Page 8 of His By Sunrise (Disreputable Dukes of Club Damnation #3)

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Wildflower Cottage

Farnham, Surrey

England

Charlotte stretched, not quite awake, as the most delicious sensations coursed through her body. Shivery pleasure danced over her skin, concentrating in her breasts and lingering into her core.

Oh, it had been such a long time since she’d felt anything remotely like that!

If this was a dream, then she didn’t wish to wake from it, yet the one thing that soured the lovely state was the fact that the last time she’d had anyone in her bed had been almost six years ago before she’d walked out of the life she’d built with Edwin.

Immediately, she soured, for she remembered her interaction with her former husband at the ball from the night before.

Why did I have to see him at all?

The sound of rain on the window glass urged her out of the wonderful state, and when she opened her eyes, the feeling that she wasn’t alone assailed her.

What was more, she wasn’t in her room at her father’s townhouse in London.

In fact, she didn’t know where she was, yet in many ways she did.

It had a familiar feel, as if she’d been there before in some capacity.

Where was her maid?

“Betsy?” Her mind was still a bit fuzzy, which was how she usually felt the morning after taking a dose of laudanum for sleeping.

“I’m afraid your maid is back in London.” The statement was followed by the most exquisite pleasure as fingertips teased her hardened, sensitive nipples, and desire she thought long dormant circled through her lower belly. “For the time being, your needs will be met by me.”

“Mmm.” It felt both right and oh so wrong.

Blinking as the identity of the speaker penetrated her brain, Charlotte stared in dawning horror up at the one person she hadn’t expected to ever see again—her former husband and the man she could never forget.

Hard on the heels of that thought, she realized she was naked.

With a start, she tried to fight her way off the bed, and when she opened her mouth to summon help, he immediately put a hand over it to prevent any sound.

Putting his face close to hers, Edwin said, “Do not think to scream, my lady, for the servants aren’t here just now since no one expected my return to Wildflower Cottage, but never fear, I’ll summon them to return later in the evening.

There is no one here to help you.” When her eyes widened, he grinned, and she both adored and hated that gesture; it made her remember too many things she’d rather avoid. “Do you promise not to scream?”

Nodding, every muscle in her body tensed.

Why had he removed her clothes, and for that matter, how had he kidnapped her away from London without seemingly anyone raising an alarm?

When he removed his hand from her mouth, she immediately attempted to escape the bed—she was in a guest suite at his country manor, a place where she’d enjoyed many happy days in the past—but he was right there, apparently anticipating her every move.

“None of that, for I’m not nearly done with you.

” Edwin pinned her wrists to the pillow above her head as he leaned over her body.

“The two of us need to talk, and since you want nothing more to do with me—no doubt because of lies you’ve heard from various sources—this way my only option to gain your undivided attention. ”

Another realization came to her. The man was half-dressed, clad only in a pair of navy breeches, which meant she had the opportunity to look her fill at the man she’d spent almost seven years with.

“Let me go.” In more ways than one, but she raked her gaze over the expanse of his chest with its sprinkling of light brown hair.

He’d aged well over their years apart, damn his eyes, and with his mostly flat belly and abdomen and the strength he employed to keep her arms immobile, she admitted he was quite attractive.

“Not until we come to some sort of understanding.” When he dipped his head and kissed her lips, she strained against his hold, bucked her body against his in the hopes of getting away, but he continued to kiss her, and she panicked.

She was in danger of being swamped beneath the familiar sensations only he could give her.

Desperate to get away and regain her equilibrium, Charlotte bit his bottom lip, and when he reared up with a gasp, she couldn’t help but grin. “There is nothing else to say. Remove yourself from my body.”

“Oh, that was a mistake, for all you did was stoke the fire, my lady.” His voice was low and rumbled in the room, sending tremors of fear-wrapped anticipation down her spine.

And he hadn’t released his hold on her wrists.

“Since I was never given the chance to protest the divorce, I will have my say now.”

“You signed the papers agreeing to it!” This side of him both frightened and aroused her. She couldn’t go back to that time, for if she did, she would be lost in him.

“Because your father threatened to end my life if I didn’t.

” He followed the statement with a light nip to one of her nipples, and the way a shock of his curling chestnut hair fell over his brow made her remember the years they’d spent together, and all the times she’d buried her fingers in that soft hair while holding his head to various portions of her body while he pleasured her with his mouth.

The sensations therein stole her breath, but this was wrong. “I don’t care. Let me go.” When she managed to wrench a hand from his hold, he merely chuckled, kneeled between her legs, and then took up a length of linen for a cravat.

“I don’t think so.” With determination in his expression, he quickly tied the end of the fabric around her wrist despite her thrashing to remove him. “There are unresolved issues between us, and quite frankly, I’m going to fuck you hard before we have that conversation.”

The vulgarness of the words along with his mood of domination distracted her enough that he easily yanked up her wrist, threaded the cravat through a few bars of the wrought iron bedframe, and when he gave her other wrist the same treatment, it was too late to escape.

And how disappointing it was that she trembled with anticipation when she should be trying to escape from this man.

But, oh, how I’ve missed the physicality only he can give.

“I don’t give you my consent, Edwin.” It was important he know this, for he had no more claim to her.

“Your body says otherwise.” As he spoke, he rolled her nipples, and as intense sensation zipped through her veins and her back slightly arched, he grinned.

“That’s not good enough, and you know it.” Charlotte pulled at her bonds, but of course, he’d done his job too well; he usually did, but it had been far too long since he’d attempted something like this with her, even when they’d been wed. “Let me go.”

“No. Not until we’ve at least talked and you explain to me why you couldn’t bear to remain married to me.” Shadows reflected in his dark brown eyes, a testament to unhealed emotions left behind.

And drat him, he had a point. It had always rankled that she’d left without a word, that she’d let her father high-handedly terminate her marriage, for he’d hated Edwin from the first. But this kidnapping, this willingness to take her without consent, was concerning.

Was he as horrible as her father maintained, as William had told her, as the rumors held?

“Don’t do this.”

“What, this?” He held her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, pinching them hard, for he apparently remembered that she’d adored that pain-tipped pleasure.

When he released them, the whoosh of sensation left her gasping, and she craved more of that pain; it enhanced everything else.

“Or perhaps you want me to stop this?” The cheeky man encouraged her thighs apart then strummed the fingers of one hand along her folds, and when he found the swollen button, he rubbed his fingertips over it with varying degrees of friction.

His eyes were impossibly dark with the same desperate desire shooting through her form.

Charlotte cried out. Her hips bucked, which put her more firmly into his care. How was it that he could touch her after so many years apart, and she was nearly pitched over the edge that fast? “Leave off, Edwin.” Oh, how she despised the pleading in her voice, but there was nothing for it.

“I don’t think I will.” Once more, he leaned over her while bedeviling that button, and he teased her nipples with his teeth and lips.

“Dear Lord,” she panted and strained against her bonds, but that only bumped her body against his.

“This cannot happen. It’s pure insanity.

” Lifting her head, she pressed her lips to the crook of his shoulder but then came slightly to her senses and bit his skin merely to encourage him to let her go.

A growl escaped him, but he came off her body.

“Ah, well, you’ll pay for that, my dear.

” With a look that sent trembles of need down her spine, he flipped her over so she laid on her belly with her tied wrists crossed, and before she could make sense of the new position, his hand was back between her thighs.

As much as she fought him, that unrelenting friction on her button quickly threw her over the edge into a decent release.

“Oh, I... Ah!” Not being intimate with anyone since she left Edwin, she was no doubt primed, but there was still longing that throbbed through her core, for she wasn’t nearly satisfied or sated.

“Enough. Untie me so I can slap your face.” She hated that he hadn’t forgotten how to play her body to best advantage.