Page 66 of Duke in Darkness

“You want me to stop?”

There was a long, long pause, and she shifted against the dressing table. His wife, like so many of the ton, truly did not like direct questions, or providing direct answers. “It’s wrong.”

Gabriel’s lips twitched at the non-reply. “Some might say. Does it feel good?”

Lili peeked over her shoulder, her gaze a little wild. “I…ah…”

“Answer me,” he said sternly.

She shuddered, and more juices trickled onto his thumbs. “It feels strange. But, um, nice.”

Pleased, he lapped at her center, coated his tongue in her honey, then licked his way up to her back entrance again. Using her juices to assist, he penetrated her more fully, darting in and out and in and out, fucking her ass with his tongue the way he would be shortly fucking her cunt with his cock. His wife cried out, tilting her hips to assist him, and on another day he might have kept going until she came. But his cock was too hard, and he wanted Lili’s next orgasm to be when he was buried to the hilt inside her.

On his feet again, Gabriel took his engorged length in hand and rubbed it against Lili’s slick folds, smiling when she mewled like an angry kitten. “What is the matter, sweet?” he said, surprisingly evenly considering he would soon lose his mind.

“I told you I’m ready.”

“That you did. Ready to be fucked.”

Lili wriggled against him, going up on her toes as though trying to lure him inside her. “Then do it. Rough and hard. Please, Colonel…oh!”

A roar burst from his lips as he plunged deeply into her cunt. His wife was so wet there was no resistance at all, just a perfect slick, hot glide, and he thrust again and again, in unison with her cries of pleasure. The dressing table creaked with his frenzied movements, but he knew he didn’t have a great deal of time before his foot began to cramp. Panting for breath, he gripped Lili’s hips in his hands and fucked her harder as her inner walls clamped around his cock like a velvet vise. Soon, far too soon he felt that sweet ache, that coiling pressure at the base of his spine indicating he would soon come. Then his balls tightened, and he climaxed hard, his seed erupting inside her pulsing warmth as she screamed his name.

Boneless, he collapsed down onto her back and brushed a kiss against her shoulder. “Sweet Lili.”

“Mmmm,” she mumbled, reaching back to stroke his hand. “I like that.”

And for the first time in forever, a wildly unfamiliar emotion overwhelmed him.

Hope.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Lilian sat in the ducal carriage peering out into the bleak gloom of an overcast London. In truth it was the last place she wanted to be—after visiting Grandmother then yesterday’s fittings, she had been relishing the chance for a day at home to see to her overdue correspondence and spend some time with Gabriel before he left for his meeting at Whitehall—but the scribbled note from Pippa and Georgiana had asked to meet with her urgently. So here she was, cooling her heels on the corner of New Bond and Brook Streets, and getting more impatient by the minute.

Just when she was ready to instruct the driver to move on, a sharp rap came on the window. Swiftly, she opened the door and beckoned her sisters in.

“What is all this about?” she said anxiously. “And where is Xavier?”

Georgiana rolled her eyes as she settled herself on the opposite side of the carriage. “Probably still abed, he only returned home at dawn. We didn’t tell him about our plan. You know he has no resistance to Grandmother’s interrogation stare.”

In fairness, none of them did. “You are all well?”

“Yes,” said Pippa soothingly, pulling her shawl tighter. “And Father.”

“Then why did you need to meet with great urgency? I thought something terrible had happened.”

“We are worried about you.”

Lilian frowned, as the back of her neck tingled a warning. An entirely unpleasant and unwelcome sensation after yesterday afternoon’s honest talk, followed by the glorious excesses in front of the looking glass and bent over her dressing table. Not to mention the wonderful aftermath when Gabriel kissed her tenderly, and stroked her hair for several minutes before he had to depart. “Oh?” she said, as casually as possible.

“Don’t you ‘oh’ us, Lilian,” snapped Georgiana, her green eyes stormy. “What the bloody hell is going on? Fistfights in ballrooms? You’re being beaten?”

“And yesterday at the Howard soiree, Grandmother ignored a compliment about you, instead choosing to praise me to mothers and their ghastly sons. She’s never done that before, and I truly wish she wouldn’t!” added Pippa indignantly.

Shocked, Lilian sat back, thankful for the soft yet sturdy leather squab supporting her. And yet anger bubbled, too. Why had Grandmother felt the need to pass on those tidbits, especially the lie about being beaten? And she always took compliments as the very least due to her. Ignoring one would have positively bellowed to the soiree attendee that all was not well between the dowager countess and her granddaughter, a position that no one in the ton ever wanted to be in. Not when Grandmother held all the clout of an Almack’s patroness.

Gritting her teeth, Lilian exhaled slowly before answering. “It wasn’t a fistfight. That blasted dandy would never have even gotten close to Exton. My husband merely delivered a few most deserved blows for some unforgivable insults toward him, his men, and the British army.”

Georgiana’s jaw dropped. “In the Castlereagh’s ballroom! Everyone in London has heard the story, including the family of the man I hope one day to marry. He tolerates my riding astride and blunt speech, but this…this is different. Too scandalous. If your husband ruins my chances, I’ll never forgive you. Ever. I will only marry for love and that is that. With my pitiful dowry, it will have to be love.”