Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

“ W e are here,” Alexander hopped out of his side, and she heard him barking orders to take a basket ahead and to set up.

Madeleine’s stomach was a knot of nerves as the carriage pulled to a stop.

Alexander had closed the curtains and said very little on the journey over. It was less than an hour but he had peeked out, watching the setting sun with agitated impatience, giving her no clue as to where they were going.

Madeleine was confused enough by the time he opened their door, a secretive smirk on his face. “Wife.”

“Husband.”

He held out his hand to help her out of the carriage, and she lifted her gaze beyond him.

The beach spread out for miles behind Alexander. She had seen the beach before but this seemed to be a more closed-off, private area, surrounded by a thick grove of trees circling the spot of beach he had brought her to.

The red, setting sun dipped towards the sea, and Madeleine’s breath caught.

On the pale sand, servants were setting out a blanket, a picnic basket, and a bucket of wine on ice. Lanterns lit up the scene, and Madeleine giggled.

“Alexander,” she whispered, her heart racing. “This is beautiful.”

“I told you the sunset was important,” he told her. “Shall we?”

As they walked, Madeleine couldn’t help but ask, “surely I need to remain dressed among the staff and whilst we eat?”

“Madeleine, I will be dismissing the staff,” he laughed. “I shall have no audience when I take you with the sunset burning the horizon behind you, and you may eat bared to me or clothed. All I care about is viewing you in full openness when I make love to you on the sand.”

Her mouth parted slightly. “I—you…”

“Lost for words, Duchess?”

“No,” she said quickly. “However, if I am to be nude, then you are, too.”

“Oh, I plan to be.”

His eyes sparkled with dangerous intent, and suddenly Madeleine could not help a laugh, could not race to the blanket fast enough, squealing when Alexander chased her and caught her around the waist.

Right near the blanket, they toppled over, rolling near the picnic basket. One of his hands grasped her thigh, already tugging her dress skirt up.

“I plan to swim,” he said. “Truthfully, I am not hungry in the slightest. I would happily take the wine but I would much prefer to be rid of my layers and be in the water.”

“I would much prefer to join you,” she answered. “I… I confess that you have introduced me to such things in our marriage that I now find myself yearning for time and time again.”

Alexander kissed her lightly. “Then allow me to indulge you.” His eyes roved over her. “Undress yourself for me.”

Her eyes cut to the staff, and Alexander turned to them. “You are all dismissed. Have my driver guide the carriage off the path. I shall return to him when we are ready to return to Silverton.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” one of the servants said, bowing deeply.

The servants hurried off, leaving Madeleine alone with Alexander on their secluded beach. She leaned in, pressing her lips to his.

She gave a small hum. “I have been warned about you,” she said. “That you are dangerous.”

“Really?” He looked amused.

“Indeed. And yet I find myself alone with you.”

“Do you fear I might devour you?” he teased.

“I wish you would.”

“Do you fear I might take you for myself and let nobody else ever find you?” he laughed. “I am so terribly dangerous, Duchess. In fact, so dangerous, you likely should leave and return to Silverton without me.”

He teased but she stepped back, a smirk on her face as she lifted her hands to the sleeves of her gown.

His eyes took her in, sweeping her from head to toe appreciatively. Not breaking eye contact, she let her dress pool to her ankles, bearing her corset and shift beneath. She shivered under his gaze.

“Well?” she said. “You must help me remove the rest.”

“With pleasure.” His voice was rough as he came to her, his hands already lifting to the fastenings of her corset.

Quickly, he pulled it free and then off of her, while she pulled her shift over her head. This time, her hands did not tremble. Instead, she felt bold as the breeze snaked between her legs, and her nipples pebbled.

“You are aroused,” she noted, glancing between his legs.

“You are surprised?” There was a growl to his question as he roughly yanked off his own clothes, bearing himself to her as much as she did to him.

She shivered with each inch of skin bared of his, every line of muscle and tapered line of his honed body.

“You are beautiful,” he told her. “And the only thing better than coupling with you in the comfort of a chamber is doing it right here, seeing how you glow in the sunset’s colors. You are magnificent, Madeleine.”

“You say such things and yet you are made from bronze in the sun. A beautiful statue from legends, surely.” She laughed at her own words. “And yet I imagine I do not need to broaden your ego.”

“Keep broadening,” he instructed. “For it is working wonders with the way you are looking at me.”

“Indeed,” she breathed, glancing down at his length, proud and erect.

“Lay down on the shore,” he told her. “I do not care for all the water, and the wine, for I only wish to drink from you.”

Her breath shortened at the bold declaration, and when she did not move, he took a step towards her. “I am dangerous, am I not?”

“You are so very dangerous,” she said, grinning.

“Then you should run.”

He took off towards her, and Madeleine cried out, turning and running towards the sea. She splashed into the shore, aware he chased her, and the thrill of it sang through her.

She barely reached the waves before a weight pushed against her, felling her entirely. Her body crashed to the sand, the waves lapping at the side of her body, Alexander on top of her.

His face was harsher in this light, the sunset casting the lines of his face even sharper.

“Lie still,” he whispered, already folding his body over hers.

His hard length pressed to her thigh. His mouth dragged over hers, kissing her briefly, before he moved over her jaw, her chin, her neck.

Beyond, he went, peppering kisses along her collarbone and navel, licking over her hardened nipples.

She had been ashamed of her body once upon a time, aware she carried more curves than most women, blaming that for Donald’s lack of desire for her, even as she had been thankful for that lack. But any doubt disappeared with Alexander’s exploring mouth on her skin.

He groaned as if she was a feast and he indulged as he lowered his face between her legs.

“I have thought of this ever since I tasted you in the carriage,” he told her.

Rough desire coated his voice. He pressed a kiss to her folds, and she gasped, jerking with the sensation.

“I have craved another taste. No wine, no decadent feast, can ever compare. I believe you have ruined me, Madeleine, for even the finest things one can consume.”

She moaned softly, hands sliding into his hair. Already, she felt sensitive. The cool water lapping around them, and the soft powder of sand beneath her body, and Alexander’s tongue already delving into her—it all had her shivering against him.

He lay between her legs, powerful and broad, a sea god come to shore to ravish her.

He licked over and over, flickering his tongue throughout her softest, wettest parts, and she cried out with each stroke. Her hips circled against his face, pulling him closer, as she lost herself to his pleasure.

He looked at her with those handsome eyes as he suckled, and Madeleine could not contain her shout as she chased her climax.

But before she could reach it, he pulled back, kissing her thigh and then her knee, before moving back to her thigh.

“Alexander—”

She moaned, cutting herself off, as he continued his ministrations on her entrance. His tongue sought her out, as if mapping her from the inside.

He moaned into her body, the wet noises from his mouth, and the slap of the water against their skin, all of it making Madeleine lose herself. Headiness swirled through her, balling heat in her gut.

Behind him, the sun set below the sea line, and she could not believe how, as the sun set the horizon aflame, Alexander set Madeleine aflame just as well.

Her hips bucked against his face, and her skin stung with the rough brush of his beard against her soft skin, but she did not care. She craved and craved, and her husband willingly gave.

“Please, do not stop,” she begged.

But he did—of course he did, for he loved to rile her up, did he not?

He met her gaze, smirking as he pulled away from her. But it was only to shift further up her body, pressing into her as they had joined already several times throughout the night.

He slid into her like he belonged there, as if she was the very place for which he was always meant to fit.

The notion was… odd. Terrifying, even. And yet, at its foundation, there was so much tenderness in knowing that.

“Madeleine,” he sighed, pressing his forehead to hers.

He tangled one hand in her hair, soaked from the shore’s kiss. He himself glistened with water, and she welcomed the sway of the waves, for Alexander timed his thrusts with it. It was slow, languid, utterly thorough to keep her on the edge of her pleasure until he was close enough to join with her.

“Take me,” she breathed. “Take me. I am yours.”

“Say it again,” he told her, his breathing labored as he drove into her again, a rhythmic demand of desire and heat.

“Alexander, I am yours.”

She barely took another breath before his mouth captured hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth. She opened up to him, feeling his thrusts speed up, his hips snapping against hers and slapping against the shore.

“Come for me,” he told her, linking his fingers through hers.

She nodded, her whines spilling free as their hands interlaced, him pressing her harder into the sand.

Madeleine’s back arched, her cry of pleasure tearing from her throat as she flew off the edge of pleasure, falling into her climax. Alexander held her through every moment of it before he quickly followed her with a loud groan and growl of her name.

His hips snapped once, twice, before he slowed down, gently ebbing away as they shivered with the aftermath.

When he pulled free, he helped her up.

“And now,” he murmured, taking her mouth to his once again, “let us bathe. It’ll be dark soon. Do you still wish to remain outside with a dangerous man like me?”

As Madeleine looked at her husband, at the way the shadows played with his features, and the lanterns grew brighter against the impending darkness, she knew her choice.

“I am safe with nobody but you.”