Page 16 of The Duke’s Hellion (Duke Dare #3)

H is eyes had turned dark, burrowing into her soul. But instead of recognizing their desire, she said the first thing that came to mind. “I told you to close your eyes.”

“I didn’t.” She thought he should feel some remorse for that decision, but his eyes spoke only of desire.

“I can see that.” She stood still, hand out, waiting for his assistance, but he didn’t move. “Help me out of this.”

Wordlessly, he lifted his hand and acted like the sturdy support she needed to step over the billowing fabric.

He was the last man on earth she would have expected support from.

Yet somehow it felt like the most natural thing in the world for him to be offering that to her.

It was silly to think. It was just his hand.

And it was merely holding hers, hardly even holding.

One might be better off referring to the touch as a graze.

Her body shook as she made her steps. His touch was unnerving. Him in her bedroom was confusing.

She had never had a man in her bedchamber before. Well, since this wasn’t even her room, perhaps it still didn’t count. So what would it be like to have Sam in her room? Or their room? Him as her husband…that thought was—well, it just had no place here.

“That will be all,” she said because she had to say it. She needed to put some distance between them. Class or otherwise.

“I’m not your servant, Mimi.” His voice was firm, just like his offered support had been. He was a man who knew who he was. He didn’t let other people walk all over him. In fact, he wasn’t even the kind to let someone take a single step onto him. But she couldn’t stifle her attempts.

She lifted her chin like a queen, “Did you, or did you not just help me out of my dress?”

“I did.” The words, like rocks, were ground out of his mouth being pulverized into sand.

“Well then?” It was as silly as any other argument they had had, competing to see who could win a superfluous debate.

“Men often help women out of their clothing.”

Bah! Her face flamed. It would seem the point would go to him this round. She had not been expecting that reply, and of course, now all she could think about were husbands all over the world undressing their wives in preparation for…that.

“Just as I thought. You’re so naive.” He turned toward the door.

She should want him to leave. He wasn’t supposed to be alone with her, never mind in this room with an oversized bed.

Which, now that she looked over to it seemed to be inviting her.

Beckoning to her. And she immediately knew that she wanted to stall.

He couldn’t leave just yet. Not on that note.

Not with that tone. Not thinking he had won.

“How dare you say that to me,” her tone was demanding, but quiet. There was no need to raise her voice and cause a disturbance.

“Who else would I say it to? You’re the only one of my acquaintances acting like a child.”

“I’m not acting like a child. I’m a woman.”

His eyes dropped to her breasts, and for the first time she considered what he might actually be able to see through her layers. But she didn’t let that stop her. In fact, she pushed out her chest to prove her point. Let him stare if he wanted.

“I’m a woman and I can make my own choices. I don’t need you interfering in my life.”

“Interfering, am I?”

“Yes,” she said, but her voice was a bit wobbly.

“So it was your plan all along to snare Roger into a scandal and try to force his hand into marrying you even though he would have refused to do the honorable thing?” Of course he would have to ask that.

She wanted to put that event out of her mind, at least in front of Sam, because she still hadn’t processed it all.

It wasn’t clear what had happened. She only knew that part of her—a very tiny part—wanted to defend Roger in front of Sam.

She didn’t want to look the fool, chasing a man who didn’t want her.

Not in front of Sam. The last thing she wanted was to appear incompetent in him.

He would view that weakness and lord it over her. Or worse, pity her.

First, she wanted him to know that she would never stoop to that level of trapping a man, so she said, “Even if he asked, I wouldn’t have accepted the offer. I have my pride.”

“Do you? Because the man was refusing to ask.”

So she had to defend Roger, as empty as the defense felt even to her own ears. “He wouldn’t have refused.”

“He did refuse. Didn’t you hear him down there?” He was right, but she couldn’t let on to that fact. She wasn’t done fighting yet, even if she had to spout half-truths. Or full lies.

“Roger is a good man. Unlike you. He would have done the honorable thing.” After the words were out, she wasn’t sure any of those statements were true, though she wanted to give Roger the benefit of the doubt.

And even though now she knew, standing here with Sam, even if Roger had offered, she would have declined.

“You’re delusional.”

She walked up to him and raised her hand to slap him, but he caught her wrist. Her face was inches from his. “You are an odious man.”

“I won’t disagree with you.”

“You should be punished for how you’ve been treating me.”

Sam’s eyes coasted over her body, his intense gaze meeting her eyes. Challenging. Daring.

“ I should be punished?”

“Yes,” her voice actually trembled. She tried to pull her wrist free.

“Me? I’m the one who should be scolded?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think so. If anyone needs a spanking, it’s you.”

A spanking? A tremor wrestled through her muscles. “Wh-why would you say that?”

He licked his bottom lip and his hand gripped her hip. “Because if I spanked you, then you might reconsider your behavior.”

Never in all her fantasies had she ever imagined spanking, but the thought of Sam…

and his hand…on her bottom…God. Her nipples were pebbling and her body had entered a new climate.

Hot and wet. She felt as though she could be wading through a jungle for all the dampness that had suddenly appeared.

And wouldn’t that be just the fantasy? To be taken on a jungle floor by an astonishingly handsome man that she couldn’t stand.

Yes. She wanted that to become her reality.

Right now. He was offering. In a way. Or she had turned it around so that he thought he thought he had been offering. Either way, this was her chance.

Her bottom lip was tucked into her mouth and her arms were already wrapped around his neck.

“What are you doing?”

“I think you should do it,” she whispered in as sultry a voice as she knew how to produce.

“What?” Sam’s eyebrows shot to the ceiling.

She inched closer to his mouth, “You should do it. Spank me.” She pushed up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against his ear. “I dare you.”

His voice sounded a bit hoarse, as though his tongue was tangled in one of the large jungle leaves they were currently wading through. “What about Roger?”

“Roger, who?” Roger was…well, confusing. Fate had not dealt her a clear hand. Roger was out.

“So you’re not going to pursue your destiny?”

“He’s not my destiny.” She could say that now because at the very least, she knew that to be true.

The man wasn’t interested in her. Never had been.

She had wasted enough time and effort on him.

And now she could see that she had never truly been interested in him.

Only in archery and the possibility that fate was speaking to her.

Sam studied her face. “What is your destiny?”

The question was too deep, too personal for the moment.

Right now, she didn’t care about her destiny.

She wanted here and now. She wanted her fantasy.

Devil take it, she wanted reality, and reality was a curious thing.

Reality was Sam, right in front of her, giving her a good reason to be naughty, and she wanted to take it.

He was a gorgeous man. Any woman would gladly take her place, but he was with her.

He had chosen her in this moment. He was reprimanding her, but wasn’t that some twisted version of protection?

He was here for her. That was the point.

Was he bluffing when he said he would spank her? She would know soon enough.

“I don’t know my destiny. I just want what’s here for right now.”

He was obviously struggling with making a decision.

“I want a man that knows what he wants, Sam. If you need to think about that or you’re not man enou—”

Strands of her hair were flying around her cheeks, she was being hauled—again.

“Don’t,” he said, tossing her on the bed, “question me, and my manhood.”

Breathless, she lay there, waiting for what was about to come.

“Get on your knees.”

Oh.

My.

God.

This was happening. She scrambled to her knees, her head hanging between her elbows.

Sam lifted her bottom hem and sucked in his breath.

“I’m going to do this one time and one time only. There are no expectations after this.”

“Yes,” she mumbled, her heart racing, her arms shaking as they held up her body weight.

She wanted his hands on her body. On a part of her that no one had touched.

In a way that no one had touched her before.

She wanted his scolding. His protection.

And she wanted it desperately. She could feel an ache between her legs as she waited.

She wanted to peek over her shoulder to see his face, but she could hardly think straight, never mind coordinate the thoughts it would take to turn her head and give him a coy look.

When he spoke, his deep voice reverberated through her stomach and caused her heart to tremble. “This is for almost causing a scandal.”

She nodded, but wasn’t sure if he could see it—

SMACK!

She groaned. God, if she had been wet earlier, after the ceremony, she was dripping right now. She could feel it seeping down her leg.

Through her groan, she didn’t hear what Sam said, but then his hands gripped her waist and she was straddling him. Her core was nestled on either side of a bulge in his breeches, and she moaned at the contact.

She threw her head back, arching her breasts up against him, wanting to feel more.

She needed more, but she had no idea what to do with him. Well…she had some ideas.