A Virgin for the Ruthless Duke (In War and Love #2)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

R ichard had spent the better part of the day battling the inferno of desire that flared even hotter in Selina’s presence. He had tried. Oh, he had tried to keep his hands off her, but his body was keen on betraying him.

His body craved hers, the feel of her smooth, heated skin beneath his fingers, the sweet taste of her mouth, the breathy sounds that escaped her lips when he pleasured her, the weight of her perfect breasts in his hands. He wanted them so much that he felt like he was dying, and her body was the only thing that could save him.

His self-control faltered even further when he became aware that Selina was aroused as well. Her pupils were dilated as she stared helplessly into his eyes and licked her lips.

That motion alone was what pushed him, making the heat that burned within him unbearable. In the next moment, she was in his arms, her lips under his as he devoured her.

At first, she was tense—perhaps because of how suddenly he kissed her—but soon she relaxed, her body becoming pliant and supple in his arms. She let out a moan and then started kissing him back.

Her fingers slid up his chest, making their way up his form until they were tangled in his hair. Grabbing a fistful, she dragged him closer, eliciting a grunt from deep in his throat.

He feasted on her lips, nibbling on them and soothing the sting with his tongue. He pressed his lips even tighter to hers until she gasped, and he took advantage, slipping his tongue into the delicious cavern of her mouth. The kiss turned wild, their tongues struggling for dominance, licking, nibbling, and sucking in between moans and groans of pleasure until he was lost in her.

His fingers slid down of their own accord until they curved over her bodice and dipped beneath her neckline. He stroked the heated skin of her breasts. His fingers found her nipples, twisting and toying with them until she was gasping into his mouth.

Breaking the kiss, his lips trailed down her neck as he inhaled her sweet scent.

“Tell me, Selina,” he said between kisses, “why you seem nervous.” He licked her earlobe, eliciting a shudder that shook her entire frame. “Do not tell me you allowed him to touch you like this?”

“No…” she gasped.

“Perhaps you should speak up.” He raised his head from her neck, seizing her mouth in a kiss that stole her wits. “Did he kiss you this way? Enough that you forgot to be nervous?” he asked. “No?”

“Please,” she panted. “Please touch me, Richard.”

“Hmmm,” he murmured. “Perhaps you would prefer that it was your beloved Peter who was touching you.”

“No,” she said, writhing, fisting the fabric of his shirt.

“You will have to give me what I want before you are rewarded, don’t you think?” he said ruthlessly.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Good,” he replied, his hand finding its way back to her breasts, squeezing and rubbing the tender globes until a gasp escaped her throat. “You want me to touch you here?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

“No, lower. I want you to touch me lower,” she panted, her head thrashing against the door.

She was magnificent in her passion, so beautiful that he needed to touch her, pleasure her, and bring her to the heights of ecstasy.

His hands moved to her knees, pulling her dress up so that his fingers could find her inner thighs. His eyes were fixed on her face so he did not miss any changes in her expression. Every hitch in her breath, every moan, stoked a place inside of him while arousing him even further.

A flick of his hand and he was cupping her most intimate place. She was so soft and wet. Temptation incarnate. He wanted so badly to be inside her—he wanted to taste her there.

He wanted to do even more scandalous things to her, but with the strength of the lust swimming in his veins, he could not risk it if he wanted to keep her reputation intact. It was against what his body wanted, but for her sake, he withdrew the hand cupping her heat, ignoring her disappointed whimper.

“Tell me what I want to know,” he rasped. “Perhaps I might bring you to satisfaction.”

He waited, his body trembling with pent-up need while she regained her composure.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, panting.

“Tell me the reason you have been nervous around me.”

“You are the reason,” she said, staring up into his eyes.

He could feel himself drifting and drowning in those vibrant green pools.

“You make me feel uncontrollable—unhinged even. Perhaps I am not nervous around you. Perhaps I’m battling the urge to climb you and lick you all over and beg you to touch me,” she said in a rush. “I know that it is wanton behavior unseemly of noblewomen, but it is how I feel when I’m with you. I want you, Richard.”

With every word that fell from her lips, Richard felt himself falling deeper into the fiery pit of his lust. He wanted to devour her, ravish her endlessly until she forgot her name.

Since he could not do that, no matter how much he wanted to, he settled for a kiss. This one was rough and hungry. He devoured her lips, possessing her the only way he could.

His hand returned to its place, cupping her heat. This time, he rubbed her pleasure spot, swallowing her moans of pleasure until she convulsed with her orgasm. He kissed her, savoring her mouth till she came down from her peak.

In the silence that followed, he regained control of his thoughts enough to realize that he had just done what he had sworn never to do.

He had taken liberties with her, again. Pulling his hands from underneath her skirts, he stepped back far enough till there was a safe distance between them. Enough that he would not give in to the urge to touch her, seeing as what had just happened confirmed the fact that he had no self-control where she was concerned.

“My apologies, My Lady,” he said gruffly, studiously avoiding her eyes. “I should not have taken such liberties with you. It is an insult to your person. I shall make sure that it does not happen again.”

“You make it sound like you forced me,” Selina said, forcing out a laugh. “I was a willing participant—do not forget.”

“You are an innocent. I should never have seduced you or invited you to spend time alone with me. It was ungentlemanly of me, but I could not help myself. It will not happen again. You have enough knowledge now not to require my help or my lessons. I will step aside now to allow you to pursue happiness. Good night, My Lady.”

With that cryptic remark, he walked out of the library and—if he was to be believed—out of her life.

At first, Selina was stunned, then she became angry. The nerve of the man to blame everything that happened on himself when she had been the one that had been begging for his touch, desperate for his kisses.

She was a grown woman, not a naive debutante who was unsure of what she wanted. She knew what she wanted, and what she wanted was the Duke of Seymour in any way she could get him. She was going to tell him that to his face just as soon as daybreak arrived and she had found him.

Richard sat on the balcony, staring sightlessly into the darkness outside, nursing a glass of whiskey as he tried to bring his aroused, unsatisfied body under control.

He could still feel her lips on his, roving, sweet and sinful. He could still hear her cries as she writhed in his arms while he pleasured her.

She was in his blood. He was addicted to her, drunk on her scent and body. He wanted her, and his body was reacting like an alcoholic who was trying to quit his favorite drink. It wasn’t going well.

Damn.

He really had set himself up for trouble the moment he had insisted on repaying his debt to her.

Even though he sat here alone, his mind was still stuck on the last moment when he had her in his arms as he pleasured her.

No matter how he thought of it, he would be a great fool if he believed that he could just leave Selina and allow her to marry someone else. He was going to go insane. What he felt for her was dangerous and unhinged, for sure, but he was not selfless enough to let her go and allow her to marry another man. She was his, and with every encounter, she became even more engraved in his memory so that she was all he thought about.

“Well, I would not say I’m not surprised to see you here.” Eli’s voice came from behind him.

Richard raised his head and could make out his friend’s tall figure in the darkness that blanketed the balcony.

“It is quite late for you to sit by yourself in the dark. I guess it is safe to say that all is not well?”

Eli came to stand beside him.

“What is the matter?” he asked, a note of concern in his voice. “I have never known you to sacrifice your sleep for no reason.”

“Perhaps I should be asking you that as well? What are you doing here at this hour?” Richard asked back. “Perhaps you would be interested in some whiskey?” He picked up the bottle from where it sat at his feet.

“Please,” Eli said.

Richard poured him a glass.

“I have been having problems sleeping for some time now. The physician says it’s insomnia and prescribed some horrible-tasting concoctions. Took it once, then never again. A night of looking through the boring ledgers in my study does the job as well as any sleeping draught,” Eli explained, chuckling.

“So why are you awake now?” Richard asked dryly. “Disturbing my quiet time.”

“It did not work today—I have been a bit restless,” Eli said with a sigh. “Besides, you need someone to shake up that stuffy personality of yours, even though I believe someone else is doing a better job at it than me,” he finished in a suggestive tone.

“Who might that be, if I might ask?” Richard asked, a note of defensiveness in his voice.

“I’m sure you know who I speak of,” Eli said with a mischievous smile. “But for the sake of clarity, I believe she is Lady Selina, the sister of the Duke of Westall.”

“Why would you come to that conclusion? We are just friends, nothing more.”

“Perhaps you might have better luck lying to someone else, but not me. You forget, Seymour, that I have known you since we were in leading strings. I can read you as easily as a book. So I know that you are very attached to her, and she is way more than a friend to you.

“Friends, in my experience, do not stare at each other hungrily, do not follow each other with their eyes, and do not turn green with jealousy when they see each other with someone else. The passion that burns between you two is so palpable that I have been tempted to request that the two of you share a bedchamber.

“It is just the issue of the lady’s reputation that stops me. She is unraveling you, Seymour, and I must confess that it gladdens my heart to see this.”

Eli chuckled, before knocking back his whiskey in one swallow.

“I admit I do feel something for the lady,” Richard decided to admit even if he was leaving out the entire truth of the matter. Eli would never let him hear the end of it if he were to know the severity of what he felt for Selina. “But it is just lust, which I will get rid of post haste.”

“But this is not just desire now, is it? I would wager it is more than that. You are in love with her, Seymour. Just admit it,” Eli pressed.

“Love?” Richard sputtered. “You know I do not believe in such sentimentality, Mulford.”

Lies. His subconscious scolded.

He knew very well he was maddeningly in love with Selina.

“Perhaps,” Eli relented, shrugging his shoulders. “But you might arrive at the same conclusion if you consider some things. You feel jealous when you see her in a man’s arms. You want to beat him up, even against your better judgment. You always want to protect her and keep her safe from harm. If you had your way, she would always be by your side, where you can guarantee her safety. If your answers to these questions are in the affirmative, then I am afraid that you are in love with the lady. Irrevocably, I might add,” he said, patting Richard on the shoulder before leaning against the wall of the balcony and folding his arms as he waited for him to realize this new truth.

“If I am in love with her,” Richard said in a resigned tone after a long pause, “I think the best course of action will be to let her go.”

To say that Eli was astonished would have been an understatement. He stared at Richard for some time, his mouth hanging slightly open in his surprise.

“Please do close your mouth, Eli,” Richard said dryly, turning to stare off into the darkness beyond the balcony.

“I am almost afraid to ask how you came to that conclusion. Perhaps it is the drink. Are you deep in your cups?”

“I am perfectly sober, Eli. I do not speak under the influence of whiskey. You know me. I am hardly the type to overindulge.”

It was a long time ago when he had thrown himself headlong into a life of hedonism. But since he returned to England, he had led a life of discipline and kept away from overindulgence in spirits.

“No, you are not. Perhaps you might have to explain why your reaction to finding out that you are in love is to run, when it is something that many people struggle to find. Hell, the lady in question wants a love match. Why can’t you marry her when it is so obvious that you are both in love with each other? Why are you making the whole thing more complicated?”

“Because I want to protect her from the disaster that would come from her marrying me,” Richard spat. When the puzzled look on Eli’s face did not go away, he continued, “Love matches are doomed. I will protect her from that.”

“Love matches are not doomed,” Eli said softly, coming to stand nearer to him. “You just think that your parents’ marriage was doomed.”

“Eli, don’t…” Richard warned.

“Sorry, my friend, but we have to speak about this. I am tired of watching you and Lady Selina suffer simply because you decided to use your parents’ marriage as a yardstick for all love matches. Your parents were not a love match.”

That last statement earned Eli a sharp glance from Richard.

Richard was gearing up to counter it but stopped when Eli placed a hand on his shoulder. “Please let me finish.”

With a nod of assent from his friend, Eli continued.

“They are simply two people who did not understand what love means, and when they realized that what they had was not love, they set fire to their home with no thought to your well-being. They were two incompetent people who should never have been allowed to procreate.

“This was why I used to be skeptical about matrimony. Helen saved me from ruining my only chance at happiness and I am glad to have taken that bold step with her and I am all the better for it. I know that such a union is rare, especially in the cynical society that we are part of. That is why I would be very vexed with you if you throw away what you have with Lady Selina simply because of your parents’ mistake. Consider her brother’s marriage also. There are far too many good examples for you to hurt both of you in this manner. You are not your parents. You have much more knowledge than they had at that age. The least you could do is apply it.”

“Perhaps you are right, Eli,” Richard said after a long pause. His tone turned reflective.

“My parents might not have been a love match, but they had passion between them. It was that passion that fueled their shouting matches. I have seen what an excess of emotion can cause—the damage, the chaos. The feelings I have for Selina are dangerous, uncontrollable even. They scare me sometimes.”

“Trust me, Seymour, you are nothing like your parents. You and Lady Selina would do well together. Sometimes in life, you have to take risks, and trust me when I say that this one would be worthwhile.”