She was just closing the door on yet another guest chamber when she felt a presence at the end of the hall. She turned to see the duke standing with his arms crossed, staring at her. “I was hoping to see you wearing one of your new gowns.”
She lifted a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I felt like inspecting my new home.”
Cosette thought she could see a flicker of light in those haunting eyes, even though his face was still in shadow. “I hope that you will come to think of it as such.”
She nodded, but didn’t reply. What could she possibly say in regards to their arrangement? She was only here on borrowed time. Once the duke slaked his lust on her, he would soon tire of her presence and look for a new paramour. She’d seen it happen a countless number of times. Why should she be any different? It’s not as if the duke might fall madly in love and marry someone like her.
“Would you care for a proper tour?” he inquired politely.
“I shouldn’t want to bother you,” she returned evenly. “No doubt you have a lot of duties to attend to.” She turned to go, but paused when she felt a gentle hand on her wrist. It startled her because she hadn’t even heard him move.
“You’re frightened of me.” He stated it as an observation, but the way his warm breath fell across her nape, the sensation was almost seductive in nature.
“Can you fault me for it?” she countered on a whisper. “In case you’ve forgotten, you’re holding me here against my will.”
He gently turned her around, and brushed a heated glance down her body. “You have nothing to fear. My only purpose is to give you more pleasure than you’ve ever known. I want your complete, and passionate surrender, until all other thoughts are removed, where all you can think of is me.” Cosette was still trying to recover from that dark, meaningful sweep of his eyes, when he murmured, “I don’t think you are as scared of me, as you are of yourself. Of what you might feel toward me.” With that simmering stare in place, he asked, “Shall I prove it?”
His words made her breathless. “You sound rather confident of your abilities, Your Grace.”
A brief frown crossed his features; a shadow passing before his eyes, “I thought I asked that you call me by my Christian name.”
She froze, afraid that she had upset him, and concerned about the consequences of doing so. “I’m . . . sorry. Davien.”
A growl rose up from deep in his throat, one that set the fine hairs of her neck on end, but when his mouth descended on hers, he was unmistakably gentle. His lips were warm as they fed off of hers. Cosette felt her eyes slide closed and her heart pick up speed. God help her, but he was right.
She wanted him.
In spite of everything, some primal instinct warred within her, threatening to break free. And it terrified her. Her rational side rebelled, but still, she returned his kiss eagerly. Wantonly. He coaxed her lips open, and snaked his tongue inside to mate with hers. It was a carnal dance as old as time, and one that caused a pool of wetness to gather between her legs. Squeezing her thighs together to ease the ache inside, she felt his hand on the curve of her hip, before he cupped her bottom and brought her flush against him. She gasped against the hard evidence of his arousal, and moaned because of it.
She felt a cool breeze against the back of her calves, and tensed—just before Davien reached the heart of her womanhood. He gently probed the area where her need flared highest. He continued to ply her mouth with kisses, mimicking what he was doing to her throbbing core. With deft fingers, he teased and tormented her almost ruthlessly, until her breath was coming in short pants, her senses clashing from above and below. She moved restlessly against his hand, searching for something, but unsure of what it was she wanted.
It wasn’t until Davien slid a finger inside of her slick passage that she came undone. Cosette clutched his shoulders, the sensation of falling over a precipice pulsing through her body. She shuddered as wave after wave of intense pleasure washed over her.
When the orgasm had finally subsided, she slowly opened her eyes to find Davien watching her with a heated glance. She hadn’t even realized that he’d pulled away from her slightly, or that he’d ended their kiss. He reached forward and drew a finger lightly down her cheek. “When the time is right,” he said softly, sensuously, “I will bring you to full ecstasy. Until then, I hope that this will remove any doubts you might harbor about me.”
With that, he bowed as politely as if they were acquaintances passing each other on the street, and quietly took his leave, leaving Cosette to stare after him in a wordless daze.
~ ~ ~
Pure, unadulterated lust—strong and insistent—prowled through Davien’s veins until he thought his stiff cock might burst from it. It had been torture to leave Cosette, but he refused to allow his animalistic urges to take over, to rut with her like a boar with no sort of control. When the time for their mating came, it would be slow and time consuming, where nothing outside of this world existed. Their relationship was too new, too delicate to fully unleash. He wouldn’t subject the beast to her. Not yet.
With a howl of frustration, Davien shifted into the shape of the black wolf. His large paws tore up the ground beneath him. He could feel the pulsing need for release urging him onward, across fields and valleys. He could still see the image of Cosette in his mind, as she was liberated. His entire being still carried her scent.
He knew exactly where to go.
There, in the clearing of the glen, he saw his prey. With narrowed eyes and a greed-filled ambition, he sprang toward the deer.
And attacked.
