Her expressive eyes became solemn. “Am I putting too much faith in a kiss? You must tell me, Soren. I don’t have very much experience, especially in these matters.”
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the backs of her fingers. His gaze holding hers, he said, “Trust our kisses. They never lie.”
Her smile was as if the heavens had opened and blessed them—and he knew she would make everything wrong in his life, right again.
“Why did you bring the water over?”
“For you.” He pushed back the counterpane. He gently began wiping the signs of their lovemaking, of her virginity from her thighs.
She tried to close her legs, squirming away from him, even as she reached for the cloth. “I can do that.”
He waved her away. “This is no chore. I’m here to take care of you. As time goes by, we’ll know each other’s bodies better than we do our own.”
Or at least that was his intention. It had not happened with his first marriage. When Mary left him, he’d felt as if he’d never known her at all.
But this time it would be different. He and Cass shared a common heritage. And he’d do all he could to keep her happy. He’d been too young and anxious to make his fortune in his first marriage to realize that his wife must come first.
Cass held still.
His task finished, he folded the cloth and carried it and the washbasin back to the stand and then returned to bed. He pulled the covers down so they could both slip under the sheets. She nestled up to him. It was a good moment. He decided now was the time to tell her about Logan.
However, before he could speak, she said, “The other night when I saw Letty Bainhurst and the duke in the reading room, they weren’t doing what we just did.”
“They weren’t?”
“No, the duke was down around her knees.”
That comment caught his interest.
She leaned on one arm to look at him. “He was beneath her skirts. Whatever he was doing, she liked very much.” There was more than a hint of suggestion in her voice.
Ah, Camberly. “And you are curious as to what was happening?” Soren suggested.
“There are things I wonder about.” She lay back down, her head on his pillow. “When I have questions, I can usually reason things out from what I’ve read in books.”
“Such as ‘the passion flower of ecstasy’?”
Her smile was quick. “I wasn’t exactly certain what that meant. I know now.”
“And here I was thinking I should read more poetry.”
Her eyes took on a delicious sparkle in the room’s thin light. “I will not argue that point with you, husband.” She said the title as if she liked the taste of it in her mouth. “But, Soren, whatwashe doing?”
The blood rushed through him. “Around her knees, eh?”
She nodded.
“I could write a poem for you... or I could show you.”
She didn’t wait a beat. “Show me, please.”
And show her he did. He spent the rest of the afternoon showing her and most of the night. Later, they would talk.
Right now was for pleasure.
Chapter 11
At last, the world began to make sense to Cassandra. The connection she felt with Soren was intense. He’d opened her to a whole new appreciation of her being. For the first time in her life, she felt valued, adored... beautiful.
