She would show him how to move on. That he could. That itwaspossible.
“You cannot create love where it does not exist, Ash. Just as you cannot take it away when it has taken root. You can tell me all you want that you are undeserving, and I should not love you, and I should save my love for someone else. But it doesn’t work that way. I love you. Only you. Forever you.”
She stepped up to him, her hands reaching for his cravat, and she hurriedly worked to undo it.
“Do you not think that a marriage where there is love even before it has begun has a much better outlook than your previous one?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. She trailed her fingers over his newly exposed skin, and he shivered.
“Let me help you move past this,” she whispered. “Let me be strong for you. I want to be that person.”
She moved to his shirt, pulling it from his trousers, and he helped her lift it over his head. Then she gave him a soft push on his chest and walked him backward until he bumped into her mattress. He leaned against it, and she dropped to her knees.
“You inspireso muchfeelingin me, Ash. I can hardly bear it.”
36
Ash
Ash’seyesstretchedwideas he stared down at Felicity. Felicity, who was currently on her knees and undoing the front of his trousers.
“F-Felicity, what are you doing?”
“I am taking what I want, Duke. Showing you how much I love you. How much I crave you. How much I need you.”
She curled her hand around his shaft and stroked, slowly and steadily. He sucked in a sharp breath. Shite, shite,shite.
Her words had been like a sharpened blade against his barriers. Tearing at them, leaving nothing but frayed edges unraveling at the seams. And pushing forth from behind those barriers? Hope. That with her by his side, his warrior, he could finally break free. How had he ever thought he could stop this magnificent woman from doing anything she set her mind to?
“This is how this is going to go, Duke…”
His eyes dropped shut, his cock growing harder. The minx chuckled. She knew. Knew what that word did to him. Knew what her taking control did to him. God, he bloody loved it when she called him Duke. Every time she said it, all thoughts fled, and his want for her broke free from the cage in which he kept it confined.
“I’m going to use my mouth on you… I’m going to pleasure you, because that’s what brings me pleasure.”
His eyes flew to hers, and a strangled sound that he feared sounded anything but manly fled him.
“And, as I’ve never done this before, you are going to tell me exactly what you want me to do. No holding back. No hesitation.” Her mouth kicked up in that saucy half-smile he’d come to love. “Understood?”
He sank his teeth into his lip, biting hard to the point it burned. How did she do it? She, the inexperienced one, had him capitulating, had him completely at her mercy. Her voice, her words, commanded his attention. Commanded him. Even now, on her knees, he was nothing if not her servant, her supplicant.
He nodded his assent.
“I will always want your touch, Ash,” she murmured, her words soft, her breath hitching. “And I will always want to touch you.”
And he believed her.
She wet her lips and stared up at him, glistening, plump, tempting. Then she leaned forward, brushing them softly over the head of his cock. A low groan ripped from him at the same time her tongue peeked out to flick over him.
Fuck me.He was dead. He must be. Because Felicity was on her knees, caressing his cock with plush, rosy lips. And there was no way this was happening unless he was dead. Or dreaming. Or suffering from delusions.
She leaned back, gaze boring into his. “Now, tell me what you want, Duke. I am losing my patience.”
And he was losing his mind. “Is this truly happening?” he whispered hoarsely.
She grinned, all cheekiness and all Felicity. “Actually, Your Grace, nothing is happening right now. I have a craving for ducal cock, and you are so cruelly denying me.” She pouted and blinked up at him with large, hungry eyes, and ifthatwasn’t a sight with the power to kill, he didn’t know what was.
He reached behind him and fisted the coverlet for purchase, his heart pumping blood at a dizzying rate to his aching cock. His aching cock, which was a mere inch from Felicity’s pink, parted, glossy lips.
