Elizabeth’s eyes flashed to his, which remained hard as glass. She worried he might hurt her, though he’d not hurt her in the least last night. He pushed her down with his hands, making her kneel before him as he tipped her chin.
“Take down your hair.”
She obeyed, pins scattering to the floor as her braid fell free, which he grasped, pulling her head back until her body arched, breasts pushed out. His other hand played with their tips until they peaked. Until she bit back an embarrassing moan.
“Now place your hands to your sides, palms flat to floor. Yes, like that. Open your legs, do not close yourself to me. When you come to my bed at night this is how you will present yourself, naked but for your stockings, braid down your back, breasts thrust forward and thighs parted.
She inhaled a sharp gasp.
“Does it not arouse you, Lizzie, to give yourself to your husband? To grant me ownership of your flesh? You are exquisite in your submission.”
She was ashamed of her slick thighs, humiliated to imagine she mightenjoypresenting herself in this lewd manner. She was not that sort of woman.
Elizabeth burned with unbearable anticipation while Milton surveyed her kneeling form from every angle. And then he positioned himself before her, his waist at her head, tilting up her face again. Inside, she was a bundle of nerves, while he reflected back only calm. And lust.
“You will take me in your mouth first, Lizzie, as you observed Evie do atLeBrecht’s.Undo my fall and caress my cock, bring me to completion. You will taste my seed before I claim your maidenhead. In time, there will be no part of your body I will not take, and so own.”
Elizabeth’s heart beat so furiously she could not keep from trembling.
He stroked her cheek, then gently palmed her face. “Do not fear this, wife. I took care to remain free of disease, despite my sordid past. When I did not sleep with virgins, I used French letters for protection. I would not endanger my ability to sire children, nor endanger my wife. I will be gentle with you tonight, but only if you obey me.”
He forced her again to look up at him; she had no idea what French letters were.
“Now do as you are told.” He removed her spectacles before he pressed his crotch to her face.
And God help her, Elizabeth did.
***
Milton wasn’t sure he could withstand his wife, because her innocence nearly rent him in two. He suppressed his tender urges, buried them, in fact, to administer this final test.
Because he’d not be married to a woman who defied or denied him physically.
Milton knew that if he mastered Lizzie’s body he had a chance in hell of mastering her mind. Yet the unschooled manner in which she caressed his cock pierced him to his core. She was every bit the aristocrat taught to fear and revile men such as he—yet here she knelt, fumbling to pleasure him with virgin lips and tongue, allowing him entry to her hot, wet…
He came too fast, spilling down her throat as he forced her to swallow, ashamed he’d lasted such a short while on this, her first time.
He beat back the jeering voice in his head, instead folding her in his arms right there upon the floor. He unwound her thick, black braid so that her locks flowed like ribbons to her dimpled buttocks, then stroked those lush swells, knowing the curve of cheek beneath his palm, how her perfect twin globes warmed to his strikes. Milton began to harden again with desire. He’d have to pace himself to last, because he was damned if he’d now rush what he’d anticipated since he’d first laid eyes on his wife, on her knees before that butcher in her father’s kitchen.
He’d wanted her then, badly. Wanted his own fine lady to debauch whenever he wished, until every haughty trace of noble blood that flowed inside her veins was his.
And now, at last, he had her.
***
Elizabeth lay limp in her husband’s arms. She felt uncouth and unclean, his seed’s bitter taste lingering on her tongue.She wanted to weep but found no tears, no sound. Instead, she felt demeaned by the very act she’d found arousing when she’d watched Evie pleasure Miss Li’s man. She knew not why she felt such revulsion now, she knew only that she’d done wrong.
No.Beenwronged.
She remained motionless in Milton’s arms as he stroked her long locks. She waited for his next order, next punishment, to come, yet her husband only praised. He pulled her to her feet, placed her spectacles back on her nose, and settled her gently onto his bed.
He fetched her a brandy which she downed in one gulp, cleansing her mouth, while he sat at the bed’s edge, watching. Waiting.
Elizabeth no longer felt shame—though she still wore only stockings and her husband remained yet fully clothed. He’d debased her so thoroughly, what more could he take? Her pride?
He refilled her glass and she sipped more slowly, savoring the drink’s fiery spread to her numb breast. He traced her nose with his finger—“You have given me great pleasure, wife”—then slowly unbuttoned his shirt. “I shall return the favor.” His voice was dark with desire as his shirt fell away, revealing a muscled chest peppered with vivid, angry scars.
The scars alarmed her, but inside her breast Elizabeth felt cold to her core. “It matters not what you do to me, sir, for you have robbed me of my innocence, made me more whore than wife.”
