Page 43 of Duke of Eccess (Seven Dukes of Sin #4)

When Temperance returned to Dulcis Court, she was light-headed with success.

She stood in the darkened hallway before the large door to the duke’s bedchamber, the light of her candle glimmering against the smooth mahogany. Behind that door was the man she loved. One who she wanted to belong to.

All that separated them was a knock.

Temperance felt drunk with freedom. She had full control over her life, having finally grasped the nettle. After her journey to her father’s house, she alone was the mistress of her destiny.

As such, she knew exactly what she wanted, and that was more pleasure, more of the duke’s hands and arms. More of his body. Octavius was right. She had been denying herself pleasure in favor of being modest, of being temperate, of thinking with her head. She had been ignoring her body.

She hadn’t been living .

But she was going to live now. And the first step would be having him ruin her.

Temperance knocked at the duke’s door. Ten quick heartbeats later, he opened it. Her very breath was caught in her chest, and she felt so light, she could have grown a pair of wings and floated.

“Temperance?” he murmured, clearly confused.

“I would like to do a demonstration for you,” Temperance whispered with a sense like she was playing with fire.

“A demonstration, at this hour?”

“Yes, a private one.”

And without his invitation, she slipped into his bedchamber.

Octavius was already in his dressing gown, and there was an array of delicious snacks and drinks on a small table by the fireplace.

He looked very comfortable, his bedchamber the epitome of exactly who he was, all reds and golds and deep rust oranges.

It was like she stepped into a fire itself, glowing and wonderfully warm, especially welcome after the freezing night outside.

Excitement building, Temperance showed him what she had in her hands.

“What is that?”

“An electrophorus.”

She looked around. She didn’t expect him to have a wax or resin platform like Herr Schultz did, so she would need to get inventive.

Her gaze fell on the tea tray standing on the sideboard.

It was wooden—perfect, if she waxed it. Her silk stockings should be enough to insulate her from the ground so the electrical charge wouldn’t disperse.

“Where did you get it?” Octavius blinked with worry.

A flicker of uncertainty washed through her, but Temperance pushed it aside. “If I tell you, you will get angry. And we’ve just established a truce, haven’t we?”

Something in his jaw ticked. Ignoring him, she walked into his dressing room, her employer following her with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“What are you doing?” he demanded as she began opening the little drawers, and he shook his head in disbelief.

“I’m just looking for some wax. Your valet, I expect, will have some for grooming or for polishing the furniture.”

Octavius stared. “Why?”

“For the demonstration,” Temperance said lightly. “Anticipation, you remember? Delayed gratification. These were your words. Tonight, it’s time for a reward.”

She finally found the wax in a drawer and returned to his bedchamber with the oval wooden tray. It was just big enough to contain her feet, and that was all she required. All she needed was some kind of fur or piece of cloth to rub against the electrophorus.

Temperance put the tray on the table and began spreading wax over the back of it.

Octavius watched her with round eyes. “You continue to astound me. Most women hide behind propriety, but you’re fearless.”

His gaze darkened under his eyebrows as he watched her rub that tray.

When she was done, she placed it on the floor and stepped out of her shoes, leaving herself in merely her stockings.

His attention followed as her feet touched the floor, and his eyes darkened even further as she stepped onto the wooden tray and began rubbing a glove trimmed with fur against the electrophorus.

When she knew it was charged, Temperance let go. “I would like to give you a proper demonstration of the electrified Aphrodite. One we didn’t get to share at the Marvels of Electricity.”

Her gaze roamed over his thick neck, the soft chest hair visible under his dressing gown, the powerful muscles of his chest and his broad shoulders. He was truly the biggest man she’d ever met, and she wanted all that body on her, around her, inside her, covering her with his weight and his power.

He swallowed visibly, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Are you certain you want to do this? This is a dangerous game you’re playing.” Despite his words, he stepped closer.

Temperance’s skin tingled as she felt sparks charging through her, but it wasn’t the electrophorus. It was him. He was electrifying. He made her feel like she was in the clouds, charged with lightning.

She was the lightning.

“I might not be able to stop,” Octavius said in a low voice. “I’ve already exhausted my willpower in the days leading up to this.”

“Perhaps I don’t want you to stop. Maybe I want you to swallow me whole, to eat me like that strawberry, and not leave a single drop.”

His mouth came closer to hers. He was an inch or so away from her, and the electricity was already starting to crackle between their lips, the tingling a slight point of pain. But it was like they were connected through body and soul.

“Do you feel that?” she asked, sinking into his gaze.

“I do…” he murmured, still an inch away from her.

To her astonishment, Octavius didn’t move to kiss her lips, but began moving down…

The crackling of the electric fluid between them nipped at her chin, then slowly down her neck as he moved, making her nipples harden into marble points, aching for him.

Temperance closed her eyes and sank into the sensation.

He explored her more: the back of her neck, her ears, her hands, her wrists. It was like a sweet, sharply pleasant torture, and very soon she was writhing with excitement, all the hairs on her body standing up.

From electricity. From desire.

It felt like she and Octavius were two ends of one lightning bolt.

When his lips finally came to hers, the shock that snapped between them made her gasp and him jerk.

He wrapped his arms around her and covered her mouth with his, his lips demanding, consuming her like she was a favorite dessert he had ached for his whole life.

His tongue licked and teased, his arms clasped around her like she was his last hope, pressing her to him.

He was so large and hard, and she was so small in comparison.

Temperance felt like she was flying, like the electricity was coursing through her, except it was pleasure and desire and an aching need.

He bent down and picked her up like she weighed nothing, like she was the feather drawn to the amber, and carried her to his bed before swiftly unlacing her dress and pulling it down.

When she was naked before him, his breath visibly caught, and Octavius took her in with his hungry gaze.

“You look scrumptious,” he murmured.

He stood at the edge of the bed, towering over her, and she was on display for him, like a dish on a platter, moving her arms above her head and spreading her legs. As his gaze flickered to the center of her, he licked his lips, and she clenched without intending to.

Octavius undid the edges of his dressing gown and, as it fell to the floor, Temperance had to stop a gasp that was born in her throat.

He was so large—broad, powerful shoulders, the well-developed muscles of his chest narrowing into a lean waist with a relief of muscles on his stomach.

Chest hair the color of amber made a soft trail down his stomach and into the grove of dark curls that surrounded his jutting erection.

When she saw the size of him, she couldn’t stop yet another gasp.

How was that ever going to fit into her?

All those displays of ivory and wood and jade were nothing to the real flesh she saw before her: thick and long and smooth and veined.

It extended towards her as though in anticipation, his powerful thighs naught but pillars of defined muscles.

She swallowed as her sex warmed and began aching with expectation.

“You have to tell me if you’re sure you want this,” Octavius said, his voice low and hoarse.

“Oh, I want this,” Temperance gasped. “Don’t you dare take this away from me. Give this to me, Octavius.”

He groaned as she spoke. “Spread your legs. Don’t move.”

Octavius dropped to his knees on the floor before her and his hands began massaging the inner sides of her thighs, such large hands with long, masculine fingers, warm and beautiful.

Desire flowed through her thighs like liquid heat as he ran his hand up her stomach and cupped her breasts, circling her nipples with his thumbs.

They tingled with the electricity born between Temperance and Octavius.

Dear God. His hand was so large it could have encircled her neck completely.

He moved onto the bed with her, making Temperance feel deliciously small and feminine against his massive frame—protected, cherished, utterly safe in his strength. His hand didn’t stop but continued to her face as his thumb ran along her lower lip.

“Such gorgeous, pretty pink lips.” He kissed her.

She could feel his erection poking into her already, and he moaned as he surely felt it, too, but then he kissed his way down to her breasts, took one in his mouth and sucked, encircling her nipple with his tongue.

“Delicious,” Octavius murmured. “So sweet. The perfect dish for me.”

At the same time, his hand lowered to where her thighs met to circle and rub her folds.

When his finger slipped inside her, she arched her back for him, and he bit her nipple slightly at the same time his thumb found that sensitive place that made her cry out.

Temperance could hardly think. All she could do was bathe in the adoration as he moved down her body with his mouth, teasing and licking her most intimate places.

“Oh, so delicious. So sweet,” Octavius whispered against her most intimate flesh.

His mouth and tongue worked their magic until Temperance felt that familiar lightning building within her, stronger this time, more overwhelming.

When the pleasure crashed over her, she cried out his name, her body arching and trembling as wave after wave of sensation consumed her.

He held her through it all, his hands gentle on her thighs as she slowly came back to herself.

“Beautiful,” her Duke of Eccess whispered, kissing her inner thigh tenderly. “You’re so beautiful when you let go.”

Still floating in the aftermath of bliss, she barely heard him say, “This might sting a little, darling, but no more than our electric kiss.”

Octavius positioned himself between her thighs, his thick length pressed against her entrance, and with one careful thrust, he was inside her.

He was right. It did sting a little, just like the kiss, but that delicious stretching… Temperance was stretched to the fullest, claimed by him. Only then did he begin moving, and she lost herself in the pleasure, the tightening.

He was inside her. He was hers and she was his.

Octavius held her arms above her headas his delicious weight moved above her, sliding in and out, taking her higher and higher with each stroke. His body was so large and heavy, surrounding her completely.

“Good girl,” he murmured against her ear, his voice rough with desire. “You feel like heaven, darling. Made just for me.” His words sent shivers through her as he moved deeper, filling her completely.

Temperance felt that delightful tension building again, stronger than before, coiling tight in her belly. “Octavius,” she gasped, not knowing what she was asking for.

“I know, darling. Let go for me. Let me feel you.” His rhythm quickened, and suddenly she was there, crying out as pleasure exploded through her, her body clenching around him in waves of sensation that seemed to go on forever.

Octavius groaned her name as he felt her peak, and moments later he withdrew and spilled his seed on the bed next to her. Her name was on his tongue as his own release claimed him, his body shuddering as he buried his face in her neck.

When he had calmed, he wrapped his big arms around her, his breath quick and deep, his heart thundering in his chest against her ear. Temperance was surrounded by an impenetrable fortress—safe, protected…happy.

Her lover kissed her forehead. “I swore to myself I wouldn’t seduce a governess, but you’re the most irresistible temptation in my life.”

She chuckled. “Your Grace, I’m afraid this governess seduced you.”