Chapter 39
Petey
Ihad found the folly’s stash of candles and lit a dozen of them. William came bounding up the stairs to the belvedere like it was Christmas morning, to find me posed on the bed with the giant yellow stuffed duck I’d won at the village fair hiding my crotch. It stopped him dead in his tracks.
“That thing is definitely flammable,” he said.
“Should I get rid of the candles or the duck?”
“The duck.”
I threw it at him, and he tossed it down the stairs.
“I thought you were going to be naked under there,” he said, disappointed.
“Isn’t it better to have something to unwrap?”
William’s hands rubbed my feet at the end of the bed. He bent down and kissed them, then kissed his way up my body.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, lingering over my belly.
“Well, you lookedverysexy today.” I ran my fingers into his hair, and William rubbed his face into my pants, breathing in deeply. “Where did you learn to wield a sword like that?”
“I playDungeons and Dragons.”
“Don’t you use dice for that?”
“Sometimes.”
I hooked my legs around him. “Being rescued by a literal knight in shining armour was, without a doubt, the hottest thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to protect you,” he said, tongue circling my nipples.
I pawed at the muscles of his back. “I’ll let you off this once. Don’t do it again.”
“I can’t promise that,” he said. “I protect the things I love with my body and my heart. So do you, as it turns out. I’ve been wanting to deck Horatio since I was thirteen.”
I laughed, pulling him towards me. He kissed me, and I felt his hardness digging into my stomach for barely a moment before he leapt up.
“I need to pop downstairs and get something.”
He reappeared a few seconds later with a tube of lube in one hand and some condoms in the other, proudly holding them up like he’d caught a couple of fish.
“I thought we might… um…”
I nodded. “If you’re ready.”
“I’mveryready.”
We kissed for a while and took it slowly, exploring each other’s bodies in the candlelight. Lips. Tongues. Fingers. When it got stuffy, William opened the windows, letting the cool breeze flow over us, tickling our skin and blowing out most of the candles. It was lightly raining, and the petrichor made it feel primal and sensual, like the Buckford earth itself was our bed.
When the moment came, William was kneeling over me, one hand buried in the pillow beside my head. His auburn hair was falling in front of his face, his neck chain was dangling above me, his eyes were locked onto mine. I felt him at my entrance and pulled my knees higher.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life.”
Tenderly, he nestled his way into me. I wrapped my legs around his back and pulled him down onto me. His eyes were wide, full of wonder. Not greed. Not lust. Not the raw carnality I expected. But awe and reverence and love. His body pressed me into the mattress and I relaxed onto him, welcoming him home.
