“Just you, darling.” He lifted their linked hands to his lips, kissing the top of hers. He would pleasure her so thoroughly she would never be the same. “Just you.”
A husky sound emerged from her, half want, half aching need. “You already have me. Here I am. Yours.”
But there remained part of her she kept for herself alone. He had pushed her far enough for one evening, however. Though he had once vowed he would break her, it was the last thing he wished to do now.
He kissed a path to her wrist, wanting to devour her whole. “Are you mine, banshee?”
“You know I am.”
Higher still he went, all the way to the lush skin of her inner elbow, so incredibly supple, so delicious. Her skin smelled faintly of lemon there, fresh and bright. He licked her, his tongue finding a new place to gauge her heart’s frantic beats. She gasped. He smiled into the flesh he teased.
And then he raised his head, meeting her sultry stare. “Show me.”
Her lips parted, the pupils of her eyes going round. “What do you want me to do, Leo?”
Her bold question made his cock—already straining against the placket of his trousers—go completely erect. He released her hand at last, dragging her mouth to his for a long, thorough kiss rather than answering her with words. She made another soft whimper, and the raw need in her voice nearly brought him to his knees. Already she was desperate for him in the same way he was for her, and he knew if he lifted her skirts, parted the slit in her drawers, he would find her folds wet, the plump bud hidden within eager to be stroked.
She was a welcome conflagration.
But he wanted to prolong this. To take her so thoroughly, by morning light, there would be no question in her mind she was his in every way. So he broke the kiss and forced himself to maintain a solid grip on his control. “I want you to give mecarte blancheto do whatever I wish to you.”
Her eyes went wide, her tongue flicking over her kiss-swollen lips. “Whatever you wish?”
He did not miss the note of trepidation in her tone, and though the unknown often heightened the pleasure for him, it was not his intent for her to fear him. “Whatever I wish as long as it gives you pleasure,” he elaborated.
Her gaze plumbed his, searching for something. Reassurance? An inkling as to his depravity? He could not be certain. This too was an exercise in trust, so he held his tongue, allowing her to mull it over in her mind.
Just when he was convinced she would deny him, she gave a swift, jerky nod. “Very well.”
Lust, pure and raw, surged through him. But along with it came the swift current of something else, something even more potent and primitive and powerful: love. He loved this woman so damn much it was a physical ache.
“You are certain?” he forced himself to ask.
“Yes.” Nothing more than a sibilant sigh, her acquiescence.
But it sent him over the edge. “Good. I want you naked.”
Her eyes never leaving his, she reached for the top button on the long line marching down her bodice, the line that had been driving him bloody mad ever since she had first descended for dinner earlier. It slipped from its mooring with ease. Her small, nimble fingers moved to the next. Then the next. All the way down she went, until she reached the last and her bodice gaped open, revealing the lush mounds of her breasts pushed high beneath her corset.
So much beautiful skin on display. Such temptation. All his, all for him.
His mouth went dry.
“Do you like it, Leo?” Her query was a seductive murmur, and it sent heat down his spine.
“Do I like what?” he rasped.
He watched, riveted, as she opened another hidden fastening and shrugged free of first the sleeves of her gown, then the full tiered skirts, until they fell in a single rush of silk to the carpet. She stood before him in a corset cover embroidered with roses, a fine chemise, creamy silk stockings, and lacy white drawers. With her black hair, vivid eyes, and lush pink lips, she was a siren, just as he had once said.
She took off the corset cover next. “When I obey you. Do you like it when I obey you?”
He gritted his jaw to keep from touching her. “Yes.”
Though they had only spent a handful of nights learning each other’s bodies, it did not surprise him she had already discovered what pleased him most, which actions garnered the greatest reactions from him. It was a matter of course she would know how to undo him. How to make him even weaker for her than he already was.
“What shall I remove next, Duke?” She lowered her lashes, watching him with a sultry stare.
Damn it to hell, but he even loved the way she called him by his title in that sinful brogue of hers. “Your chemise.”
