Page 53 of Wedded to the Cruel Duke

Phoebe’s fingernails were digging into his skin, but at that point, he did not care if she drew blood.

“Oh, sweet heaven,yes!”she moaned, her head tilted back. “Yes…yes…!”

He chuckled as he continued his ministrations. His skillful fingers delved deep into her center, relishing in the knowledge of what he was doing to her.

That he was the only man who had ever touched her thus.

He could sense her coming release in the way her hips thrust to meet his hand, in the way her moans came out more rapidly in breathless gasps. But his Phoebe was much too innocent to know what anorgasmwas.

“Do you feel it, sweetheart? Do you feel the pleasure building in you?”

She looked at him for a moment with dazed eyes and then nodded.

He smiled. “Good girl. Now, I want you to let go. Do not hold back,” he told her softly. “Let it wash over you. Surrender to it…”

He had barely finished his sentence when she threw her head back, her lips falling open as a throaty moan rose from her throat. Her hips thrashed wildly as she cried out. She shuddered slightly before she went limp in his arms.

“Dear God in heaven, what was that?” she murmured as she wilted into his embrace. “I…I do not think I can use my legs right now…”

Her warm brown eyes were nearly black in the lamplight, her thick lashes falling over them as she let out a soft sigh.

Charles chuckled as he put an arm under her knees and swept her off the ground easily.

“Then I shall take you back to your bedchamber,” he told her. “You have had quite a night, and you need to rest.”

She let out a soft yawn and looked up at him sleepily. “But what about you?”

He gave her a smile that was somewhat pained. “I…need to take care of something else.”

Specifically, the hardness that was now straining most uncomfortably against his breeches.

Maybe one day, he could teach Phoebe how to please him, too. If she pleased him any more than she already did, he just might expire from an overindulgence in carnal desire.

Not that he minded that, in the very least.

Charles shook his head as he carried her limp body out of the trapdoor. Her head had already rolled onto his shoulder, and he heard her let out a satisfied little sigh in her sleep.

One day, he might be able to open himself to her. He could not recall being so vulnerable with anyone else before—nor had he ever considered it.

But not tonight.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Charles…?”

Phoebe stretched her arms out lazily, like a cat basking in the afternoon sun. A small smile traced itself across her lips as she buried her face into the pillow.

She felt tired—deliciously so. Thegoodkind of tired, though.

Her mother had never told herpreciselywhat happened in the marriage bed—or outside of it, as was the case. But then again, she could understand Lady Townsend’s reticence on the matter—the things she did with Charles last night were ratherscandalous.

Wonderfully so.

Thinking about his expert fingers on her most intimate flesh still made her toes curl underneath the covers. The memory of his searing kiss had her clutching at the sheets.

Oh, how she wanted him to do it again! Over and over and over again…

“Good morning, milady. I have prepared the things you require for your morning ablution.”