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Chapter Sixteen

H ugh’s blood boiled in his veins, the lingering memory of the Viscount laying hands on Selina searing into him with the force of a terrible blaze.

He’d touched her, and escaping with Selina to this secluded hall was all Hugh could do to keep himself from throttling the man within an inch of his life.

He felt possessed, compelled by something he couldn’t name to keep Selina unaccosted by anyone and everyone. The flare of wrath that still gripped him was nothing he’d ever known before. All he could think was that the man had dared to put his hands on what was his.

But that’s insane. Selina is not mine. She—Dammit.

Shoving against his hold, Selina bit his hand where it covered her mouth. She didn’t do so hard, but it was enough to get him pulling it back from her.

“I was doing my duty. You have instructed me to find a husband, have you not?”

Hugh was at his wits’ end. He couldn’t understand why seeing Selina like that with the Viscount had upset him so much, but there was hardly any denying that it had. Even thinking about it now made him imagine leveling the flirtatious bastard with a punch to the jaw.

“I might have instructed you to procure a suitable match at the behest of your late husband, but I never instructed you to throw yourself at any man in sight. Particularly one whom I had just been speaking to.”

“Throwing myself?” Selina thrashed against him, her slight frame brushing against his body. She could not escape him, and the blaze in her eyes was this wild thing of beauty that Hugh couldn’t pull himself away from if he wanted to.

And the truth was… he wasn’t sure he did want to.

“I was being friendly! Have none of our lessons penetrated that thick skull? You’re supposed to make the other person think you adore them if you are to get into their good graces.”

Hugh growled—a rumble in his chest that was downright animal. He glared down at Selina, the thought of her doing the same with any man who might be a good husband making him sick to his stomach.

“But you do not. You do not adore that man or anyone else here.”

Selina only returned his heated glare, not backing down.

She drove him mad, being around her a constant pull at his mind and body.

He hadn’t been able to get Selina off his mind for a single second.

The way she had felt against him beneath the boughs of the wisteria tree.

The way he had wanted to claim her right then and there for all the world to see.

He couldn’t have cared less about what others might have thought at that moment. All he wanted was to feel Selina taking him, feel her falling apart for him, crying out his name.

“It does not matter, now, does it? I have been given a timeline of your own creation, Your Grace . Anything I have done to ensure a marriage is the result of your actions.”

She wasn’t wrong, and it killed him to admit it. So, he wouldn’t. Hugh would do the only other thing in the world that he wanted to do more than continue to bicker with her—a strange dance that he’d come to enjoy more than he cared to admit.

“Have you nothing to say then?” She glared up at him, pressing herself closer as she raised her brows. “Cat got your tongue?”

He crashed his lips down onto hers, tasting all that Selina had to offer him and desperate for more.

The moment of shock only stilled Selina for a second. Then, she was immediately kissing him back, leaning forward so that her chest pressed against his as she swept her tongue along the seam of his lips.

It was as if this had been what she wanted all along. To force him into losing control. And he had. There was no stopping this now, no matter how much he knew that he should.

Mine.

Hugh released Selina’s shoulders only to yank her up against his chest. He swirled his tongue against hers, both of them delving into each other, finding that magical dance that existed between them when no one was looking.

Cradling the back of her head, he leaned Selina against the wall, his other hand traveling down her side until it brushed the gentle swell of her breast.

She gasped against his lips, her fingers gripping tighter on the lapels of his jacket.

There was this maddening need to be close to her, to claim her with everything he had.

It was nothing like the sporadic trysts he’d had before.

They all felt quick, forgetful, and trivial. This—what he felt for Selina was?—

All-consuming.

He gripped her breast, squeezing enough so that she let out a tiny whimper of surprise, and it went straight to his shaft. Hugh was aching to be joined with her, to have his Selina in every way, to be the first .

But not here.

Whereas in any other situation, the idea that someone might come upon them at any moment would thrill Hugh, now, he could not stand the notion that someone other than him might lay eyes on Selina.

Whoever it might be could claim even a fraction of ownership over the moment because they’d be witness to it, and Hugh would not have that.

Everything about this, about Selina, was his.

Mine, mine, mine.

Pressing her further into the shadows by dragging her along the wall, still entwined in her lips, Hugh guided Selina to an area that was so dark he could not see her beneath him—a small price to pay for their privacy.

Hugh leaned back ever so slightly, sliding his hand from the back of her head to her throat as he whispered to her.

“Has anyone touched you before, Selina?” Hugh squeezed her again, a tiny moan slipping free and intensifying as he brushed his thumb over her nipple where it hid from him behind all that fancy fabric. “Have you felt any pleasure before now?”

She shook her head, her breath hurried and warm against his skin. “No. You… were my first kiss. My first real one. This is all… so new.”

God, I could cut glass with how the want consumes me.

Hugh was thrilled, positively beaming that his sweet Selina had only ever tasted his lips, felt his touch. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was desperate to keep it that way.

“Hmm,” he hummed against her neck, nuzzling into the lovely scent of her. “You’re going to fall apart for me, Selina. You’re going to feel such pleasure from my touch.”

Sliding his hand from her breast to her hips, Hugh began to bunch up the fabric of her dress until he could reach underneath. The skin of Selina’s thigh was silk against his fingers, and she whimpered once more. Oh, how he could get lost in that sound for hours.

“Hugh, I—Oh, God.” The words tumbled from her as he teased her, stroking closer and closer to that blissful core of hers that he so longed to touch.

“You need to be quiet, Selina. I won’t have anyone coming down here and stealing this moment from me.”

She whined, and Hugh felt her hand brush along his back before the sensation disappeared. As he leaned forward to kiss her again, he found the edge of her hand. She’d sought to silence herself, but he could certainly provide that for her.

Gripping just a hair tighter on Selina’s throat, her hand abruptly left her mouth and moved to his hand, her nails digging into his flesh. The sting only served to ramp up the pleasure, and Hugh pressed his lips to hers just as he ran a finger across her seam.

“Ugh,” she squeaked, the noise muffled by his lips.

Hugh chuckled, whispering against her mouth, “You are so ready for me, Selina. Your body craves my touch.”

He would give anything to see her face right now, to know what color pink her cheeks had turned, but he would not risk someone seeing her.

Instead, Hugh focused on the sound of her rushed breaths and the muffled whimpers that bled through his kisses as he traced his finger back and forth over her split.

She was so responsive, and Hugh reminded himself that she had never been touched like this. Selina was a virgin, perfect, innocent, and ignorant.

I’m going to love teaching her, corrupting her.

Hugh moved slowly but insistently, using more and more pressure until his digit slid between her folds and was enveloped in warmth.

He circled over the sensitive bud at the tip, knowing that it was a point that would make her go wild.

She bucked against his hand, a cry nearly breaking free before he devoured it with another kiss.

“That’s it,” he mumbled as he joined a second finger with the first. “So blissfully slick for me. You’re heaven beneath my touch, Selina.”

Sliding them deeper, Hugh gently entered her.

She was incredibly tight around his fingers, and it made the passion burning in his blood throb harder, his arousal leaking from him.

Pumping in and out slowly, Hugh worked his precious Selina’s channel, loving how she trembled beneath him.

If it weren’t for the wall, he was certain Selina would have collapsed.

“Hugh… Oh God, I—Ugh!”

She began to cry out, the release claiming her, but he crashed their mouths together once more, ensuring no one would hear her cries but him.

Hugh relished every moment, every pulse of her body around him, and it was enough to have him crescendoing right along with her, releasing on the fabric that still contained him.

He’d never done that with a woman, not at all since he was a young man, but there was something about Selina, about how she gave herself to him and the exquisite perfection of her entire being, that took hold of him and wouldn’t let go.

“Ugh,” he groaned, dropping his head to Selina’s shoulder as she tried to catch her breath. “You are… perfection.”

Mournfully, Hugh began to slide his fingers free. He didn’t want this to be over. He didn’t want to go back into that damned ballroom only to watch his Selina flirt with whoever she might find. This moment had been theirs and theirs alone, and he wished for it to go on forever.

Which was worrying.

Whatever was happening between them, Hugh knew that this moment was far from the end of it.