“Oh…” She moaned as his fingers began to curl, stroking her walls. “Oh…”
He chuckled deeply as he continued to kiss her.
Her breathing rose. Her body began to shake. The Duke curled his fingers expertly, moving them to the rhythm of her breathing. She pushed her pelvis harder, forcing his fingers deeper inside of her. She started to grind her hips, not knowing if it was right, and not caring.
The Duke pulled his fingers out, only to gently rest their tips on the bundle of nerves that sat above her opening. That was when she exploded.
Octavia cried out with lust and passion. She tore her lips free and buried her head into the Duke’s chest. He used one hand to hold her head into his body, gripping her hair, allowing her to bite at his shirt. His other hand continued to rub her, stroke her, coaxing from her a sensation that was not unlike a fire catching light and growing.
“Evander…” She started to pant as she felt that energy build. “I… what… what is… you need to…”
“Trust me,” he growled as his fingers continued to stroke her; each movement sent a wave of pleasure through her body that she felt pierce her soul. “And do not tell me what to do.”
Her entire body trembled and spasmed. It shook violently. From his fingers, something spread across Octavia, growing, expanding, threatening to explode so that she thought her entire body might be torn asunder.
She caught her breath, buried her head as hard as she could into him, and clenched her jaw with anticipation.
Ehen that explosion came… it had her throwing back her head and crying out. But not with pain. What struck her was a type of pleasure that she did not know was possible.
She screamed. She writhed. She gasped and tried to catch her breath. The sensation grew, it then collapsed, and it buried itself right in her heart so that her entire body withdrew… only to roar to life.
Once it was done, once her breathing returned to normal, the Duke slowly removed his fingers. She still straddled his lap, so she looked down at him with absolute shock, no idea what had just happened or what to think.
What was that… how… why… and when can we do it again?
The Duke looked up at her. He wore a triumphant smirk. He did not appear surprised. He did not appear ashamed. He looked at her in a way that suggested he was seeing her for the first time. Or maybe he was seeing himself and what could be…
“There,” he said finally, his voice a deep whisper. “Isn’t it nice to, for once, not argue and do as you are told?”
Octavia agreed with him, a most strange thing. Maybe behaving, not always arguing and being so stubborn, wasn’t nearly so bad as she was led to believe.
Who would have thought such a thing…
Chapter Sixteen
Octavia was trapped in a state of not knowing.
She wanted to believe one thing about her current situation and what it might mean, while she also refused to accept that it was nearly so simple. It couldn’t possibly be! Common sense, paired with a sense of self-preservation, screamed at her to not be such a fool because things like this did not happen to people like her.
But it did happen… it is happening… why do I feel such a need to refuse it?
The day following her intimate moment with the Duke was a most confusing one. When she broke her fast that morning, with Aaron and Henry joining her, she spent the entire meal watching the doorway, expecting the Duke to join them.
She wanted him to join them… while also hoping at the same time that he might not. While she yearned to experience what had happened between herself and the Duke last evening, sheknew too well that such a moment could only be an isolated experience. The Duke had been emotionally vulnerable; he had not meant to do those things with her, and he was likely regretting it more with each passing moment.
Still… she watched the doorway, and she hoped…
The Duke did not join them for breakfast. Aaron was clearly upset, and his mood was despondent because of it. While Octavia knew she should have comforted the poor child, assuring him that it meant nothing, she was far too trapped by her own sense of depression and desperation to do as was needed of her.
Of course, he wasn’t going to join us. Likely, he will avoid me now for as long as he possibly can.
Octavia tried to tell herself that this was a good thing, the right thing, and what was needed. But as she sent the boys to clean up before their lesson, she could not help but look at the doorway again, her heart stopping as she pictured the Duke waltzing into the room, seeing her alone, and taking her as he had the previous day.
She heard no word from the Duke for the rest of the day.
It was a long day. It was a hard one. Octavia spent it teaching the boys, as was her charge, but her mind could not focus. Whenever there was a moment of silence, whenever she heard footsteps that might belong to the Duke, she would stop, shewould listen… and her mind would go back to that which she was desperate to forget.
She felt his lips kissing her. She felt his body panting beneath her own. She felt his hands on her thighs, and his fingers inside of her so that she literally spasmed and shook as if he touched her from afar.