Page 12 of The Cursed Duke (Wayward Dukes' Alliance #19)

August 4, 1815

Giles rolled over as a strong peal of thunder rolled through the skies. Though rare, occasionally summer storms visited London, and tonight was one of those times. The draperies at the windows fluttered with the wind. Drops of rain splattered onto the hardwood floor, but he welcomed the intrusion of the weather. He welcomed the energy and the noise that accompanied the heavy rain, for it made him feel stronger, feel a bit more whole than he had since the rejection in India.

No sooner than he flopped onto his back than the door to his bedchamber slowly swung open, and his wife’s form stood in the frame. She much resembled a ghost in her nightdress of pale blue trimmed with lace at the hem and sleeves except the hard points of her nipples were evident through the thin silk of her gown.

Damn but I want you.

“Giles?” A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room, enough to show concern on her face. “May I join you?”

What was this, then? He propped himself on an elbow. “Of course. Is all well?”

“Yes.” The door closed quietly behind her. As she crossed the room, another rumble of thunder filled the air. “I am not fond of storms, is all.”

“Understandable. Many people do not enjoy being caught in the power of a storm.” Giles pulled back the sheet he used to cover himself. “Come.”

After she’d climbed into the large four-poster bed with him, he hooked an arm about her waist, pulled her tight against his front, and then covered them with the sheet as lightning continued to send jagged illumination across the skies and the thunder growled. Her faint scent of apple blossoms teased his nose, and her close proximity sent heated interest into his shaft. It was far too cozy and domestic being in her company, especially like this. Hannah had been a bright spot in his life since they wed, and one he hadn’t expected, for he certainly wasn’t worthy of any of that.

All of it was odd, but he yearned for even more. Did that mean he harbored feelings for her, had fallen in love with her? His chest tightened. It wasn’t a certainty, but the symptoms were there; he remembered them from the last time with Sita, yet they were also quite different. Stronger. Deeper, With more substance.

As if he now had more to lose should something happen to break them apart.

Hannah wriggled closer to his body and held her arms over his. “It isn’t the power of the storm I fear,” she said. Somehow, her voice sounded small in the quiet of the room amidst the rumbles of thunder and the steady rain that came down outside. “It is the potential destruction the storm might hold, but also within that is an energy that makes me feel alive, or almost that I haven’t been myself until I am caught up in it.”

He buried his nose into her loose flowing locks. There was a certain rightness in having her in his arms, in his bed, talking softly in the dark. “Why do I have a feeling we aren’t talking about this particular storm?”

Her throaty chuckle went straight to his stones. “You are quite intelligent, Your Grace. As a matter of fact, I was referring to you. To me.”

“Am I your storm, then, my little rabbit?”

“Sometimes it feels like that.” She caressed her fingers up and down his forearms, leaving intense awareness in her wake. “You are big and frightening at times and all-consuming when we come together. And from what you tell me each time we speak about your life, there is darkness in you, terrible destructiveness that makes me catch my breath.”

Since the evening in the drawing room when last it rained, they’d talked each evening, and with every conversation, he’d shared a bit more about himself and his disturbing past. Yes, it had scared her, and one of those times, she’d run upstairs to lock herself in her suite, but she always came back after she made peace with those snippets. “Yet you remain with me. Why?” Would she eventually leave? Would his past destroy any chance for his future?

A wave of hot panic rose in his chest, for he didn’t want to lose her—couldn’t.

“Because, despite what you are, what I am, I believe we need each other to survive in a world that might not accept us individually. I think they will tolerate us as a couple, and I want to know what that sort of success feels like.”

Not for the first time was Giles rendered speechless by this woman. “You won’t hold my past against me?”

“Of course not.” She glanced over her shoulder at him in the dark. “If I had to wait around to marry a man who didn’t have skeletons in his closet, I’d wait until I was old and gray. People live, Giles. Whether it was a good life or a horrid one doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t carry those sins forward.”

Emotion balled in his throat, but he quickly swallowed them down. “Sometimes, I don’t believe you are real and that you are married to me.” And he needed her, at least to convince himself that his soul hadn’t rotted into nothing or that there was still hope for him.

“Stranger things have happened, and honestly, we’re not doing too badly. I think.”

“Agreed.” Then his fingers pulled at the ties that kept the upper portion of her night dress closed. Not satisfied, and with a bit of manipulating her body, he encouraged it down her arms and torso, and then finally off her body. A groan rose in his throat, for her curves never failed to arouse him.

She leaned back against him and raised a hand to cup his cheek. “Will you claim me tonight during this storm?”

“Do you wish it?” He brought her around to face him then tangled his fingers in her loose tresses.

“Very much so. Oddly enough, the storm that you are dissolves my insecurities and calms my worries.”

If that was a light that revealed the path to redemption, he would gladly take the sign. “I don’t know how to be a husband, one you’ll be proud of, but I’ll do my level best to be the man you need.” Then he kissed her mouth, explored its secrets at his leisure, for he knew she adored having him make love to her like that.

When she smiled, his world skittered sideways, and he fell into the blue depths of her eyes at the next flash of lightning. “We’ll learn together, for I’ve never been a wife. I don’t want to fail either.” She shivered as he cupped her breasts and rolled her nipples. “But it’s inevitable, for we’re fallible.”

“Yet I’ll still have you, and that alone is something I never thought to have in my life.” He didn’t want to talk anymore. Everything he needed to say could be accomplished by touch, by caress… by love.

Damn, but he could no longer deny it to himself. He was rapidly tumbling down the slope into love, and each day that went by showed him how obvious it was. How it had happened or when was a mystery, and it didn’t matter.

It just… was.

The warmth of her beneath his hands was as comforting as his favorite pair of gloves, and the silkiness of her skin pushed him to the borders of madness. Giles nuzzled the crook of her shoulder as he teased her breasts, plucked at her nipples. When she trembled, he gently pushed her onto her back and he came over her body, where he spent copious minutes learning every inch of her form with his fingers, tongue, and lips.

As if he hadn’t already done that many times since they’d wed.

Every moan and gasp she made went straight to his stones, but he didn’t stop showing her how much he adored her. Tonight wasn’t for him to relieve a physical need; it was for her, so that he could worship her in the way she deserved in the hopes she knew what he couldn’t—or dared not say in the event she spooked…

…or rejected him like that last woman to own his heart.

The faint scents of apple blossoms filled his nose, and every soft sound of pleasure or encouragement she made rang in his ears. Hannah writhed beneath him, clutched at his shoulders. Each time she reached for him, he batted her hands away, for he wasn’t nearly done adoring her.

Slowly, he kissed and suckled her breasts, teased her nipples with his tongue until she arched her back and begged him to leave off. Randy bastard that he was, Giles slipped a hand between her silken thighs and encouraged the tiny bundle of nerves from hiding. He manipulated that bud, that center of her pleasure, within an inch of its life, applying various degrees of friction. It was an easy task, for he already knew what she liked. When she cried out, tumbling over the edge of a gentle, cresting release so soon into their play, he grinned against her soft skin.

“That wasn’t nearly a loud enough scream, little rabbit.”

She blew out a breath. “Then perhaps you should try harder at sending me over, Steppingford.”

Taking up the challenge, he nibbled a path between her breasts and down her torso, lifting her hips as he went. When he buried his head between her thighs, licking the place he’d just touched with his fingers, the sound of a moan mixed with a scream issued from her.

“Giles, stop!” The urgency of her whisper only pushed him to continue. “You already know I can’t survive this type of madness.”

“Do I? It must have slipped my mind, since I’m so much older than you.” He chuckled when she bit her bottom lip. “Can I not show my adoration of you like this?” Then he resumed the exquisite torture designed to send her flying a second time.

Which she did in short order. Despite her attempt to quell her response, the muffled scream sent heightened need directly into his engorged length. At the next flash of lightning and rumble of thunder, a flush appeared on her chest and cheeks, a sure sign he’d worked her properly over… and that she was highly aroused.

After wiping his face on the sheet, he came back up the bed and laid on his back next to her. “Our play is only just beginning.”

“What does that mean?” If there was faint exhaustion in her voice already, he only grinned, for his wife might not look like it, but she heartily enjoyed carnal activities.

Knowing he’d been the one to introduce her to such things shoved smug possession through his being. “Just this.” With his hands at her hips, Giles pulled her over himself so that she straddled his waist. “Ride me, Hannah.”

She gasped. “What?” As she rested her hands on his chest, he bit back a hiss of warning, for her touch inflamed him. “And put my body on full display to you?”

“Why not?” It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been naked before or that they hadn’t done other scandalous things since they’d married, but this position they hadn’t done yet. “I adore your body, every centimeter of it, and if anyone tells you it’s not perfect or that it’s too big, I shall dress them down.”

“Ha.” Leaning down, tears sparkled in her eyes at the next lightning flash as the storm began to move away from the area. “It would seem the man I invented from imagination truly is quite the hero.”

That unwavering faith in him tightened his chest. “I am certainly not that, as you know.”

“Mmm, as each day goes on, I’m beginning to realize I know nothing, and that the only constant is you.”

It was suddenly difficult to breathe as emotions lodged in his throat. “You haven’t seen my temper or brooding phases yet. I can be quite unpleasant.” Yet since meeting her, he hadn’t been prone to rotten moods. Not to say that sort of behavior wouldn’t revisit him, but he wasn’t motivated to wallow in it as he had since being rejected that first time.

“And you haven’t seen me at my worst either, but as the vows said, in sickness and in health, come what may.” Then she straightened her spine, and her fingertips glanced along his chest as she tucked her legs against his sides.

Never had he seriously considered those words before, but they humbled him. Not willing to be lost to a sea of emotions he couldn’t readily identify, Giles moved his hands to her hips then waist. “You are gorgeous.” All of her curves were on display to his hungry gaze, and he took in every centimeter of her as she sat atop him with her breasts swaying with each movement and her hardened nipples practically begging for continued attention.

Before he could make inroads into teasing her, his wife leaned over him, pressed her lips to his then dragged those soft pieces of flesh under his jaw, nipped and licking as she went, down the side of his neck to the hollow of his throat. Her lush body pressed into his was heaven. And every overture drove him closer to the brink. Already, his shaft was erect and aroused to the point of pain.

“Damn, but I think I’ve married a vixen instead of an innocent.” Every touch, every kiss, every glide of her fingers over various parts of his body sent him toward madness.

“Such gammon, Steppingford.” She nearly purred with contentment as he handled her breasts, teased the nipples by rolling and lightly pinching them. A gasp escaped her, and she shivered atop him. Each movement had her arse brushing his shaft, sending heated sensation through every point of him.

God, he wanted her, nay needed her. “Hannah…”

“I know.” The second she lifted onto her knees and took his member in hand, he thought he might die of unsatisfied pleasure. “As much as I wanted to tease you, wield power over you tonight, there will be time enough for that.” Then she fit his tip to her drenched opening, and before he could do much more than take a shallow breath, she slammed herself down upon him, not stopping until she was fully impaled.

“Fuck, you feel amazing.” That passage held him in snugly, which sent intense sensations through his shaft. “Ride me like the horsewoman you are until we are both spent.” He welcomed this coupling, wanted it more than he could say, but he would go at her pace. “When you come down on me, I’ll thrust up, and we’ll find a rhythm.”

“Right. I’ll try.” She moved on him, and though it was awkward at first, his wife was a quick study. As he guided her with his hands on her waist, she soon figured out how to work him over. Soon, she moved her hips, slid along his shaft until she found a way that worked for her. Back and forth, up and down while leaning forward ever so slightly. Every once in a while she bounced on his member, but by and large, she seemed to enjoy gliding, and he didn’t mind for his attention was fully taken. When she came into more confidence, her thrusting grew more powerful, and each time their hips met, he was quite certain that he might die in his bed that night.

“Leave off, sweeting, else this act will be over far too soon, and there is so much more I want to do to you.”

She giggled, which caused tiny shivers to go through her core and transfer to him. “Such as what? This is great fun.”

“I’ll wager it is, but I need… more.” With more force than he’d intended, Giles flipped them both over. He encouraged her legs to bend at the knee, then he thrust into her welcoming passage, went so deep that he groaned and very nearly shot his wad right then, for the sensations rushing through him were quite fantastic.

“You are really quite powerful, and it’s amazing,” she said in a panting whisper. “There is something about being dominated in such a way, being protected like this that is truly wonderful.”

Never would he have thought of coupling in such a way, but it made sense when put from her point of view. Instead of answering, he kissed her, quite hard and possessively, but he wanted to convey what he was feeling in that moment.

On his next thrust, her moan almost separated him from his sanity, but it also made him want a greater degree of intimacy, so he paused inside her body, took her hands, threaded their fingers together, and brought them up above her head, pinning them to the pillows.

“If I were perhaps a different man, I would wish to say a host of words just now, but I find that I can’t.”

“They aren’t needed, truly.” The response was simple, like her, for his wife never demanded anything from him, had barely ordered new gowns and things at his behest, and it was a lovely change. “I just want you to claim me, let me feel your power.” She was adorable in her desire. There were many little things he liked about her, that it would take a lifetime to discover them all.

And hope he would have the courage to speak the words once he found them.

“Now that I can do.” With a soft growl, he claimed her lips in a hard kiss at the same time he thrust deep into her warm and welcoming passage. Over and over, he tangled his tongue with her as his hips pumped, his strokes fast and hard. He released her hands so he could grip her hips, tilt them up to allow for greater penetration. With every push, the mattress tick shifted, and her breasts bounced. She wrapped one hand about his forearm and one around his shoulders, encouraged him with murmured words while she moved her hips to match his rhythm.

When that still wasn’t enough closeness, Giles left off. He slid from the bed, brought her with him until her hips and arse were balanced on the edge much like he’d taken her on the morning of their wedding, then he held her legs upright and steady while he thrust deeply once more into her body.

A scream issued from Hannah, unmuffled, to blend with the sound of the rain and residual fading thunder. She twisted her hands in the bedclothes, thrashed her head back and forth as her eyes shuttered closed. With the damp tendrils of her hair spread about his pillows and her body flushed with desire, never would he forget the picture she made.

And he was almost spent.

Wanting to make this memorable for her, he paused in his strokes, remaining inside her body, and moved his hands beneath her hips, spread her arse cheeks, then put the pad of a forefinger to that rosette. When she gasped, he grinned, stared into her eyes. “I won’t hurt you, just want to give you far more pleasure than you’ve experienced thus far.”

“But how—”

Her inquiry was interrupted when he slowly, oh so slowly, inserted his finger into her dark hole. “Shh, it won’t hurt but there might be a bit of discomfort this first time.”

She clung to his shoulders as shivers racked her body. “I trust you.”

Damn, but if those words didn’t nearly break him. His hand trembled. “This will increase the sensations of everything.” He’d only just inserted the tip of his digit to give her time to adjust to the sensations, and when she didn’t cry foul, he withdrew, only to penetrate that back opening again, this time to the first knuckle, swirling it in that dark passage in order to stretch her. As her breathing shallowed, he again withdrew, but it must have been pleasurable for her as her gasps and moans and her expression of bliss was all the reward he needed. “Ready?”

“Yes, God yes, please finish me.”

Her appetites would surely match his own soon. Giles thrust into her core with his shaft and simultaneously did the same with his finger to her dark passage, and he thought she might perish right there on his bed, for the scream she uttered was laden with orgasmic pleasure.

“Oh, oh, oh… I had no idea… I’m going to break apart!” The last word was lost to a moan as she fisted the bedding one hand and dug the nails of her other into his shoulder.

The prick of pain kept him focused while urgency rode his member as he stroked into her for all he was worth. All too soon, the familiar tingling in his stones signaled he’d find imminent release. Her body was too lush, too exquisite, too new that he couldn’t rein in his excitement or passion. And the feeling of finger-fucking her arse at the same time was enough to drive him completely mad. “Damn, I’m coming.” But he didn’t want to explode without bringing her with him.

She didn’t answer, for she was nearly lost, and he could only imagine the pleasure she was experiencing in this new way. As she writhed beneath him, her eyes were closed and she truly looked as if she were not long for heavenly bliss.

Deeper, harder, more forceful, he worked her over both front and back with the goal of sending her into the greatest bliss of her life. During one of his frenzied thrusts, her body went stiff and then relaxed. She cried out his name, over and over, like a litany. Her feminine walls fluttered around his shaft, pulling him deeper while her rear passage did the same to his finger, and that along was a singular experience. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she went pliant in his hold shaking as yet another wave of release apparently slammed into her.

Seeing her in the throes of that, knowing he’d given it to her, broke through the remainder of the walls around his heart and burst the last of his control. “Hannah!” Seconds later, he lost himself to bliss. He didn’t just fall over the edge into pleasure. Oh, no, this time he hurtled through that wilderness and into a new place where white light enveloped him, and his body literally let go. Never had he spent so powerfully or as long. He ground his pelvis into hers as his prick pulsed violently, shot out his seed.

After a few moments, hours, days—time made no sense any longer—Giles collapsed onto her, his face between her breasts, his hands still beneath her. Hannah wrapped her arms around him and held him close. The sounds of their ragged breathing filled the air, competing with the drum of his heartbeat loud in his ears. Every so often, she would shiver, and he desperately wanted to know if she still enjoyed residual release contractions.

Was that coupling so damned wonderful because of the new scandal he’d introduced or because there were now emotions at play for him? It was worth pondering over the coming days. When he left the bed, his wife uttered a tiny, exhausted protest, but he soothed her with whispered words that possibly made no sense as he went directly to the washbasin. He washed his hands while a pleasant lethargy weighted his limbs. Afterward, he brought a wet rag over to the bed, and while she was nearly asleep, he gently cleaned her nether regions, for such things were necessary after such play.

Once that task was done, he joined her once more in the bed, and to his own surprise, he put his arms about her, pulled her backside against his front, and closed his eyes, for never before in the whole of his existence had he wished to cuddle with a woman following intercourse.

Well, damn. It seemed he was indeed falling in love with his wife. What the devil should he do about it? He didn’t know, but for the moment, he closed his eyes and reveled in the warm softness of his wife in his arms. Perhaps if he could find some bravery, he would tell her.

Soon.

And pray that she wouldn’t reject him as the last woman had, for he didn’t know how he would react if that happened.