Chapter 13 #2
Why does his touch elicit such a response from me?
His bare chest felt like a furnace as he stood close to her, and she allowed his warmth to surround her.
Alexander traced a line from her collarbone down the center of her corset. His finger grazed her breasts causing her breath to hitch.
“Look at how you are blushing for me.” He spoke softly but each word left her in shambles.
“Tell me…how do you feel?” her voice trembled.
“I feel a pull towards you; it is almost as if I cannot control my own body.” His voice was so low and dangerous that it made her shiver with the same want he just described.
She had not realized that talking could impact a moment such as this until Alexander proved her wrong.
He continued to travel down her body until he stopped at her waist. Theo looked into his eyes and noticed how his breathing increased as much as hers did.
She felt his arms wrap around her and he grasped her bottom through her skirts. Theodora gasped but did not stop him.
“Theo.” He whispered her name like a sweet caress.
She closed her eyes and a strangled sound escaped her throat. She clasped her mouth and immediately felt ashamed, but Alexander removed her hands, squeezing her bottom tightly with his other.
“You are allowed to make those sounds, Theo. Your natural reactions are what will make this experiment real.” She simply nodded and placed her open palms on his muscled chest.
Alexander hissed as soon as she touched him, proving that he felt the same way she did. His hand slid to the back of her neck, tilting her face up toward him.
“Alex—” she said, suddenly aware that they were taking this further.
He dipped his head and her lips parted on their own. Theodora could hear her own pulse thundering in her ears. She could not think. She could not breathe. She could not do anything but feel the rush of heat and pleasure rise within her.
Alexander leaned in and the world narrowed to the space between them. His lips brushed hers gently and another sound escaped her; this time it was softer and more pleading.
“Can I kiss you again, Theo?”
She felt breathless. Her body tingled and she felt the hardness of her nipples press against the corset.
“Yes,” she breathed and Alexander grinned before he captured her mouth with his.
Everything inside of her unraveled as he kissed her softly.
His hands continued to explore her body which began to writhe against his eager fingers.
Theo raised her own arms and placed her hands behind his neck, drawing him closer and deepening the kiss.
Alexander’s tongue explored her mouth skillfully and she moaned into the kiss.
He grabbed her waist and lifted her up, carrying her across the room toward the armchair he had been sitting in a few minutes before.
Theodora whimpered when he broke away from her and placed her feet on the floor. She had expected to be deposited in the chair. That would have been preferable since her knees buckled. Thankfully, Alexander held her upright.
“Theo,” he said gruffly, “I am going to undress you now.”
Theodora felt lightheaded and she could not think straight. Her state of mind was both frightening and exhilarating.
“All right,” she agreed without a second thought.
Alexander went to work immediately untying her dress, then her corset with experienced precision. Theo felt as though she were about to melt away as each of her garments were thrown onto the floor. The air was cool around her, but she felt too warm under his intense gaze.
At last, she stood stark naked before him. Alexander stepped back and admired her, but Theo felt self-conscious. Her hands moved on their own to block her breasts and the tuft of hair between her legs.
“No,” Alexander ordered, “I want to see all of you.”
“But—”
“You are beautiful, Theo. Let me admire your beauty.”
She had never felt beautiful before. His words, although she believed them to be untrue, stirred something dark and passionate within her. Theodora eventually dropped her hands and exposed her body to him. Alexander walked around her slowly.
“Tell me what you are learning so far?” She heard his rough voice behind her.
How could she speak like this? Naked and shivering with desire.
“You are an intellect, Theo. You should be able to think clearly even in such a vulnerable state.”
Theodora steadied herself.
He is right.
“I am learning that…” Her voice trembled with each word.
Alexander came back into her view. His eyes studied her body, and she perceived his manhood pressing against his trousers. She gulped but her mouth was suddenly dry.
“I learned that all senses have been used in the progression of our growing…attraction to each other.”
Alexander walked towards her and Theo felt a hot wetness pool between her quivering legs.
“Go on?” he growled.
She continued breathlessly. “You used taste, touch, words, and now you are using sight to—”
Alexander towered over her.
“To?”
She swallowed and tried to control her breathing. “To unravel me.”
He smirked and placed a hand around her throat gently.
“Would you like to learn more?”
“Yes,” she answered too quickly, “please.”
Alex chuckled. “Sit down, Theo. I am just getting started.” He let go of her throat.
Theo obeyed immediately and sat on the cushioned armchair, grateful that she was off her feet. Alexander stood in front of her, and she admired his bulge. Her hands reached for his trousers, but he stopped her.
“You are the one learning here, not me. I do not need you to pleasure me.”
She felt hurt by his rejection, but she accepted it.
“Now.” Alexander leaned down, placing his strong hands on either side of the armchair. “Open your legs for me, Theo. As wide as possible.”
Theo gaped and her eyes widened at his request.
“What are you going to do?”
He smiled devilishly.
“You will see.”
Theodora followed his instructions and opened her legs until her thighs hit the arms of the chair.
“Good girl,” he praised her and she unwillingly let out a soft moan.
His mere words pleasure me.
She gasped when he kissed her neck, her chest, her abdomen and writhing hips.
Theodora looked down at him as he got on his knees and planted a soft trail of kisses all along her thigh, starting from her knee.
She gasped when he drew closer to her core, placing his hands under her thighs and lifting her legs up over his shoulder.
“You might want to note this sensation down later,” he said seductively and dipped his head towards her hot, wet core.
Theo gasped. “Alex!”
His name echoed in the silent library. Alex did not stop; he licked and kissed her most sensitive part until she felt as though she was about to burst into a million pieces.
She looked down at him, and the scene was almost reverent.
The Duke grabbed her thighs tightly as she shivered and shattered around him.
Her hips bucked, her breasts ached for his touch, and as if he read her mind he reached up and cupped her breast in his rough palm.
His thumb circled her piqued nipple as his tongue circled her mound in a maddening way.
“Something is happening,” she gasped out as she felt a sudden heat pool in the pit of her stomach.
Alexander stopped briefly. “Release that feeling, Theo.”
“H…how?” she moaned as he went back to work on her.
He spread her legs even wider as he pulled her closer to him.
Theodora slid down the cushion, the sudden shift caused her to open up to him like a flower.
Theo did not need any instructions then.
The release happened naturally. Even in her times alone in her bed she had not felt something so intense.
Her hips bucked and she let out a small cry as everything spun around her and an intense pleasurable feeling rocked through her entire body.
Theo felt Alexander’s lips curve against her throbbing, sensitive core.
“That’s a good little sorceress,” he said proudly as her entire body went limp.
* * *
Alexander was still breathless when Theodora pulled away. He had tasted her, and he needed more but that was not part of the plan. He got up and admired her flushed body.
She is perfect.
“How do you feel?” he asked her own question.
Her lips were red and swollen from biting them, her hair slightly mussed, and her breath uneven. She looked at him as though she was not sure what had just happened, or what it meant, and he felt the same. He had never wanted anyone the way he wanted her.
“It felt…otherworldly. I…I cannot think too clearly now but how did it feel for you? Surely, that did not satisfy you?” she cocked her head and she looked even more stunning as her curls fell around her.
“That alone would satisfy a real man, Theo.” He looked at her so intensely and felt his body begin to react again.
“But how would you be satisfied when I have done nothing to return the favor?” she was genuinely curious.
Alexander chuckled as he admired her innocence. “Theo, I do not have to sleep with you to be satisfied.”
She frowned. “But is that not what love is? Putting someone’s needs, or in this case, someone’s pleasure above yours?”
“You do not need to love someone in order to pleasure them.” His response felt cold and he watched Theodora closely as she processed this answer.
“I—should go,” she eventually whispered. Her body trembled as she stood up and looked around for her garments.
Alexander reached for her instinctively. “You should stay for dinner.”
Her eyes widened as she covered her body with her dress.
It was not fear he detected, but a sense of surprise at his request. For a moment, he thought she might say yes.
He could almost see it: Theodora sitting across from him at the long dining table, candlelight catching in her hair, and her lips still swollen from their kissing.
It will be a welcome distraction.
But she shook her head.
“I cannot,” she said, dressing with shaking hands. “I… I need to think.”
He swallowed as dread slowly filled him. He feared she might have already started regretting their time together, and Alex had never questioned his…expertise before.
“Theo—”
“I will see you tomorrow,” she said quickly, as though afraid he would stop her. “I will bring the cream for your ribs.”
Alex laughed. “You are more worried about that?”
“It is not a laughing matter, Alex.”
He cocked his head at her as she dressed herself clumsily.
“What is wrong? Did you not enjoy our time together?” he asked her as he slipped his shirt back on and did up the buttons.
Theo looked at his naked torso again, and he smirked.
“It is not that I did not enjoy it. Have you forgotten that this is merely an experiment? Therefore…” She paused and slipped her arms through the sleeves of her gown. “I have to go home and write my findings.”
Alex nodded but before he could say another word, she slipped past him and stopped at the library door.
“I will come by tomorrow,” she said before closing the door behind herself.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Alexander stood there for a long moment, staring at the door she had disappeared through, feeling as though she had taken the air with her.
His body still ached for her. His mind still reeled from the way she had touched him, kissed him, and moaned his name like a secret she had been holding for far too long.
He shook his head and laughed.
He had asked a woman to stay for the first time in his life, and she ran away instead.
God help me.