Sarah's Duke: and Ellie's Gentleman (The heir and the spare, book 1) (17 page)

Her beautiful rounded arse came into view and he knelt behind her to admire the curves of smooth skin. Oliver pushed gently down on her back and encouraged her to drop her head.

“Go down flat and open your legs for me.” He whispered in her ear, the words arousing them both to even greater degrees.

Sarah parted her legs and put her elbows out for balance. Oliver saw her tilt her hips and watched the glistening slit come into view. The sight of her opening hit him right in the belly and he gripped the warm flesh of her hips. He inhaled slowly to calm himself, lined his cock up and buried himself to the hilt in one controlled thrust. Hot, wet flesh enclosed his entire shaft and a groan rumbled in his chest. She was tighter than he remembered and he had to clench his teeth against the need to explode immediately. He stroked her back softly, stilling his movements to give her time to adjust.

“Please Oliver.” Sarah moaned, moving her hips in the rhythm she wanted him to ensue.

“Have you missed me, Sarah?” Oliver asked her as he very slowly withdrew, the tip of his cock still imbedded in her heat.

“You know I have.”

“Have you missed me inside you like this?” Oliver penetrated her as slowly and as deeply as he could. He gripped her hips tightly, stilling her gyrations.

“Please, Oliver.”

“Please, what Sarah? What do you need?”

He knew he was being possessive and a little cruel, but since he had accepted who he was, he could not help letting these new and foreign emotions run free.

“You, please,” she begged again, moaning as he penetrated deep, feeling her arse against his belly.

“Tell me.” Oliver gripped her hips tighter and pressed even deeper.

“Harder, please, deeper, more.” Sarah moaned, rolling her hips and bucking against him.

Oliver’s control snapped. She was wet and wanting him. He couldn’t hold back any longer. He thrust ruthlessly into her, setting up a deep pounding rhythm that reached her womb with each thrust.

“You’ll never leave me again.” He rode her harder and faster.

“No, I won’t.” Sarah cried out, pushing her body flatter and raising her hips higher for him.

“You’re mine Sarah, do you understand? My wife, my love, mine.”

Oliver couldn’t believe the words that were leaving his mouth but knew he needed to say them and she needed to hear them.

“Yes.” Sarah screamed as she flew apart and convulsed around him over and over again, coming harder and longer than she ever had before. Oliver tried to resist but her body milking his was just too erotic. A wave of pleasure hit him like a fist to the gut, ecstasy overwhelmed him as he pumped his seed into her with a hoarse cry of pleasure.

His release seemed to trigger another smaller climax inside her and she cried out again and shuddered beneath him. They dropped forward and to the side to protect the babe, and fell into a deep and restful sleep.

Several hours later, Oliver awoke to a knock at the door that signalled their dinner had arrived. Not bothering to get up, he just looked down at his wife and sighed as happiness washed over him like a cleansing rain. She was back where she belonged, in his arms. And he was back where he belonged, by her side.

“My babe,” Oliver whispered, gliding his hand over the hard round belly in front of him. Sarah was still asleep but Oliver could not rest a moment longer, he wanted her again.

He had assumed that a pregnant wife would dampen one’s ardour. But soon after seeing Sarah, he realized that whether she was her usual svelte self or as big as a house, he would want her till the day he died. She was the most beautiful, sensual woman he had ever known.

Oliver didn’t even wake her, he just rolled Sarah onto her side and stroked between her legs. Her folds were still slick, so Oliver just moved his hand up until he could flick the extra sensitive nub. He fondled her for a moment or two and when she, still half asleep, tilted her hips back invitingly he lifted her leg up and forward, and slid into her from behind.

Oliver grunted his approval when Sarah came awake with a moan and tilted her pelvis to give him better access. He wrapped a hand around her breast, tweaking the sensitive nipple.

“I love you, Sarah.” Oliver moved slowly into her scalding body, enjoying her depths, and then pulling almost completely out of her.

Sarah gasped and shuddered.

He had to tell her how he felt. “I love you for who you are, but I also love you for the person you make me want to be.” Oliver moaned deep in his throat as she gripped him tightly inside her sheath. He shifted his hip angle and began pumping into her faster.

“Come for me, please, I need you.” He was so hoarse he sounded ill.

Sarah shook her head and turned to look at him.

“I love you, please.” He began moving slower so that she felt every inch as it slid inside of her. He moved the hand that was gripping her hip around to the flesh just above where they joined, and Sarah cried out in pleasure.

Sarah began moving her hips in time with his and she closed her eyes.

Oliver felt her sheath tightening and he hissed, “Yes,” ruthlessly holding back his own orgasm.

Just when Oliver felt his vision start to blur he felt the change in her. Sarah cried out and her body convulsed, Oliver held tight to her hips and with one more thrust, joined them forever.

Eleven

Sarah lay in the circle of Oliver’s arms, completely happy for the first time in months. This was even better than it had been in the beginning of their marriage. He loved her now and she finally felt secure in that.

“I love you too,” she looked up into the almost black eyes she knew better than her own.

“Never leave me again, I almost didn’t survive it this time.” Oliver said, kissing her quickly on the mouth, the move possessive and hard.

“I had to leave, Oliver. Your mother made me feel like the worst wife in the history of bad wives, and I couldn’t keep pretending that I didn’t miss you as you were before they came.”

Oliver pulled her tighter against his body, the heat and strength of him reassuring.

“You stopped coming to my bed,” she whispered, the pain still very palpable.

“I know, I’m sorry. I drank too much whisky one night when my mother was being particularly bad and could not make it to your bed. And then the next night I could not bring myself to do it either. I felt like I was failing you as a husband and failing my servants and tenants as the new Duke, and I just could not Sarah. Please forgive me.”

“I knew you were struggling with your new responsibility, I’m sorry I wasn’t more sympathetic.”

“You were. I just could not see past my own inadequacies. You did everything you could under the circumstances, more than any other lady would have.”

“I knew I wasn’t good enough to be a Duchess, but I thought I could keep you happy, in bed at least.” Sarah felt hot, salty tears sting her eyes. She didn’t want to cry again but she knew that they needed to talk about this and lay it to rest, once and for all.

“Sarah, I love you. I have loved you since you tried to comfort me at the opera only a week after we met. You make me feel like the most important person in the world, and after a lifetime of feeling superfluous, you are exactly what I need.”

Sarah could hardly believe her husband meant those words, but as she looked into Oliver’s eyes her heart began to sing.

“I need you to know something, you are more than what I deserve. You are the best woman I could have chosen to be my Duchess.” Oliver told her confidently, earnestly.

“Then why did you let me believe that you agreed with your mother?” Sarah asked.

“The problem was that I believed I wasn’t good enough to be the Duke. I have been told since birth that I wasn’t and I always believed it. But I have finally realized that I
am
the Duke no matter what my mother says, and I intend to act accordingly.”

“How?” Sarah looked up at her beautiful Duke. Proud, yet insecure and so beloved.

“Well to start with, I need to start taking a more active interest in Estate business. Talk to Archie about investments. Talk to my steward about the tenants. I also contacted the old Duke of Turret, a friend of my fathers that lives not far from here. We spent time at his estate when I was a child and I always liked him. He and his wife never had any children. He would be a wealth of knowledge I could learn from and I think he would be a wonderful mentor.”

Oliver started listing off all the ways he should improve his holdings and the lives of his tenants, anxiously shifting his eyes to her face.

Sarah nodded encouragingly and watched as Oliver began to smile as he spoke.

“I know that you have never liked my sister-in-law, and in view of some of the things I heard her saying in London, I have told her she is not welcome back in any of our homes.” Oliver’s face took on a hardness that Sarah could not quite decipher but his tone seemed very angry.

“Really?” Sarah asked, amazed. She didn’t like the woman, it was true, she actually almost hated her, but...

“Will she have to go back to living with her mother?” Sarah asked, biting her lip in concern.

“I have organized an annuity to be paid to her on top of what my brother left her so that she can live wherever she wants.”

Sarah frowned for a moment and then smiled cheekily.

“Like paying your mistress you mean?”

Oliver sat up in bed and Sarah watched her proud and beautiful Duke look down on her with a look of such horror that she burst out laughing, holding her belly as it rippled with laughter. It felt so good just to laugh that Sarah let herself go and she laughed until her sides ached.

Sarah slowly stopped laughing, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I’m sorry Oliver, but your face...” She broke off into another round of giggles.

“I’m glad you aren’t angry that we will be paying for her upkeep.”

“Of course I’m not Oliver. She is your brother’s widow; the estate should keep her, just not in our home. I wish you’d thought of it sooner,” she teased with a knowing look.

“I wish I had too, it would have saved us a lot of heartache and I would not have missed these months with you.” Oliver looked down at her with sad brown eyes and swept his hand lovingly over her belly.

“And what have you been doing these past months?” Sarah asked, pulling her husband back down so she could lie on her side and face him.

Oliver rolled over as well, facing Sarah and pulling the blanket up to cover them both. His eyes strayed to her swollen belly. He ran his hand over his growing child again.

“I can’t believe you got with child so quickly.”

Sarah blushed. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. She still wasn’t sure if Oliver was really happy about the baby or just happy that his heir was already organized.

“You’re content with that, Oliver? I hope you’re as happy as I am about the baby.” Sarah asked, trying not to sound as anxious as she felt.

Oliver just sat up and leaned forward, pressed a kiss to her swollen belly and murmured, “I love you,” against her skin.

Tears pricked Sarah’s eyes and she wiped them away before he could see.

“Now tell me what you have been doing these past months, do not distract me.” Sarah flapped her hands at him, forcing him back up to eye level. “Please, Oliver,” she all but begged, pressing a hand to his face, cupping his jaw in a loving way.

He sighed.

“I spent the first month fencing with my instructor and ignoring everyone. The second month going to my clubs and the third month drinking myself into oblivion every day.”

Oliver exhaled sharply, his pain a palpable thing for her.

Sarah gasped with shock. “I imagined you enjoying London’s pleasures.”

“I could not find pleasure in anything away from you.” Oliver leaned forward to kiss her lips when they parted in surprise.

“Then why did you seem so relieved when I said I wanted to come to Scotland?” Sarah asked, determined to get all of her questions out of the way so that they needn’t bring this subject up again.

“Because I knew you were miserable.” His eyes welled up as he said the words and she rushed to reassure him.

“I
was
miserable, but never because of you. I blame myself…” Sarah started, silencing him when he was going to interrupt by pressing a hand to his soft lips. “I shouldn’t have let your family upset me so much. I should have talked to you more. I let them come between us,” Sarah acknowledged sadly, bowing her head in acknowledgement of her guilt.

“It was my fault Sarah. I know it was. I let them hurt you because they knew it was the best way to hurt me.”

Sarah sighed heavily and leant across the bed to give her husband a soft kiss on the lips. She lingered and coaxed him with her lips until he rolled half onto her.

“Let’s decide never again to let anyone else come between us. We’ll always talk to each other first.” Sarah suggested, pulling back to look into his eyes.

He nodded and swooped down for a kiss that turned into a loving and a worshiping of each other that lasted far into the night.