The Marquess Who Loved Me - By Sara Ramsey Page 0,68

looked dangerous in a way that appealed to some fantasy she hadn’t realized she had.

But the sharper the need in his eyes, the more she was in control.

Her fingers trailed down to his waist and the bulge that waited for her. He sucked in a breath as she unbuttoned his breeches, working slowly to maximize the effect of her fingers brushing delicately over his confined erection. When she was done, she pulled the tails of his shirt out of his breeches and pushed them aside. And then, like she was unwrapping a priceless artifact, she freed his cock.

He grabbed her wrist. “What is your plan?” he asked, in a voice gone gruff with need.

She looked up, hoping he saw reverence instead of ruthlessness. “Worship, Nick. Isn’t that what you want?”

He looked dazed. His blue eyes were dark. “This wasn’t what I expected.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Don’t you want to debase me? Show me that I’m not a goddess? Throw me from the tower you’ve placed me in?”

He scrubbed a hand over his mouth.

She snorted, low and mirthless. “If you remember what you want, tell me. Meanwhile, this is what I want.”

She licked her lips again, instinctively, and heard him groan as she lowered them to his cock. It strained toward her, not caring about whatever battle was raging in Nick’s heart. She licked him first, swirling her tongue around the head, before opening her mouth and taking him inside of her.

For Ellie, this was a new experience — one she’d seen others do, in the darker alcoves of her darkest bacchanals, but never one she’d deigned to do herself. But her enjoyment of it, of how Nick felt in her mouth and how his fingers clutched in her hair, surprised her. She’d meant to tease him — but as her tempo sped up and the stroke of her tongue over his shaft became less tentative, it felt like real worship, striking a chord with how she wanted to care for him, how she wanted to please him. She wanted him to be happy when he was with her. She wanted to give him pure, selfless pleasure.

But there was nothing pure and selfless about their arrangement. She pulled back. His hand pressed against her head as though he wanted to force her to finish what she had started, but he dropped it before she started to panic.

“Bloody hell, Ellie. I know what I want now — finish me.”

She laughed as she sat back on her heels and looked up at him. Somehow, his need now was lovely, not dangerous. “I will. But I want to finish us together. Will you let me do that?”

He nodded. She grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the floor, then stretched him out on his back. They hadn’t kissed all day, but this wasn’t a night for tenderness. She stayed away from his mouth, trailing kisses down his sternum instead, then pushing the sleeves of his jacket away. He had to sit up so that she could get his waistcoat, braces, and shirt off of him, and he tried to kiss her then, but she turned her head away. “No kisses, Nick,” she whispered, pushing him back down to the carpet once his shirt was gone.

“You aren’t good at worship, are you?” he observed, coming up on his elbows to watch her as she knelt at his feet to take off his shoes.

She tossed the first shoe away. “No one ever taught me how.” Then she slid off his second shoe, letting her fingers linger on the arch of his foot. He jerked beneath her, and she smiled. “But I’m a fast learner. And I shall worship every inch of you, Nicholas Claiborne.”

He exhaled, sharp and swift. “I have eight you could focus on first, if you want to speed up your lessons.”

She grinned. “Patience, Nick.”

In truth, she didn’t worship every inch of him — by the time his breeches were gone and he was naked beneath her, she was too hungry for him to indulge in endless exploration. But her eyes missed nothing, even if her fingers couldn’t move across him fast enough to keep her promise. Every bit of him was harder than it had been when he was twenty-two, as though the Nick she had painted then was an imperfect rendering of the god he would become. There were sinews and veins on his arms that she hadn’t seen before. His shoulders and chest were broader, which made the