He leaned down towards her, pulling her hand to lift her a little. They met in the middle with a kiss that was urgent, full of need on both sides. As Owen deepened the kiss, he felt Diana slip her hands across his chest and wind them around the back of his neck, clinging onto him like he was the thing giving her life.
As his lips parted from hers, he passed them down her neck, stealing fleeting kisses and playful nips that hovered over her collarbone. With each kiss, he felt the excitement rise within him.
“Do not stop, Owen. Please.” Her words made him moan into his kisses, making them travel further down her chest until he met her cleavage, pressing loving kisses to the top curves of her breasts that were only just visible.
“Are you certain?” he asked, lifting his face back to hers and hovering his lips over hers another time.
“I do not want this to end, Owen. Please, don’t stop.”
***
Diana didn’t know if the fear of losing Owen or the intensity of the moment made her ask her question, but all she knew was that she couldn’t bear what they were sharing to stop. Should the walls come down on the world they had created for themselves the next day, then she wanted at least one perfect memory of Owen to sustain her.
“I cannot deny you anything,” Owen whispered before closing his lips over hers.
The kiss grew heated instantly. As Diana pulled at his jacket, he went to help her, shedding the garment and tossing it over the back of the chair as quickly as they could. When she continued to pull on him, he moved off the chair and came down to the floor with her, pressing his body to hers.
When his hands moved to her gown, Diana adjusted to help him. The gown was lifted over her head and tossed to the side before he reached for her stays and began to pull the laces, unlacing it quickly, so the whalebone bodice fell to the floor beneath them, leaving Diana in nothing but her shift and stockings.
With trembling fingers, Diana reached for the rest of Owen’s clothes. The cravat, waistcoat, and shirt were thrown to the side, followed by his trousers, leaving him bare. Diana found her body naturally responding to him, lifting her legs around his hips and pulling him further towards her until his body was cradled within her own.
Owen lifted the shift from her body, revealing her bare skin before he kissed his way down the length of her, starting with her lips, passing over her chest and breasts, then across her stomach and around her hips.
“Owen, please …” she begged him, urging him with her hips as she moved them towards him. He clearly needed no more encouragement, for he moved back up her body and lifted her legs higher until they were completely wrapped around his hips.
He lowered his head down to hers, but rather than kiss her lips, he placed the gentlest of kisses to her forehead instead. It was such an intimate thing that Diana placed her palms to his chest, binding herself to him.
When he entered her, Diana felt a lurch of pleasure, making her arch her back off the floor and moan his name. It was so unlike what it had felt like the night Gilbert had consummated their marriage. This time, all she could feel was a thrill.
As Owen began to move, thrusting forward inside her, the thrill grew. Soon, Diana didn’t know what to do with her hands. Sometimes she clung to his shoulders, holding onto him as he moved inside of her; other times, she held onto the rug beneath them on the floor.
He changed their position, kneeling up and lifting her legs higher. Somehow, it made the pleasure grow more so that Diana could only hold onto the rug, trying her best to quieten her moans out of fear someone else would hear them in the house.
When she reached her end, it was sudden, the pleasure so strong that it encapsulated her completely, making her body buck towards Owen’s to hold onto that pleasure.
It was clear Owen was nearing his end, too, for the expression on his face altered, and he began to growl in the back of his throat. He pulled out of her as it hit him, spilling outside of her across her abdomen rather than internally.
She knew why he had done it. They couldn’t risk her being with child at this point, but she longed to have known what it could have been like had he stayed inside her. Owen pulled up her shift to clean them both up before he leaned down over her, kissing her again. It was so gentle after the heat of what they had shared that she wrapped her arms around him, holding him down to her.
Their limbs completely entwined, so they were as one on the rug. Each gentle touch, each pass of her hand over his back made them both tremble, with goosebumps rising to the skin. It was both tender and thrilling. With that kiss and those soft hands, Diana made a decision.
She couldn’t go back to the life she had before. This life was the one she wanted. She just had to hope she could find a way to hold onto it.
Chapter 18
“Jessie?” Owen called to the maid in the sitting room, waiting for her to look up from her chores with the fireplace.
“Mr Arnold?” she said, with something of a smirk playing on her lips. “Why are you here? I would have thought there was another you’d prefer to spend your time with.” Her cheek was too much for Owen to bear. He stepped into the sitting room and closed the door behind him, leaving them completely alone.
After the night before, he wasn’t going to let Jessie destroy Diana’s life. The words Diana had uttered of how all that mattered to her was keeping Owen in her life had meant everything to him. If they were going to stand a chance of staying together, they had to stay here, with Diana as duchess and him as a butler for now. The way they had made love made it clear to Owen – he couldn’t lose her.
“Jessie, I must speak with you.” He rounded the settee and came to stand beside her as she stood to her feet and dusted the fire ash from her apron. “What you said yesterday to the duchess, you cannot seriously mean your threat.”
“There is no point in denying your affair with her if that’s what you wish to do,” she said snidely and picked up the brass bucket at her side. “I found your drawing of her.” Owen sighed, knowing she was right. He couldn’t lie now.
“I am not denying it,” he said. His words appeared to take the wind out of the maid, for she stood perfectly still with wide eyes. “I cannot let you destroy her life, Jessie. It would be so undeserved.”
“Undeserved!?” Jessie repeated, stepping back. “The duke’s wife is having an affair, and you think she deserves to stay in this house?”
