“Yes.”
“Tomorrow?”
“We leave tonight. I have sent word to open the town house.”
She stared at him in astonishment. “Is the duchess aware?”
It was the duke’s turn to lift an imperious brow. “Am I to ask my mother permission to open my town house?”
Jules hid her smile. “Of course not, but the duchess may have other plans.”
There was a dangerous gleam in the gaze that glanced at her. “Is it not fortunate I have my own mind, Wildflower?”
“And you wish for me to accompany you about town?”
“Yes.”
The way he drawled his answer pitched sensations low in her belly. “Then I shall accompany you, my good duke.”
James reached for her, and she flowed into his arms with a sigh of pleasure, tipping her face upward.
He paused, his lips almost touching hers. “I wanted to do this the moment I saw you this morning.”
Jules trembled slightly, anticipating his embrace. James touched his mouth to hers. Somehow she thought he would have been ravishing, bruising her lips with his passion. Yet he was…tender, and something fierce yet sweet hitched through her heart as their tongues glided sensually and sinuously.
Jules moaned into his kiss. Oh, he was so very good at it. He sucked at her tongue, and she threaded her fingers through his hair, gripping him to her. She didn’t want to ever lose this feeling, the taste and feel of him. A hungry little whimper broke from Jules when he pushed her against the rough bark of a tree and shoved his hand between their tightly fitted bodies.
He went straight for the front flap of her trousers, undoing the opening with impatient tugs, pushing his hands down to slide his fingers deep inside her sex. Jules gasped into his mouth, and he took the sound within him, returning a purr of pleasure that vibrated deep inside her body, landing hotly inside her quim.
She was sore from last night, but none of that mattered, because every prudent consideration had been tossed to the winds. Jules felt seared…consumed…and far too daring. Knowing they could be discovered by anyone wandering through the woods heightened something inexplicable inside her. James pulled from her, dropped to his knees, leaned forward, and licked her exposed sex. She cried out at the lash of exquisite pleasure.
The sound of the babbling brook, its swollen waters rippling over boulders and rocks, and the scent of the forest drowned away under a haze of arousal. It was only the duke and her in this moment.
James’s fingers stroked even deeper inside her cunny, and Jules almost wailed when he added a third finger, stretching and devastating her senses when he sucked her clitoris into his mouth. Her thighs trembled and she sagged against the tree, slapping a hand over her mouth to contain her hoarse sounds of pleasure. Her other hand held his head to her as he licked and tormented her with his tongue.
James released her, whirling her to face the tree, his thighs shoving between her from behind. His cock pressed against her sex and Jules leaned her head back against his shoulder as he forged into her until she felt filled to bursting with the overwhelming pressure.
His teeth grazed her arched neck. “You are tight and wet…and smell so damn sweet.”
The rough whisper had her clenching her belly to fight against the hot surge of arousal. Nothing should feel this intense, and Jules hated to admit these feelings scared her.
“Open the shirt. I want to see your nipples.”
She licked her lips and breathed in raggedly, but Jules obeyed, her fingers shaking as she unbuttoned her waistcoat and then untied her cravat before unbuttoning her shirt. He reached inside and tugged the bindings until the cool air washed over her breasts.
“How pretty,” he breathed, reaching around to cup them in his large hands.
He began a slow, deliberate massage of her breasts, fingers tugging and rolling her nipples. The feeling of his rough calloused thumbs pinching and plucking her sensitive tips pulled a whimper from Jules.
“I smell your lush sultriness before your response soaks my cock, and these tight little ripples are killing me, Wildflower.”
His lips moved to her shoulder, and he kissed right at the hollow of her throat, over her fiercely beating pulse.
“James?”
“Hmm?”
“Move,” she choked out, “move now!”
