“Something I have wanted to do for months. Something I should have done on our wedding night. I am making love to my wife.” He kissed her neck, delighting in her response.
Cate giggled. The sound was almost heavenly to his ears. “I hope it is not merely to distract you from the illegal activities going on around us.”
Getting to his feet, John swung her up in his arms, maneuvering her toward their shared bed. “Surely you know me better than that,” he teased.
They collapsed on the coverlet, their hands eager to explore each other’s bodies. When Cate fingered his hardening length, her prediction of him forgetting everything else came true. There was nothing but them.
When he’d torn apart her chemise, the material ripping in a satisfying manner, he beheld the most blissful sight he could have ever imagined. She had the loveliest body, with heavenly breasts, a neat waist, and a hidden core covered by blonde curls. As he explored her pinkening petals with his fingers, she cried out for more.
In his eagerness, he captured her rosy nipple between his lips, his touch firm and curious.
Cate arched into him, her hips aligning perfectly with his. How he wished to simply plunge into her, but she deserved the most beautiful night. He trailed his mouth between her breasts, kissing, licking, and enjoying the taste of rosewater, salt, and skin. She was the most divine woman that he could have ever imagined. When he nudged against her curls and dipped in to lick at the soft wetness, he was gratified by her strangled gasp. She was so responsive.
With his mouth and fingers, he pleasured her, exploring Cate’s core with as much tenderness as he could until he’d wrought from her another release.
She lay gasping, radiant all over in the light from the stars, as John crawled up her body, positioning himself at her entrance, nudging his cock against her wet center.
“My love.” His voice was raw with need. “Open for me.” He pressed into her, easing inside inch by inch. Her body was eager and wet for him, welcoming him inside. Cate wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him fully, as their tongues danced and their hips met. Leaning down, he stared at her, buried deep within her body. “You are my angel.”
Cate, mere inches from him, grinned. “My hero.” Her voice was teasing but beneath lay an edge of desire. A feeling that John could relate to all too well.
With gentle persistence, he started to rock back and forth. The motion was soft at first, giving her time to become familiar with the sensation before they were both swept up. It gripped him immediately as he watched her cry out again. He lost himself in the sharp and all-encompassing sensation of his own release.
They lay together as their breathing slowly returned to normal. Although it would never feel normal again, John told himself, everything with Cate was special.
“We cannot stay here for Christmas,” she whispered, hugging him tightly.
“Nor can we go to your family’s home.”
“No.” She shuddered.
“Do you wish to tell me what your father did?”
“He believed in beating his children. Viciously. With a leather belt and buckle. Since I was the last child left, I received the most of it. I knew if I was not wed this Season…my fate would beterrible when I returned home,” she confessed. “My sisters were never…they never suffered as much as I.”
“You can tell me whatever you wish.”
“My father blamed me for my mother’s death. She died giving birth to me. And then when it took me multiple Seasons to…to…”
John interlinked his fingers with hers, offering her his courage to continue, to say whatever she needed to.
“I knew there was no one amongst thebeau mondewhom I wished to marry, and I had spoken to my aunt who said after the Season, I could come to live with her. I would be old enough. My father could no longer force me back. That was why I asked Hepworth to kiss me. To ruin me. So that my father would release me. I thought I should be shunned and sent to my aunt.” She sat up in bed and stared at John. “It was not a good plan, but I was desperate, and Hepworth agreed. He is not as bad as some people say.”
John moved away to collect a washcloth and to clean them both. He turned back to her at this remark. As he approached, he said, “If that rake had any honor, he would have married you.”
“For both our sakes, I am grateful he did not.”
“True.” John finished cleaning her up, and then climbed onto the other side of the bed, pulling her close to him. “I wished you had asked me.”
“I did consider it…” She blushed at this, “but I thought your sense of duty, your position…would make that impossible.”
“You are safe now.” John knelt before her, “I will never fail to protect you.”
“I know.” She kissed him. Her mouth was warm and tempting. “I suppose the last thing left for us to decide is where we should go when we leave here?”
“To my home in Yorkshire.” John leaned back amongst the pillows, pulling Cate into the crook of his arm. “There will be snow and a proper Christmas pudding. Oh, and the best roastpotatoes you ever did see. My mother will be thrilled to meet my new bride.”
“And those damned smugglers?”
“Let’s worry about that tomorrow,” John said as he rolled his bride over and started kissing her properly again.
THE END
