CHAPTER20
Callum was not expecting visitors when the bell rang after supper that night.He lifted his head from the letter he was writing in the study and listened.It was likely Theo, which was fortuitous, since he was writing his friend to arrange a meeting so he could confess his future marriage.
But it wasn’t Theo’s voice that floated down the hallway toward him a moment later.
“…apologies…so late…in?”
The broken words were in a feminine voice and one he recognized instantly.
“Valaria.”He pushed his chair back with a screech and hustled around the desk to the hallway.He made his way toward the foyer and met her and his butler halfway.
Both she and Morris looked startled by his appearance, but the butler rallied admirably.“The Duchess of Gooding, Your Grace,” he said.
Callum looked at Morris.“That will be all, thank you.”
Morris nodded and slipped away, leaving Callum to stare at her in the dimly lit hallway.She was so beautiful standing there, light from the foyer outlining her.Her hair was pulled up in a simple chignon, her blue-gray eyes were focused on him and her cheeks were pink.He realized she was also wearing color, a dark blue gown that skimmed over her body in the most bewitching way.
“You—you’re wearing color,” he whispered.
She nodded and smoothed the gown.“For you.Just for you.Callum—”
He didn’t allow her to finish, but crossed the distance between them in a long step.He swept her into his arms, tight against his chest, and kissed her.
She didn’t resist, but made the same soft sound in her throat that she had earlier in the day before they were caught in the parlor.A needy, hungry sound of pleasure and desire.
And oh, how he wanted to give her everything she needed, wanted.Everything he couldn’t live without in that moment.
“Come upstairs with me,” he whispered against her lips.
She hesitated and pulled back, staring up at him.He could see she had a thousand things to say.Probably as many arguments to make against what had already been decided.But in that moment, he couldn’t hear them.
All he wanted to hear was her sigh out his name as she shattered around him.All he wanted to see was her body rocking against his.The rest could be resolved later.They had all the time in the world for the rest.
“Let me make it good for you, Valaria,” he murmured, turning her, backing her toward the back stair that went almost directly to his bedchamber above.“Let me make you forget every other thing but how it feels when I take you, when you ride me, when you come against my tongue and my fingers and my cock.”
She shivered, her pupils dilating wide and dark.“It’s impossible to deny you,” she said.“I wish I could hate you for that.”
He smiled as he led her up the stairs, down the hall, into his room.As he shut the door, he pivoted her, pressing her back against the barrier as she gasped out his name in the quiet.
“God, yes,” he murmured, burying his mouth against her shoulder.“There is nothing that drives me wilder than when you whisper my name like that.When you shout my name.When you whimper my name as your legs shake.I have never loved those two syllables more than when they fall from your lips.”
He began to drag his mouth down, dropping to his knees.He pushed her skirt up, revealing her pretty stitched stockings as he gathered the fabric around her hips.
“Take this,” he ordered, handing the pile to her.
Her hands shook as she did so and she stared down at him, mouth opening and shutting.“I wanted to talk to you—” she began.
“And I wanted to lick you,” he said, and spread her legs wider.He slid his hands up her thighs, under the edge of her drawers.He caught the opening in the fabric between her legs and tugged, ripping the delicate satin so that it fluttered to the ground at her feet.
“Callum!”she gasped.
He smiled up at her.“Keep saying it, Valaria.Never stop saying it.”
She made an almost feral sound at the back of her throat, and while she continued to cling to her skirts with one hand, she tangled the other in his hair and drew him up against her.
“Make me say it,” she murmured.
His cock twitched at that order and he pressed his palms more firmly against her thighs.She widened her stance and he lifted into her, drawing in the scene of her desire before stroked his tongue along her entrance.
