‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ he said, still panting.‘There are other ways.’
‘Don’t tell me what I do and don’t want,’ she snapped.It was a ridiculous thing to feel a flash of indignant pride over, but she did not want to be treated like a woman who didn’t know her own mind.Lorelei opened her eyes, met his gaze, wrapped her hand around his cock and guided him closer.Jaw widening, she took him into her mouth.The smell of sex and sweat, the flavour of the both of them exploded rich on her tongue.For all his earlier grunts and rumbles, the groan from him as she rounded her lips for that first suck was so loud that she swore it shook the door from its hinges.He made little thrusts and braced himself against the headboard for balance.‘You feel so good, so good, Your Grace, I’m going to—’
His eyes closed, hands flexed, and he gasped, then let out a deep moan.Lying back against the pillows, there was little for her to do but swallow as he spent.Sordid and salty, it was a final unravelling, and the destruction of the perfectly composed woman.
Tillman shivered and gave one last grunt.He withdrew from her mouth and sat back, his weight settling across her.The candle had burnt low, and the flame danced around the long wick, throwing all shades of gold and orange across them.He looked down at her with the same steady countenance he had always worn.
‘Your Grace?At a moment likethat?’she teased.
‘Old habits die hard.’He shrugged.‘Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.’
It was hard to maintain a disapproving glare with a naked man perched across her.‘I might have.A little.’
Tillman collapsed into the space beside her.He slid his hand around her shoulders and pulled her against his side so that she lay cocooned against his chest.She drew patterns in his chest hair and slid her fingers between it.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead.‘What’s worrying you?’he asked.
‘I’m not worried in the slightest,’ she said, as she spun a tuft of compliant curls into a swirl.
‘You always fidget when you’re worried.’He placed his hand over hers.Her fingers twitched beneath his palm, then stilled.
‘How will we manage?’she asked at last, and the question felt more like a confession.A rebuttal, even.The world was not kind to women like her who tumbled down so many rungs of the class ladder and dared to stand defiant rather than repentant.She would not care, if it only affected herself.She would give every word, every title, to lie beside him like this every night.But she could not only think of herself.
He flipped her hand to interlace their fingers.‘With some difficulty,’ he said, then drew her hand across their bodies to settle on his chest.His heart thumped, sure and steady beneath her wrist.‘It’s been a day, Your…Lorelei.Don’t think on it.If this is all we have… this knowing between us is more than I ever hoped for.I’ll always be here for you.Unless you banish me, wherever you are, I am.Your home is mine.More than that… you are my home.My sunrise.My rest.Knowing you are happy is enough.Although… I’d give anything to see you swing an axe like that again.’
She twisted, her smile too explosive to contain.‘That was something, wasn’t it?’Lorelei laid her head against his chest and nuzzled into his warmth.
‘You should sleep.’He ran his palm over her hair.
‘You said I wouldn’t sleep in here,’ she countered, even as she yawned.
‘A nap, then.You’ll need it.Because while I have you in my bed, I intend to replay all of that at least once more.Preferably twice.’
‘Twice?’her sleepiness protested, then faded.‘I didn’t know a man could manage such things?’
He tipped his head back and laughed.‘They make us different in the country, Your Grace.’
And with a squawk from her, he rolled her into the sheets with a kiss.
Chapter twelve
Thearistocracythumpedadoor differently from common folk.
Common folk, even ones as high up in the household as himself, knocked with a hint of an apology, even amongst themselves.
But a toff to a worker, even one at the top of the chain like him?That was a beat with its own tempo, and that particularratatatat, all short and annoyed, sounded through his door right now.
Tillman stretched against the warm sheets.Lorelei hadn’t woken, and by heaven’s grace, he hoped she wouldn’t.She had every right to be exhausted and should sleep a month of Sundays.He kissed the crown of her head.
The knock at the door came again.
Ratatatat!
His duchess frowned and grumbled in her sleep as he slid his arm from beneath her.She nuzzled into the pillow, and her next breath was half sigh, half snore.
Tillman swiped his trousers off the floor and jumped into them.Groping about in the low light, he found his shirt and threw it over his head but left the buttons undone.Then he made for the door.
‘Is no one in this house awake!’The Duke of Stoneleigh bristled as he opened it.‘Where are the staff?I’ve been calling upstairs for the better part of an hour!’
