Her Mystery Duke(19)
“It is just that…” Her voice caught and she cleared her throat. “I have never really been naked, I mean not wholly naked, in front of anyone.”
“You’ve known men?”
“Yes.”
“And they didn’t demand to see you unclothed?”
“No, not completely.”
He stared at her for a moment and then he laughed, the sound deep, rumbling, wholly carnal. It sent renewed heat slamming into her loins.
He stopped laughing. “Were they all Puritan tradesmen? Giving into their lusts whilst scurrying to complete the deed as quickly as possible, as though that would somehow mitigate the sin?”
At his very apt description of Dr. Edmonton, she couldn’t help a smile. “Yes, mostly.”
“Jeanne, how did we meet?”
“You approached me in a coffee shop.”
“Did I?” He sounded amused. “I don’t remember it. I suppose I must have been quite foxed.”
“You weren’t foxed. You were delirious with fever.”
“I do feel rather dizzy. I think I am still delirious.”
“Then you should sleep.”
“I want to see your body, Jeanne.”
When he smiled in that slight way, he was so gorgeous. Heavens, she couldn’t help smiling back at him. “What does it matter now, David? You’ve had what you wanted from me already.”
He drew his dark brows together. “How do you know what I want?”
“All men want the same thing.”
“Some men want more than others.”
There was a wealth of dark, sensual promise in his tone. It spoke to parts of her that seemed to awaken.
She laughed, a catch in her voice in time with the sudden, clenching of her cunt, the thrill of wetness trickling over flesh swollen by desire. “I just hadn’t planned on showing myself.”
“You’ve seen me.”
“Yes, I have.”
“So what’s fair, Jeanne?” His teasing tone sent more fluid surging from her.
“I have seen your all simply because I needed to bring your fever down.”
“And you took no pleasure from the act?”
“Just the satisfaction of helping a fellow human in need.”
“What a little liar you are.”
“If I let you see my body, will you promise to sleep afterwards?”
“Well, I am too weak yet to do anything else.” He smiled then, a slow, sensual curving of his lips. Despite his pallor and the heavy dusting of dark stubble on his cheeks, the effect was heart stopping. His male beauty ravished the last of her self-defenses.
She reached down and slowly pulled up her hem.
The moment came when she couldn’t delay any longer. She whisked the garment over her head then tossed it aside.
He stared at her so intently. It was hard to stand there calmly and just let him look. She had lain down and let men unbutton her gown and lift her skirts. But never had she stood and just let a man look at her whole body.
She felt exposed. Chubby. She put her hand over the curve of her lower belly.
“Turn.” It wasn’t a plea or a request. It was a command.
She rankled all over. Had she really placed herself into this position? “You are fatiguing yourself, David. And it is really unnecessary.”
Despite her nakedness and her sense of being too vulnerable, displaying herself produced an undeniable increase in her arousal. She hadn’t expected any of this, the strange feelings, the nuances of play. It put her at a disadvantage. It made her think that perhaps he did know something about her. Something she didn’t know herself. She offered him a cool, steady look.
His look softened. “All right, Jeanne, so you’re still shy about your own nakedness. Come back to bed.”
His tone held grudging tolerance. Like a protector being lenient with a willful mistress, not like a man who she had rescued from the street and been nursing for the past few days.
“I cannot come to bed. I need to work.”
He raised his brows. “What work do you do?”
“I write.”
“Ah, so that is why your fingers are smudged with ink?”
“Yes.” She balled her hands to hide the shameful stains.
“What do you write?”
“Children’s fairy tales.” It proved hard to say those words with a straight face. Now her face went up in flames. What was it about him that brought out the foolish girl in her?
“Children’s stories?” He smiled fully then, all white teeth and sensual lips and brilliant, flashing eyes. Despite his unkempt appearance, or maybe even because of it, he was just too deliciously handsome.
She had to look down or else she would have flung herself back in that bed, let him do whatever he wanted. “Yes, children’s stories.”