Page 33 of Only a Duke (Ladies Who Dare #6)

T he moment the carriage door shut behind them, their lips collided.

Oliver had refused to return to a bedchamber to be seduced, but Louisa had been able to seduce him into being seduced in the carriage.

Her hands plunged into his hair, fingers tangling in the thick strands.

She loved its softness. Silky and wild beneath her touch.

Who knew the duke would let his guard down like this?

For her .

She understood that he was placing all the power into her hands by allowing her to take the lead. But while he might believe she was the one seducing him, in fact, she had been seduced by him with every touch, every word, and every look since he’d shown up that night in her house.

Her hands slipped from his hair, pushing him back into the seat with the firm pressure of her palms against his chest. With a daring shift of her hips, she straddled him, her pulse quickening at the heat of his body beneath hers.

Honestly, she didn’t quite know what she was doing, but this sense of being in charge drove her to act in whatever way felt right.

And this felt so right.

She had never felt more alive.

“Louisa...” His eyes flashed like amber flames, firm hands holding her waist.

“That is my name, yes,” she murmured, and she brushed a finger over one of his flushed cheeks. “This is the first time I’ve seen such an expression on your face before. I quite like it.”

“I haven’t seen it myself,” his voice turned gruff, “but yours is to my liking as well.” A hard object pressed against her from below.

Her entire body blazed with consuming fascination.

Louisa regained her breath. “Then, do you follow all the ladies who are to your liking into empty carriages?”

His lips upturned into the widest grin she’d glimpsed on his face so far. Lord, it made her heart skip not one, not two, not three but several more beats all at once!

“You are the only lady I’ve ever followed into an empty carriage apart from my mother,” he said in a low, suggestive way.

“That is strangely lovely to hear.” Louisa beamed.

He chuckled, squeezing the flesh of her waist. “And this is from the lady who gasped at catching two servants kissing.”

She lowered her head to his, a breath away from touching. “Perhaps they opened a whole new world for me.”

“So we are not debating innocence from this moment forth?”

“I stopped questioning my innocence the moment our lips first met after our ledger appropriation in Worthing.”

“Oh? Then what are you debating now? Dare I ask?”

Her nose touched the tip of his. “This is quite clear, is it not?”

His eyes sparked into hers. “I won’t ask you if you will regret this choice.”

“And you shouldn’t. My regrets are mine; your regrets are yours. But this, just so that you know, servant of mine, I will never regret.”

“Christ, Louisa.” He nipped at her chin. “Then...”

She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him in answer.

Her sentiments on the beach had been real—they might never have this moment again.

After they confirmed whether or not the duchess also possessed a secret ledger, they would part ways.

And if they were going to part, let them also share what they might never share again.

Let them part in an earth-shattering way.

Her fingers traced up the line of his jaw, his stubble tickling the palm of her hand. He had tiny, barely-visible freckles scattered across his cheeks, with that one notable freckle claiming its bold spot beneath his left eye.

She pressed back into his hardness and was rewarded with a groan whispering along her neckline. Lawks, she loved that sound.

She arched into him again.

He cursed. “Christ, woman, you are driving me mad.”

Her hands seized his to guide them to her ankles before she dragged them back up her legs, and her skirt along with them. “Then we should do something about it, do you not think?” She let go of his hands to fumble with the buttons of his trousers.

Another curse. “Aren’t we moving too fast?” he asked even as he bucked beneath into her.

She paused only long enough to answer, “This is not a moment for going slow, Oliver!”

He chuckled before catching her lips again.

Her fingers continued their ministrations, pausing only once they had completed their task.

She started when he suddenly lifted off the seat, not breaking their kiss as he shoved his trousers down.

His manhood sprang forth, and a thrill of excitement shot through her like a cannonball.

His mouth broke away from hers. “Touch me,” he breathed with a near groan, steering one of her hands to his member.

Dear Lord, how could she resist?

She encircled him with the palm of her hand, a thrill of excitement shooting up her spine when he guided her movements up and down at a slow pace. “Just keep pumping like that.”

He was so hard. And yet, his flesh was silky smooth in her palm.

One of his hands rested on her hip and the other snaked beneath her skirts to pull down her drawers.

She lifted, knees pressed into the cushions, allowing him to make swift work of the garment before his hand finally, finally ventured to her womanhood and touched her.

And Lord, that touch.

Her gasp coincided with his sharp inhale as the hand on his member tightened. A finger slipped inside her. The invasion felt strange and foreign, but also thrilling and fascinating. Louisa lost all reason—no, she only lost what little she had left.

She wanted this man.

She wanted the duke.

It was in this moment, as they touched each other’s most intimate places on their bodies, that she could finally admit how much she wanted him. She liked him. Perhaps she had even fallen a little bit in love. Dear Lord in Heaven! In lo—

Another finger entered her, and she could no longer focus on anything, not even her own hand which lost its rhythm on his member. Instead, she gripped his shoulders. Tightly.

He arched his face into her neck, breathing in deeply. “How does it feel?”

“ Sensational. ”

His tongue darted out, grazing over her skin, tasting her. “Louisa, this position...”

“Might hurt?” She didn’t care. She lifted her body so that she could guide him to her entrance. “I want this. I want myself atop you.”

“You want power over me?” He guided her hand to his chest, where she could feel the wild beat of his heart. “You have it all.”

By all that was holy, how could a man be so breathtaking? And Lord, he looked beautiful. His cheeks were flushed, just as she imagined hers to be. She leaned over to kiss the freckle under his eye.

She loved that little mark.

He guided her hips to his hardness.

Louisa’s head fell back as he pressed into her, his mouth dragging down to her bosom.

He scraped the bud of her breast with his teeth through her dress.

And then he was inside her, breaching her last bit of resistance in one swift thrust. The pinch of pain, the fullness, the sheer arousal of becoming one with him stole her breath.

His whole body froze in place. “Do I need to stop?”

Her eyes opened to meet his, her lips quirking. “Why?”

He cursed and suddenly cupped her cheeks and kissed her like a man desperate for this very moment.

His hips drove into her, and this time, he no longer hesitated.

Louisa curved into each of his thrusts, her body more alive than ever, consumed by every sensation that set her aflame.

One arm cradled her back, hugging her tight, and the other was down there , rubbing against the place where they almost connected.

The fullness that threatened to retreat and then suddenly pushed back again.

She didn’t want to miss anything.

They weren’t beneath the stars anymore, but for the first time, Louisa learned that stars didn’t need to explode in the sky, for her body scattered into a million of them as the heat that started to spark where his body joined hers, the region the palm of his hand claimed and pressed, exploded from below and traveled up her limbs with the speed of lightning.

Would she ever be able to collect those million pieces of herself again?

*

Oliver’s head fell against Louisa’s shoulder. He was still inside her, and his heart pulsed like a raging thunderous storm that had no intention of ending. Her sweet scent tightly cloaked him, fusing with the low undertones of his own.

He could breathe in this essence for eternity.

In fact, he could also simply remain here, in this moment, forever. Moving meant returning to the world outside, and he wasn’t ready to return to a world where, ledgers and secret organizations aside, they were family foes.

He hugged her tighter against him while his breathing slowly returned to normal.

Her arms had looped around his neck, and her fingers were once more playing with his hair.

She seemed to love doing that. He loved her doing that.

Ripples of gooseflesh traced over his skin each time she swirled a tendril between her fingers.

Never before had he done . . .

God, what class of behavior did this even fit into?

“You are overthinking. Stop it,” her voice came from his shoulder.

He nuzzled his head against hers, his lips twisting into half a smile. “Oh? And how do you know this is what I am doing?”

She pulled away from him just enough to meet his gaze. “Your shoulders tensed for a second.”

“That could mean so many things.” And each and every single one of them were things he didn’t want to think about.

“Or it means reality has found its way into the carriage.”

Clever angel. He smiled, his fingers following the line of her jaw before tucking a wayward strand of hair sticking to the side of her face behind her ear. “I’m trying to keep it at bay.”

She suddenly traced a finger over his mouth. “Another first, seeing this sort of smile on your lips.”

“And what sort is it?” Oliver asked, his voice still a bit gruff. He nipped at that playful finger.

“A smile of contentment.”