Too breathless with want, all Artemis could do was nod. She buried her face in his neck and gave herself over to the shockingly rude thrill of sliding and rubbing against Dominic’s sleek, hard, bare cock. Her orgasm began to build, the tension inside her coiling tighter and tighter. Her whole body was trembling, and she was panting and gasping and…
Oh God.Dominic found her clitoris again, and with one exquisite pinch, she was overwhelmed by a wave of ecstasy. As ripples of mind-numbing, pulsating pleasure radiated through her, she sank her teeth into Dominic’s shoulder to stop herself from crying out.
Beneath her, Dominic’s hips lifted and then he shuddered and jerked and groaned, his hot seed bathing the inside of her quivering thighs.
As his breathing slowed, his arms came up around her, cradling her, and he pressed his mouth to her temple. “We’re a good fit, you and I,” he murmured. “In fact, I think we rub along rather well together, if you’ll pardon my pun. I’m sure if you changed your mind and agreed to be my duchess, we’d both be very satisfied.”
Artemis froze. Her throat tightened. The bliss still thrumming through her veins dissipated, shocked dismay taking its place. Drawing back, she searched her lover’s drowsy, sated gaze. “Dominic, I’m not sure if I want children,” she reminded him, her tone gentle. “And you need an heir.”
A troubled frown creased his brow and her heart cramped. The urge to kiss away those lines was alarmingly strong, but she ruthlessly pushed it away.
“Yes, there’s that.” Dominic’s mouth tipped into a rueful smile. “I wouldn’t worry, love. The sweet aftermath of our lovemaking has simply addled my brain.”
Yet…Artemiswasworried. He’d called her “love,” and she wasn’t certain if it was an endearment he routinely used with his paramours or a more telling slip of the tongue.
Even more alarming was the fact her brain was addled too. Because for the first time ever, she had begun to seriously wonder what it would be like to be Dominic’s wife. To share his life and to bear his children. To cultivate a true relationship with Celeste with a view to becoming her stepmother.
It’s just sated lust talking,she told herself as she tidied herself up.You’re not really his “love.”No doubt the golden glow both she and Dominic were drifting in would fade and before long they would begin to feel like their usual selves again.
Yes, she couldn’t think straight because she’d simply shared a highly erotic, sexually fulfilling interlude with a man who was a superb lover. Aconsideratelover—the fact he’d taken care not to spend inside her meant everything. It meant that she could end this engagement and walk away from him whenever she wanted to.
The question was: Could she do that?
She had to.You’re not the woman he needs, Artemis Jones, she sternly reminded herself as she entered the main rail carriage and took a seat by the window, opposite Celeste. The girl had her nose buried inJane Eyre, while Horatia continued to nap in another corner.
Artemis ignored a disapproving look from Miss Sharp. Instead, she turned her gaze to the landscape rushing by in a dull, green-gray blur. Watched the incessant rain sliding down the slightly fogged windowpane. She wasn’t an impressionable, lovestruck governess, and Dominic wasn’t Mr. Rochester. So she needed to stop trying to live in her own Gothic romance novel. That way lay madness and certain heartbreak.