Duke Looks Like a Groomsman - Valerie Bowman Page 0,62

under the fur with an arrogant smile on his face. “How did you enjoy that, my lady?” he asked in his most Mister-Worthy-the-groomsman voice.

Her eyes weren’t focused. She was staring blindly at the ceiling, the back of one arm splayed across her forehead, a look of wonder on her face. “There…are…no…words,” she managed in between attempting to take deep breaths.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tight against him, kissing the top of her head.

Julianna waited until her breathing returned to normal before she tugged out of his arms, tossed the fur over her head and began her own descent down his nude body.

“What are you doing?” Rhys asked, simultaneously alarmed and extremely aroused.

“What do you think I’m doing?” came her muffled reply.

She kissed his shoulders and his chest. She lightly raked her fingernails down his muscled abdomen, then she trailed her tongue along the line of hair that disappeared between his legs.

“I’ve been forced to look at your chest almost daily,” she said, her husky voice still slightly muffled under the fur. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to taste you.”

Rhys was so hard, he ached.

He took a deep, steadying breath. He knew he would need to stop her at some point, but he couldn’t help but wonder what she’d do if he allowed her to continue. In the end, his curiosity and his erection won.

He settled back against the pile of furs while Julianna’s warm wet lips trailed down his abdomen. He could feel her hesitancy as soon as she reached his cock. Her hands rested on his hips. She kissed his tip and it twitched.

That’s when he began to breathe heavily. “Julianna, you don’t have to—”

Whatever words he’d been about to say were lost when she took him into her hot mouth. She sucked him, moving her tongue up and down. Oh, God, she was doing to him what he’d done to her. Damn. She was a fast learner too.

His hands fumbled beneath the fur. He was intent upon pulling her back up to kiss him. But when her mouth slid down the length of him, his hands fell uselessly to his sides. “Jesus Christ,” he breathed.

He felt her smile against his thigh. “I take it you liked that?” came her slightly amused voice.

“Mmm hmm,” he finally managed to murmur. His eyes were squeezed shut and his hips arched up as her mouth continued to slide up and down him.

She was torturing him. None of his fantasies had been this good. She pulled her lips from him and licked his tip again, sucking on just the end before taking his entire cock deep into her throat. She did it again and again until he was mindless, his hips thrashing, his hands tangling in her long, silken hair.

“Julianna,” he breathed.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t make her his. Not after the heartache he’d caused her. It wouldn’t be fair to her. It wouldn’t be fair to Murdock.

He let her suck him until he was on the edge. His balls tensed. His fists clenched. He let her lick him one last time before he reached down and pulled her up to him in one fell swoop, kissing her deeply, his tongue driving into her mouth the way he wished his cock could drive into her wet warmth as he came against her hip.

His body shuddered and his pressed his forehead hard against hers, his breath coming out in short, hard pants.

“Rhys, I—” Julianna pulled the fur aside to look down at what he’d done. “I wanted you to make love to me.” Disappointment sounded in her tone.

“I can’t, Julianna,” he breathed, trying to pull her back into his arms. “You know that.”

“Why?” Anger mixed with the disappointment this time.

Still breathing heavily, Rhys forced himself to roll to the side, silently cursing himself with every breath. Somewhere in the back of his consciousness, he was aware that the storm had broken and the sun was shining through the windows again. He pushed away the covers, stood, and padded into the kitchen where he dipped a towel in a bucket of water and returned to Julianna’s side.

Silently, he wiped his seed from her skin. “I’m sorry, Julianna. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Julianna pulled one of the furs up beneath her arms to cover her nakedness. “Why, Rhys? Why shouldn’t you have? We’ve always had feelings for each other. Feelings that wouldn’t have changed if things had happened differently.”

He cursed under his breath again, then turned and pulled