Two Notorious Dukes (11 page)

A groan was torn from his chest and he clutched
her hair, in an attempt to pull her away.
Oh! God! This is
exquisite!
He screamed in his mind, as his body
trembled, and he could feel himself getting closer to
ejaculation.
Dash it all! I will not come in her mouth; I’m
supposed to be a gentleman!!
He berated himself and as
his testicles cramped in preparation to spurt his semen,
he somehow found the strength to yank his manhood
out of her mouth.
He literally picked her up like a child and threw
her onto the middle of the bed in a flurry of limbs,
climbing between her thighs, he buried his face
between her legs, licking and sucking at her, sliding his
tongue along her silky sex from clitoris to vagina and
back until she was on the verge. She grabbed his hair in
her fists, gasping, moaning and writhing. He felt the first
throb of her passage and scrambled up her body,
plunging himself into her as she moaned and lifted her
thighs for him. It was harsh and frantic and over in four
thrusts. He filled her with his seed as her internal
muscles contracted and throbbed, and she writhed and
moaned in ecstasy under his rigid frame. He panted as
his cramped body relaxed. He sighed deeply and looked
down on her pretty face; her eyes alight with passion
and her mouth open in a surprised O of pleasure. He
slowly pulled himself out and she gasped and looked at
him. ‘Please? Again?’ she begged.
He kissed her softly. ‘My love, we have all night.
Be patient.’ He held her gently in his arms and kissed
her passionately, her body was still moving and he knew
she was desperate to be fully satisfied, but he knew
from experience that he had to pace himself. She could
feel his erection against her hip and she tried to get her
hand on it, so he manoeuvred it out of her reach. He
stroked his hand over her right leg, clasped it behind the
knee and draped it over his body, while he traced his
lips over her collarbone and down to her right breast.
His tongue circled and licked the nipple as his right hand
held the other breast, its pliant mass filling his hand and
his thumb tormented the puckered point. He looked
down on them and gasped at just how erect they were,
smoothing his hand over her right breast and feeling the
button in his palm.
‘Oh! God!’ she moaned, as he dipped his head to
torment her nipple again and her body writhed. He
slipped his hand down from her breast until it was
stroking between her thighs and he gasped as she
opened her legs wider enabling him to stroke inside as
well. He slipped his fingers in and circled his thumb over
her swelling clitoris, making her pant and buck as she
demanded more of him. When her orgasm burst like a
dam, she started to giggle uncontrollably as she
slammed her legs shut, but he kept on teasing her and
soon her legs opened and she writhed and begged for
more. After her next orgasm her muscles calmed and
she relaxed and sighed. He slowly withdrew his crushed
fingers in a gush of lubricious fluid.
He pulled her against his chest and gently kissed
her cheek. She stared up at his face in the lamplight,
gently stroked his hair off his forehead. ‘Why did you
become such a rake?’ she asked cheekily. ‘Did you just
decide to be one or did it sort of happen accidentally?’
she asked and was rewarded with both a look of
confusion and pain as he tried to assess what actually
made him distrustful. He rolled on his back and put his
free hand under his head. She clambered onto his body
and resting her chin on her folded arms looked down
into his face.
‘I loved a girl once.’ He started his voice thick
with emotion. ‘She was from the local gentry, from a
good family. I fell in love with her the first time I laid
eyes on her. She was so pretty and so demure.’ He
looked down at her face. ‘You reminded me of her at
the opera, the way you kept your eyes down.’ He looked
back at the ceiling. ‘I thought she was so innocent and
virginal, like you she had a face like a Madonna, and like
you it concealed a beast.’ He sighed and turned his face
away, looking into the shadows of the room. ‘I went to
the stable to check my horse, he’d strained a fetlock
when I was out hunting the day before and I just
wanted to check the treatment was working.’ He
sniffed. ‘I opened the stable door and there she was,
completely naked, riding one of the grooms for all she
was worth. My father was furious. He sent her packing
that day.’ He was silent.
‘But what did you think?’ She asked. ‘Seeing the
woman you loved in such dishabille?’
‘Rage.’ He whispered. ‘Blind red rage. I had to
run out of the stable before I killed them both. How I
didn’t strangle her later, I’ll never know.’ He sobbed
suddenly. ‘She came to apologise and promised that it
would never happen again, but she’d been desperate
because I wouldn’t tup her.’
‘Did she ask you to?’ Elizabeth asked surprised.
‘Not in words, but I suppose the indicators were
there. Now I would know exactly what she wanted, but I
was more innocent than her. I’d never even had a
kitchen wench at that time.’
‘What did you do?’ she asked and he looked her
in the eye.
‘I bought a commission and joined the army.’ He
said coldly. ‘That’s where I learned everything I needed
to know about women, so I would never be fooled
again.’ He finished harshly.
‘Have you ever considered marriage since?’ she
asked.
‘No.’ He said coldly and she knew it was his
protective barrier to hide his raw emotions behind.
Abruptly he rolled her on her back. ‘Enough talking, I
have a deep seated need to hear you beg.’ He said as he
crushed his lips over hers in a searing kiss.

Robert opened his eyes again and found his bed
empty.
This is disconcerting.
He said to himself. He
rolled over and groaned as the muscles in his lower back
spasmed.
I know I didn’t dream it this time; she was
here when I came to bed.
He recalled her body arranged
face down on the bed, one leg bent to the side, her
buttocks so creamy and her back so scarred. He
frowned as he recalled telling her about Christina and
how he almost brutally took her to stop the
conversation. He felt a little ashamed to have done it
quite like that, but she didn’t seem to mind and they
made love after that and not always in the bed. He
groaned again as he thought about her lithe body
writhing on his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed and
how her lips traced the wound in his shoulder, as he
traced his fingers over the scars on her back and her
hair filled his hands. And how she writhed and moaned
as he had her pinned to the wall by the french doors, his
hands clutching her thighs and her feet on his buttocks
and then he remembered how slowly they had made
love the last time and at the climax he’d whispered
those fateful words in her ear.
Damn! I told her I loved
her!
He scolded himself and then he contemplated that
statement.
Do you love her?
He asked himself.
Because
you’ve never said that to any girl since Christina, even in
the longest and deepest of relationships. Can you live
with her for the rest of your life?
He tried to picture
them old and grey, but couldn’t because he knew they
would both be lucky to get there. He would probably die
of the pox and she would die in childbirth.
But what if
that doesn’t happen, can you live with her? Yes. YES!
He
shouted in his mind and a beaming smile cracked his
face. He stared at the ceiling and envisioned her rocking
and feeding his children, being beside him in the large
bed at his London Mansion. He could see her ruling his
staff with a rod of iron and he could see her hosting his
first ball. Then he had the biggest revelation of all, and
that would be the thrill of actually removing her clothes,
of seeing her beautiful body slowly revealed, of stroking
her thighs to remove her silk stockings and finally being
able to pull open the ribbons of her chemise and watch
her breasts spill out into his hands.

While his mind roved over the possibilities,
Burke came in and the bath was filled, but Burke knew
not to disturb his reverie. When the room was quiet
again, Robert got slowly out of bed, sauntered across to
the bath and slowly submerged his body. He had a
picture of a delicate body with flaming hair piled on her
head sharing his bath and how erotic it would be to
soap each other’s bodies.
I think I need to start looking
for a bigger bath.
He thought and smirked as he picked
up the soap and loofah and scrubbed all the dried
sperm off his body.

Elizabeth had gone back to her room before it
got light. She stripped off her nightdress and washed
her body thoroughly. She climbed into bed and stared at
the ceiling as the dawn came up and the windows
lightened. She heard the house start to wake up, got out
of bed and dressed quickly. She went along to Lady
Verity’s room and saw her maid. ‘I need to see Lady
Verity, it’s very important.’

‘Just a moment, my Lady.’ The maid vanished
into the room and then came back and showed
Elizabeth in.

Lady Verity was propped up in bed drinking
some tea. ‘Good Morning Lady Elizabeth.’
‘Good morning Lady Verity.’ Elizabeth said softly
and looked at the floor.
‘Come and sit on the bed and tell me what’s
bothering you.’
‘It’s Robert.’ She gasped and Verity watched the
tears fall from her eyes.
‘Do you love him?’
‘I...I...don’t know!’ was wrenched from her
throat.
‘Have you been sleeping with him?’ Verity asked
in a non accusing way.
‘Yes. Oh! God! Yes!’ Elizabeth sobbed out. ‘And
it’s so good!’
‘I sense a but?’
Elizabeth struggled to regain her composure. ‘He
told me he loves me, last night, but I need time to sort
through all the conflicting emotions. Fear, hate as well
as love. Oh! Verity, my heart is breaking, but I don’t
know why!’
‘So what would you like to do?’
‘I need to be away from you all. Especially
Robert. I’m not actually used to being around so many
people.’
‘In that case, you should go back to London. I’ll
be back by the end of next week anyway. That will give
you a few days to consider your decision, just in case
he’s going to ask for your hand.’ Elizabeth nodded as
she gulped down her distress. ‘It’s nice not to hear you
scream, though.’
Elizabeth looked up at her kindly face in
astonishment as she realised it was nearly a week since
she’d had a nightmare at night and only two days since
she dozed off by the lake.
‘Go and start your packing and I’ll get a coach
organised for you.’
Breakfast was quiet and Robert was disturbed by
Elizabeth’s absence. He spoke to Mary afterwards and
she assured him Elizabeth was well, but busy.
Busy?
He thought.
Busy doing what?
‘I really
need to see your mistress, will you tell her I need to see
her, please?’ Robert asked her kindly. Mary curtsied and
ran to tell Elizabeth.
‘You’d better tell him to come in, because I can’t
stop what I’m doing.’ She ordered and Mary fetched
him to the room.
He stood in the doorway horrified that she was
packing her trunks. ‘Elizabeth?’ he whispered her name
hollowly from the door.
She looked up at him, ‘Yes?’ she said almost
coldly.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Back to London.’ She turned to the maid. ‘Can
you give us a few minutes, Mary and check to see if
Lady Verity has organised the coach for us.’
Robert moved aside as Mary ran past him. He
closed the door and walked towards her. ‘What do you
mean London, why are you going back to London?’ he
demanded.
‘I need time to assess how I feel.’ She snapped
without looking up from the gown she was smoothing in
the trunk.
Robert was not a violent man, but he could be
heavy handed sometimes if aroused. He grabbed her by
the arms and yanked her around to face him. ‘Why?’ he
demanded again and a look of pain crossed his face as
he saw the distress in hers. ‘What did I do wrong?’ he
gasped and she could finally see the expression in his
eyes, as they swam with unshed tears.
‘You didn’t do anything wrong, Robert. But I
have to decide what I want. Do I want sex on a regular
basis, do I want another husband to treat me as
property.’ She looked down at his chest and shook her
head. ‘It’s so easy for men. You just take, wives and
daughters belong to you and you can do whatever you
like with them. If they bore you, you can look elsewhere
and the wife doesn’t even have the right to divorce you.
You can treat them worse than your horse and nobody
will ever stop you!’ She looked up again. ‘I have to be
prepared to live like that. At the moment I have choice.
Limited choice, yes, but still choice. The moment I marry
anyone I lose that choice completely. So I need to
discover what I want.’
‘I should come with you.’ Robert said softly. ‘You
shouldn’t be on your own.’
‘No, Robert.’ She smiled softly. ‘You should be
here with your guests.’
‘I’ll go to Roding Hall and then you’ll be here,
where it’s safe.’ He lifted his hand and caressed her
cheek with his fingertips. ‘That’s what was supposed to
happen anyway. I can take the others with me.’ Slowly
he cupped the back of her head and dipped his head to
kiss her. It was a soft and sensual kiss, filled with
tenderness instead of passion. As a husband would kiss
his wife, rather than a lover’s kiss and Elizabeth did not
miss the portent. She felt her heart turn over in her
chest. Slowly he removed his lips from hers and looked
at her bright green eyes. ‘I love you, Elizabeth, and I
never thought I would ever say that again as long as I
lived.’ He stroked his thumb under her eye to wipe away
the tears running down her face. ‘Stay here. I’ll go and
see Burke. We can be gone before lunch.’ He gently
kissed her cheek, turned and strode from the room.

Argyll was in the stables tending to the grey
mare, he was checking its fetlocks as it had picked up a
stone in its shoe the day before and Lady Sarah had to
walk a long way home.