Chapter Thirteen #3
As his gaze bored into hers, he said, “My professional and private lives never need to mix in order to prove fulfilling.” He kissed her, claimed her mouth with a feverish hunger that matched her own need.
The taste of brandy and tea came away on her palate, and he kept one hand in her hair in an effort to keep her close while the other remained at her hip, his fingers digging into her skin.
“Yet I fear they are at odds; one is light and one is dark. Playing both might tear you apart or plunge you into the darkness more than you are already.” And she would hate to lose him to that.
“Let me worry about that.” Again, he claimed her lips.
She reveled in the touch of his lips on hers, the pain-tipped pleasure of his hands on her, the near desperation in his kiss, the shivering pleasure every time he bedeviled her nipples.
When he flexed his hips and buried himself as deep as he could go, she moaned, for he was just lovely.
“Why is this always so satisfying even if you confuse the hell out of me?” she couldn’t help but whisper against his mouth.
“I suppose that’s the curse of marrying a disreputable duke.” Then he captured her lips once more as he moved his hand from her hair to the wall behind her head.
Except it was more than that. She was beginning to suspect her heart had been engaged, but she held onto his shoulders and surrendered completely to him.
They communed by touch and the brush of lips, in caresses and touches, in the drag of fingernails across skin and the rasp of his whiskers on her cheeks and throat.
He was a master of finding her weaknesses and exploiting them until she was ready to melt into a puddle at his feet.
And he continued to wildly drive into her body, flirting with madness, encouraging her to come there with him.
Sighs and sounds of pleasure blended with the snap and crack of the fire.
Her fingers dug into his shoulder as she yielded to the sensation created by his hard strokes.
He speared into her, never relenting on claiming her.
She pulled him closer with the pressure of her heel to the small of his back, looped her arms more tightly about his shoulders.
“I need more.” So much more than this. Was he capable?
Her eyes shuddered closed, for she floated on a cloud of desire, for his rhythm changed as he snaked a hand to her waist, his fingers gripping her skin, and his thrusting went deeper and harder than she’d thought possible.
“Oh, goodness.” Surely, she would split apart.
“If you doubt I’ll rise to the mark, this should show you.” The possessive growl in his voice sent both thrills and tingles of alarm down her spine, and his hips never ceased their movement.
Again and again and again he speared into her body, laying claim to her whole being, his hot, hard thickness filling her, stretching her and leaving her breathless.
The look on his face was a mix of concentration and yearning, but for what she didn’t know.
Pressure built low in her belly. With every thrust, her body threatened to break apart, yet she didn’t want this coupling to end.
“I’m going to fly.”
His thrusts grew more frantic. “Tell me exactly what you want.”
With a gasp, she opened her eyes and peered at him. “Make me come so hard that I’ll have trouble climbing the stairs later tonight. Show me I might mean something more than how you make your living.” It was an unfair ask, but she couldn’t help it.
“Bah.” He shook his head. “It’s complicated.” He peered into her eyes, searching for God only knew what, but in that one look, his soul was suddenly on display and vulnerable. “Finding bad people, eliminating them is simple, for I have no soul to care.”
“That isn’t true, for I’ve seen it over the past handful of days, and you want someone to believe in you, to give you redemption.”
“So?”
“No one can give you that; I certainly can’t.
You must achieve it on your own, but you won’t do so if you continue to dwell in darkness.
” She shook her head. “I don’t want a man who walks in the light, nor do I want a knight in shining armor.
I just want a husband who can sleep through the night because the things he chooses in life don’t haunt him. ”
Though he growled, he said, “Fuck, you are both an angel and a dark temptation,” before he renewed his grip on her.
Broderick continued to work her body as if the world were suddenly ending.
He pushed into her so hard they slammed against the wall.
As he stroked deeply, shivers of delight showered her.
Faster and faster his hips moved, and she clung to his shoulders, meeting him thrust for thrust even as she was rapidly losing her grip on reality.
“Broderick!” Anne shattered with a startled cry that turned into a surprised wail as she fell over the edge into bliss.
The vortex raced up to meet her, suck her down into a world devoid of light or sound.
Only pleasure remained. She wrapped her hands around his upper arms as she found release.
So great were the contractions that she shook from them, said his name like a litany, until he kissed her, and the sound ceased but it continued to echo through her brain.
He thrust one more time, a forceful, powerful stroke that speared her to the wall before he claimed his own moment of satisfaction. The joy that shadowed his face as his shaft pulsed caused her heart to squeeze. In that moment, she had a glimpse of the man he could be if he chose to walk that path.
Unwilling to let him go just yet, she kissed him, eased her lips down the strong column of his throat to tease a spot beneath his jaw she particularly liked as she let her leg slip down his until her bare foot found purchase on the floor. “Goodness.”
“We come together like a storm. Why do we assume everything else between us won’t be as intense?”
“I don’t know.” She retrieved her abandoned shift and put it on.
He donned his breeches and then did up the buttons of his front falls. “I never claimed that I was a good man.”
“I never asked.”
“No, but I see the speculation in your eyes, and it bothers me.” When she didn’t answer, he closed the distance between them, and then scooped her into his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying you up to bed. I know you are exhausted.”
Why was he so confusing? But she offered no argument. By the time he laid her onto her bed and drew the bedclothes around her, she surrendered with a sigh. It was lovely being taken care of and looked after. “Thank you.”
“Always.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Goodnight, Anne.” The grin he offered was almost nonexistent in the gloom of the darkened room. “Remember, I am two rooms away should you need me.”
She nodded, and when the door closed softly behind him, a queer little jump went through her heart. Was she falling for him? Perhaps it was too early to say, but it made her smile all the same.