Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

“ I …” Madeleine was breathless at his declaration.

A fire was slowly reigniting in her as Alexander took off his jacket and draped it over his desk chair. She saw the shift of his arm muscles, and her mouth dried up.

“You?” he prompted. “Have you lost that sharp, silver tongue I so love, darling?”

“Darling,” she echoed in a whisper, flushing at the name.

“Sweet now, are we?” he teased. At least she thought he was teasing. “I wonder how sweet other parts of you will be.”

His expression was even more sultry as he began to unknot his cravat.

Madeleine made an unintelligible noise, the ache between her legs building.

“Are you wet again, wife?” Alexander asked, yanking his cravat off. “Spread yourself. Show me how you ache for me.”

Her face was unbearably hot but she was ready to stop fighting her attraction to her husband.

She had spent so long buried in shame, in loneliness—and here was Alexander, looking at her as if she was the very orbit of his world, the very central point of everything.

So Madeleine let her hands tremble, let him see that they did, shameless to show how she desired him, and she tugged up her dress to her knees. He watched her with an unbearable hunger.

“That’s it,” he encouraged. “Show me everything I have craved for far too long.”

He had the cravat wrapped around his knuckles. Heat curled through her as she recalled his threat once. How he had teased her with the idea of snapping it against her skin. His eyes followed hers as he held it up.

“How about,” he spoke, undoing his shirt, “you show me those intimate parts I crave to bury myself in, and I shall tease your skin with this?” He held up the cravat. “If you can stop staring at my chest, that is.”

Madeleine almost squeaked as she startled, averting her gaze but Alexander shook his head.

“Do not be shameful in this chamber,” he told her. “Shame does not have a place here. If you desire me, I will know about it. Do not hide a moment of it. Look at me. Desire me. Want me—for then I will know you hunger for me as much as I do for you.”

“Alexander,” she moaned softly, his words turning her legs into liquid.

“Your legs, Madeleine,” he reminded her, voice turning sharp. “ Spread them. ”

And as she did, he let the cravat uncoil to glide it over her ankle. Her breath hitched. It was dark black, a silk thing that he let touch her skin, sending shivers through her.

“Alexander,” she said again, her voice shaky.

“Yes, wife?” He moved closer to her, moving the silk further up her leg, caressing her knee with it this time.

“You… you agonize me.”

“As you do me.”

“I—” Her breath hitched. “I do not believe that.”

He gave her a sardonic smile as he dragged the cravat up the inside of her thigh, making her jolt as her legs spread.

“You should, for it is the truth.”

Her head spun with his bare honesty. “Touch me,” she found herself begging. “Touch me, husband.”

He gave her a sly, wicked grin. “Ask nicely. ” His command was punctuated with a hard snap of the cravat against the top of her thigh.

She gasped, flinching, but her leg stayed in the same place. He peered at her, as if she puzzled him.

“Did you think me timid? That I would crawl away from a sting?” she asked, her voice low with desire. “I am not timid.”

“I can see that,” he praised, looking her up and down.

His shirt hung open, baring the dark fuzz of hair on his chest and the swell of muscle beneath. The sleeves had already slipped off his shoulders, and he tugged the whole thing off. Hard biceps flexed, and Madeleine stared openly.

“Do you like what you see?”

“No,” she lied.

She was answered with another snap of the cravat.

“Do not lie.”

Her breath caught.

“I like—I like what I see.”

“ Good .” The praise came as a purr as he came to tower over her.

Where she was sat on the bed, the waistband of his breeches was on her eye line. She swallowed at the hard bulge contained within them.

Heavens , she thought. I do not know how that will fit.

He smirked down at her. “Yes?”

“I… I do not know if it will fit.”

“Don’t you fret, darling. We will make it.”

Fear clenched her heart and, for a moment, he leaned down, tenderness breaking through the dominant mask.

“I will prepare you well,” he told her. “And if it is too much, we will stop.”

She froze. Had he figured out she had not yet lost her maidenhood? That she had not been taken to bed during her previous marriage?

Alexander snapped the cravat against her thigh again.

“Unfasten my breeches,” he commanded, “and I will prepare you. I want to feel how soaked you have gotten from only my words, Duchess.”

“Y-yes,” she stammered, her heart racing wildly. “ Please .”

His eyes flashed. “Oh, I like it when you beg.”

She didn’t have a chance to think of a witty remark before his fingers were at her entrance, right where his tongue had been in the carriage, and she gasped as he held her gaze, pushing in with one long finger.

“I do not feel my length getting any relief,” he reminded, and Madeleine could not move fast enough.

Slowly, she felt his finger enter her with the intention of preparing her for such a length. He was thick, she felt, as she bit back her moans, exploring over the bulge in his breeches.

She began to unfasten them as her breaths got shorter.

“I will use two,” he warned her before a second finger joined the first.

Heat flooded her body, core to cheeks, as though one more touch would ignite her completely. Pleasure rolled through her gut as he explored her, practically leaning over her as he held her gaze.

She felt her way through the fastenings of his breeches to free him.

Neither looked away, and that spearing gaze only had Madeleine canting her hips, chasing her pleasure.

“How does it feel?” Alexander asked, a command in his tone.

“So good,” Madeleine moaned, her eyes fluttering closed. Her head tipped back against the wooden headboard of the bed, her hips lifting in short circles. “I crave more.”

“I promised not to leave you wanting.”

His mouth closed over hers, inhaling every moan and gasp as he dipped his fingers in her most intimate parts.

With his breeches opened at the waist, Alexander kept Madeleine’s hand pressed to his length. Clumsily, she wrapped her hand around it experimentally, feeling the hot, hard sheath.

Alexander made a guttural noise in her mouth. To hear it again, Madeleine moved her hand up and down. A growl pressed to her lips as he forced her mouth further open, his tongue stroking against hers.

She kept making the movements with her hand, kept feeling the way his breaths shortened as they kissed until he was forced to pull back.

“So eager, my sweet little wife,” he purred.

Inside her, his fingers explored her as much as hers did him. She could barely focus on his length after a few moments for how intently he lavished his own touch upon her.

Over and over, he spread her thoroughly, and the dull ache had long turned into burning desire.

“More?” he teased, pushing his fingers in deeper, a devastating smirk played on his lips, his face hovering mere inches away.

Her chest rose and fell with exertion yet she had remained sat the whole time.

“You undo me,” she whispered.

“I only return the favor, wife,” he replied. “Now, more ?”

She grasped his length with purpose, meeting those piercing blue eyes.

“ More .”

He let out a snarl of pleasure as he finally yanked off the rest of his breeches before he braced himself over her. He looked at the cravat for another moment, as if considering using it.

“I would bind you,” he began, “but I want your fingernails marking me up with pleasure, so in the morning I may see the evidence of our coupling.”

Madeleine whined softly at that, drawing him closer. “Then keep my hands free. Keep all of me released so I may indulge in you.”

“I am going to undress you,” he told her carefully, “as I promised.”

She nodded, kissing her assent, pulling him to her. Her dress skirt was shoved up to her hips, her legs fully parted to allow him to lie between them, his upper body draped over hers.

His length pressed to her folds.

For a moment, Madeleine considered begging him not to waste time with undressing her but she wished to be as bare as he was.

Alexander made as quick work as possible of her dress.

“I will leave your jewels on,” he told her. “I want you to glisten in the light while you writhe beneath me.”

Finally bare, Madeleine welcomed his growl into her breasts, his face buried into the valley between the two mounds.

His tongue glided up the path of them, and Madeleine almost felt embarrassed as she held her breasts together to enhance his pleasure. He nipped at her pale skin. He palmed over one while licking the nipple of the other.

With his other hand, she felt as he reached for his length, bringing the tip to her folds.

“Do you feel how you cause me to react?” he murmured. “Do not ever doubt yourself—not in pleasure, nor anywhere else. You are beautiful, my Duchess. You enchant me, bewitch me, both your appearance, your body, and your entire self. I will never hear you speak a bad word about yourself, and if you do, then you shall find yourself thoroughly educated otherwise.”

“And how shall I receive my education?” she asked.

She had not thought him capable—had thought him merely tolerating her, but these were not the words of a tolerating man.

These were the words of a man who truly saw her.

A man who wanted her. Craved her.

“I would prefer to show you than tell you.”

He let out a wicked laugh, pressed to her breastbone as the tip of his length finally pushed beyond her entrance, inserted inside her most intimate place.

Madeleine let out a sharp gasp at the intrusion. It was different but not unwelcome, and she immediately slid her hands into his hair, tugging as she adjusted to the new sensation.

“You will tell me if it hurts.”

Meeting her husband’s gaze, Madeleine nodded.

“Alexander,” she began, gasping when he moved inside her another inch. “I—May I have permission to…” She blushed, her eyes dipping down to his bare chest. “To touch you anywhere?”

He took one of her hands from his hair and brought it to his lips. Kissing her palm, then her wrist, he smiled against her skin—a rare, tender thing.

“Darling wife, you have never once needed permission.”

His eyes darkened as he let go of her hand. Madeleine curled it against his shoulder, breathless at the hard muscle she found there.

“However, if asking for anything pleasures you further—if telling me your wants arouses you, I will happily comply.”

She flushed, thinking of asking him if she could climax, wondering how far she could give him control willingly.

She was independent; she had proven her strength many times—sometimes too often—but to willingly give herself to her husband in such a manner… it sparked heat within her.

A moment later, without Madeleine having the chance to respond yet, Alexander thrust into her, sheathing what felt like the entirety of his endowment into her.

A breathy moan spilled from Madeleine’s lips, and she heard her husband’s resounding hum against her chest.

When he looked up at her, he looked half unraveled himself.

Madeleine tightened around his length, unsure of what to do, how to do it—but Alexander had merely told her to lie back. So she did, and she clung onto him, her fingers encasing his shoulders.

“Mark me,” he groaned, his hips rocking against hers. “Mark me as yours, Madeleine.”

Her name spoken in the throes of desire had Madeleine’s stomach tightening with pleasured heat. She lifted her hips to meet his, letting his pace rock them together in tandem. Her chest hitched over and over as waves of pleasure pulled her under.

Her eyes closed for a brief moment but Alexander remained there. All hard muscle, toned arms and stomach, and the delightful trail of dark hair leading to where his body joined hers.

“Alexander,” she cried out when his hips sped up against her.

The sound of his skin meeting hers resounded in the room, mingling with her cries. Her nails dug into his skin, scratching over his shoulder blades and neck.

“Madeleine,” he growled out.

His beard was scratchy against her jaw, but she didn’t care. She welcomed the burn, for she was so, so close to him for it. Her arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, and simply the feel of his skin against hers sent her half mad with desire.

He thrust in and out, his length sliding in and out with ease, his own heavy breaths matching hers.

When he looked at her, those eyes pinned her to the bed.

Moments later, he sped up furiously, delivering short but strong thrusts into her, and Madeleine clasped a hand over her mouth to muffle a shout.

“I want to hear you,” he breathed. “Do not stifle yourself.”

“But the staff?—”

“ I do not care .”

He wrenched her hand away from her mouth as he delivered another rock of his hips. Madeleine could not help the sudden shriek of pleasure. Wild pressure building inside of her, and she scrabbled her nails over her husband’s back.

“Alexander— Alexander ?—”

“That is it,” he groaned, eyes fluttering closed as he kept the pace. “ Madeleine .”

“Please, do not stop,” she begged. “There is—I can feel—” She broke off into another moan, unable to stop herself. “I think I?—”

“I know,” he said, claiming her mouth in a heated kiss. “Ask for it nicely, Duchess.”

She burned with humiliation—but this was a sort of humiliation that had the heat inside her growing ever-hotter. Him requesting this only made her ache more, grow closer to that place where she might soar.

“May I come… Your Grace?”

Using his title had Alexander’s eyes darkening as he choked on a groan. She used it so sweetly, so misleadingly innocent. He nodded.

“Reach it with me, my wife.”

“Yes,” she gasped. “ Yes .”

He did not stop his thrusting, and moments later, Madeleine shouted her pleasure as her body shuddered and she felt that pressure give way to a blissful shattering of herself.

Alexander watched every moment of it, his hair slick with exertion. His eyes were hooded as he watched her fall apart in his arms before his stomach tightened and he called out her name.

“Madeleine,” he growled, and then his hips pressed to hers once more before falling still as he let out a final gasp.

He collapsed next to her, and she turned in his arms to face him. A flush covered his usually stoic face, and a small smile lingered on his lips. His eyes were closed but the second they opened, the smile disappeared.

Instead, he kissed her, deepening the kiss as he held her face.

“You are to be my ruin,” he told her.

Madeleine could not help the soft, breathless laugh she gave. “I… I did not think it could feel like that.”

“Indeed, it can. I promised you pleasure you could not imagine.”

Madeleine leaned over to peck his cheek, feeling intimate towards him.

“I wish to lie here, blissful and like this forever. I fear I may never want to do anything else ever again.” She frowned. “Though, I am quite hungry.”

Alexander paused, rising up on one arm, looking down at her. “I know where my cook hides chocolates she thinks I do not know about. Can I interest you in a late-night treat?”

“I believe I already had one,” she teased.

Her husband’s responding laughter was a sound she knew she would not forget.