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Lilah didn’t even bother speaking—obviously we were beyond words at this point. She leaned closer, pressing her lips on mine, showing me with the passion of a woman who had evidently been holding back.

But I wanted more than this. I didn’t want to just tell Lilah how I felt.

I wanted to show her. And I could think of one particularly good way to do just that.

Though I desperately wanted to stay in the kiss, I slipped from Lilah’s grasp and dropped to the remarkably soft floor of the royal box.

“William—William, what are you?—”

“Keep quiet,” I said softly, hoping she could hear the warmth in my tone.

For a moment, I caught Lilah’s gaze. Her affection for me was tangible now, as though the floodgates had been opened and we could now be honest with each other, sharing far more than I could ever have dreamed.

Her eyes were wide, her confusion obvious.

I grinned. She wasn’t going to remain confused for very long.

Lilah gasped precisely when I knew she would. What woman wouldn’t? After all, I had just knelt before her, slipped my head under her gown, and?—

I moaned, trying to keep the noise to a minimum.

The woman wasn’t wearing any undergarments. Of course she wasn’t. She knew what I loved doing to her, and she was going to make it even easier for me to eat her out .

I shivered slightly as I placed my hands on her thighs, slowly, slowly opening them up. Lilah seemed to know what I needed. She shifted down in her seat, making it even easier for me to access her warm and welcoming secret place.

A gentle movement and I swept my finger across her.

Hot damn.

She was wet. Already. God, she loved me.

And I loved her. It was hard to believe, in a way, that I had said it. I’d felt it for so long, had known within myself that I had loved her when we had been lovers before, and had never stopped loving her.

It wasn’t possible, as far as I was concerned, to stop loving Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

But now it was said. I couldn’t hold it back any longer, the passion I felt for her, the strength of my feelings making it impossible for Lilah to continue without hearing those words from my lips.

And now I could do better than tell her. I could show her.

It appeared I wasn’t the only eager one. A very slight moan could be heard from just above me, and Lilah shuffled in her seat, widening her knees, welcoming me in.

“William,” she whimpered.

I groaned. That was my girl.

“I said to be quiet,” I muttered, pressing a kiss against her thigh.

A thigh that was scalding.

There was nothing more attractive than a woman who was running just as hot as you were. Being wanted this way, it made me want to cast all caution to the wind and tell her to scream her head off.

Let everyone at the opera look. Let them know I was pleasuring Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

Her hand reached down and rested on my head through the material of her gown.

A shiver rushed down my spine. The filthy minx, she was trying to push my head closer to her secret place!

Well, there was no point in holding back. I wanted what she wanted: to bring her to such screaming pleasure that she had no choice but to cry out.

I was going to make Lilah pant.

But first, I was going to go slow.

It took all my self-control not to pour my tongue deep into her wet folds as I kissed along her slit. Fuck, I wanted to taste her, to know her, to tease her to an edge.

This was about Lilah. Not me.

Under the music, which was growing louder as more performers evidently took to the stage behind me, I could hear Lilah’s little whimper of pleasure as I slid my tongue into her.

God, she tasted good.

Slowly, I inched my tongue deeper. Lilah’s fingers tightened on my head and I reveled in the power I had over her. The power to make her beg.

Because she was begging. Lilah didn’t need to speak for me to know she was gagging for it, desperate for me to make her come, quick and hard.

I wasn’t going to be that nice.

Slowly, my tongue slipped back into my mouth as I pressed a reverential kiss on her lips.

Lilah shifted, trying to thrust forward, trying to buck into my face. “William, please?—”

I kissed her again, and again I slid my tongue into her—but this time, I pressed it, hard, against her clit .

The spasm of pleasure rocked Lilah’s body and my manhood hardened. God, I wanted this.

Try as I might, I couldn’t hold back. The opera music was growing in volume and I used that, sucking and licking Lilah’s clit until her hands left my head. She was clinging onto the arms of the chair, I was sure of it, desperately trying not to cry out as she?—

God, there it was.

Lilah’s orgasm tightened her secret place, kissing my tongue back as she spasmed, her stifled panting moans just audible under the soaring pitch of the opera.

When I emerged from her gown, she had a look on her face I had never seen before.

“Sit down,” she said quietly.

I hesitated, just for a moment, then obeyed.

It wasn’t the response I had expected. I had told Lilah I loved her, pleasured her in the middle of the royal box at the opera…and then this? No thanks, no words of affection, no?—

Oh, the naughty girl.

It was obvious what Lilah planned the moment she dropped to her knees before me.

“No,” I said quietly, trying to grab her hands. “No, Lilah, I can’t?—”

“Yes, you can,” Lilah said, a wicked look in her eyes.

God, that look was almost enough. My manhood was hard from pleasuring her with my mouth, and I knew it wouldn’t take long if she truly meant to?—

“Someone will see,” I hissed, trying to bat away Lilah’s fingers from my breeches as my manhood struggled against the fabric, desperate for her to succeed.

Lilah’s smile widened. “Let them see.”

I blew out heavily. What the?—

“Besides, it’s dark in here,” Lilah said, finally unhooking the top button of my breeches. “No one will even look over…unless you give them a reason to.”

I swallowed as Lilah pulled my breeches to my knees, releasing my throbbing manhood.

This was not what I had in mind—and somehow the eroticism was turned up a thousand percent.

It had been hot when I was the one going down on her. But this?

I threw back my head and bit down hard on my lip as Lilah first took my manhood in her mouth. Oh, her mouth was so wet, so warm, so welcoming. I’d almost forgotten how damned good she was with that mouth.

She nestled down, deeper, taking me further and further in, and I couldn’t help but whimper as her lips met the base of my shaft.

And then it was suddenly over.

Lilah raised an eyebrow. “I thought I told you to be quiet.”

I managed, “The hell I can.”

Her giggle was cut short by a sudden loud crescendo in the music, but I hardly heard it.

Her tongue was licking the dripping head of my manhood, and I whimpered as shoots of dark pleasure roared through my body.

God, I never could have predicted this.

Slowly, far too slowly, Lilah kissed down my shaft, sparking tingling pleasure down my manhood and across my chest. One of her hands had found my balls and was caressing one of them, and I tried desperately not to thrust hard into her mouth.

Thrusting into her mouth like this would be too much. I’d come in less than a minute .

As it was, the beast edged me for what felt like forever. Lilah sucked me hard, taking in my full manhood and moving her head rhythmically up and down, halting only when my breath hitched in my throat and I was sure I was going to come.

After the fifth time she did this, I muttered in a strangled voice, “God, finish me, Lilah, please!”

I didn’t mean to beg, but it was too much. This woman had me half hard all the time just by being. I couldn’t take much more of this.

Lilah grinned, pulling my manhood from her mouth and kissing the tingling peak as she whispered, “And what are you going to do about it if I don’t?”

And that’s what made me do it.

Pushing Lilah hard on the shoulders, she gasped as she toppled over, but I didn’t give her any time to protest.

I leapt from my chair, dropping down to the carpet of the royal box and swiftly nestling between Lilah’s legs.

“William, what are you?—”

“Oh yes,” I moaned as I sank my manhood into her wet secret place. “God, you wanted this?—”

“I wanted it so bad,” Lilah said in a whisper as the opera continued above us. “Finish me, William!”

I dipped my head and kissed her hard on the lips. “I want to make love to you?—”

“I already know you love me,” she whispered, a wild look in her eyes. “We’re about to come in the royal box of the Royal Opera House, with hundreds of people around us. You better bring me to completion. Now.”

My guttural moan went unheard. Unheard by her, unheard by the opera’s audience, unheard even by me.

My ears could only hear the roaring pulse of my throbbing manhood .

I pulled myself almost from her then pounded back into her.

Stars started to appear in my eyes as I felt the crashing wave of my orgasm rolling toward me. Sensual pleasure was fizzing through every inch of my body, and at any moment I was going to?—

“William!” Lilah cried.

I crushed my mouth on hers to stem her voice, and just at that moment I fell apart. Moaning into her mouth, our combined pleasure lay low under the pinnacle of the song that was being performed.

Lilah cradled me in her arms as I collapsed into her.

Hell’s bells…