“T-t-t-to-m-m-morrow, you’ll take me around the estate?”
He grunted, a noise that might be a yes or a no.
“Can we go to b-b-bed now, Phineas?”
He said nothing.
She stood and shooed Lavinia back into her own bedchamber and closed the door. She took her nightdress off over her head, walked around the bed, and got into it.
Phineas still sat, his head down.
“Come to b-b-bed.”
Agonizingly long seconds.
“I don’t feel like it.”
So soon. She was losing him so soon.
“M-m-maybe I can make you f-feel like it.”
His shoulders hunched in a shrug. She pushed down the counterpane and moved across the bed so she was sitting behind him, her long legs on either side of him. She put her hands on his shoulders. He didn’t move. She leaned forward, pressing into him, letting her nipples be abraded by the fabric of his coat. She inhaled the scent of him, sliding her hands off his shoulders to his chest. She found the lapels of his tailcoat and lifted them and pulled them back toward her and began to undress him from behind.
He let her take off his tailcoat, unbutton and remove his waistcoat, untie his cravat. Then he stood up and removed the rest of his clothing himself, still facing away from her.
She scooted to the edge of the bed, shivering with cold, but not wanting to cover the only thing she had that she knew made her husband happy.
Finally, he turned around, and she saw his face for the first time since she had come into the room. She didn’t recognize him.
“I’m very sorry this is the home I’m bringing you to. You deserve better.”
“I only w-w-want to d-deserve you.”
He stepped toward her.
Thank God.She strained upwards, grabbing his hands and pulling him down, and found his mouth with hers.
As she had on their wedding day, she tried to communicate with her kiss.I’m here with you. I’m your wife. I’m your darling.She seated his hands on her waist and wrapped her arms around his neck and twined her legs over his.Let me comfort you this way.
His hands slid around to her back and he leaned into her and the kiss. She pulled on him and began to tilt herself down to the mattress. A gradual movement until the tipping point and he came down with her all the way and was on top of her in the bed.
She clasped him as if he were the piece of wreckage that would save her life in the dark water they found themselves in.
She had thought to ease his trouble with touch, with release, but this was selfish. His body, his warmth, his weight were the greatest solace she had ever known. Even greater than Lavinia.
He lay on her, unmoving, letting her kiss him, accepting her tongue. She could not feel his hardness between them and she was used to her husband being aroused and ready for her. At least for the first coupling of the night.
She would seduce him the way he seduced her.
“Caro w-w-wants her Phin.” She released her grip on his back and trailed her hands up and down his flanks. “Caro needs Phin.” She began to move underneath him, a slight undulation driven by her very real wish to rub her most sensitive place against him.
Up and down her fingers stroked his sides, back and forth her pelvis rocked. His breathing was getting harsher and she could feel his growing length.
“Y-y-y-you’re the only man I’ve ever desired.”
He had a right to know at least that. Well, mayberightwas not the word to use. He was worthy of knowing that. And maybe he needed to know that singular fact about her.
His head moved a little, pulling back, and he looked at her carefully.
