Who Wants to Marry a Duke - Sabrina Jeffries Page 0,66

want me. Am I wrong about that?”

“No.” She kicked off her shoes, already eager to begin. “But I don’t wish to simply be one of your many conquests.”

“There’s nothing simple about this. Or about you. You couldn’t be a mere conquest of mine if you tried.”

The words oddly reassured her. She knew she ought to beware them. Supposedly, a man like him would say anything to get a woman into bed. Yet this felt . . . different somehow.

Or was she just being terribly naive?

Either way, she knew in her heart she’d already made her choice. Him in her bed. Tonight. She might never get another chance to find out what being with a man was like. What being with him was like. In all this time she’d never met any other man who even remotely appealed to her. Thorn had spoiled her for the rest of them.

He shrugged off his banyan, then bent on one knee in front of her to slide her skirts up again, so he could untie her garters and draw down her stockings. Slowly. Seductively. The very motion made her want to pull them back up just so he could slip them back down again.

“So I assume this is a yes,” he choked out as he ran his fingers over the smoothness of her thighs. “That you mean to share a bed with me tonight.”

“And here I thought you were merely playing lady’s maid,” she teased him.

He eyed her askance. “I fear I’m not the right sex for that.”

“Let me just make sure.” She unbuttoned his waistcoat and pushed it off, then undid the three buttons of his shirt so she could pull it off over his head to bare his chest.

“My, my,” she said. “Definitely not a lady’s maid.” How magnificent his chest was! A few years ago, she’d seen a line drawing of Michelangelo’s David, and ever since, she’d imagined Thorn as that sculpture, but in full living color. Still, she hadn’t thought to add, in her imagination, sprinklings of dusky hair across his upper half and a narrowing line of hair leading down to his navel.

She ran her hands over his muscles, which were every bit as sculpted as the statue’s. Except that Thorn’s flesh was warm and responsive, the muscles flexing beneath her touch in a most gratifying way.

A guttural groan sounded low in his throat when she thumbed his nipples, then pressed a kiss against the hairy flesh between them. He smelled so good she wanted to rub herself all over him. What an odd notion!

But when she slid her hands down to the buttons of his trousers, he growled, “My turn.” Then he pushed her skirts up to her waist and bent his head a little to bury his mouth between her thighs.

She couldn’t believe it! Was he actually licking her there?

He soon had her in a frenzy of excitement, then pulled back to fix her with a hungry look. “You taste like heaven, sweeting. Shall I do more?”

“Yes, oh, yes.” She caught his head and urged him back, and with a chuckle he complied.

Then he put his tongue inside her the way he’d put his finger a few days ago. Oh, dear Lord, how marvelous! How intoxicating. This was a drug she could easily come to crave.

He started flicking his tongue over a spot that felt tender and needy with each lash of his tongue. She found herself making strange mewling noises and undulating against him until suddenly he drew back.

“Not yet, my dear. I want you fully naked first.” Using his handkerchief to wipe his mouth, he stared down at her mons. “Lovely as this is, I want to see the rest of you—every inch laid bare for me.”

Even the words made her frantic for more of whatever he’d just been doing to her.

As if he knew he’d made her legs too wobbly for her to stand, he got up off the floor so he could sit beside her. Then he turned her so he could undo her gown where she sat.

Between the two of them they got it and her corset off. Then it only took mere seconds for him to have her shift off, too, leaving her with nothing but her hair to hide her from his gaze.

He ran a hand down her back to her bottom. “You’re a goddess, sweeting.” He brought his hands around her from behind to cup both her breasts, fondling them shamelessly. “From these lovely ladies”—he skimmed one hand down