Chapter 40
The doors to Percival’s chamber flew open with a crash that echoed like thunder.
Aurelia did not know whether it was she who pushed it open or Percival. All she knew at that moment was the heat of his lips devouring hers. Her brain was just focused on the desperate, maddening kiss that stole the very air from her lungs.
She was walking backward, blindly, and his tall frame pursued her like a predator determined to consume its prey. His heat wanted to smother her, his kiss wanted to ruin her.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she trembled, clinging to him.
To the best of her knowledge, he was her only anchor.
Her eyes had fluttered shut as they left her chamber, locked in a kiss that made them forget their surroundings. Thinking was simply impossible.
She had waited too long for this.
Every step backward felt like surrendering a part of herself, like she belonged to no one but him.
He groaned into her mouth with the hunger of a beast. The sound was so raw, so impatient, that it reverberated through her.
But it sounded like a complaint to him. That the bed was still far, too far. As though waiting a second more was unbearable. Hence, he lifted her without warning and pressed her against the nearest wall.
There was no time to think. Her gasp was instantly swallowed by his mouth, and she locked her legs instinctively around his waist. She wanted to draw him closer, as tightly as she could.
A whimper escaped her lips when his arousal pressed against her core. He was engorged, threatening to burst through the fly of his trousers. It made her pulse quicken and her back arch.
“You have no idea,” he groaned into her mouth, “how painful the waiting has been.”
His teeth grazed her throat, then bit down in a way that made her fist his hair. His breath shuddered out of him, as though he were a man starved and she was the only sustenance he would ever accept.
He slid a hand beneath her nightgown with ruthless impatience, and the sound of tearing fabric rent the air. Cool air kissed her exposed skin, her bare shoulders, the swell of her breasts, the plane of her stomach.
Each part was bared to his hungry gaze.
“Percival…”
He had barely touched her, but she was already moaning and shivering. His eyes caught the water droplets rolling down her skin temptingly.
“I missed you, Aurelia,” he rasped, before lowering his head to lick them away.
His tongue was as hot and sinful as it traced her collarbone, her neck, and down the curve of her shoulder. He licked the droplets, drank her salt, worshipped her sweat as though it were sacred wine.
Her body shook with every lick. Every nerve in her body was screaming for release. Tears pricked her eyes. Not of sorrow, but from the unbearable intensity of it.
I cannot withstand this. I cannot…
Her head fell back, exposing her throat to his merciless mouth. “Percival…” Her cry sounded more like a plea. “Stop wasting time and take me—”
She couldn’t even finish, for he sucked harder on her collarbone.
He did not rush to obey. His lips continued to map her skin, eventually moving lower to her tender breasts. His tongue flicked over her nipple before sucking it deep into his mouth.
Aurelia almost collapsed in his arms.
She writhed helplessly and tried to reach for his cock, but her wrists were caught in his iron grip. She shuddered as he took her hands and pinned them above her head.
She was completely undone, completely his.
Every pull of his mouth, every stroke of his tongue, left her trembling violently. Her whimpers turned into strangled cries.
Percival continued ravishing her breasts until she thought she might shatter from the overwhelming sensation.
She lifted her hips again and again, seeking friction. To grind against his hard cock.
She had no shame left, only need.
“You shouldn’t have encouraged me,” he groaned against her skin. “Because now I can’t stop.”
His words vibrated around her nipple. His pace quickened. He sucked her nipple harder, coaxing more helpless cries into the quiet air.
Aurelia’s hands, still pinned above her head, were trembling. Her back arched off the wall, wishing he would unravel her. Shamelessly wishing he would make her shatter.
“Then don’t stop.”
The fire in her eyes only fueled his frenzy.
Percival growled, pressing against her harder. His tongue and teeth claimed her nipples, her mounds, the valley between them, until helpless sounds spilled from her throat.
And they all sounded like music to his ears. The tremors in her hands only made him groan deeper.
Eventually, he released her wrists.
Aurelia wrapped her arms around him desperately, clinging to him as if he were the only thing holding her together. And in truth, he was.
Her legs tightened around his waist. “Percival…” she whimpered against his hair. “I cannot wait.”
“Neither can I.” His voice was thick and breathless against her skin.
Before she could answer, he pulled her away from the wall and carried her to his bed. With every step, his lips brushed her throat, her breasts, every part of her he could reach. Every step was like a bolt of need.
Finally, he lowered her onto the bed. But her back had barely touched the mattress before his hands gripped her hips. In one motion, he had ripped away the last barrier between them. Her drawers were gone, tossed carelessly into the shadows.
Aurelia gasped, the cold air meeting her wetness. But it was nothing compared to the heat of him. Nothing compared to the way his eyes devoured her nakedness.
“God,” he groaned, his eyes dark as they fell between her trembling thighs. “Look at you, Aurelia.”
She had no time to protest. No time to prepare.
His hands spread her legs wide, and before she could take a breath, his mouth descended on her slick sex.
She tried to swallow a cry, but it was useless.
“Ahh!”
It pierced the air as his tongue parted her folds, tasting her.
He growled into her, as though he had waited a lifetime for this moment. His lips moved against her, his tongue lapping at her clit with maddening pressure.
Aurelia wanted to pull him closer, but she was drowning in pleasure. She bucked her hips, grinding against his mouth in a desperate rhythm. Tears gathered in her eyes from the unbearable pleasure. Pleasure that burned and overwhelmed her.
“You are driving me insane, Percival,” she moaned.
“And that duty is only mine to fulfill, Aurelia,” he purred, the vibrations shooting through her core.
His tongue moved lower, deeper. He tasted her, worshipped her with an insatiable hunger.
When his tongue drove into her, sliding in and out with torturous slowness, Aurelia thought she was going to pass out.
But then her eyes opened and landed on him—the feared, untouchable duke. He was kneeling before her, his face buried between her thighs, his hair mussed by her desperate hands.
He was sin and salvation.
He was beauty.
Percival lifted his head as though he could sense her stare. His lips glistened with her wetness, his blue eyes locking onto hers.
The air stilled. The world fell silent. In that burning gaze, Aurelia saw everything: his hunger, his need, but also his love. A love so fierce that it terrified her. A love so tender that it undid her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but a moan slipped out instead. The atmosphere had changed, and one thing was certain for them.
This is it. This is everything.
Percival slowly crawled up her body. His fingers caressed her face before his mouth slowly found hers again.
She tasted herself on his tongue, and the intimacy of it only made her shiver. She kissed him back, pouring herself into the kiss as if she could entwine their souls.
When he pulled away, his voice was a dangerous whisper. “If you are not ready, if this hurts you, tell me and I will stop.”
Her chest heaved. Pain was the least of her fears.
She moved her hand to cup his cheek, trembling. “Do not stop. I want you, Percival. More than anything.”
Her confession egged him on and even if he had thought to stop, he had gone too far. His mouth crashed onto hers again.
As they kissed, Aurelia felt his hand slip between her thighs once more. His fingers circled her clit with torturous pressure. She moaned into his mouth, holding him tighter and arching into his touch.
She felt him moving to undress but the pressure of his lips against hers, the taste of his tongue in her mouth quickly distracted her but when she felt him fully nude atop her, she felt her breath hitch as his pulsing cock teased her most intimate place.
His lips didn’t leave hers once as he pressed his cock against her wet entrance. The sensation was too intense, too overwhelming, that she reached down a trembling hand.
Her fingers wrapped around his cock. She gasped at the heat, at the thick of it. And it made her even wetter. Then, slowly, she began to stroke him.
Percival let out a groan. “Is this your way of taking revenge?” His voice was laced with desperation and something too dangerous to name. “You wouldn’t like mine.”
“I will prove you wrong. I always do.” A teasing smile curved her lips. Yet, tears still gathered at the corners of her eyes. “Please. Give me everything.”
His control snapped.
He nipped her neck before repositioning his cock against her. He teased her clit with the head until she was sobbing for more.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, her body trembling with anticipation.
She was ready. She was more than ready. To love this man. To have him in ways she never had. To have a taste of him. To know what it felt like when their sounds of pleasure mingled.
From the way he stared deep into her eyes, she knew that he had the same thoughts. That he was ready, too.
But there was no need for words now. There was only this moment and the increasing anticipation.
Slowly, his lips found hers again, and he kissed her as though it was the last time. And then, in that breathless moment as their breath mingled, he pushed into her.
With his cock buried deep inside her, he claimed more than just her body. He claimed her soul, her heart, and everything she had ever been.
Aurelia had thought she would cry out. Maybe even scream. But she only froze for the first few seconds.
God.
She wasn’t sure what to do at that moment. Her thoughts had scattered. The pleasure was so overwhelming, so consuming. His cock stretched her sensitive walls, stealing her breath away.
And she knew he felt the same way. Because for a moment, he didn’t move. His cock stayed buried deep in her warmth.
He watched her with wonder, as though what was happening was too good to be true. As though that moment was too sacred for him to experience.
Unable to help himself, he lowered his head and brushed her lips with his. As if asking for her trust, for her acceptance of everything he was about to give her.
She shivered beneath him and clung harder to him in response. The fullness was maddening, ratcheting up her desperation. She needed him more than she had ever needed anything in her life.
Pulling back to stare at her with blue eyes that shimmered with love, his lips curved faintly.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he murmured.
“I never knew love could feel like this. That I could feel this—so whole. You are my heart, Aurelia. I’ve spent my life running from love, but now that I have you, I never want to let you go. ”
The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over. She was unable to find words that matched the depth of his feeling. So she pressed herself closer to him, as if to prove that she was his.
“I love you too,” she whispered shakily.
And that was all he needed.
Percival kissed her again, deeper this time, as though the words had unlocked something inside him. Something primal. Something that had always been there but had been too afraid to emerge.
He started moving. Slowly at first, pulling out and then pushing back in. Worshipping her, savoring every inch of her.
Her breath hitched on the first thrust, and then the second, and then the third. It was everything she wanted—devouring, consuming, burning, pleasuring.
As his groans mingled with her cries, she knew this was the end of their wait.
The night deepened, yet they didn’t stop. The sound of their slick bodies moving together echoed through the room, along with her loud cries of pleasure.
And as the moonlight slid over their nakedness, her soul knew that she could never grow tired of this man. Of his touch, his love, his madness.
She would burn with him, again and again, until there was nothing left but the echo of their devotion.
She would love him until the last breath they shared.