Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(77)

The muscles of his throat moved, that subtle up and down movement hinted at the thin thread of control he retained. She raised her hooded gaze higher and took in the rugged planes of his hard, chiseled cheeks. Beads of perspiration dotted his brow. Auric clenched his eyes so tight, a muscle ticked in the corner of his right eye. His taut face etched in that same blend of pleasure-pain, she herself knew. Daisy stiffened as he pressed into her, reflexively tightening.

His eyes flew open. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion as he continued moving deeper.

Her body took him slowly into her tight channel. “Th-that is good,” she managed a smile. “Because I d-don’t want you to h-hurt me, either.”

A grin tugged at one corner of his lips and just then he was transformed into the easy, carefree, young man she’d once known, and she turned over nervousness and simply felt.

She closed her eyes as he reached between them and found the slick nub at her center, toying with it. The room resonated with their rapid breaths joined in a loud, harsh rhythm. Daisy moved against his hand, desperate to be closer, which sent him deeper.

“Stop,” he ordered gruffly. A single bead of sweat ran down his cheek.

Except, her body ached with a throbbing awareness of his hardness, inside her tight heat, and she continued undulating against him. She soared higher and higher, nearing a dangerous crest that she both feared and hungered for— Auric flexed his hips.

A cry tore from her lips at the sudden, unexpectedness of him completely filling her. She pressed her eyes closed, fixing on the lingering remnants of that near glory she’d been so very close to.

“I’m so sorry, Daisy.” That hoarse apology came as though ripped from somewhere deep inside.

“It is all right,” she assured him, lying through her gritted teeth. He was hard and throbbing and too enormous for her. She’d known Mr. Fenerson had been incorrect. None of those instruments he’d written of could possibly fit in the manner in which he’d suggested. Now she knew.

Auric captured her lips under his and she kissed him back. He slid his tongue in and the tendrils of warmth unfurled in her belly once more. All the while he continued to work her with his hand as he’d done earlier, when she’d been so very close to some kind of masterful explosion she’d not understood. Then he began to move. She braced, but some of the discomfort receded, and a growing ache of desire fanned out, filling her once again. Daisy arched her hips, but this time there was no pain, just a hint of discomfort that was rapidly replaced by the pleasurable sensation of him moving inside her. She looked up at him. His eyes were tightly clenched as though in concentration. Sweat beaded his brow. At the evidence of his tightly restrained control, a quivering smile turned her lips up. Auric, with his title, power, and wealth could have chosen any lady in the whole of the kingdom and yet he’d chosen her. He belonged to her. And she him. At last. In every way, in all ways—forever. Her heart swelled with love and she stroked his tense jaw.

Her gentle caress brought his eyes open. “I love you,” he said hoarsely.

He gave her the words she’d longed to hear from him, for the past ten years. For a moment, a wave of emotion rolled through her, consuming in its intensity. “I love you, too,” she whispered and then matched his slow, deep thrusts, and everything fell away but the sensation of them united as one in ways she’d never imagined two souls could be joined. He closed his mouth over the peak of her breast and a whimpering cry slipped past her lips.

She was close. So close. And then she shattered into a million tiny shards and ecstasy swept through her as she rode crest after crest of a mind-numbing explosion of sensation and feeling. Auric stiffened above her and then with a final flex of his hips, he spilled himself, filling her with his seed.

With a groan, he collapsed atop her. She brought her arms about him and stroked her fingers up and down the broad expanse of his back. A contented little smile played on her lips. Auric shoved himself off her and then rolled onto his side. She mourned the loss of his body’s nearness, but he pulled her into the curve of his arm. He passed a concerned gaze over her face. “Did I hurt you?”

“Just a bit, and not at all anymore,” she rushed to assure him.

He hesitated, and she looked at him searchingly, knowing the subtle nuances of his body enough to know there was more he wished to say. “Were you…did you…?” A dull flush marked his cheeks.

Her heart swelled with even more love as she realized his question. “How can you doubt that I did not enjoy that?” she murmured against his lips. “And do you know what, Auric?”

“What?”

“One cannot learn that in a manual.” She winked.

Laughter rumbled up from his chest and then melded with her own breathless giggles. With a contended sigh, she nestled against him and for the first time in seven years, knowing peace. For so many years she’d loved him with a girl’s heart. Now she loved him every way a woman could love a man. She’d never needed a gypsy’s bauble to capture that which she’d longed for the past ten years…Auric’s heart.





Chapter 20

The following afternoon, Auric sat behind his immaculate, mahogany desk. He drummed the tip of his pen back and forth upon his open journal, just as he’d done for the better part of the morning and now early afternoon.