Page 28

Lilah

I shuddered slightly as William slowly teased off the silk French underwear I’d chosen from the three I’d purchased that afternoon. Each one made of the softest silk, each one delicately designed to ensure absolutely nothing was revealed, yet absolutely everything was.

Softer than air, but there was something softer trailing down my chest.

William’s fingers.

I caught his gaze, smoldering and hungry, and a rush of desire peaked at my secret place.

God, this was what I had wanted.

Not just lovemaking.

Not that lovemaking with William wasn’t incredible; he knew a way of touching a woman that made me feel…that made me know he loved me.

Because there was an emotional connection to everything we shared that put this beyond mere a physical peak. There was a meeting of minds, a meeting of souls. Hearts intertwined that could never be unwoven. Hearts that knew, finally, that this was a place where we could be ourselves, be open.

Be ready to receive.

I reached out, splaying a palm against William’s hot chest. Wiry hairs prickled under my fingertips, sparking new desires, new wants.

Our breathing was short. Mine caught in my throat as longing transformed into an ache that only William could satisfy. William’s was short, heavy, his breath hitching as my negligee fell to the bedchamber floor.

“Oh, Lilah,” he moaned.

I grinned flirtatiously. “I'm sorry, what was that?”

His eyes darkened with mischief. “You know precisely what it was.”

“I don’t think I do—I don’t think you articulated particularly well,” I teased, slowly easing off his breeches that were just going to get in the way.

William did not move as I slowly lowered myself to the ground as I pulled the fabric down, revealing a manhood that was hard and clearly aching for me. The slick trickle of desire on the end of his manhood looked so good, but I managed to restrain myself from licking it off there and then.

Oh, no. We had much greater pleasures to enjoy.

But with a growl and a sudden movement, it appeared that my impressive self-restraint no longer mattered.

“William!”

I laughed as he picked me up, throwing me onto the bed.

We’d come home so that we could focus, that’s what we’d told each other. That’s what we had said to Kineallen, and Markham and his wife, and Georgiana and her husband .

Though I think in truth, there was no other option. William couldn’t keep his hands off me at the moment, and I didn’t see that changing any time soon.

Excruciating to be around, that was how Kineallen had described it.

It didn’t feel excruciating to me. I gasped in delight as William joined me on the bed, his hands on my hips, holding me down.

I knew what he was going to do—what he longed to do. What I had known he enjoyed from when we first starting making love, and thank God that need hadn’t ever died away.

“You lie here and be quiet,” William said with a growl, fixing me with a stare.

I looked directly back, nothing to hide, nothing else to say but, “You know I won’t.”

His fingers tightened in my hips and I bucked under them, just to show him how greatly I was enjoying this. How greatly I enjoyed being desired.

Because there was nothing like him. William Parry.

A good heart wrapped up in a clever mind and a hot body.

Everything a girl would want, right?

“William!” I moaned, my back arching.

It was impossible to stay silent as he had commanded, and I didn’t care. No woman should be able to hold her tongue when her man has darted his own into her waiting secret place.

“William, oh, yes,” I squirmed, trying to shift my hips down to take him further in—but William’s firm hands on my hips preventing me from fucking his face.

Instead, I just had to lie there.

It was not much of a hardship. Prickles of delightful pleasure were roaring through my body, my breasts tingling, my whole body flushed with a growing aching need for ecstasy. It was one that William would soon be giving me.

“Oh, God…”

I couldn’t help it. William’s tongue had ceased darting in and out of me, and instead was now slowly circling around my clit, warming it, teasing it, and I knew one thing that could push me over the edge.

Slowly trailing my finger and thumbs into my mouth, wetting them, I clasped them around my nipples and tugged.

“Yes, yes, yes?—”

The peak came quicker than I had expected—but then, William had been teasing me for over an hour. It was a miracle I hadn’t come already, and when it did, my whole body shook, unable to contain such pleasure.

William did not let up with his tongue, clinging to me, ensuring that he tasted every drop of sweetness as I exploded.

When he finally lifted his head, I saw a desperate hunger in his eyes. “Now I'm going to make you scream my name…”

“I’d like to see you try,” I murmured, weak after such an intense climax as William moved up my body, kissing and licking as he went.

Not that I doubted he could do it. There was something about William, something in the way he knew me. Had learned my body, craved the insight to know just how precisely to make me fall apart in his arms.

As I did now on a regular basis.

“You will cry my name,” William said roughly, spearing his manhood into me as he spoke.

I moaned, shifted slightly in the bed to welcome him further in. I was wet enough, dripping wet, and his thick manhood pushed into me, stretching me as he always did.

“I won’t,” I teased, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down for a kiss.

It was warm, and wet, and almost pushed me over the edge again—but I wasn’t going to capitulate.

“You will shout my name, Delilah, Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick,” William said darkly, almost removing his manhood from me before thrusting into me again.

I shuddered. Fine, he did feel rather good. But that didn’t mean?—

“Cry my name, Lilah,” William coaxed as he leaned on one arm to allow his other hand to trail down my body, sparking flickers of sweet pleasure. “Shout it…shout my name…”

His rhythmic thrusts were edging me, purposefully not giving me everything and I needed it—I needed him.

“William,” I gasped, my fingers holding tight to his shoulders as though I would fly off the face of the earth if I didn’t. “William, please?—”

“Louder,” he growled, a wicked grin on his face. “Louder, Lilah.”

And I knew I didn’t have to, that I could remain in this space just inches before my next climax—but I didn’t want to. Because I knew William wouldn’t let himself go until I did, and I wouldn’t hold his pleasure from him.

“William!” I cried, throwing back my head and accepting his sudden pace.

He pushed me over the edge in an instant. Falling apart, my pleasure seared through my body like a promise. Like the knowledge that I was finally where I was supposed to be.

I was home.

William

Every time that I thought she couldn’t surprise me, she did. Every time I even began to underestimate her, Lilah proved me wrong.

God, I couldn’t wait for the rest of my life to see just how wrong I could be.

I collapsed onto the bed, exhaustion aching in my bones. “I love you.”

“Of course you do,” Lilah said with a laugh, lying on her side in the bed next to me. “I just made you come. Again.”

“That’s not why?—”

“I know,” she said, a teasingly lilt in her voice. “I know.”

Lilah slipped into my arms and I held her close. I was never going to lose her again.

I’d spent years after being with Lilah without her. And it just wasn’t worth it. My heart couldn’t take it: I needed her in a way I had never expected to need anyone.

And now here we were. All curled up in her place, on a lazy Saturday morning, with no calls on our time and no need to go anywhere. We could just?—

“Lilah, Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick—are you reading your letters?” I said with a laugh.

Lilah dropped her correspondence off the side of the bed with a guilty expression. “Maybe.”

Her laughter joined mine. I could feel it as well as hear it, her body pressed up against mine.

“Do you not think you could forget about the Gambling Dukes for five minutes?—”

“No, I don’t think I can,” Lilah retorted, a smile teasing her lips. “And I don’t think you’d want me any other way, would you? ”

Well, of course not.

I replied in the only way I knew how: with a kiss.

A kiss that started off the only way I knew how: with her pleasure at the center.

My tongue delved into her mouth, teasing the pleasure I knew I could stoke from its subtle movements. Subtle movements that were quickly matched by my fingers, stroking down her hips, around her thighs, and into her secret place.

“God, you’re so wet,” I whispered between kisses.

Lilah’s breathing was rapid, but she managed to stammer, “O-Only for you, William…”

It didn’t take me long to stroke her to such a pitch that she cried out, demanding that I finish her. It was my pleasure to do so.

“So,” I said quietly, rubbing her back as her ecstasy slowly subsided. “You let your guard down. Finally.”

Lilah’s gasping breath was slowing, but there was nothing slow in her knowing smile. “I realized what I was willing to wager,” she said softly. “And what I wasn’t willing to lose.”

A smile crept across my face as warmth suffused through my chest.

Not willing to lose.

Well, that probably encapsulated our connection to date rather well. Both of us looking to come out on top, neither one of us happy to compromise: until we really thought we had lost each other.

“You know,” I said lazily, allowing my gaze to slip to the ceiling, “Kineallen has offered to induct me as a founding member of the Gambling Dukes.”

Lilah’s loud groan was precisely what I had expected. “Threatened to, you mean!”

“What, you don’t want to have me in the drawing room, arguing with you, putting down all your points?” I said, my grin broadening. “Ouch!”

I rubbed at where Lilah had gently—fine, perhaps not too gently—prodded me.

“You accept that offer at your own risk,” Lilah said darkly, though there was warmth now in the hand splayed against my chair, teasing the hairs across my chest with a finger. “Did they offer you a formal position? Tea urchin? My personal assistant?”

I moaned at the thought. “God, the idea of being able to sneak into your study and make you?—”

“Such a shame I share a study at Kineallen’s, or I could keep you under my desk,” Lilah said, her breath warm against my throat. “Just think, I could demand you pleasure me just by opening my legs.”

I had to close my eyes for a moment just to force the image away. It was intoxicating. Far too tempting.

“Seriously though.”

I opened my eyes. Lilah was leaning on her elbows now, looking down at me with a solemn expression.

I frowned. “Seriously, though?”

Another jab in the stomach, though this time I was expecting it.

“My friend sees everyone in terms of what he can get from them,” Lilah said, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Kineallen isn’t going to play fair with you, not now we’re married.”

I smiled, unable to help myself. “We’re married.”

Married. For the rest of our lives, Lilah could challenge me and confuse me, and as long as we could talk about it, we’d always have the chance to make up again.

And if our reconciliation sessions were going to be anything like this…well. Bring on the arguments, I say .

“You should tell him no.”

Lilah looked stern, but she smiled as I shifted and pulled her closer.

“You don’t think I’d be a good founding member of the Gambling Dukes?”

“I think you’d be a great founding member of the Gambling Dukes,” she said warmly. “But I like you better like this. My husband.”

“It’s a good title,” I mused.

Lilah snuggled into my neck. “Mmmhmm.”

“Father would be better.”

I held my breath as Lilah stiffened in my arms.

Well. Perhaps that was a bit abrupt.

But I couldn’t help it. Lilah was everything to me—had been everything to me twice. I wasn’t about to lose her again.

Lilah pushed herself up suddenly and glared down at me. “You’re jesting.”

“No, I don’t think I am,” I said quietly, gazing up at her beautiful eyes, the way her lips pinked as she flushed. “I want to have a child with you, Lilah. No more misunderstandings, no more getting things wrong. Just more opportunities to experience joy.”

“But—but—” Lilah laughed as she brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You really think we can make a go of it?”

“I'm sure it’ll be hard—but I would rather go through that challenge with you than return to my life as it was,” I said honestly. “And why not? I’d love to have a child with you—see my eyes in a babe that has your hair?—”

Lilah giggled as she pulled me up into a sitting position. “Are you seriously suggesting that we try for a child—now?”

“Absolutely,” I said with a grin. “But if you would rather I joined the Gambling Dukes and spent all my time wagering?—”

Pulling me into a kiss was probably the best way for Lilah to get me to stop talking, and it worked.

I breathed her in, holding her close as our lips parted.

She was mine. My Lilah. And I couldn’t be more proud of her.

“Is that a yes?” I said, my voice breathless.

Lilah glanced down before meeting my eyes shyly. “It’s a yes. Though God knows what Kineallen’s going to say! He’s the king of the club, he’ll not like losing out on you.”

“Whatever you say, my queen,” I said, nipping kisses down Lilah’s neck.

She was probably going to say something else. In fact I'm sure she was, but my fingers were now working in tandem with my lips, and Lilah’s breath was shortening again.

“We should probably get up,” she moaned under her breath.

With a swift movement, I lifted Lilah and placed her on the bed, lying on her back.

“Probably,” I said, nestling myself between her legs and almost groaning aloud at how sweet she felt. “But our hearts need a little more mending if you ask me. And I have just the wager…”