“Then I will remove my boots.”The Duke proceeded to lean against the doorframe and tugged at his boots.“Damn it.I usually have my valet do this.”
Laughter bust out of him before he could prevent it.“Your Grace.Keep the boots on.Go home.I’m going to bed now.”
The Duke lifted his head, his brown eyes soft for a moment.“Please let me help you.”
Sebastian sighed.“Do I really look so dreadful?”He’d believe it.
“Yes.”The Duke blinked slowly.“No.You always look amazing to me.”And then the Duke did the most unexpected thing.He brushed his fingers along Sebastian’s jaw, while staring deep into his eyes.
“Your Grace?”His question came out as a shaky whisper.The Duke traced the skin below his right eye, then across the bridge of his nose, and under his left eye.Was he going to kiss him?Yes please.Sebastian was suddenly aware of his breath, cool across his bottom lip, as the air rushed in and out of his lungs.It was like a fever dream; maybe it was because he wasn’t tired anymore.His entire body was alive and ready.
“Have I ever told you how handsome you are?”No.What?The Duke thought he was handsome?The Duke’s thumb rested on Sebastian’s bottom lip, and he touched it with his tongue.The Duke closed his eyes and breathed in, his nostrils flaring, so Sebastian did it again.
“Wildgoose.I want to taste you.”
He reached up and removed the Duke’s thumb, but kept hold of his hand.“I thought Dukes simply took what they wanted.”He swallowed.
“Power is a sharp sword, Wildgoose.I refuse to wield it to take you because it will cut you open and destroy you.”
Sebastian shook his head.“Your Grace.Stop being so dramatic and kiss me.”
“It will change everything.”
Later, after he’d rested, Sebastian would realise that being so tired removed all his defences because in ordinary circumstances, he would never have told the Duke to kiss him.He wouldn’t have dared.But right now, he welcomed the Duke to kiss him and destroy him.It would change everything, or maybe it would change nothing.
“Afterwards, you will still be a Duke, and I will still be an orphan of unknown parentage.Kiss me.”
And the Duke did.It was not an ordinary kiss.The Duke commanded and demanded.He stepped towards Sebastian, pushing up him against the wall with one hand in the centre of Sebastian’s chest and the other cradled softly on his cheek.Then he teased him with a soft brush of lips, nibbling at the corner of Sebastian’s mouth, before finally kissing him properly.And as their mouths connected, heat flashed all over his skin.The Duke slid his hand from Sebastian’s chest, down to his hip, and pulled them closer together, grinding his pelvis against Sebastian who was hard as a rock.Heat melted his limbs and brought fire to his lungs.The whole time, the Duke devastated his mouth with a hard, unforgiving kiss, and their chests rose and fell in time.Sebastian was glad for the wall behind him.They were about the same height, yet the overwhelming experience of being surrounded by the Duke stole the last vestiges of his strength and made him feel protected.The Duke tasted like power and masculinity, with a combination of mint and whisky and tobacco, that set Sebastian’s senses alight.He was burning up with need.He pulled his mouth away.
“Come to my bed.”
The Duke’s eyes flared wide and then he kissed him again.A punishing beautiful raw kiss that stole all of Sebastian’s breath, giving him no room for air, but he didn’t care.He tore at the Duke’s perfect attire, needing to get his hands on skin.
“I have wanted you for so many years, Wildgoose.”The Duke whispered as he ran his lips and teeth across Sebastian’s jawline.“So many years.”
Seriously?He must be dreaming.Perhaps he’d knocked himself out when he fell on the path and this was all his imagination because no Duke would ever admit to wanting a man, let alone a lowly orphaned stable master of uncertain parentage.And then the Duke was kissing him again, and it felt so real that he couldn’t convince himself that it was a dream.Frustrated with the Duke’s clothes, Sebastian shoved his hands under the Duke’s jacket, finding the softest linen shirt.This was definitely not a dream, because his own dreams would be much less frustrating.In his dreams, he would have skin contact with the Duke’s flesh.He would be real under his hands.
“Wildgoose.”The Duke growled.
“Your Grace?”He raised one eyebrow.
“Not now.If I’m anything, I’m at your service.”
Sebastian would’ve laughed, but damn, the look on the Duke’s face stopped his breath in his throat.He was serious.Oh goodness.“Come to my bed.”He pushed the Duke on his chest, and slid out from the wall, away from him, and walked the few steps through his tiny cottage to his small bedroom.This cottage had two bedrooms, and the other one was shared by Sebastian’s older brother, Barry, and his pregnant wife, Jane.For the first time since they’d announced their lovely news, he was glad he had yet to move into one of the rooms above the stable block because a Duke wasn’t going to take him to bed there.Was he really going to bed the Duke?
