“I will have no lovers except you,” she told him.
“Except me,”he said softly. “How is it you can defy superlatives, Phil? How can you look even lovelier tonight than you did this afternoon—with your hair down and your feet bare and a loose nightgown that merely hints at the curves beneath?”
How could he look more gorgeous in his dressing gown?
He answered his own question, saving her from having to do so. “Perhaps because tonight there is no need to quell the desire that comes along with the appreciation,” he said.
Yes. Perhaps so.Probablyso. She did not say it aloud.
He raised his glass. “To us, Phil,” he said. “To a marriage of honesty and respect. To a marriage of fidelity to each other. To a marriage of companionship and friendship and—I sincerely hope—affection.”
She raised her own glass. “To us, Lucas,” she said. “To loyalty and always doing our best.” She hoped, more than she had hoped for anything else in her life, that their best would be enough. For it was a mutual best of which she spoke, not an individual one. She could speak for herself but never really for him too. It was a matter of trust.
He touched the rim of his glass to hers and they drank. She had not got to join in either toast this afternoon. But she liked champagne. She liked the way the bubbles tickled her nose and sprayed her upper lip.
He took the glass from her hand even though there was still champagne in it and set it with his own on the windowsill.
“And to Grandpapa’s great-grandson nine months from tonight,” he said, and smiled at her. No, it was not a smile. It was more of agrin.
Philippa had a choice between blushing and laughing. She chose the latter, though her cheeks felt as though they might burst into flames at any moment.
“And if it is a great-granddaughter?” she asked.
“Then we will have to try again,” he said. “And yes, you may well blush. You walked straight into that one.”
She had stopped laughing. And he stopped grinning—and smiling. He cupped both her cheeks with his hands and kissed her. Softly, almost lazily, as though he had all night—which, of course, he did. He raised his head for a moment and reached out with one hand to close the gap in the curtains she had opened when she came into the room earlier.
He kissed her again, a little more deeply. His tongue pressed lightly against the seam of her lips, somehow sending sensation right through her body. His tongue came right into her mouth when she opened it and caressed inner surfaces and stroked the roof of her mouth so that she sagged against him, her hands gripping his elbows.
He raised his head and gazed into her eyes. “We need a bed for the rest of this,” he said.
“Yes.”
“And nakedness,” he added.
Oh. She had not expected that. She was not at all sure...
“Come,” he said, and he moved her backward to the bed, which was ready for them, the covers turned back. He took hold of the sides of her nightgown and lifted it until she raised her arms. He removed it entirely and dropped it to the floor before laying her on the bed and gazing down at her while he undid the knot of his belt at the waist and his dressing down fell open. He shrugged out of it and let it fall to join her nightgown. He was not wearing a nightshirt. He lay down beside her as she moved farther to the center.
She was not going to be nervous or missish, she thought, even though she had not expected that they would be completely unclothed and he made no move to pull the covers over them. They were husband and wife. If this was what happened... Butthe candles.They were burning steadily in the holders on the dressing table. They must have been newly placed there today. They had hours’ worth of light left in them.
“I do not want to make you nervous,” he said as he turned toward her and raised himself on one elbow. “I havesomeexperience, though not much. Enough to know what I am doing, though. I know you have none. It does not matter. It is the way it is supposed to be. I will try not to hurt you. Trust me?”
“I will,” she said. “Kiss me again.”
He did. He did a great deal more than just that, though. His hands moved down her arms and along her back while she got her breathing under control and tried to relax and tell herself that this was just the first of many, many such nights and was not to be feared. But then his hands moved inward to roam and caress. They circled her breasts, and his thumbs stroked lightly over her nipples, causing raw sensation to engulf her and fill her with a longing to which she could not put a name.
His mouth had been on hers, his tongue engaging her own. But he moved his head downward now, and he suckled first one nipple and then the other, his tongue at play, his breath alternately warm on her sensitive skin as he exhaled and then cold as he inhaled. Her fingers found his thick hair and twined into it. And his hand moved lower and found private places and parted and caressed lightly until she thought she would not be able to stand the unnamable yearning any longer. She lifted herself toward his hand and one finger slid inside her, shocking her into gasping aloud. She could feel and hear wetness.
He raised his head again then and moved over her and brought his weight down on her. His hands slid beneath her as his knees pushed her legs wide, and he looked into her eyes, his own heavy-lidded, while he came into her. Slowly. Stretching her. Not hurting her, as she had expected he would. Until... ah, until there was no room left but he kept entering her anyway. Just before she could panic, there was a sharp pain and he came all the way into her and she wondered if it had been pain or intense pleasure she had felt.
“I am so sorry,” he murmured, his lips against hers.
Then he moved his head to the side, held her firmly, and began to move in her with what brought both pain and pleasure. And shock too. The ultimate intimacy of marriage. Something with which she would become very familiar in the days and months and years ahead. And she was glad. So very glad that it would be an integral part of their marriage and that it was beautiful.
She must learn, she thought, to please him as he was pleasing her. But she had a lifetime in which to learn.
It went on for a long time. She did not want it to end. When it did, she was faintly disappointed. But there would be more times. Many more times. The rhythm of his thrusts and withdrawals had broken, and he held deep inside her until she felt the hot gush of his release. He exhaled with an audible sigh against the side of her head and relaxed more of his weight onto her for a few moments.
