The duke and I julia Quinn

Why ruin such a 
moment?
—and so she just said, "Really?" 
"Really." He dropped a kiss on her nose. "When you smile it takes up half your face." 
"Simon!" she exclaimed. "That sounds horrible." 
"It's enchanting." 
"Distorted." 
"Desirable." 

---

She grimaced, but somehow she laughed at the same time. "Clearly, you have no knowledge of 
the standards of female beauty." 
He arched a brow. "As pertains to you, my standards are the only ones that count any longer." 
For a moment she was speechless, then she collapsed against him, a torrent of laughter shaking 
both of their bodies. "Oh, Simon," she gasped, "you sounded so fierce. So wonderfully, perfectly, 
absurdly fierce." 
"Absurd?" he echoed. "Are you calling me absurd?" 
Her lips tightened to prevent another giggle, but they weren't entirely successful. 
"It's almost as bad as being called impotent," he grumbled. 
Daphne was instantly serious. "Oh, Simon, You know I didn't..." She gave up trying to explain, 
and instead just said, "I'm so sorry about that." 
"Don't be." He waved off her apology. "Your mother I may have to kill, but you have nothing to 
apologize for." 
A horrified giggle escaped her lips. "Mother did try her best, and if I hadn't been confused 
because you said—" 
"Oh, so now it's all my fault?" he said with mock outrage. But then his expression grew sly, 
seductive. He moved closer, angling his body so that she had to arch backwards. "I suppose I'll 
just have to work doubly hard to prove my capabilities." 
One of his hands slid to the small of her back, supporting her as he lowered her onto the bed. 
Daphne felt the breath leave her body as she looked up into his intensely blue eyes. The world 
seemed somehow different when one was lying down. Darker, more dangerous. And all the more 
thrilling because Simon was looming above her, filling her vision. 
And in that moment, as he slowly closed the distance between them, he became her entire world. 
This time his kiss wasn't light. He didn't tickle; he devoured. He didn't tease; he possessed. 
His hands slipped under her, cradling her derriere, pressing it up against his arousal. "Tonight," 
he whispered, his voice hoarse and hot in her ear, "I will make you mine." 
Daphne's breath started coming faster and faster, each little gasp of air impossibly loud to her 
ears. Simon was so close, every inch of him covering her intimately. She'd imagined this night a 
thousand times since that moment in Regent's Park when he'd said he would marry her, but it had 
never occurred to her that the sheer weight of his body on hers would be so thrilling. He was 
large and hard and exquisitely muscled; there was no way she could escape his seductive 
onslaught, even if she'd wanted to. 

---

How strange it was to feel such titillating joy at being so powerless. He could do with her 
whatever he desired—and she wanted to let him. 
But when his body shuddered, and his lips tried to say her name but didn't get beyond "D-D-
Daph—" she realized that she possessed her own kind of control. He wanted her so much he 
couldn't breathe, needed her so badly he couldn't speak. 
And somehow, as she reveled in her newfound strength, she found that her body seemed to 
know what to do. Her hips arched up to meet his, and as his hands pushed her skirts up over her 
waist, her legs snaked around his, pulling him ever closer to the cradle of her femininity. 
"My God, Daphne," Simon gasped, hauling his shaking body up on his elbows. "I want to—I 
can't—" 
Daphne grabbed at his back, trying to pull him back down to her. The air felt cool where his 
body had just been. 
"I can't go slow," he grunted. 
"I don't care." 
"I do." His eyes burned with wicked intention. "We seem to be getting ahead of ourselves." 
Daphne just stared at him, trying to catch her breath. He'd sat up, and his eyes were raking 
across her body as one of his hands slid up the length of her leg to her knee. 
"First of all," he murmured, "we need to do something about all of your clothes." 
Daphne gasped with shock as he stood, pulling her to her feet along with him. Her legs were 
weak, her balance nonexistent, but he held her upright, his hands bunching her skirts around her 
waist. He whispered in her ear, "It's difficult to strip you naked when you're lying down." 
One of his hands found the curve of her buttocks, and started massaging her in a circular motion. 
"The question," he mused, "is do I push the dress up, or pull it down?" Daphne prayed that he 
wasn't expecting her to actually answer his question, because she couldn't make a sound."Or," he 
said slowly, one finger slipping under the ribboned bodice of her dress, "both?" 
And then, before she had even a moment to react, he'd pushed her dress down so that the entire 
garment encircled her waist. Her legs were bare, and were it not for her thin silk chemise, she 
would have been completely naked. 
"Now this is a surprise," Simon murmured, palming one of her breasts through the silk. "Not an 
entirely unwelcome one, of course. Silk is never as soft as skin, but it does have its advantages." 
Daphne's breath fled as she watched him slide the silk slowly from side to side, the sweet 
friction causing her nipples to pucker and harden. 

---

"I had no idea," Daphne whispered, her every breath sliding hot and moist across her lips. 
Simon went to work on her other breast. "No idea of what?" 
"That you were so wicked." 
He smiled, slow and full of the devil. His lips moved to her ear, whispering, "You were my best 
friend's sister. Utterly forbidden. What was I to do?" 
Daphne shivered with desire. His breath touched only her ear, but her skin prickled across her 
entire body. 
"I could do nothing," he continued, edging one strap of her chemise off her shoulder, "except 
imagine." 
"You thought about me?" Daphne whispered, her body thrilling at the notion. "You thought 
about this?" 
His hand at her hip grew tight. "Every night. Every moment before I fell asleep, until my skin 
burned and my body begged for release." 
Daphne felt her legs wobble, but he held her up. 
"And then when I was asleep..." He moved to her neck, his hot breath as much of a kiss as the 
touch of his lips. "That's when I was truly naughty." 
A moan escaped her lips, strangled and incoherent and full of desire. 
The second chemise strap fell off her shoulder just as Simon's lips found the tantalizing hollow 
between her breasts. "But tonight—" he whispered, pushing the silk down until one breast was 
bared, and then the other. 'Tonight all of my dreams come true." 
Daphne had time only to gasp before his mouth found her breast and fastened on her hardened 
nipple. 
"This is what I wanted to do in Lady Trowbridge's garden," he said. "Did you know that?" 
She shook her head wildly, grabbing on to his shoulders for support. She was swaying from side 
to side, barely able to hold her head straight. Spasms of pure feeling were shooting through her 
body, robbing her of breath, of balance, even of thought. 
"Of course you didn't," he murmured. "You're such an innocent." 
With deft and knowing fingers, Simon slid the rest of her clothes from her body, until she was 
nude in his arms. Gently, because he knew she had to be almost as nervous as she was excited, 

---

he lowered her onto the bed. 
His motions were uncontrolled and jerky as he yanked at his own clothing. His skin was on fire, 
his entire body burning with need. Never once, however, did he take his eyes off of her. She lay 
sprawled on the bed, a temptation like none he'd ever seen. Her skin glowed peachy smooth in 
the flickering candlelight, and her hair, long since released from its coiffure, fell around her face 
in wild abandon. 
His fingers, which had removed her clothing with such finesse and speed, now felt awkward and 
clumsy as he tried to make sense of his own buttons and knots. 
As his hands moved to his trousers, he saw that she was pulling the bedsheets over her. "Don't," 
he said, barely recognizing his own voice. 
Her eyes met his, and he said, "I'll be your blanket." 
He peeled the rest of his clothing off, and before she could utter a word, he moved to the bed, 
covering her body with his. He felt her gasp with surprise at the feel of him, and then her body 
stiffened slightly. 
"Shhh," he crooned, nuzzling her neck while one of his hands made soothing circles on the side 
of her thigh. "Trust me." 
"I do trust you," she said in a shaky voice. "It's just that—" 
His hand moved up to her hip. "Just that what?" 
He could hear the grimace in her voice as she said, "Just that I wish I weren't so utterly 
ignorant." 
A low ramble of a laugh shook his chest. 
"Stop that," she griped, swatting him on the shoulder. 
"I'm not laughing at you," Simon insisted. 
"You're certainly laughing," she muttered, "and don't tell me you're laughing