{Warning: Explicit scene ahead}
His smell engulfs her immediately. His smell always did insane things to her. She couldn't comprehend why she felt so turned on by just a whiff of his scent.
"Your brother is not asleep yet. You don't want to alert him."
The Duke whiffed her neck and planted a soft kiss on it.
And, Ember shivered when he ran his hand down her waist to her hip.
"I got your letter."
He planted the final kiss on the back of her neck and swirled her around to face him.
Their gazes locked.
As usual, he was gorgeous. He was dressed casually - not so casually - in a black shirt and his breeches. His hair was ruffled.
He had probably retired to bed before he snuck out to seek out her.
Wait, how did he manage to get in? He wouldn't climb her walls now, would he?
"Your skin looks so dry." he reached out to run his fingers on her skin. "Are you quite alright, my love?"
Ember stepped away from his touch, letting his hand drop off her.
"I'm leaving, Your Grace. At dawn."
The Duke frowned. He certainly wasn't expecting such news, but he wasn't moved either.
"Do you want to leave?"
He asked, leaning against her bedframe.
"I have to. It is what is required of me."
She couldn't possibly tell him why. Then, she would need to tell him that they had met the vampire. And that she knew the one who terrorized his city and his people.
"Viscount Bryne?"
The Duke had certainly hoped she wouldn't proceed with her marriage with him outside the town, out of his sight.
She shook her head.
"We are calling off the engagement."
The Duke suddenly pushed forward.
"Did you tell them about us?"
"No."
She gave a curt reply in hopes that he would leave as soon as possible, eradicating the fear she had of someone walking into her room and finding him there.
However, at the same time, she couldn't tell him she hadn't told them about getting compromised by the Duke because she had a bigger problem at hand - the vampire compromising her as well.
"Okay then. I would send letters when I can. I could drop by whenever I'm on one of those trips I take."
Ember blinked. She guessed she hadn't expected the Duke to dismiss her decision like that. Especially when he had just confessed to being obsessed with her a few days back.
Ember walked back to her window, holding it out for him to climb off.
She peeked down. Her window to the ground floor wasn't an impossible height to climb. However, it was still bizarre of the Duke to take that route.
She was about to ask him why he took that route to her room and how he had managed to discover that it was her room. Then, she remembered they were supposed to be saying their goodbyes.
Abruptly, she felt the Duke crept slowly behind her, trapping her in his hard rock chest.
He kissed her neck tenderly, sticking his tongue out to run it at her nape.
His hand tightened around her waist, and before she knew it, it was buried inside her nightgown, running up her inner thigh.
"W-what are you doing?"
Ember breathed.
"Goodbye pleasures."
The Duke whispered against her neck, brushing a finger against her slit.
Ember gasped out a moan.
"By the way," he continues, caressing her slit with his fingers. "If you let any other man do this to you, I'd travel down there and cut off his hand."
Then, in one move, he slides in a finger all the way inside her.
A loud moan escapes her throat.
He began thrusting, adding a second finger shortly as he nudged her closer to him, brushing his groan against her bottom.
Moans left her parted lips as he proceeded with his thrusts. She threw her head back against him.
On his third finger and his increased thrusts, her gasp of moans inflated, desperately pushing herself into his finger. He brought his second, less busy hand up her chest and cupped her breast in it, molding and stroking as he continued thrusting his fingers into her.
She pressed into him, rode his fingers, threw her head back, thrashed against him from the pleasures, and screamed out moans, not giving a damn in the world if her brothers or Grace ever had her.
The Duke slipped his fingers one after the other out of her after his last thrust and swirled her to face him.
She was red. And, his gaze was coated with lust.
He licked her juices off his fingers. "Have a nice life, Ember Hall."
What? A nice life? After what he had just done to her? How could he say that to her while sucking off her juices from his fingers?
"What? Can you not possibly come with me?"
Her eyes glistened with desperation. She couldn't think of years without the Duke's presence and well, without his insane pleasures.
"I am the Duke of Belmont, remember?"
Silly Ember had forgotten that. Her shoulders sagged in disappointment.
"Regardless, I will pay a visit when I can. You surely won't miss me."
She nodded, accompanying him back to her window.
"I will send a letter as soon as I arrive in Hadham."
She assured the Duke as he reached for her windowsill.
"Until then." he nodded, placing both of his hands on either of her shoulders. "But, for now, my love," the Duke leaned in to whisper "sweet dreams."
The words 'sweet dreams' could have been laced with the power of the Duke's hypnosis because, at the mention of those words, Ember's shoulders had slumped weakly, her body went numb, and she suddenly found herself dropping onto the floor, her world shutting out in unconsciousness. But, the Duke caught her in his arms before she could.
The Duke had hypnotized her to sleep with his powers. And, he smirked after he did this, watching her unconscious figure.