Page 61 of If the Duke Demands

Oh heavens, hedidmean…And he couldn’t—simply couldn’t! Notthereof all places.

With a push at the headboard, she slid herself down beneath him, until her eyes were level with his, her bare toes touching his calves. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders to keep him right there.

“Doyoublush?” she asked, as seductively as possible despite the nervous twitter in her voice as she turned their playful conversation onto him. “How about here?”

She placed a kiss in the middle of his chest, and he chuckled. But when she slid her mouth sideways and captured his flat male nipple between her lips and sucked at him the way he’d done to her, the laughter strangled in his throat.

Turnabout was fair play, after all. He shuddered as she took his nipple between her teeth and nibbled—oh, how very much she enjoyed their play!

“Or here?” she whispered, running her hands down his bare back to cup his hard buttocks against her palms.

When she squeezed, he inhaled sharply. Her name came as a soft warning on his lips. But he’d been warning her all week—all season, in fact—and she was tired of his warnings.

If he truly wanted to warn her, then she’d give him something to worry about. “Here.”

She slid her hand between them and folded her fingers around his erection, and a plaintive groan tore from him. She gave a devilish laugh and stroked along his length the way he’d shown her in the carriage.

“Sweet Lucifer,” he murmured as he rose up onto his hands and knees over her to give her room to work her pleasures on him. His head bowed low, and his eyes squeezed shut.

He hung large and stiff in her hand, and with each stroke, he seemed to grow impossibly larger and harder. Like magic. She twisted her palm around him, teasing him with her fingers the way she wanted him to do to her again before the night was over.Allnight, he’d promised her. And she planned on savoring every precious moment of it.

Tentatively, yet urged on by the low growls of satisfaction coming from the back of his throat, she slipped her second hand down between his legs to cup his testicles against her palm. He shuddered at the contact, and she thrilled with it. A wantonness swelled inside her that she’d never known before, and as he rested heavy against her palm, with her other hand still stroking his shaft, she gently squeezed.

His hips bucked as a curse shot from his lips.

He grabbed her hands away and lifted her arms over her head. “Keep doing that,” he cautioned in a husky voice, “and the night will be over sooner than we’d both like.”

She laughed and rose up to lick her tongue across his collarbone. The delicious taste of him made her even more bold, even more confident in herself. Testing his resolve, she wiggled her hips. He let out a growl of warning and pinned her to the mattress with his hips.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped hoarsely against her lips as his mouth found hers again, kissing her hard and urgently. All of him shivered hotly.

“For what?” She stilled instantly, and her heart pounded with a mix of nervousness and arousal. Had he changed his mind? Did he not want her after all?

“I can’t wait any longer for you.” He reached down and hooked her right leg around his waist, then the left, until his body hovered just above hers in the cradle of her thighs. “I wanted to savor you, but I need you too badly.” His hand caressed between her legs, and she trembled at the delicious feel of his fingers against her, the wonderful caresses she so much enjoyed. Only Sebastian could make her feel this special. “You’re so wet and warm already…” He sucked at her bottom lip and purred, “Good.”

“Good?” She was mortified that he would mentionthat, and the blush flared up across her cheeks again.

He groaned. “Very much so.”

When she felt his fingers parting the soft lips of her sex and the tip of his erection settling against her, she realized what he meant. “Sebastian,” she whispered, and touched his cheek, trying to show him how much she cared about him, how special he had become to her. Without hesitation, knowing tonight was good and right only because of him, she begged for what she wanted most— “Please.”

He lowered his hips and sank inside her, one unhurried inch at a time.

Holding her breath at the slow invasion, she tightened her arms around his shoulders and buried her face against his neck as her body expanded to take him in. With each inch he sank deeper, the cradle of her hips widened around him, and she shifted uneasily to make herself more relaxed. Not painful, not exactly, but the growing pressure was decidedly uncomfortable. She forced down the sting of disappointment that this new intimacy wasn’t nearly as pleasant as what he’d done with her in the carriage. Still, being close to Sebastian was wonderful, and she sought to drink in the quiet strength and delicious warmth of him.

Then he stopped moving and lay motionless above her, still raised up on his forearms.

She opened her eyes, expecting a smile from him, but hard-won restraint hardened his face, with his jaw clenched tight and his eyes screwed shut. Every inch of him was tense and taut, hard and smooth as marble. Her heart pounded with uncertainty.

“Sebastian?” she breathed, and the soft sound of his name fell through the silence between them, mixing with the joined pounding of their hearts.

He opened his eyes and gazed down at her, and the raw need in their blue depths ripped her breath away. Then he whispered her name and plunged his hips down against hers, thrusting fully inside her and tearing through the thin resistance of her maidenhead.

Miranda gasped at the sharp pain of being filled so completely so suddenly, at the weight of his hips fully seated against her spread thighs—but his mouth covered hers in the sweetest, gentlest kiss imaginable, and soothed away the cry on her lips. The contradiction of sensations sent her spinning.

Then he began to move, this time rocking his hips against hers to stroke slowly and smoothly inside her, and the pain dissolved into utter pleasure. Oh, itwaswonderful! He was doing to her with his body what his fingers had done in the carriage, only so very muchmore…more filling, more silky smooth, more delicious weight pressing down on her. His entire body caressed hers with each plunge and retreat, as if making love to her with his entire being. Any doubts that still lingered about giving herself to him tonight and expressing with her body the feelings she didn’t dare utter aloud vanished like fog beneath the morning sun.

She buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in deep the sweet smell of him that filled up her senses, taking a quick lick of his sweat-salty skin to taste him.Delicious.It was impossible that any other woman had ever felt as complete as she did with Sebastian inside her, impossible that any other man could be this much of a perfect fit with her, both with her body and with her heart. She nearly laughed as sheer joy bubbled inside her. Sebastian Carlisle, the most impossible man in the world for her, had proven to be the perfect man with whom to share this moment.