Page 9 of His By Sunrise (Disreputable Dukes of Club Damnation #3)
“I don’t think so.” He gripped her hips, his fingers digging into her skin with such force that she feared he’d leave bruises.
“I need this; you need this, I think.” Once he’d forced her onto her knees as she awkwardly rested her weight on her forearms and her face was very nearly into the pillows, the sound of fabric rustling followed by a groan from him served as testament to the fact he’d freed his engorged shaft from his breeches.
“God, you’re gorgeous, Charlotte. Time has been kind.
Slightly fuller curves, but that only makes you more desirable.
” And he smoothed a hand over one of her buttocks.
That unexpected touch had her shivering, and the compliment was equally discombobulating.
“Don’t do this, Edwin.” Because if he claimed her, coupled with her, everything would change, and she didn’t want it to.
They had too much history between them, and she didn’t have the strength to go back to the past.
Did she?
“I have to,” he said in a choked whisper as the head of his member flirted with her opening. “Because I refuse to let Danville have you; you are mine, Charlotte. Mine!” Then with a powerful flex of his hips, he penetrated her body, invaded her passage and didn’t stop until he was fully seated.
“No!” Dear God, how well she remembered the feeling of him filling her so completely, of his body joining with hers complete with heat and raw emotion.
When she tried to wriggle away from him, Edwin held on tighter, kept that connection intact.
“I don’t want this... don’t want you.” It hurt to voice that thought aloud, for it was untrue, but she couldn’t do this again, couldn’t have him in her life again.
“I believe that’s a lie.” His voice graveled as he withdrew from her body. “Tell me you want me.” He dug his fingers into her hips. “Tell me you want this, want to feel me inside you, that leaving me was a mistake.”
Tears sprang to her eyes and her breath shallowed.
If she admitted to that, where would this end?
What would become of her after she’d worked so hard to leave him in her past?
Yet... Her dratted traitorous body fairly cried out for him to finish her, and she wriggled her hips in a subtle but clear invitation.
.. as well as permission. “Edwin, please, I—”
With a groan, he shoved back into her passage with enough force that stars briefly danced across her vision.
Dear God, he was as potent and powerful as she remembered, and like an opium addict who’d been away from the drug for years, the moment he pounded into her like a man possessed, every nerve ending, every craving she’d ever had, came roaring back, and she was right back in the past being lost in him.
.. giving over everything that she was and surrendering to him as if she didn’t know any better.
Because she couldn’t resist him.
It was frustrating but familiar, and it threatened to break her, but she couldn’t worry about that in this moment.
There was no concentrating on anything else except him, the way his hands felt on her body, the strength of his form as he thrust inside her, the possessive way he claimed her over and over again.
Cursing herself for being so weak, for wanting him even after all this time, she pushed backward each time he thrust, and every time they came together, the satisfying sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the room.
“I need... more,” she gasped out in a barely audible whisper and hated herself even more that she asked for anything from this man.
“Put your hands on me, Edwin. Make it count, for this is the only night you will have with me. That I can promise you.”
He grunted. “Another lie.” Yet he complied, possibly because he wanted the release as much as she did. He snaked a hand around her body, found a nipple, and rolled that hardened bud with rough fingers.
Exquisite sensation streaked through her veins, and she nearly shattered from it; it had been a long time indeed. “Not a lie.”
“I intend to win you back, Charlotte.” Then he pinched the nipple, groaning as she screamed and welcomed that pleasure-pain cycle. Never did he stop the frantic strokes.
Shivery need exploded within her, shoving her closer to that shimmering edge. “That will never happen, especially like this, when you are acting like a prick, taking me without consent.”
“Don’t embarrass yourself. You want this as much as I do, but you fear speaking the words aloud.” Still, he pounded into her, and she was almost gone. “Why have you changed? Why do you hide your enjoyment, your need of release beyond what society deems proper?”
Why, indeed?
Then she couldn’t speak, for in that moment, when he rolled her nipple again, she was tossed over the edge into chaotic bliss.
Nothing else existed except the rush of pure pleasure that stole her ability to think clearly, and she fell, deep, deep down through the white void while Edwin thrust once, twice more.
After that, he found his own release. Charlotte hadn’t the strength to wrench away as his member pulsed.
For a few seconds, he collapsed against her back.
When he stirred, he untied her wrists, and she collapsed onto the bed, completely spent with residual tremors moving through her core. “You are my wife. I’m not giving you up, especially to that blackguard, Danville.”
Why did he hate William so much? “I haven’t been your wife for years.”
“Perhaps on paper, but I never gave consent.”
“Neither did I, to this.” She curled into a ball on her side, facing away from him. “Take me home. I won’t play this game,” she said in a choked whisper.
“Not until we’ve had the chance to talk.” When he laid a hand briefly on her shoulder, she shivered.
“There is nothing more to say.” Charlotte hated herself in that moment, and she hated him even more for doing this to her after she’d tried to make a life without him.
After trying to survive him.
“I don’t believe that, and I’ll wager neither do you.
” He tugged at her shoulder until she rolled onto her back, their gazes connecting.
Annoyance, ire, and disappointment warred for dominance in his dark eyes.
“You destroyed our family, took it right out from under me without giving me a reason, and I don’t appreciate that. ”
She swallowed hard, for it was the truth, and she didn’t want to face it. So she hid behind anger of her own. “I didn’t appreciate your lies. Or your scheming. That was no life.”
Another truth.
“You know nothing about it.” As he stuffed his flagging member into his breeches, he frowned. “You are mine, Char. We still have a connection, a spark that burns hot. That means something.”
So then he’d felt it too. Damn his eyes.
“It doesn’t. We are done.” Because she had to, Charlotte turned her back to him, shaking from reaction as well as emotions.
“Leave me alone, Edwin.” If her voice sounded tearful, she couldn’t help it.
Tears were coming from the wealth of confusion he’d shoved upon her as well as the fact that he wasn’t as far in her past as she’d thought.
“I’ll let you refresh yourself, but I can guarantee we will have many more moments like this one as well as multiple conversations, whether you want them or not,” he said in a whisper.
When he came close again, Edwin smacked her arse cheek.
That crisp sound echoed in the room. The sting of pain sent warmth coursing through her veins and dampness surging between her thighs, swamping her with renewed need.
“Your body is mine; so are you. Remember that, because I never agreed to give you up.”
Then he was gone, slamming the door behind him.
Taking one of the pillows, Charlotte pressed her face into it and screamed out her frustration, her fears, and her embarrassment at how bloody naive she was to want him all over again.
Then she clutched the pillow to her chest, and she gave in to tears.
Why was she like this? Why couldn’t she remain firm where he was concerned?
That connection between them made her afraid and a bit ashamed as well as continue to crave him all the more.
Those feelings were one of the reasons she’d let her father take care of things, for she didn’t know how to think when Edwin was near, to think without drowning in him.
She was afraid it would happen again, and that she would disappear just like last time.