Taken by the Duke (17 page)

So she ignored his tempting member for the time being and instead pressed her fingers against his firm and muscled stomach. She let the slick oil sink into his skin as she rubbed in smooth, firm circles. He lifted his hips with a tiny groan of pleasure.

His reaction drove her on. She moved higher, rubbing the muscles of his chest. She stroked his nipples, watching them harden as his cock twitched below.

She stared at his erection. She wanted to taste him so much, and now he was spread out in front of her like a feast. She couldn’t take it anymore. Slowly, she eased lower, watching Christian’s face so that she’d know if he looked at her. Finally, she reached his cock and took it in hand.

He cried out as she stroked him with her oily fingers, arching his hips into her hand. She couldn’t help but notice that his movements seemed looser, less labored than they had in the past. She might have celebrated that small triumph, but she was too caught up in pleasure.

Slowly, she lowered her head and took him between her lips.

He immediately sat bolt upright with a gasp that echoed in the quiet room around them.

“Ava!” he called.

She lifted her mouth away to look at him. “Please. You told me this would give you pleasure. Let me try.”

She could see the battle on his face. This was an intimacy that perhaps brought her too close. It brought down too many walls.

And yet she could also see it was an intimacy he wanted almost desperately. She saw the hunger in his stare, the wild neediness as she stroked his cock once more. He didn’t seem to be breathing, nor did he pull away from her touch. She took the chance and closed her lips over him a second time.

He lifted his hips as she took him into her mouth. He felt big, hard though his flesh was soft. She gripped him with one hand and sucked gently.

“Move over me,” he directed. “Take me as you would with your pussy.”

She thought of the day she had ridden him on top, how she had moved, and began to mimic those motions with her mouth, stroking over him, taking him into her mouth as far as her throat would allow, then withdrawing until he was almost out of her body.

It was shocking to feel him inside her this way. More shocking was that although the act didn’t stimulate her physically, she still became highly aroused by it. With every stroke of her mouth over him, with every one of his moans and lifts of his hips, her nipples hardened and a dull, persistent ache throbbed between her legs until she could scarcely keep herself from reaching between them and offering herself some relief.

She increased her pace, sliding over him rapidly so that she could find…something, though she couldn’t place what. She just wanted more. She wanted to feel him lose control, to
take
that control from him. And by the way he cried out, she was about to get her wish.

Until he grasped her by the shoulders and dragged her up his body. He crushed his mouth to hers, sucking her tongue so hard that she felt a quiver of orgasm in her loins.

“But—” she began as he pulled away.

“Shut up,” he ordered, his voice gentle despite his harsh words.

He grasped her hips and maneuvered her until she straddled his lap. He remained seated but urged her to slide down onto his cock.

She wiggled and adjusted and suddenly he was sliding home, deep within her sex. Every single nerve and fiber in her body began to spiral around her pussy, and she jolted as sensation erupted throughout her entire being.

“Put your legs around me,” he said, his breath harsh and hot on her neck.

She pulled her legs from her under herself and wrapped them around his back and her arms around his shoulders. The result was that they were now seated, their bodies merged, their faces inches from one another. She had never been so close to another person, even when the two of them had made love before.

Now there was no escaping looking deeply into his bright eyes, feeling their bodies pressed together as tightly as was physically possible.

“Rock over me,” he grunted, cupping her backside. “Fuck me.”

She began to flex her hips, lifting against him. His skin was slick from the oils she had rubbed over him and her body slid easily, creating a heated friction that drove her mad with its power. She ground against him, hitting her clitoris just right as she moved over his cock.

They rode like that for a while, building the pleasure like a slow burn as she squeezed her legs around him, rubbed him. But when the dam of her release broke, she had never felt anything so powerful. The orgasm came on slow, a few low ripples, but it built and built, growing more and more powerful.

Christian cupped her hips, forcing her to keep rocking in time over him, even as she screamed out his name and slammed her mouth against his for a kiss. He lifted his hips, digging his fingers into her, and then she felt the heat of his seed as he exploded deep within her. The flood of it shocked her. He had always withdrawn in the past, separating them in body the way he always did in spirit, in soul.

But now he had given her something…everything, and as he lost control, her orgasm peaked and she broke from his mouth with a loud, “Yes!” that echoed in the room long after they collapsed against each other, their bodies still bound, their breathing merged.

Ava smoothed her hands over his sweat-slicked back and shivered at how good it felt to be joined like this. She had no experience in such things, of course, but she couldn’t imagine what they shared could possibly be as powerful and as passionate with any other man in the world.

And she never would have known or experienced it if he hadn’t kidnapped her and demanded revenge from her flesh.

“You are very quiet,” he said, cupping her chin to look at her.

She smiled. “Just woolgathering, I suppose.”

He leaned forward and kissed her, a gentle act that took her by surprise. Then he shook his head. “Making love is supposed to empty your thoughts, not inspire more of them.”

“I was thinking what a strange world it is that I would know this kind of experience because of you. If someone had told me that when you returned to Society a short time ago, I would have scoffed at them.”

He examined her face. “Perhaps I would have too. What did you think of me that night?”

She pondered her answer for a moment, remembering when he stepped into the ballroom and her heart all but stopped.

“I was embarrassed that everyone was looking at me to see my reaction to your return,” she admitted. “And I longed to disappear into the wall.”

“What did you think of
me
?” he repeated. He slid his hand up and down her bare arm, his fingers brushing her flesh with feather-light seduction.

“I was afraid of you,” she whispered, turning her face so he wouldn’t see how raw her emotions were when she admitted that all-too-true fact.

He pondered that for a moment. “A week ago, two weeks ago, a year ago, those words would have pleased me. Now I am shamed by them. I wouldn’t want you to fear me ever again.”

She started and jerked her stare back toward him. His frown was long and drawn, filled with unhappiness.

“Does—does that mean you would stop your war against my family?”

He slowly shook his head. “I—I can’t stop hating your brother, Ava. It is engrained into me. Even if it wasn’t, what he’s done…”

He trailed off, for neither of them needed a rote recitation of the facts that had brought them to this untenable place.

She swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat and blinked at tears that had leapt to her eyes.

“Oh Christian, if you hate my brother, if you will continue to pursue battle against him, then I
must
fear you. Even if I know you.”

Her words sank in for a long time before he responded. “Yes, I understand that. I respect it, even.”

“But where does it leave us?” she whispered, her voice breaking even when she willed it not to.

“I brought you here for revenge,” he said, his voice very soft. “I could think of nothing else when I took you. But now…I wonder if we could spend the rest of our time together, not in a bargain, not in a war, but just as lovers who want to share a brief moment in time?”

She blinked, letting that suggestion sink in even as she searched his unreadable face for any kind of emotion she could recognize. He was so good at hiding his heart. But she could tell he was being honest.

At least she hoped she could.

“You mean, you want to make love to me simply because—”

“Because when you touch me, I feel alive again,” he said, his face softening a fraction. “I want to feel alive again, Ava.”

“But what about our bargain?” she asked. “My brother.”

“You’ve more than paid any debt he owed me,” Christian said. “You could walk away tomorrow and I would not pursue him, at least not in the name of my sister.” He drew a long breath. “And if you wish to do so, I will call for a carriage to be readied for you at daybreak.”

She stared at him. “Y-You would?”

He hesitated before he continued, “I would. But I want you to stay. Stay until the term of our original deal ends. Stay because it gives you pleasure.”

She shifted, leaning away from his warmth. He would set her free! She could return home and know she had saved her brother from certain death at this man’s hands.

But she didn’t want to go. Not anymore.

“I will stay with you, Christian,” she murmured. “Until the term of our original bargain is out. I will stay because somehow your touch has become too tempting to abandon. I want more, and I would be a fool to leave this behind when I will never again experience anything like it in my life.”

He smiled, a wide, real smile and cupped her face to draw her down for another deep kiss. She felt his body stir within her and flexed around him to welcome his erection. She feared he might have found a home within her in both body and soul.

As they kissed, there was a light rap on the adjoining door between the bedchamber and the other room. Ava pulled back.

“Your bath, Your Grace,” she whispered.

He buried his face in her skin and began to kiss her there along the sweet spot where her shoulder met her neck.

“I would be forced to leave your body to take a bath. I’m not certain it is worth the effort. Nothing could feel better than you do.”

She laughed even though his kisses and the gentle throb of his hips were driving her wild with renewed desire.

“It will certainly feel better for your injuries, Christian.”

He groaned, but there was humor to the tone of his voice. “You are my least favorite and most favorite nurse all at once. Here, will you at least join me in my tub, my lady? I think it is the only way I could bear leaving this bed.”

“You drive a very hard bargain, Your Grace, but I shall join you in your tub,” she teased even as she reluctantly separated their bodies. He was hard and slick with her juices as she got up and held out a hand to him.

He caught her fingers and got to his feet. To her surprise, he left his cane behind and only leaned slightly on her for support as they moved to the adjoining room.

He settled in beneath the hot water with a groan of pleasure but had not been in the tub for more than a moment when he crooked a finger at her.

“Come in, Lady Ava. Do not make a liar of yourself.”

She smiled as she stepped into the water, straddling him and rejoining their bodies in the steamy heat. As she began to grind over him, pleasure taking her once again, her last thought was that staying with this man for only her own need might be a mistake.

But it was the best mistake she had ever made.

Chapter Sixteen

Christian shifted in his bed, readying himself for pain before he had even fully awakened. It came, as it always did, but it was lessened. Enough so that he opened his eyes in surprise.

He was not in his chamber, and memories flooded back. Memories of a passionate night with Ava. Ava, who still slept beside him, her body curled around his.

Morning light had begun to filter around the curtains, and he watched her in the natural glow. She was almost too beautiful to be believed. As if she had been conjured from some pain-addled fantasy of his, an angel to soothe him.

Only the last person in the world who deserved an angel was him. He, a kidnapper and seducer of innocents, a man who would make a bargain of sin.

Except they were no longer in that bargain, were they? Ava was at his side because Ava wished to be there.

He leaned down to kiss her throat, breathing in the sweetness of her skin and hair. Her eyes fluttered open and as she saw him leaning over her, she reached for him.

“Good morning,” she murmured, drawing him down for a drowsy kiss. “I was afraid you would be gone when I woke.”

“Why?” he asked, rolling onto his good side and running his fingers along her arm.

“You never stay with me after we…” She waved her hand to indicate making love. “I wasn’t certain if that would change even after we agreed to break our bargain but continue our affair.”

He frowned at the word. Affair. Something secret and brief.

Of course, it fit.