Chapter 16 The Walk
THE WALK
That night, I lay in bed, staring at the dark canopy, the room bathed in moonlight, two cats curled against my body.
A body that was still vibrating after the makeout session Battle treated me to at my door when he’d walked me to my room at the end of the night.
Like in my room at his house in London, it had been hot and heavy, and like our first kiss, he’d eventually pressed me to the wall so it would hold me up and leave his hands free to roam most pleasantly.
My hands roamed too.
As did both of our mouths.
One could just say, he would one hundred percent have had lipstick on his collar, if I’d been wearing any.
But then, he’d tipped my head, kissed the top of it then ran a thumb over my lower lip before he said, “I’ll see you at breakfast, sweetheart.”
And he’d sauntered away.
Sauntered!
Away!
Now, I could see him making the call not to go there with me the first time when his sisters were in bedrooms close to mine in the house in London.
Yes, it, too, was a huge house.
But it wasn’t nearly as big as The Downs.
So that begged the question, since all their bedrooms were clustered around the corner to the south wing, and his was at the very end of it, not to mention mine was in an entirely different wing, and as far as I could tell, the walls were very sturdy and practically soundproofed, why he wasn’t going there now.
We were agreed we were exploring this.
We’d been exploring this even before we agreed we were doing it.
And on our trip from London, I’d eventually gotten around to telling him about the conversation in the train and that we had his sisters’ blessings.
So…what was going on?
Flirting was fun.
Teasing was fun too.
But this was torture.
“Fuck it,” I said to Snowball and Gingerface.
They didn’t move.
They did when I threw the covers back and got up.
I went to the bathroom.
They came with me.
I turned on the lights, winced against the brightness and walked to the mirror.
I wasn’t a sexy nightie type of gal.
Sure, I had a few, but I hadn’t brought any of them.
Therefore, I was wearing a pair of plaid sleep shorts and a shelf-bra cami.
My hair was back in a ponytail, my face clean and shiny with moisturizer.
I did not look like a sex kitten.
I looked like a co-ed.
“Ulk,” I groaned, pulled the ponytail out of my hair and fluffed it.
Better, but not great.
“Whatever,” I bit off and looked down at Snowball and Gingerface, who were both sitting beside me, gazing up at me curiously.
As they would.
This was not our protocol.
“Let’s do this,” I said with more bravado than bravery.
If Battle didn’t want this, if he wanted to take it slower, if he needed to be in control of it, I knew he’d find some way to say that to me where I wouldn’t be totally humiliated I took this walk.
But if he needed some kind of explicit consent from me, something I would have thought he knew he had after I got my hands on his tight ass that night, then he couldn’t mistake me knocking on his door in my jammies.
I turned out the lights, and me and the cats stepped into the darkened hall illuminated by low floor lighting that was probably always on when it was dark so anyone could get to and from their rooms without breaking their necks.
The cats bounded after me on the longest walk I’d ever taken in my life.
We could just say, along the way, I changed my mind three times, and once, even stopped.
But I made it to Battle’s door to see it partially open, and a light was coming from the opening.
He did what I did.
Left the door ajar, in his version, for Baby Blue to join him without having to faff about with a doorknob with paws and without opposable thumbs.
And that was what happened, even before I gathered the courage to lift my hand and knock.
Snowball and Gingerface slithered into his room.
“Shit,” I whispered.
The door flew open.
My eyes flew up.
Battle was in a pair of drawstring pajama pants, navy with little pinstripes.
And that was it.
His broad chest was adorned with the most perfect smattering of dark chest hair I’d ever seen in my life.
My mouth got dry, and I was pretty sure I was going to faint again.
Fortunately, Battle’s arm hooked around my waist, and he hauled me into his room so forcefully, I would have cried out, but my mouth automatically swallowed it.
He slammed the door behind me…
Slammed it!
And turned me, still in his arms, walking me backwards across his room, his gaze locked to mine.
“Done being teased, darling?” he purred.
Did he…
Did he…!
…force me to take that walk?
Doing it so he could win our game?
One I didn’t know (okay, I did) we were playing?
“You’re a jerk, my Lord Duke,” I tried to snap, but considering I was pretty breathless, it came out breathy.
He smiled a slow, wicked smile that reminded me of my first impression of him.
The villain.
The marauder.
The rogue.
My panties flooded.
He bent his head and kissed me.
During the kiss, he turned, fell, I fell with him, and he landed on his back in the bed with me on top of him.
Oo.
Lovely.
I wasn’t on top for long.
He rolled us so he was on top.
He was warm and heavy.
Way lovelier.
We kissed. We touched. We tangled.
This didn’t last long before he got his hands in my cami, shoved it up and, whoosh! it was gone.
His lips hit my neck, trailed down, and they closed around my nipple.
Nice.
I slid my fingers in his hair.
I was so enamored with what his tongue was doing to my nipple, I missed his hand sliding down my belly, into my sleep shorts, but I sure didn’t miss it as it pressed into my panties, down, around, and he sucked hard at my nipple as he filled me with a long finger.
“Oh my God, Battle,” I gasped.
He surged up to take my mouth as he finger-fucked me, and damn, all of that felt good.
And then he was gone.
Entirely.
And then my sleep shorts and panties were gone.
Entirely.
After that, he pulled me to right in his bed, slipped down my body, kissed my stomach, spread my legs, and he went in.
“Oh my God, Battle,” I moaned, sliding my fingers in his hair as he ate me, and damn, damn, damn, the man knew what he was doing.
I undulated under his ministrations, mindlessly begging for more.
Battle gave it to me.
“Baby,” I eventually whispered my warning after he took a hard draw on my clit that was a miracle didn’t wring an orgasm out of me, then dipped his tongue deep into my pussy.
He pushed up to his knees between my legs, then dropped to a hand in the bed to reach to the nightstand.
I reached to his drawstring.
I tugged it loose, pulled his pants down, and his thick, delicious cock sprang forth.
“For fuck’s sake, how are you perfect everywhere?” I complained.
“Lie back, Vivi,” he ordered after he straightened.
I looked up at him. “Are you high?”
He grew visibly confused.
I shifted to all fours, and with zero fanfare, sucked that beautiful big dick deep.
“Bloody hell,” he groaned, his fingers gathering my hair at my nape.
I blew him and I blew him, and then I put more effort into blowing his goddamned mind by blowing him some more.
Eventually, he grasped me under my arms and yanked me up to my knees.
His jaw was hard with the effort of not coming, his pupils were blown, that was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and he made it sexier when he growled, “I’m finishing in you.”
“All righty,” I agreed.
He kissed me, and I knew something else was going on, I heard the foil tear, but I was concentrating on his tongue dueling with mine.
I knew he’d taken care of business when he wrapped an arm around my waist and hauled me up.
I curled my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his hips.
He gazed into my eyes as his other hand moved between us.
And then he dragged me down and filled me.
Oh God.
Beautiful.
Gorgeous.
Life.
My head fell back and then my body fell back because Battle was again on top of me, and he was fucking me.
His eyes holding mine, his hand cupping my jaw in a gesture that was not tender, but claiming (and I adored it), his thumb tight on my lips.
He pressed.
I opened.
He slid his thumb in.
I sucked it hard.
He growled and fucked me harder.
He got my drift when I nipped the pad of his thumb, he pulled it out, I gasped, “Honey,” bucked under him, curled my arms and legs tighter around him, arched my neck back and came.
Blinding…
Earth shaking…
Mindless…
Amazing…
Oblivion.
With a thumb in the flesh under my chin, he pushed my head even further back, bit hard at my neck, I convulsed under him as another orgasm built instantly and washed through so strong, I had to fist a hand in his hair to hold on lest it sweep me away.
And then he filled me, groaning deep and gorgeous, as I held his big body while it shuddered through his orgasm.
He rolled us even before it was fully done, so I was straddling him and lying on him as he finished and came down.
I knew he was out of the thrall when his hands began to meander, though one meandered quickly to my ass and laid claim pretty vehemently, considering the pads of his fingers were pressing into my cleft.
Oh yeah.
The duke really liked my ass.
“Rule.” His thick-from-his-orgasm, luscious voice filled the room. “The first time I have you after I return from London, you don’t suck my cock.”
I lifted my head to look down at him.
He seemed peeved.
But I was worried.
“You didn’t like it?”
He cupped the side of my head. “Vivienne, I nearly blew in your mouth. Twice.”
I grinned.
“I see you’re proud of yourself,” he groused. “But the first time I came in you, it wasn’t your mouth I wanted to come into.”
“I almost came when you were going down on me,” I shared.
“That would be acceptable.”
“So why wouldn’t it be acceptable the other way around?”
“Because I said so.”
My eyes got squinty, then, since I’d lost his dick, I rolled off to my back and bitched to the ceiling. “Oh my God, I just fucked an arrogant, bossy duke.”
His amazing face filled my vision. “No, darling, an arrogant, bossy duke just fucked you.”
He gave me a quick peck, then shifted, chucking the pajama bottoms neither of us fully divested him of, before he crawled over me to get out of bed.
I watched his criminally fantastic ass (though, I did give his beefy thighs a gander) as he moved into a dark room.
It lit, he disappeared, and I saw a lot of black tile.
The bathroom.
I shifted in bed until I was under the covers and then saw a gray, floppy-eared head pop up over the side.
“Hullo, handsome,” I greeted Bartholomew.
He looked at me, gave me a half-sleepy, half-happy pant, then he slid down out of view.
I felt the distinct movement a bed makes when a cat lands on it and looked over my shoulder.
Baby Blue was there.
While I watched, Snowball joined her.
Gingerface came up the rear.
Snowball and Gingerface were checking out the lay of the land.
Baby Blue just plopped down to stake her territory.
I sensed movement and looked the other way to see an equally delicious full-frontal view of Duke Six-Pack-Fabulous-Cock-Even-Semi-Hard strolling my way.
“We have company,” I told him.
He made it to me, lifted the covers, slid in beside me, then grabbed hold of me, pulling me on top.
“They’ll have to come back,” he said.
“Why? Baby Blue is already comfy.”
“We’re going to be very busy, Vivi.”
Oh, lovely.
I thought that.
I went for coy.
“We are?”
“Quiet and kiss me,” he ordered.
“So bossy.”
“All right, I’ll kiss you.”
After rolling on top of me (scattering cats), he did.
And then we got busy.
* * *
Indeed, we were so occupied, we didn’t see the muted blue, green and purple lights dancing through the windows that faced the ballroom.
And once we passed out, we definitely didn’t see the light change only to blue.
Before it faded away.