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It didn’t take long. I knew precisely how Lilah wanted to be touched, and though three years had passed since I had made her cry out, her secret place hadn’t changed.

The rhythm quickened and I slipped a second, then a third finger inside her—then twisted a circle over her clit.

“Oh God, William!” Lilah moaned in my mouth as she reached her peak.

As she shuddered in my arms, delight roared through me.

I’d done it. I’d made Lilah quiver, cry out my name, demand her pleasure.

I’d won the wager. But I’d won so much more.

“Charmer,” Lilah managed to say, her breath still short in her throat.

Oh, she had no idea.

“Want to go again?” I asked, my fingers still in her secret place.

This was a woman who I would do anything for, be anything for—and if she demanded that I stay here fingering her until she literally could not stand, then take her in my arms again?—

“Again?” blinked Lilah, almost as though she was unsure what I meant.

My grin widened. “What, you think you can’t go again?”

“Don’t you want pleasure?” Lilah asked with a wry smile. “How…how long as it been for you?”

It was not really a question I wanted to answer. It had been the driest spell since…well, since forever.

But I didn’t want Lilah to feel the pressure of?—

“That long, huh?” she said with a raised eyebrow.

I swallowed, desire aching through my joints as I looked at her. Though my expression was probably more severe than I meant it to be, she looked directly at me.

No fear. No self-censorship. No backing down.

Oh God, that was it. That was all I could manage.

“Time to get this off,” I said darkly.

Lilah gasped, but she did not resist me as I stripped her gown up and over her shoulders. I moaned aloud as I saw her in nothing but her stays. Little lace scraps I was almost certainly rip from her body.

In reality, I didn’t do much different. It did not take long to undo the thing, slipping from her arms as though there was nothing else she wanted better than to stand nude before me.

My breathing was heavy as I stood looking at her. Looking at the woman I?—

Lilah stared up at me, as though challenging me to go ahead. “Well?”

Her breath was slight, her eyes wide, but I couldn’t keep looking at her face. Not when there was now so much more of her to look at.

Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

I’d seen this in dreams. Aching dreams, dreams that woke me with tears when I realized that it was nothing but a dream.

A sloping neck that led to sharp collarbones, which were nothing to the taut, perky breasts perfectly shaped to my hands. Nipples that were pebbling in the cool of the day, and soft, soft skin that skimmed a stomach that dipped to a perfect secret place.

Hips, wide and welcoming. Legs that Lilah had always wished were longer, but I knew were perfect, just the way she was.

And, and my stomach lurched, shoes with a slight heel that arched her calves. God, this was every fantasy I had ever had about Lilah since we had parted ways, all wrapped into one.

“You think you can handle me?” Lilah said with a grin. “Time for you to strip off, William Parry.”

Ah. Now that, I was not expecting.

She raised an eyebrow at my hesitation. “What, you’re worried now that someone will come and see us?”

The thought of someone watching Lilah and I make love against the mast of this yacht did something dark to me I could never have predicted.

My manhood twitched, a rush of pleasure flowing through me.

Lilah tilted her head on one side. “Damn, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Who would have thought it. William Parry, into voyeurism.”

It wasn’t that. Not really.

It was the idea that someone would see me make love someone as beautiful, as clever, as perfect as Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

Not that I was going to admit that to her. Obviously.

Without taking my eyes from her, without breaking the connection between us, I unbuttoned my waistcoat and then my shirt. My fingers only slipped a few times. I couldn’t be blamed for that.

Bloody hell, there was a naked Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick before me. It was a wonder I was still standing.

Dropping my shirt to the ground, I slipped off my shoes as my hands moved to my breeches.

“Let me.”

Before I could stop her, before I really knew what was happening, Lilah had reached out. Her hands were warm; I could feel their heat even through my breeches as her fingers slowly worked the buttons.

I moaned as she very slowly tugged my breeches down. Stepping out of them only meant stepping closer to her, which was not much of a hardship.

“Oh, William,” Lilah whispered.

I had to hope it was admiration, not disappointment. It had been a while since she and I had—I hadn’t changed that much, had I?

But as I blinked, trying to focus when so much desire was roaring through my veins, I saw it.

She wanted me. Lilah wanted nothing more but me, and that was good. That was all I had to give her.

I slowly reached out for her hips.

Lilah’s slight frown only spurred me on. She didn’t know what I was going to do? Well, all that was about to change.

“Oh!” she gasped .

She weighed almost nothing, just like before. It was easy as shit to lift her up, gently ease her legs around me, her ankles locking just above my buttocks, as I slowly slid Lilah onto my manhood.

Oh, God.

Every inch was like a promise finally restored. Lights blinked in the corners of my vision as I tried to concentrate on easing her slowly, making sure I didn’t hurt her.

There was a lot of me to accept, after all.

But Lilah didn’t seem to mind. Her eyelashes fluttered as she leaned against the mast, her hands around my neck.

“Deeper.”

I growled at the order she gave me, but did my best to comply. Christ, she felt incredible. Every warm inch that I sank into her, more of my heart broke into pieces for her.

I was hers. She could command me, order me to do anything, be anything, and I would obey. Of course I would. What man wouldn’t?

Lilah’s eyes fluttered open and she grinned as she beheld my panting chest, the strain of not pounding into her. “End me, William.”

I didn’t need any further invitation.

She cried out as I slammed her against the mast, thrusting myself into her, her fingers tightening around my shoulders.

And then I was building a rhythm—fast, because damnit it had been too long and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back. Knew I would be pushed to the edge too quickly.

And before I knew it, I was coming. “Lilah, oh God, yes!”

I poured myself into her, everything I was, everything I could be. Everything I wanted to be for her.

Lilah came, her secret place tightening around my manhood and making every moment of my own orgasm even more sweet.

And then we clung to each other, naked, panting, satisfied. At least, I was. I hoped she was.

I hoped I could do that to her every day, for the rest of our lives.