Page 63 of Duke
“Yeah, but…fuck. That’s what it is, and I know it, you know it, we both know it. But that doesn’t mean we have to say it. We can acknowledge it, but we don’t have to say it.”
I was worried she’d take it the wrong way, thinking I was afraid of her, or of the word, or of commitment. And really, that’s what it was, that’s exactly what it was, all of it, and as soon as the words left my mouth, I felt panic hit, fear that she’d miss the deeper truth of what I was saying.
“I know you’re afraid of this—”
“One thing you should know about me is that I never back down from a challenge,” I said, interrupting her. “If I discover something I’m afraid of, I face it. I take it on, and I defeat it.”
“I wasn’t doubting—”
I brushed my thumb across her cheekbone. “My point is that fear doesn’t stop me. It doesn’t rule me, doesn’t own me.” I made sure she saw my eyes; saw the truth in my gaze. “Yeah, this shit between us scares me. But that won’t hold me back, Temple. I just—I’m not quite ready yet, even if I see things for what they are.”
Temple’s eyes watered, and she blinked hard. “Duke, I—”
“You don’t have to say anything, Temple. I just wanted to clarify.”
She laughed. “You need to learn to let me get a word in edgewise every now and then.”
Her hands resumed their exploratory caressing of my thighs, sliding up to cup the sides of my hips and brush the outsides of my buttocks and then tracing back down toward my knees, and then up again, her hands brushing inches from my cock, which was beginning to regain feeling, blood pumping through me and into my eager-for-more dick.
I held still, letting Temple do what she wanted, curious to see where she’d take this.
When I didn’t say anything else, she pressed a slow, damp kiss to the inside of my left thigh, so close to my groin now that her cheek brushed my balls as she kissed my leg. “What I was going to say, before you interrupted me, was that I know you’re afraid of this thing we’ve got, and so am I. And I agree. We don’t have to make it…that. It’s more than just fucking, but it doesn’t have to be labeled. Not yet. I’m not ready for that, either.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”
“It’s crazy,” she said, “but it’s real, too, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”
I gasped again as she slid her mouth over my flesh up from inner thigh along my balls and the root of my cock to my belly, her cheek brushing me, her mouth leaving a wet trail along my skin. My cock was hardening, now, but she ignored it even though it was thickening and straightening against the side of her face. She kissed my belly just above the root of my cock, nudging my shaft out of the way with her cheek, and her hands caressed my abs, then slid down to follow the progress of her mouth, a hand on either side of her face. My cock was resting on top of the back of her hand, and now her mouth lifted and crossed over my dick and landed on my belly on the other side, kissing across to my hip, down to my thigh, and then back across to press light, wet, teasing, tongue-flicking kisses at the tender, sensitive crease where my balls met my body.
“Temple—” I wasn’t sure what her game was, but it felt incredible.
I was fully hard now, and she’d only touched my cock incidentally.
“Hush.” She slid up my body to lean over me, tips of her tits grazing my chest, and pressed two fingers to my lips. “Just…hold still and shut up.”
I tucked my hands behind my head. “You got it, Fancy.”
She kissed her way back down and then she glanced up at me, and then back to my cock, a smile spreading across her lips. Inching closer, she moved upward and opened her mouth, glancing up at me, so close to taking me in her mouth now that I was tensed, abs drawn inward in anticipation.
“That’s what you want?” she breathed.
“Fuck yeah,” I growled.
She slid downward again; still so close I could feel her breath on my skin. Her hands scraped over my flesh on either side of my dick, and her mouth was opening and her tongue was snaking out to flick against the taut, sensitive flesh of my testicle. “How about that?”
“God. Yeah, Princess. That too. Anything. Jesus, anything.”
“You want this?” She flattened her hand palm down and rubbed it up the length of my cock. “Want me to touch you?”
I couldn’t help flexing my hips. “Fuck—fuck…yeah.”
Her tongue flickered out again, and then her lips pressed an almost-kiss to the outside of my sac. “You want me to take your balls in my mouth?”
I was beyond words already, incapable of much more than an unintelligible grunt. “Unh…yeah…just like that—”
She scraped the length of my cock from tip to root with a fingernail, and kissed my sac again, a slow, wet, full kiss. “I think I might like a little begging. You made me beg, well…how’s that phrase go? Turnabout is fair play?”
I laughed, and the laugh turned to a groan as she teased another not quite touch along my cock and flicked her tongue against my sac yet again. “Fuck, Temple.”