Page 66 of Misadventures with a Duke

“Speak for yourself,” I grouse. “This is officially hell until you fill me up. Please, Bastien. Please, just do it this time. I stashed a rubber in my pocket. I don’t remember which one, but it’s there. Please.”

“Of course, ma chérie. Soon, I promise.”

“Soon?” I retort. “Not good enough. Damn it!”

Here’s the part where I inwardly shoot myself for celebrating the man’s steel nerves. And matching self-control. His cock’s already a ramrod beneath his fly, but he’s as determined as a porn star to draw this all out. To keep caressing my breasts from atop the T-shirt. To free his other hand from my wrists so he can stroke in under the shirt’s hem, tracing soft figure-eights along my ribcage. And at last, to tug my yoga pants all the way off… In the process, he somehow locates the condom.

“Is this what you are after, ma magnifique?”

I manage a grin. “Getting much warmer, Desperado.” And then roll my hips. “But that’s only half the prize. It’s to help you with navigating the…treasure map.”

He angles back over me. His hooded stare is also a collection of bronze lights. “But I already have my treasure. And I thoroughly intend on reveling in the bounty.”

“Oh, my word.” I flourish it with a high sigh. Even arch my head back and bite my lip. I’m acting like a total porn princess, though I should be stifling a mortified snicker about his corny declaration.

But from him, it’s not corny. It’s silky and sexy and heartfelt…

And hot.

Oh, my Technicolor tiger stripes, so hot.

Searing a path up the inside of my right thigh and then my left, his fingertip like a firestarter rod cranked on high.

Enflaming the quivering flesh between that leg and my core, his thumb a ruthless branding iron.

And then igniting me…right there.

The start of the inferno that refuses to be doused. The first decadent shivers, preparing me for the perfect unraveling at my center. The throbs that begin so deep and then spread up and out, pushing against his knowing fingers…and rushing to my parted lips.

“Bastien!” There’s so much more I need to say but so many words that my mind won’t supply. Not when my body is rapidly succumbing to his carnal control…his ravishing mastery. “Monsieur le Duke. Please…”

And that’s what I have go with—but why not, since it’s taking us in the right direction? At least I hope so. Oh damn it, how I pray so. We could be cleared to leave tomorrow, even tonight. Once we’re on our way back to Max and Allie’s, he’ll never be mine again—though technically, he was never truly mine to begin with.

But oh, how I can pretend. At least for now.

Maybe that’s wrong. At best, a gray area. Yeah, just like the pill I’ve conveniently forgotten to take so far, still in its white paper bag back in our room. If he’s never been completely mine, why am I clinging to the one-in-a-million chance that part of him has taken root inside me? Is this fair to either of us?

Yet how—honestly, how—is it fair for the man to keep taunting me with his touch like this?

Taunting.

I can think of no better word as he rolls my trembling clit beneath his circling thumb. As he takes me perilously close to the edge of lust only to back off again. Making me moan and shiver and beg again. Mercilessly answering with that languorous timbre in his throat, thinning my patience to an agonizing nub.

“Hmmm,” he murmurs with a wicked smile. “Such a tantalizing treasure, indeed.”

I gasp again. Lurch my hips again. “It’s much better if your cock gets involved. I promise.”

“And I promise you shall have it, belle chérie. So very soon.”

“Aghhh!” I spew. “Not soon enough! Bâtard!”

He’s driving me so crazy, I don’t have a free brain cell to stress over my new laps de Français. Fortunately, neither does he. His rumble escalates to a snarl. He’s clearly contemplating even more parts of his primal side. Good. If this is our last time for naked fun, I long for it to be fun. Like our first. Dirty and determined. Raw and real. Only this time, with some actual fucking. Oh, yes. A good dose of that, please.

“Mierde. Who has suddenly gotten herself a saucy little mouth? Is discipline in order for you this afternoon, little magie?”

And oh my word, another few of these inner thigh smacks would be perfectly nice too.

“Will discipline get your penis inside my pussy faster, Monsieur Bâtard?”