Chapter Thirteen #2
“Yes.” One of her eyebrows rose. “Are you up to the challenge?”
“I shall show you a challenge.” Then, taking her hand, he led her out of the morning room. Swiftly, they traversed the empty corridor, climbed the stairs to the upper level, and didn’t stop until he’d ushered her into a large suite decorated in a dark navy and tan color palette.
“Ooh, the duke’s inner sanctum,” she said with amusement in her voice. “Surely this is the height of scandalous.”
“You aren’t far off.” As he spoke, he shrugged out of his jacket. Seconds later, he tossed it in the direction of a comfortable-looking winged-back chair. It fell to the floor with a whisper. “No one is allowed here except for my valet and once a month, the chambermaid.”
With a glance at the door to the adjoining dressing room, Eloise moved across the room, and once there, she closed the panel with a soft click. To make certain they wouldn’t be interrupted by said valet, she turned the latch that activated the locking mechanism.
“You value privacy that much?”
“I do.” He rested his cane against the chair. Afterward, he yanked at the buttons on his waistcoat until it, too, landed on the floor.
“I see.” Slowly, she came toward him, but not before spying a small brown bottle on a bedside table with a glass dropper beside it. No doubt laudanum for the pain in his leg. “There is no shame in letting people close to you.”
“Perhaps, but it is my decision.” His cuffs and collar followed next, discarded upon the Aubusson carpet like abandoned dollops of cream.
“You wish to keep the people you care about safe.” It wasn’t a question as she crept forward. Anticipation warred with concern in her chest.
“I do. However, in this moment, I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Fair enough.” Eloise trembled while James yanked the cravat from around his neck.
The longer he stared at her with wicked intent in his eyes, the more her own need for him ramped.
“Must we waste time in removing clothing?” It was insanity how much she wanted this man.
Perhaps she was, indeed, addicted to him.
Did that make her as depraved as him or was she merely letting herself enjoy life again after so long?
He paused, the length of pristine silk in his hands. “Are you that anxious?”
“I’m craving your touch on my body.” When he sent her a grin that bordered on this side of naughty, butterflies took flight in her lower belly.
“I might have grown too accustomed to you over the past week.” Most women would be ashamed of what they’d done with a man, especially one like Blackhawke, but she wasn’t.
Not after everything.
“Good, for I’ll take you however you want.
” With a growl, he pulled her over to the winged-back chair then hauled her into his lap so that she straddled his waist. Her skirting bunched between them.
“You are certain you want the restraints?” There was enough need in his expression that she couldn’t help but agree.
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll do a bit of a modified stint this afternoon, since time is of the essence.”
He was the sort of man who would never cease to look after the woman in his care.
It went beyond his need to dominate during bed sport, for in everything James had done this week, he’d shown how invested he was in her.
He protected her, cherished her, had made plans for the future, as well as done things that would see her happy above giving her the ultimate pleasure with his touch.
“I am at your mercy.” Pressing her lips together to moisten them, she put a hand against his cheek, reveled in the feel of the stubble there. “I need you.”
“Mmm, I think I have ruined you too much.” His eyes darkened, and as he held her gaze, he took one of her hands, kissed it, and then slowly encouraged it behind her back.
With each movement, his fresh scent wafted to her nose and stirred her desire.
Once he’d done the same to the other hand, she couldn’t help but shiver in anticipation.
“I appreciate the fact you haven’t walked away from me or announced me too broken.
” He kissed her in the most tender of ways, and all the while, he threaded the cravat around her wrists.
As soon as he’d tied the ends, she tested the restraints.
“Too tight?” he whispered against her mouth.
“No, just right.” She wriggled her hands. There was enough give to the cloth that she didn’t feel trapped or fearful. Instead, excitement and need twisted down her spine and her heartbeat quickened. “I adore this moment, right before I surrender everything to you, knowing you’ll never let me fall.”
“Never.”
“And you won’t leave me to face the years alone,” she added in a barely audible voice, all the while with Littleton’s concerns in mind.
“Don’t think past this moment, Elli.” Of course, he deflected.
Then James cupped her face in his hands, tilted her head back, and peered into her eyes.
Her thoughts danced away. For the first time since she’d known him, a trace of happiness was reflected in those blue depths, and it tugged at her heart.
“You remain very much a mystery to me, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life solving you.”
Yet how long would that life be? She was too much a coward to ask or even demand. Tears sprang to her eyes. “That’s a sweet sentiment.”
“It is the true challenge, I’ll wager.” Then he kissed her with such wonderful tenderness that she shivered from the sensations crashing over her.
When she whimpered, it was apparently all the permission he needed.
One second they were kissing each other with blind abandon, and in the next, he’d tugged down her bodice to devour her breasts.
Pleasure streaked from the nipples he rolled and tweaked to her core as if connected by gossamer thread.
Each pass of his fingers, every lick of his tongue brought new feelings and heightened awareness until she shook from need.
She arched her back, which put her breasts further into his care, and as she gyrated her hips against his in the search for relief, he hissed out a moan of his own.
“I rather think this seduction will go quickly. That’s how much I want you,” he whispered as he dragged his lips along the side of her throat.
“There is no shame in admitting that.” She tugged at her bonds, but the cravat had been tied too skillfully. “Since we will marry soon, we have our whole lives for you to spend hours driving me insane with your teasing.”
Please say you’ll stay in that life with me.
“Indeed, and the next time I have you at my mercy, I promise that session will be long and drawn out. You’ll go over the edge multiple times.
” With a grin that smacked of wicked delights, he delved a hand through yards of her skirting.
Seconds later, he thrummed his talented fingers over her sensitive flesh between her thighs.
Eloise gasped from the unexpected need that tightened and circled through her insides.
It was madness this response at a mere touch from him, but he’d set her soul on fire from the first, even when she’d fought him.
She pulled at her restraints, but the bond held and enhanced those sensations.
There was no recourse when he encouraged the swollen button at her center out of hiding.
A string of shudders racked her body from the varying degrees of friction he applied.
“Oh, dear God,” she said in a voice that held an edge of hysteria.
“Not quite, merely a mortal man who might have a bit of the devil in him,” he whispered with a grin that caused her heart to skip a beat.
“James, please send me over. I can’t bear the play.” Though she adored his attention to foreplay and teasing, at times a lady merely wanted to be undone without preamble or games.
“Tell me what you want.” He dipped his head and closed his mouth over one taut nipple while manipulating that all-important nubbin.
Her breath came in pants. Gooseflesh popped on her skin, for surely she would expire soon, and be glad for it.
Passion and desire clouded her brain, preventing clear thoughts.
The longer he played, explored every inch of her exposed skin with his mouth, tongue, and teeth, the more she lost herself in the heated tide.
Would that she could drift away and exist only in waves of pleasure… take him with her.
“Elli, what do you want?” Authority rang in his voice, a heady mix of the duke that he was and the man who could hold her heart if she allowed it. The reverberation of that timbre against the skin he’d just suckled sent pulses between her thighs.
“In this moment? It’s you. I want you.” Desperation bled through into her tones, and she squirmed on his lap, felt the evidence of his need rubbing at the sensitive point where his fingers still worked their magic.
“How do you want me?” Urgency rode that question, and he plucked at a nipple with his free hand.
The rhythm of rolling, gentle pinching, and then releasing sent shudders of pain-tipped decadence through her insides. She clenched her thighs together to prolong the feelings, and still he played. Soon, she’d break, and though glorious, she needed him inside her.
“James!” Her eyes drifted closed. Eloise threw back her head as she shattered so hard it stole her breath.
Acute bliss caught her up in its tide and she shook from it, over and over, for he hadn’t ceased his torment on that swollen button.
Temporarily, she went boneless as her body reacted.
When she slumped against him, her head on his shoulder, her lips at the side of his neck, he moved his hands to hers and deftly manipulated the cravat’s knot. “What are you doing?”
“Releasing you.”
“Why? I want the whole effect.” Dangerously close to whining, she lifted her head to peer into his eyes. “Don’t you want that too?”