Chapter 9 #2
He looked at her. “I understand,” he said softly.
“I’m glad,” she said.
“But that means that I need to leave this room right now,” he said, “because…”
“Yes?” she whispered.
“I want to kiss you,” he murmured, drawing her close to him. “I want to hold you. I want to know all of you, not just your marvelous mind that’s setting my house to rights and not judging me. I can’t help it. It’s what I’ve wanted from the moment that you opened the door of my chamber.”
She laughed. “I never should have done it.”
“Well, how could you know that I’d be there?”
“Fair,” she said.
And then, for a moment, she wondered, was this all some great game and she was being pushed about on a board like a game piece?
Was there any point in resisting? Maybe she shouldn’t resist. She’d not been able to control what happened with her own father.
She’d not been able to control the way her mother and she had been tossed out of their home.
She’d not been able to control so many things, and maybe the river of her life was pushing her towards the duke.
“And if I wanted you to kiss me?” she whispered.
He stilled. “I don’t know if I should.”
She took a step towards him, holding his hand tightly. “What if I wanted to live with the gods for a few days?”
“Humans and gods rarely interact well,” he said softly.
“No, they don’t,” she agreed. “But what if, for just a brief, short little period of my life, I wanted to know what it was like to be one of you?”
His gaze traveled over her face and lingered on her lips. “You are one of us. You are the goddess here, and I am the one who wants to worship you.”
In front of the painting of Aphrodite, Pierce pulled Nancy into his arms. It was the sweetest of embraces.
She knew she should not allow it, but she wanted it more than anything, more than she could possibly say.
So when his lips touched hers, she closed her eyes and did not allow herself to turn him away.
She did not allow herself to think of the regrets she might have or the recriminations she might face because Pierce made it very clear: there would be none. And this felt like a moment stolen in time that neither of them had planned.
It was almost as if Aphrodite herself was casting a spell upon them from the portrait. And if Aphrodite was in charge, what authority did Nancy have? Indeed, how could she refuse?
Her life had not been one of sweet caresses or kisses but of hard work. In fact, she had had to avoid kisses before. Other men, who couldn’t even touch the duke’s boots, had tried to steal her lips with their own selfish ones.
There was nothing selfish about Pierce or the way he kissed her.
No, he gave to her. He gave over and over again with the soft touch of his lips.
Her mind turned to pure bliss, almost like dreaming even though she was awake, because it was so pleasurable.
His tongue touched her lips and then, much to her amazement, he slipped it into her mouth, caressing, teasing.
She was startled by how much she liked it. Surely it should’ve been too strange for words, but her body seemed to know exactly what to do as she leaned into him and allowed herself to be all but plastered to his hard front.
She wanted to be as close as possible to him. She wanted to give way in this moment. She’d spent so much time resisting her own desires. And now that she’d given in to them, she didn’t want to think of any reason to stop.
His hands wandered over her frame, memorizing her back, her hips, her ribs, her waist. It was a gentle seduction, but it was a seduction. There was nothing innocent about it.
No, it promised the sin that he was clearly capable of. So, when he tilted her head to the side and kissed her neck, she shivered, not with surprise or with the need to push him away, but with the need to know more. His mouth danced over her delicate skin. She let her eyes flutter shut.
His hands worked over her skirts. She didn’t allow herself to consider that she should tell him to stop.
Though her good sense told her she should, she did not want to stop.
When he moved her slowly to the wall, pressing her so gently against it, and he began to slide her skirt upward, she gloried in it.
Yes, her mind was so enamored by his kiss, so enamored by what he could promise her, that she wound her hands into his hair and pulled him closer.
Besides! Was she the only one here who had to dictate the pace? No! Affection would dictate the pace; desire would dictate the pace. At this moment, her body desired all of him.
His fingertips slid up over her thighs and caressed her hips, the intimate place between her legs. Though she nearly jumped because she was so startled, she trusted him.
Yes, that was it! This was why she could do this. Unlike any man she had ever met and known, she trusted Pierce.
Those clever fingers of his slipped between her legs and found her most intimate place. She had waited to see what he would do next, not what she would do, not what she would say. He gazed down at her face, his eyes hot and hungry.
“I’m going to please you now,” he promised.
She bit her lower lip and nodded.
Now that he had declared his intent, he stroked his fingers over the soft petals of her sex.
Her legs began to tremble. She’d never experienced anything like this. He held her, pinning her body to the wall as he studied her face.
“I want to see it,” he murmured. “I want to see the pleasure that I can give you.”
She nodded.
It felt tremendously vulnerable, but she allowed him to just watch. A part of her wished that he would kiss her because then she would not be looked at.
How could she hide just how much he made her feel if he was looking at her face? But maybe she couldn’t hide it. Maybe there was nothing that she could hide from him.
As his practiced fingers circled over her most sensitive nub, spreading the evidence of her desire over her, making her slick with need, she let out a cry of amazement.
Pleasure coursed through her over and over again. She felt far too sensitive to his touch, and she had experienced the bliss that surely only he could give her. She called out his name, stunned by how transformed she felt.
Pierce lowered his head to hers. He slipped his hand away, and he held her.