Just her name. Nothing else. But the way he said it made her knees go weak.
He took the pistol from her hand and set it aside. Then he turned her, not gently, his hands firm at her waist until she was facing him, and she looked up at him, and whatever clever thing she had been about to say dissolved entirely.
“Tell me to stop,” he said. “Or I will kiss you.”
It was pure defiance that led Juliana to say, “I would rather get shot.”
“For shame,” Cassian said, turning her to face him. She felt faint at the sight of his knowing smirk. He knew just how much she wanted him. For once, she felt no shame about it, only relief. “I wonder if you really mean it, given how you have been rubbing your buttocks against me…”
Cassian moved his large hand to the back of her neck, and her eyes immediately closed as though she had been waiting for it. His fingers tangled in her hair as he pulled her toward himself for a kiss. It was a slow and bruising kiss, intensely exploring. She grabbed his lapels and kissed him back with everything she had.
He pulled away from the kiss so he could trail his warm lips down her throat. His stubble heightened the sensation, and shefound herself moaning.
“You sound so ready for me, wife,” he breathed. “I wonder what other sounds you are capable of making…”
Cassian pushed Juliana against a nearby oak tree, the rough bark pressing against her. It should have woken her from this madness, but she had no intention of sounding the alarm. His hand slid down to the hem of her skirts. She gasped, but her body was already far too warm. He was right. She was ready.
“We are outdoors. Someone might see us,” she said, helpless in her own pleasure. Her mouth said one thing, but the fingers tangling in his hair were saying another. The groan in her voice was more of an invitation, and she was fully aware that she was only using their location as an excuse. A way out of something she wanted.
“Oh, let them look,” he said. “Are we truly doing anything wrong? No. You are my wife. I want them to see that the Duchess of Stonevale has finally recognized who she belongs to.”
Normally, such a possessive claim would have sparked rage in Juliana. However, it was not the case this time. Instead, she felt a desperate heat in her lower belly. Cassian’s other hand found the hem of her skirts, and she could not, and did not want to, stop him, even as the cold air brushed her stocking calves. No protest was made, even when the air caressed her thighs. Surrender ignited instead, making her head fall back against the tree behind her.
“Cassian…”
“Shh,” he soothed her, his fingers finding the skin between her thighs. Shame and desire battled within her as she felt how soaked she was. A guttural sound escaped the Duke, soundinglike hunger and, somehow, like triumph.
“God, you are so wet for me, Juliana.”
A violence of passion seemed to simmer within him, yet he managed to remove her undergarments. The mere graze of silk sounded obscenely loud to her ears. She cried out as soon as his finger touched her swollen nub, slick with her arousal. He circled it knowingly, making her gasp.
The tree was Juliana’s support and the witness to their passion. His solid frame helped keep her upright. When her eyes met his gaze, his pupils were wide with need, and she suspected they mirrored her own. His eyes never left her face as he touched her, so focused on her every moan.
“Have you ever imagined it like this, Juliana?” Cassian asked, sliding a finger through her folds, spreading her wetness. “When you lie in bed at night, have you ever dreamed of my hands touching you like this? Learning how tight you are. Feeling how wet you are for me.”
It was so difficult to answer, especially as her world narrowed to nothing more than the intense sensation in her core. That building tension made her toes curl. He slipped a finger inside her, and the stretch and fullness were exquisite. Her hips could not help but buck and jerk.
“So greedy,” he rasped. He pushed the finger deeper, letting his palm cradle her mound as he set a slow, torturous rhythm in and out of her. He knew just how to move his hand so his palm grazed her bud with each stroke. Her breath sounded ragged now, as her hips met his rhythm. Their rhythm had become one. “Imagine if it were my cock you were trying to take in, deeper and deeper.”
“Oh,” she moaned, savoring the sensations while also imagining what it would be like to have his cock in her, and not just his thick, skillful finger.
“Keep your eyes on me, love,” he commanded. “I want to see what your eyes look like when you surrender to me.”
He was not content with what he was already doing to her; he slipped in a second finger. This time, the stretch felt delicious and almost unbearable. She sobbed his name as stars burst before her eyes when he curled his fingers inside her. Her squirming thrust her breasts closer to him.
“There, love,” he panted, even as he kept his eyes on her. “You like that, do you not?”
He lavished the spot with attention, his thumb circling her clit relentlessly. The pleasure kept building, like waves. She was uttering nonsensical words, her pleas no longer making sense. She clutched his shoulders for dear life.
“I cannot. No. I cannot, Cassian. Please.”
“Of course you can,” he insisted. “Give me your release, Juliana. Let it go.”
It was not a choice but an inevitable plunge. When the coiled tension snapped within her, her whole body convulsed. Her mouth opened in a silent moan as she tried to restrain the violent explosion of pleasure. She clenched around his fingers. Yes, he was right. She was greedy. She wanted more of him, her body grasping for more than just two fingers.
For a moment, they merely stood there. All that could be heard was their soft pants mingling with the rustling of leaves in the breeze. Slowly, as if not to destroy the moment, he withdrew hishand from under her skirts. She whimpered and shuddered, her body feeling a loss she had never known. Her languor soon gave way to shocked wonder as Cassian brought his glistening fingers to his lips and sucked them clean.
Juliana had not witnessed such an intimate, raw display. Her skin flushed. Then her core pulsed again, not long after she thought it had been satisfied. As if waking to the reality of what they had done, her gaze dropped to the prominent, straining erection pressing against the front of his breeches. Something in her compelled her to touch it. To feel it. Even as her hand shook, she reached for him, but he caught her wrist in time. His grip was firm, but by no means painful. He groaned as if in pain.
