“Yes, I will,” she breathed.It was so easy to agree when he made her feel like this.
“Then lie with me, Jane, and make the dream real.”Jonathan lifted her into his arms and deposited her on the bed.He followed her there, still kissing her mouth, one hand on her cheek while the other caressed her thigh through her black wool dress.
Cool air swirled around her legs as his purposeful hand drew the dress upward.Soon, long fingers were gently stroking her inner thigh, causing heat to flood through her.His questing fingers reached their goal.
“Ah...mmm.”She gasped in surprise, then sighed in delight.His tongue tangled with hers as his kisses deepened, and his magic stroking hand had her hips lifting off the bed in rapture.
Jonathan’s clever fingers tantalized her one last time, and he smacked a hard kiss on her mouth.Exquisite, tortuous tension exploded into a thousand sparks in her head.As if from a distance, she heard herself let out a moan of release.
“More,” she groaned.“Give me more.”
Jonathan unfastened the fall of his trousers and braced himself above her.He stared down into her eyes, then...stopped.“Hell!What am I doing?”He spun off the bed, stumbled, and grabbed the mantelpiece to steady himself.
Jane drew deep breaths, trying to regain her composure as she lay spread-eagled across the bed.Jonathan stood braced upright against the fireplace while he fumbled to redo his buttons.He tilted his head toward her.He wore a tortured expression.“I am so very sorry, Jane.That was completely unplanned.”
Jane flushed hot with embarrassment and struggled off the bed, pushing her dress into place.What had she done?Allowing such liberties!She drew more than one steadying breath before she could answer him.“I do not blame you.If there is any fault to apportion, I am as much to blame as you.”
“I hope you won’t find my actions unforgivable.”His look beseeched her forgiveness.
She shook her head.“No, but we must be more careful of being alone together if we can’t trust ourselves to keep our basest urges under control.It would be a pity for either of us to be trapped in this engagement by our actions while we decide whether to marry.”A shudder ran up her spine at the thought.
“Yes, of course.Thank you for your understanding.”He turned away to rearrange the rest of his clothes.
Jane knelt to retrieve her hairpins with shaking hands.“I will sit by the window for a little while until I regain mysavoir faire,” she said, walking on jellified legs to a small writing desk set before the window.
A few minutes later, she had calmed her flushed and needy body and restored her hair to order.Jane looked around her, contemplating how it would feel to wake up in this room every morning.“I can see myself here, pen in hand, writing my next pamphlet.”
“Will you persist in writing pamphlets, Jane?Will there be any point?Will you have any time?”asked Jonathan.
“Of course there will be time.There was time while I was raising my siblings.There must be time.I will ensure there is.I will insist upon it.”
“What of your other duties?”He was standing tall and immaculate again beside the fireplace, completely recovered and looking formal and inflexible.
“Which ones will I be performing at dawn when I usually write?”Jane asked.
“Perhaps your wifely ones?”he answered.
“Morning, noon, and night?”she taunted.“Will there be no rest from sating your needs?”
“It is not a matter of sating my needs, as you put it, but perhaps you will find it a better, no, more pleasurable use of your time.”He winked.
“That remains to be seen.”Jane didn’t want to concede anything.
“Oh, I think you have seen, or rather felt, what it can be like.”
Heat flooded her cheeks again.When would she stop blushing?“I don’t think it will mean that I never want to express my opinion in writing again though.Are you going to forbid me from writing?”Jane demanded.
Jonathan’s eyebrows formed a straight frown across his face.“No, I won’t forbid you from doing it, but I do think that you should consider the effect of your writing on my political career when you are my wife.”
“IfI become your wife.”Jane felt combative.
“Ifyou become my wife, I’m sure you will consider your actions and their effects on your family, our family.”He was all stiff and arrogant again.Gone was the passionate, persuasive lover.
Jane felt saddened by the change.She stood.“I must leave.Katherine is at home by herself.I have been away too long.”
“Let me call the carriage to take you home.Come.”He held out his arm for her.
She nodded acceptance but made no move to tuck her hand in the crook of his arm.With one last look at the room where so much intimacy had already taken place and so much more would occur if she married him, Jane left the room wondering whether she would ever see it again.
