His gaze held hers as he reached for her. “May I have leave to ravish you now?”
“Not just yet. There is more in store for you.”
He gave a feigned, pouting look and teased, “What good is a gift that one cannot open?”
“Have patients, duke. You will unwrap me soon enough.” She gave a saucy look as she took his hand and led him toward the fainting couch. “First, I want to ravish you as you did me. I want to lick and suck at your skin while I touch you everywhere.”
He groaned as she pushed against his shoulders and ordered him to lie on the couch.
“I intend to learn your body as well as you have learned mine.” She knelt on the floor beside the couch, then reached for the buttons of his falls. “I want to take you in my mouth.”
“Have mercy, duchess,” he groaned as his cock sprang free of his breeches.
A sharp inhalation sounded from the doorway, and Juliet froze. She watched as Giles’s expression turned angry, then turned her gaze toward the sound. Her face burned with embarrassment as she did her best to cover herself from the elegant woman’s prying eyes.
“What in Heaven’s name is going on here?” The older woman demanded to know. “Giles, champagne in the afternoon? Really?” The woman’s gaze moved to Juliet. “And where, pray tell, are your clothes?”
Giles ignored her questions as he pushed to his feet and strode toward her. “What are you doing here, Mother?”
Mother. Juliet’s face burned. The woman was Giles’s mother. Oh no. What must she think?
“You did not invite me to your wedding.” The woman said, her tone whiney.
“Neither did I invite you here.” Giles drawled.
His Mother paid him no mind as she continued, “I came because I wished to meet my new daughter-in-law. Now that I have,” she turned her attention back to where Juliet crouched behind the couch’s cover, “I want to further our acquaintance. Perhaps she will explain what I walked in on?”
Giles stalked closer to his Mother. “What I do with my wife is none of your business.” He glanced over his shoulder at Juliet. “Allow us a few minutes of privacy if you please.”
Though he had framed his request as a question, the firmness of his tone left no doubt that he had issued a command.
Juliet peaked at the dowager duchess as she waited to see what would happen next. To her amazement, the woman laughed. “Very well, son. I shall await you, and your wife, in the blue drawing-room.”
Juliet released a breath she had not known she was holding as the woman strode from the room. She pushed to her feet and came to stand beside Giles. “I am terribly sorry. Had I known we were to have company…” She turned in search of her dressing gown. “Well, I suppose there was no way to know.”
Giles retrieved the gown and wrapped it around Juliet, then tied it in place. “You have no cause for embarrassment. My mother has seen, and I dare say, done far worse. That is likely the reason for her laughter.”
Juliet shook her head as she said, “Perhaps we are destined for scandal.”
“I do not mind, so long as all of our scandals begin and end with each other.”
Juliet pressed a kiss to his jawline. “In that case, duke. We will pick up where we left off tonight.”
“Nothing would please me more, duchess.” He gave a roguish wink and pulled her into his arms.
Juliet laughed as she met his gaze. “I said tonight, you incorrigible man. Right now, we must go to your mother.”
“If you say we must, then I suppose it is so.” He released her, then gave a playful smack to her bottom. “Let us get you dressed in something less scandalous, then we will join Mother.”
Juliet nodded, then threaded her arm through his. Before they reached the door, their butler appeared, her parents just behind him. “Lord and Lady Ashford, Your Grace.” The butler bowed, then retreated as Juliet’s parents stepped into the parlor.
“Mother, Father. What an unexpected surprise.” She turned her attention to Giles, grateful to see that he did not appear upset at the intrusion.
“Why are you wearing a dressing gown in the middle of the afternoon?” Mother asked as she strode over and placed her hand on Juliet’s brow. “Are you feeling well?”
“I am perfectly healthy, Mother.”
Mother turned speculative eyes on Giles. “What is afoot here, Your Grace?”
