Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

The journey from Blackthorn Estate to Ashton Hall took half the time it normally did, much to Evie’s amusement, and even in the carriage, Daniel could not stop holding her and kissing her.

“Must I restrain myself in my own carriage?” he growled in complaint.

Evie looked up at him from under her lashes, thoroughly pleased when he seemed to waver beneath just her gaze.

“Yes, because you might scandalize the footmen, and my reputation would be all but ruined,” she explained gently.

“I think I pay them well enough to keep their damned mouths shut!”

She placed a hand on his heart. “A short delay will only make our reunion sweeter, I should think.”

He frowned at her. “Since when did you become so good at playing coy with me, Duchess?”

“Me? Playing coy?” She laughed, poking his chest with a finger. “Let me remind you, husband, that it was your delay that caused this separation.”

His gaze softened as he captured her offending finger. “I have hurt you,” he murmured hoarsely. “And for that, I shall never forgive myself.”

“You have a good many years to make up for your mistakes.” She smiled up at him, then leaned in and whispered in his ear, “You must make good use of them.”

“Oh, I wholly intend to!” he swore, taking her fingertip into his mouth and sucking on it lightly.

When she let out a soft gasp, his gaze darkened, and he swirled his tongue around the delicate digit.

Rogue!I have married a man without scruples, and now I must endure the torment of his teasing!

“You were saying?” he prompted her with a naughty grin.

Evie gathered her composure and glared at him in reproach. “I was thinking that we should probably inform the Dowager Duchess of our reconciliation,” she grumbled, mildly embarrassed to find that he had so easily managed to scatter her wits.

“Caroline can wait,” he scoffed. “Right now, I must properly welcome you back to your residence.”

The carriage came to a halt, and fortunately, the footman was discreet enough to knock and announce their arrival instead of simply opening the carriage door and exposing them.

Evie laughed and pushed Daniel away as she rearranged her clothes and her hair, but he continued to watch her with eyes dark with desire. Inwardly, she trembled, knowing full well what awaited her.

Once she had decided she was ready, he nodded subtly and stepped out of the carriage first. Evie put her hand in his, fully expecting him to help her down.

Instead, to her great surprise, his hand closed over hers and, with a firm tug, sent her hurtling into his chest with a surprised shriek. Daniel did not even change his expression as he threw her over his broad shoulder, her rump hanging in midair.

“Daniel!” she cried. “Put me down this instant!”

“Never,” he replied much too cheerfully.

“Think of the servants—” she protested.

“They know very well when to avert their eyes.”

It was true, though—from the moment Barnaby closed the door behind them, the whole manor was surprisingly empty. As if every living soul had scurried away upon their arrival.

He could not have told them to disperse, could he?

“Stop moving around,” he warned her.

He delivered a sharp slap to her bottom, enough to jolt her out of her thoughts yet gentle enough to not actually hurt her.

“I cannot believe you are doing this!” she grumbled. “This is most undignified!”

“Oh, I plan to do more undignified things to you later,” he drawled. “After all your teasing in the carriage, you should be punished for your insolence.”

The thinly veiled threat made Evie flush as her core clenched in response.

Dear Lord, I have not even been back for five minutes and I already want him so much!

She did not have long to dwell on that thought and her embarrassing lack of restraint when it came to him, for he had already shouldered the door to his tower open and closed it behind him with a firm kick. He set her down, dragging her body along his hardness until she let out a soft moan, and then he kissed her thoroughly.

“Take off your clothes,” he ordered her roughly. “And get on the bed.”

His voice had the effect of turning her insides into liquid heat.

Nobody had ever ordered her to strip off, and Evie found it strangely thrilling.

She stepped back and showed him the row of buttons at her back. “I may need help with these.”

In all the years that Jane had helped Evie out of her dresses, the maid had never been able to dispense of her buttons as fast as Daniel did at that moment. He even loosened her stays for her.

She smiled up at him in thanks and then let the dress slide off one shoulder slowly, glancing shyly up at him from beneath her eyelashes. She watched as his desire roiled in green eyes until they darkened to almost black. Slowly, she pushed the dress off the rest of her body, letting it fall with a slight rustle around her feet.

Next to go were her stays. Evie sighed as she took off the restrictive garment, freeing her breasts for his bold perusal.

She had barely started on her stockings when he picked her up and threw her onto the bed, his much larger body covering hers as he kissed her. Evie threw her arms around his neck, kissing him back with as much passion. His thumb flicked the rosy peak of her breast, and she let out a breathy moan, her body instinctively arching into his touch.

“I am going to teach you a lesson today, Duchess,” he growled, nibbling on the delicate skin of her shoulder. “Do not tease me again. You will not like the consequences.”

Evie gasped as his fingers pinched her nipple.

Oh, I like it very well, indeed!

In fact, she just might make a habit of being naughty just to see how far she could goad him.

She gave him a sultry look, eliciting from him a feral growl that reverberated from his chest down to her drenched core.

“Wicked, little thing,” he rasped against her breast. “Let me show you what happens when you insist on testing my patience.”

She let out a breathy laugh that trailed off into a moan.

She was definitely in trouble now.

Daniel was thoroughly convinced that the woman beneath him was a temptress of the highest order. A succubus with the smile of an angel who claimed his heart and soul.

He had initially thought to restrain himself, reminding himself that aside from their wedding night, Evie was wholly untried in the carnal arts. He dared not push her further than what she was comfortable with.

But with every sultry look, every slight undulation, she tested his limits. His wicked, little Duchess had to know just how her soft mewls affected him!

His hand plunged into the nest of curls between her legs, and he nearly groaned when he found her wet for him. She was so responsive to his every touch, and that in itself was already quite maddening.

He grabbed her hands, intertwining his fingers with hers before pinning them over her head. Her blue eyes opened wide, and he sucked in a harsh breath.

Had it been any other day, he might have been able to draw things out. He would have wrenched cry after cry from her lips as he drove her over and over to the edge.

But they had spent more than a week apart, and his hunger for her was an all-consuming flame he could no longer suppress.

And neither could she.

He let out a low groan when her fingers found him hard with his desire for her. Slowly, tentatively, she wrapped her delicate hands around his rigid shaft, her eyes widening as she explored him.

When her fingernail grazed the tip, he let out a loud hiss.

Immediately, her hands stilled, and she stared at him with wide eyes. “Did I hurt you?”

Daniel wanted to laugh at such an innocent question.

Yes and no.

He was hard almost to the point of pain, and her touch had driven him ever closer to the edge.

“Open your legs for me,” he rasped against her throat.

Outside of bed, Evie seemed to delight in thwarting him at every turn, but here in his arms, she was pliant. Obedient.

Did she have any idea how powerful she was in her submission?

He sank into her in one full stroke, a gasp tearing from her lips. He latched onto her breast, the same breast that his child would one day feed from.

The thought of Evie nursing his child caused his desire to burn ever hotter, and he drew back, only to slam into her tight channel once more.

“Daniel!” she cried out, her fingernails digging into his back.

He smiled as he teased the rosy peak of her breast with his tongue and his teeth, while his hand trailed over her abdomen, down to the thatch of curls between her legs. When his finger traced the hardened nub just above where they were joined, Evie jerked her hips, a long moan escaping her lips.

He thrust into her again, watching her slowly come undone as he worked his finger over her bud to the tempo of his hips.

The feeling of his rigid length sheathed fully inside her was more than he could bear. He could feel his own climax building within him as her walls gripped him ever tighter.

Daniel rocked into her, taking his cues from the way her breath hitched and the moans that escaped her even as she clutched at his shoulders.

With his other hand, he tilted her chin up, his eyes meeting her stormy ones, now clouded with the passion of their intense lovemaking.

“I would have you look at me as you shatter,” he grunted as his hips ground into hers once more.

Evie nodded, even as he could see the battle she was fighting to keep her gaze on his as he thrust into her.

Almost there…

Her channel pulsed around him, and with a roar, he thrust into her once more, sinking himself to the hilt into the core of her being just as she cried out in their joint climax.

Daniel leaned his forehead against hers, their eyes meeting as he spilled his seed into her, as her walls rippled around him to milk every last drop from him. Their breaths mingled as they continued to look into each other’s eyes, as wave after wave of sheer pleasure washed over them.

In all his years of existence, Daniel had never maintained eye contact with his paramours. It was only with Evie that he desired such a connection.

A union of both their souls as well as their bodies.

Moments later, when he had softened and his heart was no longer threatening to leap out of his chest, he pulled out of her, eliciting a soft cry of complaint. In response, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace, kissing the top of her sweat-lined forehead.

“Did I please you?” she murmured, tracing light patterns over his chest with a finger.

He groaned and grasped that mischievous hand, pressing a soft kiss to her wrist. “If you pleased me any more, my beloved Duchess, I might just expire from sheer pleasure.”

“I should certainly hope not!” She balked. “After all, how will I ever…” she trailed off, shutting her mouth quickly as if she had only realized what she was about to say.

But Daniel understood.

With a low growl, he moved and pressed her down into the mattress once more. “Finish your sentence, Duchess.”

She looked up at him, her gaze softening even as the first stirrings of lust caused those beautiful blue-gray orbs to darken.

“If you die, how will I ever know so much pleasure?” she whispered softly. “How will I ever be able to carry on without you?”

“I shall not have you talk of death or dying,” he warned her.

She opened her mouth as if she might protest, but he covered her lips with his own, his leg nudging hers apart. Her eyes widened in shock.

“So soon?” she gasped.

“Why are you complaining?” He smirked at her as his fingers slipped into her honeyed slit, drawing a pleasured cry from her. “Already, you are dripping wet for me once more.”

Evie shuddered beneath him, her fingers digging into his shoulders as his fingers teased the little bud between her legs.

Was there ever a woman on earth who was as responsive as his beloved Duchess? He doubted he would ever find one, and in any case, he had absolutely no desire to.

He and Evie, they fit perfectly. As if both their bodies were made to be joined in exquisite bliss.

“Daniel…”

He smiled as he kissed her lips. Perhaps, this time, he might be able to go slower. He might be able to draw her pleasure out longer until she was writhing beneath him, begging for release.

Or maybe not.

Her hand had found his arousal once more.

He leaned his forehead against hers and gazed deeply into her eyes.

“I love you,” he murmured softly. “My Duchess.”

She smiled up at him in reply and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

“My Duke.”

He groaned as he sank into her once more, losing himself in the ecstasy that her body offered him.

It would be a long, long time before either of them ever managed to get any sleep…