Her body thrummed and ached.Her eyes feasted upon his beauty stretched out beneath her.Unconsciously she moistened her lips, and he let out a shuddering sigh.
Slowly he lowered her, showing his strength, until he could lick at one nipple, already swollen with desire.She arched her back and moaned.She seemed to have no control over her actions any more.
“You’re hungry,” he murmured.“I’ll feed you if you promise not to bite.”
When he lowered her she kissed him for the first time of her own volition.His hands moved firmly on her back and on her round buttocks, pressing her down against him.He had said she was hungry, and indeed, she felt as if she was trying to consume him utterly.
Then he rolled them over.Slowly he slid his fullness into her, and she felt every inch.Places she had never known came newly alive.She discovered the food he had promised, the union she had really been seeking, and the pleasure she had thought not for her.
She had never imagined such feelings to be possible.There was a need that was the need of the whole world, and a pain that was exquisite pleasure.There was a place that she feared and intensely desired to visit.
Lost in this strange land, she panicked, threshing her head “I can’t … What…?Please!”
And he gentled her and took her over the peak.She had never even dreamed of what she found in that swirling void.She clung to him as the only reality, his riotous breathing matching hers, his flesh in her mouth and beneath her clutching fingers, his pounding heart thudding next to hers.
As reality returned they lay together.Eleanor dreaded separation.How could they ever part?She felt as if something vital would be lost.Eventually, however, they moved apart, and he gently pushed the damp tendrils of hair from her face the better to see her.She had no fear of what he would find.She had no need to pretend.
“It is like that every time for a man?”she asked.
“In a way, but not really,” he said, his finger tracing her jaw.“You are beautiful, my wife.”
He had never called her that before.
She was trying to think of something equally significant to say when he rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling.Looking down at him a lump came to her throat.She could tell from his face the devils were back.What had she done?What had gone wrong?
She laid a hand on his chest.Now it seemed perfectly natural to touch him any way she wished.
“Nicholas?What is it?”
He covered her hand with his but did not reply for a moment.Then he turned to look at her, no laughter at all left in him.
“Eleanor,” he said, tightening his hand over hers.“Remember this.You are the most important person in my life.I’ll try never to hurt you.I’ll fail, but at least I’ll try.”
She pulled her hand free and let a finger trace lines of love on him.“I suppose we all hurt other people now and then, no matter how good our intentions.”
His hand came over hers again, stilling it.“Remember,” he insisted, “that I do care.”
“Of course,” she said soothingly.“And I care, so I will forgive these hurts you threaten me with.”
He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the palm.His face, however, was even bleaker than before.Eleanor felt a chill begin.She was losing a battle here and yet had no idea of what was going on.
“I will hold you to that promise of forgiveness,” he said, and then slipped out of the bed.
Eleanor wondered for a moment if he was going to confess his mistress.She hoped he was.She could forgive him, and then all that would be over with.He clearly did not need the woman now.
But he shrugged on his robe and went into his dressing room.
Eleanor was again left to try to make sense of it all.For a little while she had thought it was all going to come right, that they had found the way together, but it was not so.It was surely better now, but not as perfect as she sensed it could be.
She sighed and told herself not to expect too much too soon.Today they had laid a foundation upon which they could surely build a palace of delights.
Lord Middlethorpe foundNicholas on his doorstep before he had finished breakfast.He shared the meal with him.
“Problems?”he asked, filling a coffee cup for his friend.
Nicholas sighed.“I think I have stepped blithely into a quagmire, Francis.As far as I can tell, this quixotic plot is real, and Therese is proving to be as easy to handle as a freshly caught eel.”
Lord Middlethorpe laughed.“I must confess there seems some justice in you coming up against a woman you cannot instantly beguile.”
