9
Liv wasbreathless as she stared at the shut door. She lifted her hand to her mouth. Her fingertips brushed her lips which were tingling from the hottest kiss she’d ever experienced. Her entire body was alive with awareness as her X-rated imagination ran wild. Dirty, dirty thoughts of things that she wished had transpired tonight were flooding her mind and she knew she needed to capitalize on this writer’s block breakthrough.
Over the past couple of years, love scenes had been the most difficult to write. She’d found it near impossible to get in the mind of her characters when they were being intimate. But now the story was bursting inside of her.
Liv clumsily pulled her dress up and over her head, grabbed her oversized T-shirt and tugged on sweats before hopping on the bed and opening her laptop. She opened her writing app and clicked on chapter eighteen. She’d avoided writing the rendezvous between Elizabeth and the Duke for months, but now her fingers flew across the keys as inspiration flowed through her like whitewater rapids.
With the delicacy of an experienced thief, I shut the door behind me silently. I turned and glanced from left to right making sure the area was clear of unwanted spectators. Once I was certain that there was no one to witness my scandalous actions, I lifted the hem of my nightdress and stole away into the night.
The soles of my bare feet were met with a sheen of dew that had formed on the grass as I made my way across the garden. I’d forgone shoes in an attempt to escape my uncle’s estate without being detected by one of the twenty guests that were in attendance for my sister’s nuptials which were to occur that very weekend.
In my hand was the crumpled message I’d found beneath my door when I retired to my room after dinner.
It read: Meet me at the stables. Love, A
The Duke of Havenshire had signed the note the same way he had when we were in primary school with a simple A. I didn’t think he remembered our exchanges. They were so long ago when he was just Alexander Hastings before he’d been given the title the Duke of Havenshire.
I’d never forgotten them. Even at a young age, he’d written with such poetry. He’d likened my hair to spun gold and my eyes to the rarest emeralds. He’d said that his love for me was as sure as the sun sets and rises, it was constant and unchanged by seasons or time.
He professed his feelings so long ago, I had given up hope that the words he spoke were still true.
My pulse raced as I rounded the corner of the stables. If someone caught us, my reputation as a lady would be forever tarnished. Society was more forgiving of men. The Duke was risking nothing by suggesting a rendezvous.I was risking everything. Still, I found myself rounding the corner of the barn, breath coming in short pants.
I stood perfectly still as my heart galloped in my chest like the majestic creatures housed in this very structure. The air had a bite of cold and a shiver ran through me. The whooshing sounds of my labored breathing were interrupted by the crackling of a twig snapping. I held my breath in anticipation.
If it wasn’t the Duke approaching, how would I explain my presence in the stables, in my nightdress? My cousin Esmerelda suffered from night wanders. I could claim to be stricken with that same affliction.
But from the darkness, the Duke appeared. His handsome face was illuminated by the stars hanging in the dark sky.
He took a step toward me and I gasped. The weight of his stare caused my knees to buckle and I reached out and touched a saddle hanging on the wall to steady myself. Alexander was no longer a school boy with a crush, he was a man, a man with adult desires.
“Elizabeth. It’s been so long.”
My name on his lips sounded like sin. And I knew that’s exactly what the night had in store for me.I opened my mouth to respond but no sound came out. I was silenced by lust.
“I wasn’t sure you would come.” The heat in his gaze warmed me from the inside out. I no longer felt the chill of the night air.
He stepped forward and out of instinct I retreated, stopping only when I felt the wood planks of the barn at my back. A small smile tilted on the Duke’s much too handsome face as he lifted his arm. His knuckles brushed the side of my face then grazed the slope of my neck. As if complying to his silent command, my chin tilted to the side.
“So pretty,” he whispered as he lowered his mouth and his lips brushed across my collar bone while his knuckles trailed the lace covering my bosom. “I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time, Elizabeth.”
The heat of Alexander’s breath fanned the bare skin of my neck as he spoke before pressing a soft kiss just below my ear. His hand moved lower down my body as he continued to kiss me.
Hurricane force winds of passion swirled inside of me as I surrendered to his capable seduction. His hands moved down the sides of my body. His fingers curled into the fabric of my nightdress, bunching the material up until my thighs were exposed. I sucked in a startled breath as his hand moved between my legs.
“Has anyone touched you here?” he rasped against my ear.
Unable to speak, I shook my head back and forth.
“Have you ever touched yourself here?”
The question should have shocked me, but it didn’t. I should tell him no and deny my private depravity. But I wanted him to know the base primal pleasures I indulged in on a near nightly basis.
As his finger began massaging me intimately I boldly confessed, “Only when I think of you.”
A moan tore from deep in his chest and he dropped down on his knees before me. With a single swift movement he tore the cloth of my undergarment and lifted my knee placing my thigh on his shoulder.
I cast my eyes downward, watching his discovery as he gazed upon my secret garden with awe and wonder. I knew that a lady would never allow herself to behave like this. But I didn’t care. All I cared about was this moment with Alexander.