron corrected.
He resumed fastening the buttons on her gown. When he was finished with the last one near her waist, she turned to look at him.
“I don’t understand,” she croaked. “Lady Isabella told me that she broke your heart?”
“Well, she lied. Do you remember the rules I set the day we got married?” Aaron asked.
The change in topic left her fumbling for the edges of their conversation. She did not see how this could relate.
“Those were not rules that I just thought up. They were Lady Isabella’s rules after she saw me without my mask on. When she saw my scars, she ran out of the room to retch. After that, she issued me an ultimatum.”
“She set rules for your marriage, and you thought that I would be so cruel as to impose those same rules on you? That I could not bear to look at my husband, even when I have scars of my own?”
“I did not think?—”
“If you did not think that, then why don’t you remove the mask when I have already shown you everything? When I have already given you everything I have?”
An unfathomable emotion crossed his face. His hands were clenched into tight fists at his sides, but he said nothing.
“I see,” Theresa mumbled, deciding that his silence was answer enough. “I will ask my father to take me to see my mother and meet my sister. It will be nice to get to know my sister.”
“I will take you there,” he growled.
“No, you can’t take me anywhere. You can’t even let me in your heart. I need some space from… all of this,” she said, refusing to bow to his demands.
She would not be ordered around by a man who refused to bare himself to her.
“We should get back to the treasure hunt.”
“The clue is over there,” Aaron said, pointing to the desk in the center of the room. “First drawer on the left. The letter opener with Lady Sophia’s initials on it.”
“We should return to the party,” Theresa muttered, grabbing the letter opener and heading toward the door.
She waited for him to unlock it, and as soon as he opened it, she was enveloped by a cacophony of chatter and laughter. They were, understandably, the last ones to return with the clue.
No one else escaped from the party to argue with their husband, make love in the library, and then return as if nothing had happened.
“I do not think I can stay here any longer, husband. I have a headache and wish to return home. I will go thank Lady Sophia. If you would be so kind as to have the footmen bring the carriage around.”