Page 110 of The Governess and the Brooding Duke
She had been marked by giving birth to a child she had not wanted.
Oh, to be marked by him. She relished every chance she got.
She would be his, and it would be known. It would never be a mark of shame. Not to her. For she would not own the shame that the world tried to sell her. These things had been forced on her from the time she was a girl.
Shame. She did not feel it for what had happened to her then, and she would not feel it for choosing happiness now.
She would not. She took him in as deep as she could, and if that made her a whore, then so be it. For him, she would be.
She felt nothing but bliss.
He growled, wrenching her away from him, lifting her up, holding her hair and pulling hard as he brought her in for a savage kiss.
Something changed between them. This was no longer tenuous. This was no longer happening until perhaps it could not.
This was a commitment. Between the two of them.
They were taking ownership. Of what they did in the dark.
No longer content to pretend to be civilised creatures in public, while fierce and feral in private.
They were both of them marred by their truth.
Yes, he was a duke, and he would have substantially more protection than she. In fact, he would face no repercussion at all. But he would shield her. With all of his strength.
And as a woman in the world, that was truly all she could ask for.
‘I need you,’ he growled.
He drove her to the bed, turned her roughly and lifted her up with her back to him, positioning her on the bed on all fours. She looked over her shoulder and licked her lips in anticipation. He growled, placing his masculinity at the entrance of her body before he thrust in deep, holding her hips as he took her like an animal.
They were both animals in this moment. He was no better than her. They were equal here.
And in their lives, in this house, she knew they would be.
There would be barriers. But they would be worth it.
He filled her, over and over again, wrapped his hand around her throat and forced her chin upward as he held her fast, her back bowing as he took her, over and over again, his words incoherent. A growl. He made promises to her, both sweet and filthy, and she revelled in every single one.
Until she was full of it. Full of him.
Full of all of the emotion that she had for him.
So deep and raw and real.
And as her climax began to overtake her, as desire built up within her, so big and bright as to shatter her, she couldn’t hold back any more. ‘Samuel,’ she said, broken, his name on her lips for the first time. ‘Samuel, I love you.’
And on a growl he withdrew from her body and spent himself on the sheets. Always careful. So careful with her.
‘I love you,’ she said again.
But when he looked at her his gaze was bleak, and she knew that she had done something wrong.
But she wouldn’t take it back.
She couldn’t.
He said nothing, but she accepted that too.
