Under A Duke's Hand by Annabel Joseph Read Free Book Online

about.
    “Do you know,” he said, easing one side of
her shift off her shoulder, “I believe our whims and wishes may
correlate nicely. In one area, at least.”
    She reached for him as he pressed a kiss to
her bared skin. She didn’t want to touch him, but if she didn’t
brace her hands against him she feared she’d collapse. “Please,”
she whispered.
    He drew the shift down off her other
shoulder, just opened wide the neckline so the whole garment fell
away. She clutched at it to preserve her modesty while he pushed it
downward, so they engaged in a grasping struggle before he managed
to draw it off. Now she was as naked as him. He wrapped an arm
about her and drew her close, and pressed his lips to hers.
    When he’d kissed her before, it had awakened
all her senses. It had made her think of romance and tenderness and
love, but she couldn’t find that feeling now. All she could feel
was his body against hers, all of his body, hard and rough
and unfamiliar. His shaft poked against her middle, a probing
threat. When she tried to push away, he caught her arms.
    “Don’t resist. You liked it when I kissed you
in the meadow. What’s different now?”
    What’s different now is that you’re a duke.
What’s different now is that you frighten me and I hate you.
    “We’re going to go to the bed,” he said in a
low, soothing voice, “and I’m going to touch you and stroke you,
and enter inside you as a husband does a wife. Do you know about
such things, Guinevere?”
    “Yes, Sir.” Her voice trembled and her eyes
filled with tears. She didn’t know why she was so afraid, afraid to tears . Her sisters-in-law had explained everything that was
going to happen. She didn’t know why she called him “Sir” in that
meek voice, and why she couldn’t stop crying. It had to be someone
else shaking in his arms, sniveling like a baby. Shouts rose and
crested belowstairs, wedding guests deep in their cups.
    “It’s natural to feel nervous.” He wiped her
tears away, and brushed her hair back from her face. “But you
should know there’s nothing to fear. Just submit to me as a good
wife should, and everything shall proceed smoothly. Do you think
you can manage that?”
    He looked at her expectantly. She knew the
proper answer, as much as she hated to say it. “Yes, Sir.”
    She walked beside him as he led her to the
bed, only because she didn’t wish the humiliation of being dragged.
When they got there, he pressed her back upon the covers and
crawled over her, so she was trapped within the cage of his
body.
    “Stop crying now,” he said, as if this was as
easy to accomplish as opening a door or drinking a cup of tea. “I
happen to remember you are a very responsive and sensual woman.
I’ll make you feel good if you’ll let me.”
    “I’m not allowed to stop you, am I?” she
asked, swiping angrily at her cheeks.
    “It would not be advisable, no.” One corner
of his mouth turned up in a smile. “At least your father isn’t
standing at the foot of the bed to witness this, along with your
brothers and all the neighbors hereabouts. That would have been
more difficult, wouldn’t it?”
    She didn’t answer, only stared at him
peevishly, trying to hold onto her anger and distaste. If only he
wouldn’t gaze at her so intently, and bespell her with his Viking
handsomeness and pleasing physique. He’d freed his hair from its
queue, so it hung down and framed his face. The tousled mane
granted him a wild and predatory look.
    “You’re trembling,” he said.
    She didn’t respond to this observation. She
was ashamed to be so afraid. She couldn’t control her body’s
tremors now that he lay over her.
    His fingers trailed up and down her arm, then
traced around her shoulder. “Do you know the reason marriages are
‘consummated,’ as they say, on the wedding night? And why royal
consummations are sometimes still witnessed to this day?”
    She shook her head, even though he’d scolded
her for it