How to Catch a Duke in Ten Days by Violet Hamers

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Antony couldn’t answer at first. He was too busy staring at Hermione, seeing the way she was looking up at him with hope in her eyes.

“You love me?” he said, breaking the silence between them at last, although he didn’t answer her question yet.

“I do,” she said with a firm nod. “Despite how stubborn you are; you’re arrogant too, insufferable sometimes–”

“These sound more like insults than words of love.”

“I love you,” she said strongly, keeping her chin turned up toward him. “Please, Antony, please believe me. I never wanted to trick you into marrying me. It just…” She shrugged. “It happened. I hated my father for it whilst I fell in love with you. Believe me, please?”

Antony kept quiet, but he reached out toward her. With one hand he touched her cheek, cradling it in his grasp as he brushed some of the seawater away from her cheeks. Her green eyes were blinking a lot, clearly holding back tears.

“I believe you,” he said at last. She capitulated. Those eyes closed, and the tears came properly. He reached out to her, wrapping his other arm around her waist as she fell into his chest, crying and clinging to his shirt sleeves on his arms.

“You should have told me sooner what was going on,” he said, whispering in her ear.

“I know,” she said miserably. “I was scared.” Hearing those simple words made him lower his other arm to around her waist. He enveloped her in his arms and lifted her up from the beach sand, holding her tightly to him.

“You love me?” he whispered again, wanting to hear it yet another time.

“I do,” she said, crying against his collarbone and the bottom of his neck.

“And you were always yourself with me? You were always the real Hermione?”

“Always,” she said, looking up so that he could see her tear-stained cheeks.

“Thank God for that,” he said with a smile. “I thought I had fallen in love with a creation, rather than the real you.” She stiffened in his grasp.

“You love me too?” she asked.

“I do.” When her tears came again, he wanted to stop them. He held her tightly, bringing her up to him and crashed his lips against hers. The kiss was intense and passionate with his arms clamoring around her waist and her hands going to his hair, holding him down to her.

“Every kiss was real?” he asked between their kisses. “What we did in the library, it was all real?”

“All of it,” she said with a smile. “You have no idea how the memory of that night in the library haunts me.”

“Haunts you?”

“I long to relive it.” Her words brought another smile from him as he stole another kiss then looked around the beach. With it still being early in the morning, they were completely alone. There was no one else on the beach, and there wouldn’t be for some time.

“Then come this way,” he said, parting from her just enough to take her hand and drag her across the beach.

“Where are we going?”

“To relive that night,” he said simply, dragging her all the way to the back of the beach. It took a few minutes for him to find the cave opening. He hadn’t been in there for some time. He could remember finding the cave once when he was a young boy. Few people knew about it, although every now and then debris could be found inside showing that some people found their way there from the town.

When he found the slim crack in the rock, he slipped in, pulling Hermione in to follow him. Inside, the cave stretched out, much wider than its narrow entrance. “Here?” Hermione asked breathlessly as he reached for her.

“We can wait if you prefer,” he said with a mischievous smile as he took her in his arms again.

“No more waiting,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Thank God for that,” he muttered before pressing his lips to hers.

The kiss was fast and insistent, both of them trying to take control with the kiss and control their passion. Soon, Antony was backing her up against the wall of the cliff, pressing her body between his and the grey stone. He could feel her slim curves through the wet dress and his own wet clothes.

When his hands went for her dress, he parted from his kiss to concentrate on what he was doing. He untied the laces at the front hurriedly, practically tearing them in his eagerness to get the gown off her.

“A little impatient?” she said chuckling. “You’ll rip the dress you bought.”

“I’ll buy you another one,” he quipped with a smile, hardly caring when he tore a couple of the laces. She laughed at his words as he pulled the gown off her shoulders.

God, he loved her, and he wanted this moment more than anything. He’d been imagining it for too long, tortured by the thought of it, that every touch she gave him, from the light fingers in his hair to the peck at the top of his neck, all drove him mad.

He pulled the gown off her, throwing the wet material down on the ground of the cave as a cover before going for her corset, urging her to turn around, so he could do that next. Hermione giggled as he worked. “You’ll tear everything at this rate!”

“Then I’ll buy you new everything,” he said, chuckling too. Soon the corset was gone, and she was left in just the shift.

“Your turn,” she said cheekily, turning back around to him with her fingers reaching for the waistcoat. He helped her, going for the cravat as she did the waistcoat. With the material quickly gone, the shirt went next, leaving him exposed. Her hands were surprisingly delicate as she ran them down his chest, making him growl in the back of his throat at her touch.

As they moved their lips together, he heard her gasp, then watched as she glanced down at the area between his hips. His arousal was evident, hard, ready and fighting against the material of his trousers. She brushed a hand against him through the trousers, making him moan. She laughed at the sound.

“It’s a good job this beach is so empty,” she giggled.

“Right now, I wouldn’t care if it was full.” His words made her laugh some more as he pulled her away from the cave wall and urged her down onto the ground, on top of the damp dress. He tore off her shift, leaving her exposed.

With his body over hers, he kissed her again, starting with her lips before travelling down her neck, her body and across her hips. He’d tormented her with the promise of what he was about to do once before. Now that he knew she loved him, he was determined to show her what a thrill it could be. He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder then bent down toward her, kissing her center.

As Antony’s lips and tongue connected with her, Hermione found moans falling from her lips. His movements were starting a thrill that was burning in her lower stomach, making her yearn to rock her hips against him a little more, needing even more of the friction he was creating.

When his hand came up to join his lips, pushing inside of her, her body couldn’t take the passion of it all. She was quickly sent over the edge, quivering and moaning his name as her body convulsed around him. He worked her throughout the high, still kissing her, until she was a trembling mess.

He lifted himself above her, placing his hands either side of her head on the ground as he smiled at her.

“I… I didn’t think that would be so…” she was struggling to breathe between her panting breaths.

“So…?” he prompted her on with that mischievous smile.

“Fishing for compliments?”

“Maybe a little,” he said, then reached down toward his trousers, unbuttoning them. She lost all thoughts of words and looked down, waiting with anticipation. When he pulled back his trousers, just a little further down on his hips, he revealed his length. She gasped, and she started trembling a little again. “Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said hurriedly. “It’s just… It will hurt, won’t it?”

“Just the first time,” he said, lowering himself back down to her. He placed a sweet kiss to her lips then followed the tender kiss with more like it that travelled across her cheeks and up her nose, right to her forehead. “I promise, it will be worth it.”

He hovered there, with his lips over her forehead as she felt him line himself up with her entrance, then he thrust forward. The sudden pain made Hermione squeal. A tear leaked out of her eye, but Antony kissed it away. The softness, surprising and gentle, made her hands reach up toward him and wrap around his neck, holding her down to him.

“I love you,” she whispered to him, needing to say it now of all moments.

“I love you too,” he said, placing one more kiss to her lips before he moved his hips. The abrupt soreness had gone, and as Antony moved, a pleasure replaced it.

It was more intense than what Antony had showed her before. This time with each thrust of his hips, she tried to meet his energy, finding her legs spreading wider around his hips from the sheer need to be nearer to him. He reared up above her, planting his hands down either side of her head, the better to keep thrusting into her.

Hermione settled her hands on his stomach, feeling the muscle there move as she marveled at the sensations inside of her. The sheer excitement of the moment was making sweat build down her shoulder blades and across her stomach. She was so certain she was climbing that height to reach the pinnacle again when Antony reached down to her.

“Your turn,” he said with that smile of his before looping an arm under her and turning them over. In one fluid movement, he rolled them so that he was on his back over the dress, and she was above him. She had to adjust to realize what position he had put her in.

She was straddling him, with her legs either side of his hips. His hands went to her hips and caressed them for a moment.

“My turn?” she asked, unable to keep the smile from her face.

“Do what you like,” he said with temptation.

She experimented, rocking her hips against his at first when he tipped his head back and moaned. After that, she tried something else, lifting herself off him and then bringing her body back down to his. He seemed to like this even more.

She repeated the movement over and over again, aware as the thrills coursed through her that she was getting nearer to those heights of pleasure once more. His name fell from her lips more than once as she began to struggle to keep moving above him.

He grabbed her hips tighter; it was sudden as he growled in the back of his throat. His face showed he was feeling the same thing that she was seconds away from. When he pushed his hips up toward her one last time, she reached that height. She stilled above him, letting the pleasure wash over her body from where they were connected.

It took some time for them both to come down from their high. They were panting, their bodies beaded with sweat, as she leaned down toward him and placed a kiss to his lips.

“Maybe I’ll quite like being married after all,” he said when she parted from his lips. She tapped him around his shoulder in reprimand, earning a deep chuckle that vibrated through her core. She actually agreed with him.

* * *

“No, not again,” Antony said, looking up from his desk. Hermione stepped into the study and closed the door behind her, feeling mischievous, something he must have been able to tell from the smile on his face.

“No, not what again?” she asked, supposedly innocently as she turned the key in the door.

“You think I cannot see you locking my door?” he asked with a laugh.

“Does it matter if I did?” she asked shrugging, walking toward him.

“I have ruined one of your dresses already today,” he said. “I do need to get this work done.” Hermione was not put off as she crossed the room toward him. The memory of that morning was burned on her mind; she knew she would never forget it, but she already wanted to relive it.

“Besides, you’ll be sore,” Antony said, pretending to be interested in the paperwork on his desk.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, coming around to his side of the desk and perching on the edge. He looked up from his paperwork, his eyes no longer on his work, only on her. “Bored of me already?” she teased.

“Not in the slightest.” He hooked an arm around the side of her waist and urged her to slide along the table until she sat where his work had been before, in his way. He stood up and closed the distance between them, kissing her. With the simple action, she could feel those thrills spiraling down in her stomach, making a pool develop between her legs. She parted her legs around his hips, showing exactly what she had in mind. He laughed at the movement. “You are too tempting.”

“Then do not resist.”

“I must for two reasons,” he said, not stepping back from her though he leaned a little more away. “The first is that you will be sore. I will not hurt you.” She sighed and dropped her arms from his shoulders.

“Even if I am prepared to take that risk?”

“Even so,” he said with a smile. “The second reason is I do have business to attend to.” He reached for a bundle of letters that were by her side and picked one up from the top, pulling open the letter and breaking the wax seal.

“You have just told me you love me; can you blame me for not wanting to leave your side so soon?” Hermione asked, watching as he stayed firmly between her legs.

“I know,” he said, still smiling at her. “Believe me, I want the whole evening with you too, but my steward tells me that my correspondence will not reply to itself. I must do it.”

She huffed a little and folded her arms, which made Antony chuckle even more. He bent open the letter in his hands, reading it and then frowned a little.

“Maybe I’ll just stay here and distract you through your correspondence,” she said mischievously.

“I rather like the idea to be honest,” he said, flicking his gaze back up to hers as she hooked one of her legs around his hips. He growled in the back of his throat and laid one hand down to her thigh, holding her to him, before he returned his focus to the letter in his hands. “Ah.”

“Ah what?” she asked.

“That’s annoying,” he grimaced as he read the letter. “It seems we are to have a visitor in a couple of days.”

“More distractions to keep you away from me then.” She put upon a dramatic smile with the words, earning another laugh from him.

“Sadly, it would seem so,” he said. “It is an old university friend of mine. He is coming to stay in a couple of days, he says. Well, I know very well what he’s after.”

“What is that?” Hermione asked.

“Money.” Antony tossed the letter down on the desk beside her. “He is always after a loan. Usually he repays them in time, so I do not mind giving him the loan too much.”

The mention of money reminded Hermione of her father. She had to warn Antony of what her father had said, surely now was the time for that.

“Lord Lulworth is usually occupied with some gambling debt or another, so it shouldn’t surprise me,” Antony said distractedly. The name mentioned tore Hermione’s thoughts away from money and her father.

“Did you just say Lord Lulworth?” she asked in panic. “As in…Viscount Leopold Lulworth?”

“Yes, that’s him,” Antony nodded.

“Oh my God…” Hermione tried to clamber down off the desk. It was difficult with Antony standing between her legs, but he let her go.

“Hermione? What is it?”

“This cannot be happening.” She clutched both hands to her chest as she turned away from Antony, unable to look at him right now.

“What isn’t?” Antony’s words made Hermione turn back round to him.

It was time to tell him, no matter how painful.

“Antony, Lord Lulworth was the man that left me at the altar.”