C*cky Marquess by Annabelle Anders

Chapter 16

Diana shivered at the cold look in Zeke’s eyes. It had never been society that had wedged a wall between the two of them, it had been his grandfather all along.

A dead man.

And as Zeke described his grandfather’s expectations, she realized that he’d not exaggerated when he’d first explained his great sense of duty to all those ghosts and future Lords of Greystone.

Up until he’d mentioned his grandfather, Diana had watched his eyes warm as he shared his passions—the excitement of a new discovery—the challenge of a difficult equation. And he’d been satisfied that she’d comprehended the importance of his pursuits.

They mattered to him.

Of course, his estate mattered to him.

And the memory of his grandfather mattered to him. But there was so much more.

And so, she found herself pushing back.

“How could you think you could fail him? You’ve already done so much—for your title, for science, for England—

He tipped his head, unconvinced. “For England?” he mocked.

Warming to her subject, she nodded. “But also for your cousins, your friends, your estates, all those tenants.”

“How would you know about my tenants?”

She shrugged. “Chase is constantly taking steps to implement your practices. He speaks freely to his family. But I also know that you helped Lord Manningham-Tissinton with the troubles he faced before his marriage. And that you treat your butler exceedingly well, allowing him to attend his sisters’ come-out. Although I don’t understand how you ended up with a duke for a butler.”

She bit back a smile. His life was rich and colorful, and nothing about him ought to be stifled by the irrelevant ideals of a dead man. Even if that dead man had shown him the affection and care Greystone had lacked as a boy.

The Marques of Greystone, Zeke, stared at her—a little dumbstruck.

“I’ve asked Chaswick about Blackheart’s position on your servant’s roster, and he simply looks at me as though I’ve gone rather insane.” Diana elaborated. “Did the duke lose a wager to you? It’s the only reason I can imagine why he’d do something so fantastic as act as butler here.”

“You think it fantastic, do you?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

Diana took back his hand and resumed stroking lazy circles over the smooth skin inside his wrist.

She had not been wrong in thinking passions lurked beneath his calm exterior. This man wanted to understand the universe. If that wasn’t passion, she didn’t know what was.

“More light,” she said.

“Pardon?”

“You said astronomers are always searching for more light.” Diana rose from the chair and took hold of his other hand, drawing him toward her. “What would you want to explore if you had more light?” It was a leading question.

“Everything,” he answered, stepping between her legs and pushing her back so she was half sitting on his desk.

“Everything?” she whispered.

He worked his wrists away from her, taking control and holding her hands onto the edge of the table. Diana licked her lips. Kiss me. Kiss me. Kiss me.

She would have reached up to tug his mouth to meet hers if her hands were free. Her breath hitched, and she tilted her head back. “Kiss me,” she said the words out loud.

He moved closer but not close enough. And then he dipped his chin and instead dragged his mouth along the edge of her jaw.

“Zeke,” Diana nearly growled at the delicious hunger he ignited. When she’d been in the water with him, she’d been able to move freely, to reach for him with her core, thrusting, gripping—

Feeling.

She was helpless now, caught between his body and the desk.

“I want to explore you, Diana.”

Her breath hitched at the gravelly sound of his voice. He released her hand so he could push her skirt up. Diana widened her legs when he dragged his fingertips along the tops of her stockings, over the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.

“I don’t want to fight anymore.” His voice broke the expectant silence.

“Fight me?”

“Fight myself.”

His mouth claimed hers as if he’d made a life-changing decision. He kissed her with desire, yes, but also with purpose, determination. Never had she imagined herself in such a state of surrender, but with Zeke, she wanted to give him everything—her thoughts, her heart.

And her body.

She would belong to him at least once.

Clinging now, Diana experimented by sucking at him, pulling his mouth deeper—bringing him closer.

“Explore me.” She managed. “Shine your light on me.” She wanted him to memorize her the same way he did his charts. She wanted him to be as fascinated with her as he was with the stars.

“All of you.” He murmured into her mouth, one hand in her hair now, pulling and claiming. The tug of pain sent an ache to her breasts. Her stays were suddenly too tight, too confining. Her gown was suddenly too heavy.

She didn’t realize she was practically clawing at her bodice, dragging it down, until he covered her hand with his.

“So beautiful.” He stepped backward and Diana shivered, feeling empty.

“What--?”

However, before she could protest, the flickering of candles stopped her. He set the candelabra on the table beside the desk, and his gaze locked onto her appreciatively. “No more shadows.”

“You want light.” She said.

“Yes.”

Diana couldn’t help but smile. He certainly was deliberate in his studies. A flush of heat crept up her neck and into her cheeks when she realized how bare and wanton she must appear to him.

“You’re more stunning every time I see you.” He grazed the back of his fingers across her breast and Diana watched the rosy skin tighten to a stiff point.

“More,” she breathed. “Please, Zeke.”

He met her gaze hungrily and claimed the other breast. “My brave little vixen.”

He pushed her back so she was lying on top of his drawings and charts. When she closed her eyes, she heard him lowering himself to where she’d sat to look through the telescope.

He lifted her feet to rest on the arms of the chair and pushed her skirts up higher. At his mercy now, she ought to feel embarrassed. She ought to feel shame.

She only felt longing.

Afraid he’d stop if she opened her eyes, Diana kept them pinched tightly closed. He was staring at her—down there—sliding his hands closer, his thumb skimming oh, so close to her seam where liquid heat pooled.

“You’re glistening.” He whispered.

“What—” Diana gasped. “What are you going to do?”

He glanced up and met her eyes. “I’m going to explore you, Diana.”

He was excited, fascinated even. When she thrust her hips up to encourage the stroking, she saw something else.

Resolve? Wonder?

He stilled. “I’ll stop now. Do you want me to stop?”

“No.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Don’t stop.”

He shifted his gaze from one of her eyes to the other. “You are sure?”

“I’m an explorer too, Zeke. I want to… explore… this.” These feelings. These sensations.

He slowly nodded, and his attention moved back to where he stroked her intimate flesh.

“Do you know what you look like?”

She shook her head. Of course she did not.

“Pink.” He swiped along her sensitive fold. “Velvety.” He drew a circle. “Soft.” His fingers grew bolder. “I’m going to kiss you here, Diana.” His voice sounded husky.

He leaned forward, and Diana inhaled a sharp breath when his mouth landed on her center. She clutched the sides of his head, gripping through thick strands of his hair. She needed something—anything to keep her grounded

He claimed her center much the way he’d claimed her mouth. It was a different sort of French kiss.

He sucked and licked and claimed. Diana writhed against his face, wanting more, something she couldn’t quite reach.

The pressure inside her expanded, stretched, pulsed, and when it was almost too much, he was there, stroking it.

“Zeke!”

She squeezed her eyes tighter, and stars brighter than anything she’d seen through his telescope exploded behind them. She gave herself up to the fiery heat, followed by waves, and then ripples of the best feeling…

The best feeling in the world.

In the universe.

Not until those undulations ceased, did she glance down at where Zeke had gone perfectly still, his face resting between her thighs.

* * *

Greys relishedher taste and scent even as he realized that he’d genuinely gone mad this time.

Not mad. He had, in fact, gone over the edge. And yet, he didn’t care.

She might be illegitimate, impulsive, and all wrong for him on paper. But in every way that truly mattered, she was perfect.

Her hands remained in his hair—if there was any of it left after her tugging—he could almost laugh at that. But he instead sighed at the feel of her fingertips combing through the short strands.

God in heaven. He’d promised himself he couldn’t love her. Love was the worst possible scenario.

He was, however, going to marry her.

Was that why she’d come?

He pushed himself up to sit and, after reluctantly drawing her gown down and past her knees, pulled her upright as well.

Should he propose now? “I should apologize—"

“Don’t.” She frowned down at him. “Do not—”

“I want to marry you.” But she was shaking her head.

“No.”

“Dash it all, don’t you realize that—”

“I’m going to be a dancer.” She straightened her shoulders. “At the very least, I intend to find employment in a theatre.”

She was not going to work in a theatre. And if there was any dancing to be done, it would be in the privacy of their bedchamber.

“Chaswick won’t stand for it.” He scowled. “I won’t stand for it.”

And then she shushed him. “Live in this moment,” she said. “The very sad trouble with being born with so much responsibility is that you never have a chance to appreciate the simple joys.”

“I appreciate them.” Greys stared into her eyes even as his mind raced to solve all the problems he would surely face tomorrow. “I appreciate the joys.”

“Tell me. What are you appreciating right now?”

Unexpected warmth ebbed around his heart, and he spoke without thinking. “That you are here.”

Her eyes shined a little brighter. “What else?” she pressed.

Greys forced himself to focus on what she was asking. Focus on this minute—this second. He touched her cheek and then cradled it. “This face.” Because no one had ever looked at him the way that she did. “This mouth.” He smoothed his fingertips over her lips. No one had ever talked to him the way she did—irreverently—freely.

She parted her lips and grasped his finger between her teeth. Gazing into his eyes, she then closed her mouth around it. The sensation of wet velvety tugging enflamed the instinctive need he’d already been fighting to keep at bay. Greys slid his finger along the back of her teeth, steeling himself.

Because his cock, throbbing now, was painfully hard.

He’d gone too far already. He should wait. If he had even one shred of honor left, he’d do that for her—for them.

This need. It was violent. Pervasive.

“Shhh…” she said.

“I’m not talking.” He allowed his hand to drop from her mouth and stared at her innocently.

“You are thinking very loudly. Too much thinking.” Her eyes had the endearing ability to smile as much as her lips. A tidal wave of affection washed over him, catapulting him into a place where nothing mattered but her. Not his parents, not his ancestors, not even the planets and the stars.

Only her.

“Very well.” He pulled her mouth across to meet his, and she kissed him even more eagerly than she had earlier. Greys moved to the edge of his chair, sliding her off the desk and onto his lap.

“What happens when two stars run into one another?” Her eyes widened as she asked.

He couldn’t help but grin back at such a question. “I’m not sure.”

“Has it ever happened?” She went back to kissing him, nipping the corners of his mouth, a leisurely exploration.

Greys didn’t stand a chance at resisting this—not with her pressing her body against his even as she asked him questions about the universe.

“I do believe, Diana, that you have capitulated all my defenses.” He’d untied the ribbon of one braid and was threading his fingers through the long silky strands. He’d admired the magical color of her hair for as long as he’d known her.

“Finally.” She whispered. “Can two suns exist together?”

““I suppose it’s possible, in a binary system.” But he’d never read of such a thing in any of William Herschel’s writings.

“Binary, you mean two stars?” Diana’s hands had worked their way under the collar of his shirt where she rubbed and kneaded his tendons.

“They orbit one another.” Greys held her thighs down, needing her heat, her friction.

“I think that’s romantic,” Diana whispered, her mouth dragging a trail of fire along his neck toward his shoulder. She circled her hips provocatively.

“Diana,” her name tore past his lips. “It wouldn’t be romantic if one consumed the other. Or if both extinguished themselves in the process.” He summoned every possibility in an attempt to distract himself from this need that threatened to become unmanageable.

Her hands were at his waist, fumbling at the buttons of his falls.

“What if that’s what the stars want?” She whispered. “What if they want to consume one another?”

“You want to be consumed?” Her body, her taste, and her spirit possessed him.

“Or perhaps I’m the one who’ll do the consuming?” she said.

His cock sprang from his trousers into her searching hands. There had to be some equation that could save him from this, but his mind was a vacuum of nothingness—his body forfeiting everything.

To Diana.

My Diana.

He lifted and positioned her. There was no logic to this. No rationale. No discipline or purpose. Had this been inevitable since the moment they’d waltzed? No wonder the dance had once been considered scandalous.

Or had he wanted her before that? When she’d mesmerized him by dancing around the almost empty ballroom, lost in a world of her own?

She teased him with her opening, trusting him implicitly.

With her taste lingering in his mouth, he watched his cock hover at her entrance and then, with a growl, lowered her an inch, then another. She felt so good.

This felt so good—the merging of their bodies like a collision of two celestial worlds—two worlds that had no business colliding. It ought to be impossible—they ought to be impossible.

“Zeke,” her sweet breath teased his nostrils, and he opened his eyes to find her staring into his.

Not so much as blinking, he slowly lowered her weight onto him, stretching her inside, invading the most intimate part of this woman.

Her pupils grew, darkening her eyes.

“Are you consuming me?” Greys whispered.

“I don’t know.” Her voice caught on her answer. Her hands cradled the sides of his face.

“More?” he asked. She wasn’t yet fully seated, but she hadn’t flinched or cried out.

Hiding nothing, she nodded.

She was foolish in her bravery. But also wonderfully wicked and… more stunning than anything he’d ever seen. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips shining and parted, her hair tumbling around her face.

He wanted nothing more than to consume this woman. If he couldn’t do that, he’d be consumed by her.

“Zeke,” her voice shivered.

He’d never been with a virgin. She was his now—but only because she’d claimed him first.

She’d invaded his mind, his body, his soul.

And his heart.

“Does it hurt?” He wanted to move, to reach higher. He wanted her to ride him until the friction pushed them both into oblivion. But from this moment forward. Diana came first.

She closed her eyes, her head falling forward and her hair catching in his whiskers. “It’s lovely,” she breathed.

Greys gripped her sides, assisting the roll of her hips. Of course, this woman would follow her body’s desires. Greys thrust up, and she gasped.

“Zeke.”

“Good?”

“Yes. So good.”

“God, Diana,” he rasped, more connected with her than he’d ever felt to another human. This joining—they might as well have been two stars becoming one.

More light.

More of her.

They were synonymous. She was his light. She was the light created to fill his pathetic soul.

Greys thrust deeper and then relaxed, lifting her. And then again. She gave him all her weight as she gripped his shoulders. He rocked deeper into warm heat, relishing her velvet grip. She clenched her inner muscles and Greys hissed.

“Faster,” she said, and he pictured her sitting beside him as they raced across the countryside.

She’d been right in front of him all along.

She was his reason. She was his answer.

“Like that.” She moaned. “Right there.” She would tell him what she wanted. She wasn’t playing. She wasn’t being shy. “Oh.” Her head fell forward and she shuddered.

Greys buried his face between her breasts.

Something like lighting and fire shot down his spine the instant before he found his release. And as he pulsed deep inside her, one word played over and over in his mind.

Diana.

* * *

A hushed silencehovered around them, and but for the clicking of a clock on the mantle and the beating of Zeke’s heart beneath her ear, all Diana heard was her own breathing. She might as well have been boneless, collapsed in his arms.

“What was that?” she finally managed between breaths.

Oh, she knew. She was all too aware.

But she wondered if he felt the same way she did.

And how did she feel? Ironically, she didn’t understand the state of her own emotions any better than she could guess at his.

“That,” he said, taking her question more literally than she’d intended. “Is what is known as an orgasm.”

“Orgasmus.”

“Greys shifted beneath her, adjusting his posture so he could meet her eyes. “You know the word? In Latin no less?”

“My sister is a great student of Latin,” Diana smiled sleepily up at him and then snuggled into his chest again. Ignoring the stiffness in her legs, she remained straddling him, his member still inside of her. The bodice of her gown had fallen around her waist, and her hem had also twisted around it. Zeke’s hand was stroking the back of her thigh, and she wondered if he was even aware of doing it.

Diana tilted her head back to brush a wayward lock of hair away from his eyes.

“I’m a little astounded you’ve heard it, to be honest.” He chuckled, flicking his gaze down for a second. “Although I should know to expect the unexpected from you by now. You and your sister have been afforded an unusual education.”

“Collette only provided the vague meaning. It was my mother who shared the essential details with me.”

“Your mother?” The shock in his voice was unmistakable. Diana liked surprising him sometimes and couldn’t help but smile. Not that she wanted to shock him, but he had moments where he was every inch the noble marquess who occasionally needed reminding that he was also a man.

“The ideals in our home were different than most,” Diana remembered. “She and my father were not only in love, but they knew how to love. They practiced loving one another in the time that they had. My mother made it very clear to us that she was not merely his mistress. She was the love of his life.”

“I had not imagined that…” Greys squeezed her and then shifted so they were no longer joined. “She was not resentful?”

“Not really. She was sad that she couldn’t be with him more, but because of that, I think they never took one another for granted…” But then she frowned.

“What?” he asked.

“My father did not provide for her after his death—for us. I never understood that.”

“But your brother continued to provide for you.”

“Chase didn’t have to. He chose to.” Her mother had been carrying their younger sister at the time of their father’s death. It had been a devastating time and but for Chase coming into their lives, they would have been destitute.

“Your brother cares for you and your sisters very much.” Zeke stroked her back now, and her arms. Diana shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“No,” she answered.

“Perhaps it was an oversite. It’s not unheard of for a solicitor to forget to add an addendum to a contract or lose a codicil.” He spoke quietly.

This time it was Diana who shifted, forcing him to loosen his arms around her. “Do you really think that’s possible?” If that were the case, it would mean that, although their father had kept them a secret from the world, she’d not been naïve to believe that he’d loved them.

“Would you like me to look into it?”

“You don’t need to go to any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble. I’ll bring it up with Chaswick tomorrow.” But then he fell silent, and she knew he was worried about her respectability, or perhaps even more so, his honor.

“There is no need for you to speak with him about… either.”

“Diana…” He began.

“Zeke…” she teased him back, hoping to postpone the guilt that would eventually plague him. “This was lovely.” But wringing a proposal for marriage from him was not why she’d come, “You must consider yourself free to begin courting Lady Isabella in earnest.”

“No.” His response was quick. “I took something from you tonight. I’m going to marry you.”

“No. I gave myself to you, and you gave yourself to me,” Diana corrected him.

But that tiny line had appeared between his eyes again.

“Diana, why did you come tonight?”

She shook her head. “Not for—”

“I know. So why did you come?”

“I don’t know. I-I- couldn’t imagine that what happened in Blackheart’s swimming bath was the end of whatever this is. It felt more like a beginning, but then you didn’t come to the musicale.” She held up a hand. “I know you have your duties and your priorities, but… I just couldn’t go on without knowing—”

His face was mostly impassive. Was she making any sense at all?

“Without knowing…?” He prompted.

“Without knowing you.”

An expression flashed across his face, one she couldn’t quite recognize, but he was shaking his head. “Diana…”

“I wondered what it would be like.” She jerked her chin up. “And I think you wondered too.”

He stiffened and fell silent.

More than a little self-conscious, she climbed off his lap, grateful when her dress slid easily back to cover her ankles as she rose. “I need to be home before dawn. Bethany’s maid brings my chocolate in at sunrise.”

The sight of Zeke arranging himself inside his breeches and buttoning up his falls sent a melancholy through her.

He had made love to her, but there had been no declarations of love. She hadn’t expected one, had she? And what would she have done if there had been one?

She could pretend this was all perfectly normal and that she hadn’t just experienced the best night of her entire life. She could pretend she hadn’t come hoping he would admit there was a place in his life for her.

Not as his wife, but as a person who he could… enjoy and possibly…love.

“You’ll not dissuade me from visiting your brother tomorrow.” Zeke glanced toward the clock and grimaced. “Or later today, rather.”

“That isn’t necessary.” She located her cloak and tugged it around her shoulders. “As I told you—”

“I’ll be visiting your brother later this morning.”

“No, please. Promise me you won’t. If you do, it’ll ruin this. It’ll tarnish what we’ve done. Promise me, Zeke. Please?” She was on the verge of tears. Extracting a marriage wasn’t why she’d come.

She’d much rather he invite her to come to him another night, or beg her to go driving to a secluded destination.

But there was no way she was about to become his responsibility.

“Please, Zeke?” She begged again.

He stared at her looking hard—looking torn. “Diana. If something were to happen to me, and you’ve conceived, you would be utterly ruined, not only within the Ton, but… You, more than anyone, ought to wish to avoid that. And the child...” His jaw clenched. “I want you—”

“I want you too,” she interrupted. “But not as a husband.”

If she were carrying a child, she’d deal with that later. But for now, she wasn’t about to go borrowing trouble.

He narrowed his eyes and then lifted that adorably arrogant chin of his. “You’ll change your mind.”

“Promise you won’t go to my brother tomorrow morning?”

After what seemed to drag on for an entire minute, he finally nodded. “I won’t go to him tomorrow morning.”

Diana walked back to him and wound her arms around his waist, resting her cheek where she could hear the beating of his heart. “Thank you.”