Page 86 of The Luckiest Lady in London

“What was it that so diverted you, Lady Wrenworth? You were glassy-eyed, to say the least.” His cool voice came from behind her—directly behind her.

Her misery evaporated all at once, replaced by that state of shattered nerves she’d come to know all too well around him. She picked up a piece of chalk and wrote her answer on the blackboard.

You.

His hand cupped her face. “That is not appropriate for the middle of a lesson.”

She closed her eyes, leaned against him, and lifted her arm to wrap around his neck.

The next second, her skirts were shoved up, her bustle knocked aside, her drawers pushed down not only without ceremony, but with hardly even any acknowledgment that they were ever there.

And then he was inside her, hard and thick.

It was the most incredible, most delicious sensation, like being pounded by a runaway train. The force of his thrusts flattened her. It nearly lifted her off the floor. With one hand on her abdomen, he pulled her toward him, so that he came in farther, deeper, harder.

She cried aloud, her pent-up desires igniting into a fracturing climax, barely noticing that he was shuddering into her, caught in a climax of his own.

Minutes passed before she realized that she was still crushed against the blackboard, and that she had smeared a large portion of his graphs with her torso and her face. But she didn’t care, because by that time he had started to move again inside her, slow, deliberate, gorgeous strokes that drove everything out of her mind except the pure, undiluted pleasure.

* * *

Afterward, he turned her around, kissed her, and wiped the chalk dust from her face. Then he kissed her again. “I would clear the chalk from your blouse, too, but that would require me to do unspeakable violence to your chest.”

She looked down and slapped her hand a few times across her own sternum. A cloud of chalk dust rose between them, surely the most romantic sight in the world, far better than morning mist on the Seine.

When he would have pulled her into his arms again, she walked away, retook her seat, and opened her notebook. He realized after a second that she expected him to pick up where they’d left off.

After a couple of false starts, he did. The class concluded twenty-five minutes late. But other than that, everything proceeded normally: She had a few questions at the end of the class, and then she thanked him and quietly showed herself out.

By the time dinner came around, it was as if nothing had happened. They spoke of the estate, her family, and the weather as it related to the hours of nighttime observation that could be reasonably expected.

Later, however, as he stood in his room, trying to decide whether their lovemaking in the afternoon marked the end of his abstinence or whether it had been simply an aberration, the connecting door opened and she walked in.

His pulse accelerated. “Evening, my dear.”

“We are married, Felix,” she answered. “You should call me Louisa.”

His pulse accelerated further. “Is there a time and a place for it, specifically?”

“Here. And now.” She came toward him and kissed him on his chin. “But it’s only so that I can concentrate in class. We wouldn’t wish to waste your time or disrespect all your wonderfully prepared lectures.”

“No, we wouldn’t,” he answered, cupping her face and kissing her on the mouth.

“So we will take care of all these distractions outside the schoolroom,” she said as he lifted her up to carry her to his bed.

He laid her down and kissed her again. “And we will take care of them thoroughly and tirelessly.”

After that, neither of them said anything for a very long time.

* * *

“Have you forgiven me?” he asked, much later.

“Yes.” Louisa combed her hand through his hair. “Or at least enough to once again use you for your young, firm body and your pretty, pretty face.”

He smiled and rested his palm against her cheek. “I’d like you to be happy here. I want to see you discover new stars and whole new galaxies. And I’m still waiting for you to win unimaginable sums playing cards with my friends.”

This last made her laugh a little. “What about you? Don’t you want anything for yourself?”