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Chapter Twenty-Six

S elina had been nervous down to the very last fiber of her being before she came into this study. She had sat with her decision for so long on her bed in her room, watching the embers in her fireplace grow dimmer and dimmer. But this was precisely what needed to happen.

Her obsession and compulsion to be around Hugh, to be with him, to touch him, needed to be dealt with, and the only solution that she had arrived at was to indulge it for one single night.

The furious beating of her heart had been so thunderous inside her head throughout the entire walk downstairs. When she reached Hugh’s office, she had almost walked away again. But she found within herself the strength to push forward, and she rapped gently upon his door.

When she saw him there, the familiar desire to be closer to him, to touch him, to reach out and admire the feather-light silk of his hair, consumed her once more.

The rapid thrumming of her heart had never calmed, had never steadied, though she believed that she had handled herself as well as she could.

It was when he had almost left. It was when Hugh had nearly turned her down and walked away, leaving the study and not returning, that the panic had truly almost overwhelmed her. Selina had been so sure that Hugh had felt the same way she did. Hearing his dismissal had nearly crushed her.

Still, it had come from a place of wanting to protect her, it seemed. To shield her reputation from being damaged by his own. It had given her a moment longer to push forward.

Though he had warned her, as he said. Hugh had told her that if she agreed to this, if she allowed him to claim her virtue, as she had said that she wanted, he would not hold back.

There was a slight tremor of terror that still rippled through her now, even as Hugh’s tongue wound against her own.

But there was nothing about that sensation that diminished the ever-burning fire within her that demanded more of Hugh’s presence to feed it.

Her hands were now pinned above her head, the edges of the bookshelves behind her pressing into her body. She could feel one at the back of her wrists and another in her spine. While the twinge of discomfort was there, so too was the longing for more —more and more and more.

The scent of Hugh surrounded her, the deep musk of his cologne and his taste lingered with that of whiskey.

He did not seem addled which made her feel more confident about how this might progress.

And so the smoky peat taste on his tongue was something that she could lose herself to and enjoy just as much as the way his firm touch grounded her wrists to the shelf over her head.

Hugh’s other hand reached around to the back of her, finding her rear and gripping it tightly.

She squeaked against his lips, surprised but wanton.

The memories of what they had done in that shadowed hallway at the party leaped to the front of her mind.

Warmth and slickness gathered between her thighs, and the desire for him to claim her roared all the louder.

Eyes squeezed tightly, Selina focused on the feeling of Hugh’s fingers against her skin.

He held her with such intensity, the kiss a potent battle that she allowed Hugh to win completely.

He pressed her back against the shelves with such hunger that Selina had already begun to moan against his mouth, and he had barely touched her.

Then Hugh’s fingers scooped up the fabric of her shift, a similar move to the one done in the dark hall.

Selina clamped down around nothing, silently begging for Hugh to touch her once more, to allow her to fall over that edge again.

She did not know if it would be the same were he only to claim her with his body, and she wanted that sensation. She craved it.

“Do not move your hands.” Hugh’s raspy voice was muffled against her lips, but as he pulled his hand free, she kept her wrists held up over her head. “Perfect. Just like that.”

The hand that had held her wrists skirted down the side of her neck, briefly squeezing as he returned to kissing her breathlessly.

But then it dropped lower, finding the swell of her breast. The thin chemise she wore did very little to dull the sensation, and the heat of Hugh’s palm settled into her flesh.

His fingers found the pebbled peak of her breast, pinching it and rolling it between them. Selina yelped again, arching against Hugh’s touch as he excited her nerves. Again, there was that slight edge of pain, but it swirled through her alongside the pleasure, driving it higher.

Suddenly, his hips pressed to her front as Hugh had the full length of her chemise clutched in his other hand.

His knee came up, splitting her legs apart, and Selina could feel the hard press of his length against her.

It terrified and aroused her. She was so utterly na?ve to the intricacies of sex, and her mind swam at the possibilities.

As Hugh set his foot back down, his hand found the inside of her thigh. Selina gasped, but it quickly melted into a moan as he massaged the sensitive flesh. He was much quicker now, moving his fingers to her center and smoothing them against the slippery seam.

“Ugh!” Selina cried out against his mouth.

Hugh pulled himself back as he teased her. She flickered her eyes open to see him staring down at her like a starved wolf. He hovered his lips over hers, seemingly relishing in her little whines as he continued to toy with her.

“Do not wake the house, sweet Selina.” He nipped at her bottom lip. “But I must say that I adore the sounds you make. I would hear them every day if I had my wish.”

Selina did not allow herself to read into that statement. Instead, she permitted herself to moan and pant as Hugh worked her seam, slipping a finger and then two inside her as she rocked her hips against his hand in search of more.

The fullness hit her immediately, the feeling of holding Hugh’s fingers inside her like that. She thrust her hips forward as he sank them deeper, a stifled howl breaking free. It was this immaculate dance between them. Hugh pushed forward, only to retreat, and Selina returned the movement in kind.

“And will you squeeze for me, sweet Selina?” Hugh used his free hand to pinch her nipple once more, and Selina clamped down around his digits. “Ah, yesss. There it is, dearest.”

Embarrassment and arousal burned her cheeks.

She was so very slick, so needy for Hugh’s touch, but it still felt so vulnerable to be exposed to Hugh like this, to be pinned here against the wall, taking him so wildly.

The pressure on her peaked bud was brutal, and the need for his touch only increased.

Each time he squeezed her or rolled the sensitive flesh between his fingers, Selina felt her body clench around Hugh’s fingers, drawing her closer to that edge.

“Please… please, Hugh. I am… so close…” She pleaded in a muffled murmur against the Duke’s lips. Selina’s core ached, the very tip of her humming as it begged for the sensation as ardently as her words did.

“Yes, Selina. Fall apart for me.” He moved back and forth quicker, his thumb finding the nub at her seam’s tip and working it in rough rubs.

“Ah!” Hugh swallowed her cries with his kisses just as Selina found her release. It was ecstasy, and he had still not fully claimed her. “Hugh… Hugh, please. I… I need you inside me.”

It was a flash of movement as Hugh slid his hand free, only to use both of them to hoist her up.

His hips shifted forward, and Selina gripped the shelf over her head to steady herself.

She did not know when he had released the fall of his trousers, lost to the climax as she had been, but the blunt head of his shaft found her entrance and nudged between her folds.

“You are mine, Selina.” Hugh’s fingers dug into her rear as he held her aloft. “I do not care one bloody bit what anyone else might say. You are mine .”

The words seared her as much as Hugh’s touch, and as they left him, he drove his length deep inside her.

She called out, Hugh’s lips muffling some of her cries.

The fullness and stretch were the most intense sensations she’d ever felt.

It was almost so overwhelming that Selina arched against his hold by instinct, her body seeking out something to do with all the chaos filtering through her veins.

And then he began to pump his hips, thrusting in and out of her in pointed strokes.

More pleasure and pain mingled in her blood as he filled her, his length bottoming out inside her before Hugh rocked back and did it again.

Selina almost feared that she would not be able to take the way this fullness pounded against her consciousness.

Still, with each second, each stroke, her body relaxed to the sensations, melted around Hugh, and took him as only she could.

It was perfection.

Tremendous arousal claimed her as Hugh did, and Selina rocked her hips furiously against his efforts, gripping the shelf overhead until her fingers ached.

She did not care about them one bit. The books behind her jolted in their homes, and as they continued, several bounced their way to the edge of the shelf and toppled onto the floor.

Again, Selina did not care. All there was was the feeling of Hugh inside her, claiming her virginity.

All there was was the connection between them finally being allowed to burn as brightly as they desired, uninhibited and free.

She was free. At last, after years of longing and self-sacrifice, Selina was embracing a freedom she had never known, and she would keep the memory of it with her forever.

“The way you feel wrapped around me, Selina.” Hugh’s words were punctuated with harsh breaths, and he thrust into her. “It is beyond divine. Ugh, an angel giving itself to a demon.”

The words singed her skin. She had long wondered what her first time might be like, and this was hardly what she expected.

Still, Selina was at a loss to describe the all-encompassing bliss that surged through her now.

It was raw and passionate and unbridled.

It was everything she never allowed herself to be.

A brief flicker of sorrow struck her at the notion that this would also be the last time that she enjoyed pleasure like this. But she did not regret it. This one act would last her through the end of her days.

The reality she despised was gone in this moment, only joy and fulfillment as Hugh gave himself to her as she did for him. The frenzy between them rumbled harder and faster, cascading toward another release. She could feel Hugh thicken inside her, and he slowed.

Selina reached an arm around his neck, keeping him close. “What are you doing?”

“I cannot complete… Should you fall?—”

“I have finished my courses only two days ago. You will not…” Selina swallowed, smiling as she began to resume their rhythm. “ Please , Hugh. I… want to feel you find your release with me.”

Hugh’s eyes closed as he released a heavy breath, but then he joined her, that mind-numbing sensation of him sliding in and out of her returning. They met each other’s rhythm, a potent, intense push and pull that drove Selina up to that mountainous cliff once more.

They ran toward it together, faster and faster, that thickening of Hugh’s shaft inside her stimulating all the nerves she had.

He hit this perfect point within her, and stars burst behind her closed lids as she careened off into the sky.

Selina moaned loudly, and Hugh claimed her mouth as a gush of warmth settled within her.

His hips stuttered, and slowly, Selina found herself back on earth again.

Their breathing was ragged, fluttering her mussed hair that hung in her face.

Hugh’s forehead dropped to hers, and the two of them stayed there in that moment for as long as they could, breathing each other in and finding their calm once more.

Selina was no longer a virgin, and tomorrow, she would return to her wedding preparations, having put all this behind her.