The Scandalous Duke Takes a Bride (32 page)

He rubbed the back of his hand down the side of her face. “I’ve known you long enough to know that you won’t do something until you’re damn well ready to do it. I will not be the hand that forces you to do anything you are unsure of.”

Jessica slid her hands over his strong shoulders and tangled her hands in his hair to hold him still as she looked him in the eye. “You’re right in that regard. I’ll never go back on my decision now. I feel like a fool, not having realized sooner how well suited we are.”

“When I’ve wanted something, I’ve always taken it. You know this about me, Jess. But with you … it’s been different.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.” He paused, letting those words sink in. “Not merely as a friend and as your confidant all these years, but because I have always wanted you to be mine and mine alone.”

His arm slid around her lower back, holding her close.

“You hid your feelings so well, Hayden. I should have known sooner how you felt, but I was blind for so long when married to Fallon.”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “Put the past out of that pretty head of yours. You see me now, Jess, and that’s all that matters.”

“I wouldn’t want anyone else in my life but you, Hayden. I want you to be with me tonight.” He took a few steps away from her, closer to the bed. So much for sleeping on the sofa as a gentleman would do. But then again, wouldn’t a gentleman argue for separate rooms? Something inside of him had rejoiced at her insistence on one room.

He sat on the edge of the mattress, pulling Jessica down to straddle his hips in such a provocative fashion that he groaned and thrust his pelvis up into hers.

“There’s no going back from this. If we continue in this fashion, we may not be able to wait for the banns.” His hands grasped her hips, holding her still, and then skimmed higher to hold her around her small, cinched waist.

“I wouldn’t dare dream of stopping this. So long as I have you by my side, I can face anything, Hayden, even censure from the
ton.
”

He rolled them so their positions were reversed, she on the bottom, he on the top, with his hands free to start removing her many layers. He took his time revealing the underclothes beneath her day dress while she traced invisible lines over his sleeve.

Hayden kissed her neck and nibbled delicately at her chin before claiming her mouth with another deep kiss.

“Stand up for a moment.” He pulled her to her feet and shed each of her outer layers, tossing them on the floor, slowly revealing the delicate linens that she wore closest to her bare skin.

She yanked his shirt free from his trousers and over his head before pressing a kiss above his heart. The material slipped from her hands and fell at their feet with the rest of her clothes.

Threading his fingers through her pinned hair, he turned her head enough that her cheek was pressed to his chest and embraced her tightly in his arms. Soon her arms wrapped around his waist, her hands tracing over the muscles in his back. The pins were easily pulled from her hair, and he dropped them to the floor around them.

When her hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders she gazed up at him with an unreadable expression. She stretched her hands tentatively toward his face, her finger tracing his lips.

“The whole night is ours. Make love to me, Hayden.”

Lowering his head, he kissed her gently as he reached around her back to loosen the strings cinching her waist. The corset eased open and the weight of the whalebone contraption sagged enough that she could release the hooks on the busk. Jessica took the heavy material off, folded it, and placed it at the foot edge of the bed.

With her back to him, Hayden wrapped his arms around her. Her head turned enough that he could claim her lips with his own.

His free hand brushed over her breast, skimming the distended tip of her nipple. “I could live like this forever.”

There was a perfect harmony about them embracing intimately. There wasn’t a day that had gone by that he didn’t want her, and now that he had her he didn’t ever want to let her go.

“Will it always be like it was earlier with us? It felt right. Perfect. I know it was fleeting last time because we were both afraid of being caught.”

Hayden turned her around so they were chest to breast. “I should be embarrassed by my earlier display of need.”

She reached for him, her fingers grasping his face as she stepped up on the tips of her toes to kiss him again. “I liked every stolen moment.”

“I can show you so much more, give you so much more.”

They fell back on the bed, him atop her, her legs spreading to accommodate the fit of his body against her. He was careful not to crush her but allowed enough of his weight to press his hardness firmly against her core.

He pulled away from their kiss so he could look her in the eye. “If we start this now, promise me you’ll kick me out of bed in the morning to fulfill my obligations with Tristan. Otherwise I may never leave your side again.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Completely.”

She nibbled her bottom lip in contemplation. “I will personally kick you out of our shared bed should you find it difficult to stop yourself from laying in all morning.” She laughed her sultry laugh, and it had him hardening further in the already tight confines of his trousers. “Though I don’t understand how you could stay here all morning once you’ve fulfilled yourself.”

“You’ll not want to leave this bed in the morning, either. That much I can promise.” Once could never be enough with Jessica. Forever and always was more likely.

Her look was skeptical.

She reached down between them and ran the palm of her hand over his cock.

He had to close his eyes and swallow against the desire to claim her properly.

The worst thing he could do was rush this. He left his trousers on, knowing that was the only deterrent he had from finishing this off as quickly as he had this morning. Pulling her chemise up to her waist, Hayden found the ties keeping her pantalettes in place. They were delicate satin ribbons and he pulled the dangling string with his teeth, licking at the flesh he revealed bit by bit at her waist.

When he ran out of string and new skin to bite and nibble at he pulled up to say, “Sit on the edge of the bed, so I can remove these.”

He skimmed his hands over the bare skin of her hips, pushing the material down over her buttocks and halfway down her thighs by the time she did his bidding. Hayden knelt on the carpeted floor in front of her and slowly stripped her of the first layer of her underclothes. Placing his head in her lap, he inhaled deeply. For how long had he wanted her? For how long had he dreamed of doing just this?

“Jessica,” he whispered, kissing first her knees and then her thighs as he pushed the chemise higher and higher, revealing every sweet inch of pale, porcelain skin.

The higher he kissed, the more she edged forward on the mattress, closer to him, until finally she slid off the bed and onto his lap.

“We’ve come this far, Hayden. Don’t tease me. There’s time for exploration later.”

He clasped her head in his hands and rubbed the tips of their noses together. “There is no such thing as taking this too slow, Jess. I’ve wanted you for as long as I’ve known you. This time we’ll cherish and remember every moment of tonight and not our bumbling first attempt that we’ll laugh about later.”

She bit his bottom lip, sucking it into her mouth before tracing it with her tongue. “I didn’t find it laugh worthy.”

“Just let me love you my way.” He shut her up with a kiss that locked their tongues together.

When he broke away she was panting a little as her eyes sparked with mischief.

He held either cheek of her buttocks in his hands and lifted them both from the floor. He tossed her gently on the bed and followed her down. Jessica leaned back on her arms with her hair tumbling around her shoulders provocatively.

“You’re a minx. My mischievous, teasing minx. I’ll teach you a few new uses for that smart mouth of yours.”

She swallowed visibly, but her smile turned to something more alluring and sultry as she slid her legs open for his perusal. “I think I can teach you a few uses for both of our mouths.”

“Is that a dare?”

“It might be.”

He sat on his knees beside her and pulled her chemise right over her head, tossing it to the end of the bed with the rest of their clothes.

Naked and set out before him like a feast for the taking, she was the most beautiful sight he’d ever beheld. Her breasts were full, the areolas the lightest of pinks, the nipples red. He took a moment to appreciate the perfectness of her form, tracing the back of his hand over the plumpness of her breasts, along her delicate rib cage and waist, and ending at her hip, squeezing it lightly. He leaned over her, forcing her to relax against the small stack of feather pillows.

As he kissed her full on the mouth their tongues tangled and her hands explored his arms and his shoulders. She rubbed her hands over the stubble covering his jaw as their kiss gentled.

Kneeing her thighs apart, he situated himself between her legs, letting her feel just how hard he was for her by pressing himself against her core, rocking into her as their passions increased and they were both panting for more.

They were in a position they’d been in before; only this time there wasn’t a force in all of nature that could make him pull away. Did she truly understand the depth of his feelings for her? The intensity of his desire that outweighed reason itself? That would be the one thing he’d show her before he left her at his estate tomorrow. God, that was the last thing he wanted to do. At least they had the night.

*   *   *

Had she ever truly understood just how fulfilling it was to be in Hayden’s arms she’d have encouraged and begged her husband to petition for divorce long ago. She’d never expected to desire any man as deeply as she did Hayden. He made her forget every harsh word used toward her, every hand raised against her, every violence brought upon her, by the weak man who had been married to her.

Her only crime in marriage had been that she would not be stifled by a man filled with so much hatred.

There was no hate in Hayden.

There was only love.

There was unending kindness toward her when half the time she didn’t believe she deserved it.

She asked herself again how she could have been so blind as to not see what had always been right in front of her. There could be no regrets, though, of not knowing this truth sooner, because they belonged to each other now.

What mattered was that she now knew what it was like to share the hopes of a better future with Hayden. She knew what it was like to be in his arms in the moment. And she wouldn’t trade this feeling for all the sorrow or misery she had suffered previously if it meant losing this precious, beautiful moment.

Jessica wrapped her arms tight around Hayden’s shoulders, tracing the sinew of his back as he moved above her. His arms braced on either side of her to keep his weight from crushing her into the mattress.

She wanted his clothes gone, so they were finally naked—with nothing left to hide from each other. She reached down between them and found the buttons fastening his trousers.

She broke away from their kiss to whisper, “Take them off. I want to know what it feels like when we are flesh against flesh.”

He nibbled at her bottom lip and with a groan tore away from her so he could shuck the last of his clothes. Standing from the bed, he released the ties she’d missed on his trousers and pushed the material below his hips. His cock sprang out, demanding her full attention.

On seeing him bare, less debonair and all masculine with the absence of clothes, she had a sudden desire to learn his body much more intimately.

She pressed one hand to her chest, finding it suddenly hard to breathe at the sight of him. His manhood was a great deal larger than what she’d seen on any man before: real, statue, or etched. She knew it fit perfectly well, so she wasn’t sure why the size was so shocking.

There were butterflies in her stomach and her nerves were on edge. She was afraid to even speak as she traced every muscled line and protrusion of his body with hungry eyes. Taking in her fill, she crawled toward him, where he stood next to the bed, and perused his form more closely. She wanted to touch him, but she hesitated.

Throat dry, she attempted to swallow, but all the saliva from her mouth was nonexistent. Nerves, this was all nerves. She didn’t know the first thing about seducing a man in the flesh. With words, yes, but she lacked for words at the moment.

Fists clenching and unclenching at his sides, he stared back at her with a hooded gaze, his breathing ragged, his cock flexing in need in the triangle of dark blond hair at its root. The image he presented was so animalistic, so raw, that her body clenched in response. She did not think she’d get enough of this new side she was seeing of him in one evening. Maybe not ever.

She reached for his arm, a neutral spot that wasn’t so new to her. The muscles flexed along his forearm as she slid her hand lower and grabbed his hand and led him back onto the bed with her.

“I’m trying hard to take this slow when what I want most is to throw you on the bed and take you hard and fast.” His voice was hoarse, his body tense, as though he was holding himself back from doing just that.