17. Avery
Well,it only took twenty-nine years, but it finally happened:
I, Avery Lawrence, have officially lost my mind over man.
At least, that’s the only reason I can think of for plunging fully-clothed into the cold Atlantic ocean. The icy water hits my skin, and I squeal, but I force myself to keep wading deeper.
I need to cool off.
All day, I’ve been simmering to boiling point, and now, I’m just about ready to combust.
But Duke still won’t make a move.
It’s driving me crazy! We’ve been having a great time together: laughing, flirting, holding hands… but that’s all. I get why he might not want to jump my bones at a crowded family festival, but what would be so wrong about a chaste, lingering kiss? And now we’re finally alone, at his gorgeous ruined mansion, with the sun setting and the breeze whispering on my bare skin… any man with half a brain– or other organ– would think it was the perfect moment to take me in his arms and kiss me.
Or, you know, slam me up against one of those crumbling walls for the best wild sex of my life. I’ll take it, mold and all. Anything.
But nope, Duke is showing all the passion of a block of marble. He seems determined to keep his hands– and his mouth– to himself.
Argh!
I dive under a wave, and surface, spluttering and soaked to the skin.
“You’re insane, woman!”
I turn. Duke is wading towards me in wet jeans, shaking his head. “You’re going to catch pneumonia out here,” he warns, but his eyes are raking over me, a new, low heat in his gaze. My blouse is plastered to my skin now, the outline of my peach silk lingerie clearly showing through.
Duke’s jaw tenses.
I smile in victory– and relief. Maybe he’s not made of stone, after all.
“What are you talking about? It’s refreshing,” I tease, splashing at him. “And by the way, you lost. I beat you in the water. That means you have to pay a forfeit.”
Duke wades closer. “Is that so? Name your price, princess.”
“Hmm…” I pretend to think about it. “Do I want you to volunteer to help Suze on her next five theater projects, or streak naked through the square in Blackberry Cove...?”
“Aww hell,” Duke groans. “I should have known you’d make me suffer.”
“Me?” I bat my eyelashes, flirty. “I’m your dream come true, baby.”
Duke’s gaze darkens, and suddenly, the air between us turns charged. “Say that again.”
Lust floods my body at the low command in his voice. “Baby?” I repeat softly, and he sounds a low curse.
“Yeah, you don’t get to call me that,” Duke says hoarsely, closing the distance between us. “Not unless I’m inside you.”
Holy shit.
I would swoon, except he’s already pulling me into his arms, yanking me tight against the broad planes of his body as his mouth captures mine in a hot, demanding kiss.
God. Yes.
This is what I’ve been waiting for all day, all night, but damn, it’s even better. Duke kisses me like a man possessed, his tongue plunging deep between my lips, his hands tangling in my hair. I hold on for dear life, losing myself in the heat of it all, even as the icy waves surge around us.
I can’t get enough.
The feel of his arms around me; the low groan sounding in the back of his throat; the delicious taste of him, still laced with butterscotch from the ice-cream we shared at the festival…
More, my body demands, arching up hungrily. He’s hard against me, and I can’t help grinding into the ridge of his cock. That. Yes. Mine.
“Christ,” Duke pulls back, breathing hard. He’s got a wild look in his eyes now, and damn, I feel it, too. “You’re going to be the death of me,” he mutters.
“From the pneumonia?” I joke breathlessly, still holding on tight around his neck.
“Among other things.” He picks me up and wades back towards shore, carrying me like I’m nothing. I bury my face in the crook of his neck, and let him, my whole body charged and electric like a live wire.
Jesus. If this is what desire has always been like, then the universe owes me a refund. I want my money back, from all those guys who never came close.
By the time we reach dry land, I’m ready to pull Duke down right there in the sand, but he keeps on moving, dragging me back towards his truck. “I’ve learned my damn lesson about you and public places,” he says, practically tossing me up into the passenger seat. “Somebody’s always watching.”
I should be glad he’s got enough sense left not to give the paparazzi another payday, but all I can do is shift in my seat with impatience, as Duke hits the gas, and drives away so fast, it leaves a cloud of dust in our wake.
“Stop it,” he growls, looking over at me as the dark coastal road flies by.
“Stop what?” I ask, feeling fevered.
“Stop making me jealous of that passenger seat.”
I laugh, I have to– it’s either that, or melt in a puddle of pure longing on the floor. “It’s your fault, for making me wait all day,” I tell him, breathlessly. Feeling reckless. Feeling bold. “When I was yours to take, anytime you wanted. Hell, you could have had me in my bed this morning, when I was moaning your name in my pillows while I came.”
“Fuck.”
Duke wrenches the wheel, driving like a madman. I don’t know how we make it back to the cottage without combusting, but somehow I manage to make it to the front door and fumble for my keys. He snatches them from me, and throws the door open. “Upstairs,” he growls, slamming it shut behind us. “Now.”
We don’t even make it halfway up the narrow staircase before I’m up against the wall, pulling him to me, kissing him hard. Duke’s hands are everywhere, pulling at my wet clothes, and god, I’m doing just the same. “Off,” I order, clawing at his T-shirt. “Get it off.”
Duke strips it off, and reaches for me again; hiking my legs up around his waist, and carrying me the last steps to the bedroom. We tumble backwards onto the bed, and I gasp, already wild over the feel of his bare chest beneath me, and the way his hands are gripping tight to my thighs, molding me against him, already moving me on his cock. I try to pull my blouse off, but everything I’m wearing is wet through and stuck to my skin.
“Wait,” I scramble back, onto my feet.
“What are you--?” Duke lifts his head, confused.
And then I start to strip for him.
I was going to just rip it all off and throw myself on him again, but then I see Duke’s expression, and I pause. Because the way he’s looking at me…
He’s staring like I’m a miracle.
I feel a shiver. I’ve had men lusting after my body half my life. Hell, I’ve built a career off it: being sexy, being hot. But this is different, somehow. This is new. He’s not staring at a dolled-up fantasy, or the woman I’m pretending to be.
Duke wants me. The real me.
And that’s sexier than anything I could imagine.
Slowly, teasingly, I lift the wet hem of my blouse over my head, and toss it aside.
Duke groans.
I smile wider, unbuttoning my shorts, and wriggling out of them. The wet fabric hits the ground with a thud, and then I’m standing in front of him in just my wet silk lingerie.
“You like it?” I do a slow spin for him, loving the power thrumming through my bloodstream. I swear, I’m getting high off that crazed, awestruck look in his eyes. “I picked it out especially. I was hoping you’d be the one taking it off me tonight.”
Duke murmurs what sounds like a string of mumbled curses, and then he’s reaching for me again, pulling me into the cradle of his thick thighs, hands skimming over me as he buries his face between my breasts. “I told you, you’re killing me,” he says, squeezing my ass through the silk.
But I’m the one dying, as he kisses me through my bra, sucking my taut nipple into his mouth through the silk, nipping sharply enough to make me moan.
My legs buckle, and I sway against him. “Duke…” I breathe, my hands clutching his hair. “Please…”
He lifts his head away long enough to unfasten my bra clasp, and peel the wet fabric away; inching my panties over my thighs until they fall to the floor, too, and I’m finally naked.
“Perfect,” he looks up at me, sounding dazed. “You’re fucking perfect.”
I feel it, too. Watching the way he kisses every inch of my bare skin, running his mouth reverently over my body, making me shiver and sigh. It’s heaven. And when his hands finally slide between my legs, touching me, delving into my wetness, circling my clit with aching precision, so right?—
I come fast and sweet, gasping for him.
“That’s right, princess.” Duke drops a kiss on my hipbone, and then rises to his feet, setting me gently on the edge of the bed. “Get used to saying my name.”
He strips off his jeans and boxers in one fluid motion, then tips me back on the bed. I lay there on the covers, reeling with delight. Did I win some kind of cosmic sex lottery?
Because this man is magnificent.
His body is incredible, muscular and broad, and as for his cock…
Duke smirks, watching my reaction as he rolls on a condom. I giggle. “Oh god, your ego is going to be insufferable now.”
“Just wait until I’ve made you come another half-dozen times.”
“Tonight?” I fake disbelief, even though with his record, I wouldn’t be surprised. “I like a man with dreams.”
Duke chuckles, leaning over me. “Plans, baby,” he corrects me, dropping a slow, sizzling kiss on my lips. “I told you, I’m going to give you everything you need.”
Then, before I can say a word, he flips me over, so I’m facedown in the sheets, and trails his fingertips lightly all the way down my spine.
Oh my god!
Sensation races through me, hot and wild. I writhe, gasping, as Duke leans over and covers my body with his. “Is this how you were, baby?” he asks, voice low and gravelly in my ear. “When you were getting yourself off to the thought of me. Is this how you like it?”
I moan, pressing my forehead into the pillows. “Yes,” I manage, arching back against him. “God, yes.”
Duke lifts my hips back, and notches himself at my entrance. “Show me,” he demands, covering one of my hands and steering it down my belly, between my thighs. “Show me what you need.”
His fingertips overlap with mine, coming to press against my clit at the same time as he thrusts inside me.
Fuck.
I wail into the pillows with pleasure. He’s big, god, stretching me open with a delicious friction that makes me beg for more. I can hear his fevered cursing, breath hot on the back of my neck, as he sinks deeper, all the way to the hilt. Filling me. Surrounding me. Driving me wild.
And then he starts to move.
Never mind the cosmic sex lottery, this is more like the cosmic sex Olympics. Duke’s got one gripping my hip and the other pressed up against my clit, sending new delicious pressure through my body with every thrust. I lose myself in the filthy pace of it, arching back, demanding more. It’s incredible…
… but it’s not enough.
“I need to see you,” I gasp, breaking away. I roll so that I’m facing him, and wrap my legs around his waist. This time, I’m the one pulling him down into me, until we’re fused all over again, skin-to-skin. My lips find his ear, and I can’t help teasing softly.
“Baby…”
“Christ.” Duke’s eyes flash with something possessive and so damn hot. Then he’s moving us again, driving into me in a dizzying rhythm that hits everything just right.
So right.
“There,” I arch up with a squeal as his cock finds a perfect spot, high inside me. “Oh god, don’t stop! Don’t stop.”
“Fuck, no.” Duke angles my knee up, spreading me wider, thrusting into me with perfect precision, sending me hurtling to the edge. “I’ve got you, princess,” his eyes are dark and wild on mine. I claw at the sheets, mindless, so close…
“You can let go,” he vows. “Right here, just like this. You’re mine.”
Yes.
I shatter with a cry, pleasure slamming through me in a white-hot wave– but Duke keeps on fucking me through it, expertly shifting my body to find a new angle, new pressure, new waves of climax that keep rolling in, right after the last.
Oh my god.
“Christ, the way you feel…” Duke’s movements turn frenzied as I spasm around him, drawing out my orgasm, until he sounds a strangled, “Avery—” and then he’s coming too, slamming into me in a final thrust that leaves the both of us collapsed there, sweaty and spent and absolutely perfect.
I gasp for air, sprawled there beside him. It feels like something deep inside me has been cracked wide open after holding tight for so long. Now my body is singing with endorphins– and something more. Something even sweeter.
You’re mine.
Duke’s words echo in my mind, wrapping themselves around me just as securely as the arms that pull me in to nestle against his chest. I can hear his heart pounding as we both come back down to earth, and I press my palm to cover the steady thrum.
What was that?
And when can I have more?