Page 21 of Promised to the Worst Duke in England (Disreputable Dukes of Club Damnation #2)

She came onto her knees. “Can I not have fun teasing you like you’ve done to me? Or perhaps I should use the diletto instead?”

“Ha.” Alan tossed her the cravat. “I’d prefer the restraint.” Then he joined her on the bed, made certain various portions of his body rubbed against hers as he laid down in the middle with his upper body propped against the pillows. “Whenever you’re ready, duchess.”

“I have long dreamed of this.” His wife straddled him, and her navel glanced over his face as she tied first one wrist to the headboard followed by the other. “Too tight?”

He tested her work. “Hardly.” Already, his shaft was hard enough to use as a drill and they’d yet to begin. Then he moved his head and licked one of her nipples. “I’m waiting, sweeting. Will you put me through my paces?”

“Of course.” Imogen swept her gaze over his person, and desire darkened her eyes. “There is something about seeing a man immobile and helpless that makes me want to release every inhibition.” She repositioned herself until she straddled his waist with his aroused length against her arse. “Now, what would you enjoy tonight?”

He winked. “I’m certain you’ll think of something.”

“Mmm.” When she cupped her overly full breasts, Alan sucked in a breath, but as she strummed the tips of her fingers over the pebbled tips, a groan escaped him. “Remember that afternoon in the traveling coach?”

Of course I fucking do. By willpower alone, he tamped on the urge to spend right there. “Yes. The first time you teased me. I adored your confidence.” No longer was she an innocent in the ways of carnal pleasure. Watching her play with her nipples had the power to burn him up from the inside out. “You haven’t lost your allure.”

“I think knowing you has enhanced… everything.” She threw back her head and uttered an exaggerated moan that escaped her lips while she pinched those pink buds. Then her hands were in her hair, plucking out pins and combs. The accessories pinged on the hardwood. “I wonder what else will drive you mad.” Her blonde tresses fell about her shoulders to half-shroud her breasts from his hungry gaze.

“Please untie me.” Alan tugged on his bonds, and though there was some slack, the knots held. “I want to touch you, devour you.”

“Is Your Grace wanting?” Imogen tsked her tongue but slid further down his body until she kneeled between his splayed legs. “Not just yet.”

“What are you doing?” He didn’t quite trust the look in her eyes.

“Something I know you enjoy, and have from the first, which only made me crave you.” So saying, she leaned over him, and the ends of her hair tickled his skin, his shaft, pulled a gasp of pure desire from him. “Promise you won’t let your form go to fat.” Her fingers drifting over his abdomen, his thighs, his belly were maddening enough, but the sensations she invoked in him that sent him hurtling quickly toward the edge were all too real. His muscles clenched.

“Imogen, please…” He couldn’t remember how words worked.

“Hmm?” With a wink, she dipped her head and took his straining length into the warm cavern of her mouth, and it was exactly like that first time in the coach when he made her suck him off.

“Argh!” Involuntarily, his hips bucked off the bed, which put him ever deeper into her care.

His wife hummed her amusement, and the vibrations around his member were amazing. Over and over, she worked her magic, twisting and moving her hand on his shaft while she bobbed up and down.

“Go gently,” he pleaded and yanked on the fabric holding his wrists. “When I spend, I’ll damn well do it inside you.”

Still, she remained silent. Imogen had a certain way of swirling her tongue over the head of his shaft while she fondled and squeezed his stones. It didn’t take too long for him to remember the rhythm she’d first treated him to on their wedding day, and he couldn’t help but thrust into that warm cavern. Her hands, her mouth, her tongue and teeth felt like heaven and hell all at once. The control he’d prided himself on began to slip; he was well and truly at her mercy.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

As his chest strained and his pulse pounded in his temples, Alan tossed his head. “Sweeting, please. Untie me so I can fuck you senseless.” Yet she continued to work him over, and he wouldn’t last. “Let me love you as I’ve tried these past three months.”

That gave her pause, and he reveled in the sudden surcease of her torment. She came off his length with a frown. “ Do you love me?”

“Can you not tell?” His voice was hoarse and ragged.

“I can; I merely like hearing it.” As soon as she removed herself from his body, she freed his wrists. “Sooner or later, I want you helpless once more, I want to know what it feels like to ride you, make you breathless with want while I bring you to madness.”

“As if you aren’t doing so now?” he asked softly. Needing to touch her, hold her, love her, he tugged her into his arms, rolled her onto her back, and kissed her hard. “Tonight, I just want you, all of you, for as long as you’ll last.”

“So romantic, Averly.” Such love reflected in her eyes that he became lost in it.

“Perhaps promising you to me was the best thing our fathers ever did.” Pressed into her embrace, with her fingers furrowing through the hair at his nape and her body soft and pliant beneath his, the sensation of falling assailed him. Gladly, he’d tumble tip over tail for her.

Her fingers glanced along his shoulders. “Agreed.” When she nipped a line of feather-weighted kisses beneath his jaw, need shivered over him. “Though I still can’t reconcile to being a duchess.”

“And a popular one at that, merely because you are wonderfully you.” Alan trailed his lips along the column of her throat and the soft skin called to him. He continued to her collarbones then took a pert nipple into her mouth, spent copious moments teasing that bud to the best of his ability. When she moaned her pleasure, he switched his attention to the other tip. Everything about her teased or challenged, and in turn, all of it aroused him. Eventually, he returned to her lips and endeavored to introduce himself to her all over again.

“Alan…” She danced her touch along his shoulders, swept her fingers over his chest to rake through the sprinkling of hair there. Even that sent him far too close to the edge. “Please… I need you.”

Never were words as sweet. He kissed her again, for her lips were all too addicting, made love to her mouth, hoped that he would always remain in her good graces. With a knee between hers, he splayed her thighs. “This will not be the only time you and I come together tonight.” His length pulsed with urgency. The tip of his length glanced over her opening, and he sucked in a breath, for she was ready.

“I certainly hope not,” she said softly, and when she flashed a smile, his heart trembled. “I’m going to need much, much more of you while I can have you.”

What the devil did that mean? Before worry could take over, Alan took possession of her mouth once more and at the same time, he thrust into her honeyed heat. Oh, she felt all too marvelous, like being welcomed home to a place he’d no idea existed before now. A sigh of contentment left his lips. “I will never have enough of you.”

“I adore you.” Imogen adjusted beneath him, pulling him to her as she wrapped herself around him. He fit all too perfectly in the cradle of her hips, and she held him there, shielded from the world, wanted for who he was with no judgment from his past. Only he and she existed in this one, perfect moment, and for the first time in his life, he was content in who he was, where he was, the decisions he’d made. When she arched her back, she canted her hips, and he stroked inside her.

They communed without words; none were needed. While she held onto him—one arm around his shoulders and the other hand wrapped about his bicep—he pushed into her heat with slow, measured precision, wishing to draw the act out for as long as he could. Deeper and deeper he plunged until they were one, joined far better than just the mere press of bodies together and far greater than any signature on a wedding register could render them.

“I have missed this.” As her cries of enjoyment came faster, Imogen dug her fingernails into his back, moved her hands down his spine. She clutched his arse cheeks, holding him impossibly closer, her hips moving in time to his. Sweat had their skin gliding against each other; they exchanged pants of breath.

With every thrust, every stroke, tingling sensation raced up his member and settled into his stones. Release wasn’t far off. “I’m nearly gone.” And they had barely gotten started, but that was how it always was where they were concerned.

“Then make it count, Averly.” She gave him such a sultry, inviting look that his control wavered, and he increased his rhythm. Would he ever not adore her?

He claimed her body, rocking them both, leaving her with no doubt as to how he felt about her. The breeze from the retreating summer coming in through the windows cooled his overheated skin, and he didn’t care if someone on the street might hear them. Wishing to join their souls, he drove deep into her hot core, stroking in and out in the hopes he would be all she ever needed and that she would never worry again. She met his gaze, held his head between her palms, her expression reassuring. Then the urgency riding him changed into growling hunger and undeniable need. With a ragged moan, Alan continued to thrust, his hands on her hips holding her steady as he claimed her.

“Please say that you will always love me.”

“Of course I will.” She put a hand between them in order to worry the nubbin at her center, and it gave him a sense of pride that she was confident enough to seek her own pleasure. “Yes, oh yes!” Her moans blended with his and she held him close.

When Imogen shattered, she didn’t do so quietly. His wife, always surprising, screamed as she fell into release. She uttered his name over and over like a prayer, and as her passage contracted around his length, he uttered a curse and pushed through those waves.

All too soon he surrendered to the vortex of pleasure he’d created with his wife. A heated tide of bliss washed over him so intensely he caught his breath and gave himself up to it. As his pulse pounded in his temples and roared in his ears, he collapsed into her.

“Ah, sweeting, don’t you think our life is quite perfect?” As he wrapped his arms around her and rolled them both to their sides, a sensation of peace collected over him.

“It is, of course, but can you think of anything that might make our lives even more perfect?” she asked in a breathless whisper as she snuggled into him.

“I don’t…” His eyes widened and he held her a bit away from him. “Do you mean…?”

A grin curved her lips and her expression was quite ecstatic. “Yes.” She nodded. “It was confirmed yesterday when I had a midwife in. I am with child, three months along. At the end of March, we shall welcome our first babe into our midst.”

“Truly?” Shock smacked him in the chest; he could barely breathe for fear it was all a dream. “Are you truly increasing?”

“I am, which explains the recent sickness.” She glided her fingertips along his brow, brushed back his hair, and finally cupped his cheek. “You’re happy about this?”

“I can hardly contain myself. I want to shout my joy from the rooftops.” Alan thought he might expire from how much his heart swelled from happiness. He bundled her into his arms then claimed her lips in a gentle kiss. “Ah, sweeting, this is indeed wonderful news. It has indeed deepened our lives.” He kissed her again. “I can’t wait to meet the babe.”

“Me either.” When Imogen slipped her arms about him, she once more snuggled closer to him. “I never knew that being promised to the worst duke in England would lead to being married and wildly in love with the best man for me.”

He couldn’t help his grin. “Life is certainly surprising, and I don’t ever want that wonder to end.” After pressing his lips to her temple, he sighed. “And if you hadn’t been willing to accept me as I am, we wouldn’t be here now, and I couldn’t fathom that, for I adore you to distraction.”

Yes, life was certainly messy, mired in darkness, and oftentimes cruel and one might make mistakes along the way, but unless one could square with everything they were without continuing along a path of destruction, unless they could forgive themselves of those horrors and decisions, there was no future. Darkness or not, the journey was infinitely better when someone else believed in one.