Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6)(90)

He’d have this, by God, if nothing else of her.

She arched, a graceful bow of eroticism, and ground her hips against him.

He ran his hand up over her soft belly to her lovely breasts, tweaking each in turn, mindful of any way to drive her to her point.

But she foiled his intentions. She rose up above him and opened determined gray eyes before tangling her fingers with his on his cock. Even that small touch made him grit his teeth. He watched with half-lowered lids as she brought him to herself, his crown wet and sensitive, and notched him in her cunny.

“Maximus,” she whispered, all moonlight and strength. “I love you. Never forget that.”

And she impaled herself on him.

Ah! He closed his eyes. It was sweet to the point of agony. He grabbed her hips, preventing any movement so that he might not spill too soon. Her depths were hot and tight and home.

He opened his eyes. “Never leave me.”

She shook her head, breaking free from his rein and rising like the huntress she was. She let his poor cock slip to the very mouth of her before slamming herself back down. She rode him. Her thighs were strong and lithe, her brows drawn down in resolute purpose, and her lips were parted wide in something very like wonder.

It was the last that made him move. Dear God, if he couldn’t have anything else, if she was determined to hollow him out and leave him a husk, then he would remember this:

Artemis riding him like the goddess of the hunt.

He drew her face to his and covered that wondrous mouth, seeking her heat with his tongue, and tried not to break like a green lad. And he held out, until her rhythm faltered, until she gasped against his lips, until her sheath clutched at his cock in the throes of release. He let himself go then, bringing her damp and limp body into his embrace, holding her hips as he lunged up once, twice, as deep as possible.

As if he could stay within her forever.

He spilled his seed.

She lay against him, sweet, sweet weight, until she turned her head a little. He rose then, with her cradled in his arms, and brought her to the bed, gently laying her there.

“I need to see what Alderney has come about,” he murmured to her. “I won’t be a moment. Stay here until I return.”

She merely closed her eyes, but he took that as assent, quickly dressing and running down the stairs.

Alderney was bent nearly in half, examining a curio on an Italian marble table, but he straightened with a jerk when Maximus entered the sitting room.

“Oh! Ah, good morning, Your Grace.”

“Good morning.” Maximus gestured to a settee. “Will you sit?”

Alderney lowered himself to the settee and sat fidgeting for a moment.

Maximus raised an eyebrow impatiently. “You wanted to see me?”

“Oh! Oh, yes,” Alderney said as if startled out of a reverie. “I thought it best to come and tell you at once because you seemed to think it so important before.”

Here he stopped and blinked expectantly at Maximus.

“Tell me what?”

“That I’d remembered,” Alderney replied. “Who gave me that pendant you showed me. Well, he didn’t really give it, now did he? More like I won it from him. You see, he said that the tabby cat that came ’round the kitchens of our house would have three kittens and I said rubbish, there were at least six in there, and when the cat finally let us see her kittens—wary little thing she was, she’d hidden them under the porch—it turned out that I was quite right, there were six and so he had to give me the pendant.”

Alderney took a deep breath at the end of this recitation and beamed.

Maximus inhaled very carefully. “Who gave you the pendant?”

Alderney blinked as if surprised that Maximus hadn’t worked it out for himself. “Why, William Illingsworth, of course. Now, where he’d gotten it, I haven’t a clue. Came back from the hols with the thing and was showing all the boys and the next night after I got it off Illingsworth, well, then I went to play a game of dice with several of the boys and that’s when I lost it to Kilbourne.” Alderney looked sad. “Poor Kilbourne. I quite liked him at school, don’t you know, though we called him Greaves back then as his father was still alive and he hadn’t yet inherited the courtesy title.”

Maximus stared. “Illingsworth.”

“Yes,” Alderney said brightly. “It only came to me last night because my wife said that the ginger cat our children keep in the nursery is expecting, and then naturally I thought of that wager I made with Illingsworth.”

“Do you know where William Illingsworth is now?” Maximus said without much hope of a positive answer.

“Right now, no.” Alderney shook his head gravely. “But if you go ’round to his house his servants might have an idea.”

“His house,” Maximus repeated.

“Why, yes,” Alderney replied. “Lives over on Havers Square. Not the nicest address, but then he lives off a limited income. His pater was something of a gambler.”

“Thank you,” Maximus said, rising at once.

“What? What?” Alderney looked startled.

“My butler will see you out. I’ve an appointment.”

Maximus barely waited until the man had left the room before bounding back up the stairs. There was still time. If he could just make her listen to him…