Page 32 of Victorian Bride

It seemed that Kayden was more than happy to oblige.

They rose toward the peak of ecstasy together, the rushed gasps for breath tangling together with the sounds of Kayden's groans and Mya's shuddering moans. She felt her body drawing tight, felt the tension in his shoulders wound taut as a strung bow. One more thrust, one more roll of his hips against her, and both of them were falling over the edge, jumbled syllables of each other's names on their tongues.

Kayden's knees gave out, and he slid them both slowly down to kneel in the grass, her skirts tumbled around them. Mya let her head fall back against the tree, eyes rolled upward, and tried to remember what it was to breathe as her racing heart slowed its frantic beat.

“I...” He trailed off, like he didn't know what to say, his voice muffled by her body. He still had his face between her breasts, breathing in the scent of her as he recovered.

Mya reached down and trailed her fingers through his hair. She didn't have words either. Silence settled over them, but it was not awkward. They were both warmly content, basking in the afterglow of pleasure. Mya had forgotten their fight entirely, as it seemed Kayden had.

She wasn’t even sure she remembered how to be angry, after that. The thought made her smile. She was going to have to be careful around him, or she was never going to be able to stay mad. Spectacular sex was a relationship hazard.

“You are dangerous,” she said.

“Mmm.”

He didn’t even lift his head. Apparently he was in the process of falling asleep right there on the grass. Mya chuckled softly. It seemed some things were a guarantee after all.

Chapter 14

The morning had moved toward noon by the time Mya returned to the house. Together, they decided it would be best if Kayden returned to his own manor, alleviating suspicions, though Mya was not sure exactly who they were trying to hide their activities from, considering that Ella and Lottie, as Kayden had said, almost certainly knew what they had been up to. And if they didn't already, they were going to now. The back of her dress was a wreck.

Mya reached behind herself again, feeling the fabric that had practically shredded between the tree trunk and the steel bones of the corset. Lottie was almost certainly going to laugh at her. She would have to keep the whole thing away from the maids, who were probably as aware of what was going on as the other inhabitants of the house. Or more aware, likely. That didn't mean that Mya wanted them seeing firsthand the obvious damage or speculating about what had caused it.

Attempting to make it back into the house without getting caught was, unfortunately, easier said than done. Mostly because Lottie and Ella were waiting in her room, sitting together on the bed. Mya felt her cheeks flushed, and knew she must be scarlet all the way down to the neck of her gown.

“Oh,” she said, stopping in her tracks with her hand still curled around the edge of the open French door. “I didn't expect the two of you to be here... In here, rather… This specific room, I meant.”

The corner of Lottie's mouth twitched upward, though she managed not to smile outright. Eleanora hid a laugh behind her hand in a neatly executed cough.

“We thought we would wait here and make sure that you hadn't fallen in a hole or some such thing out in the fields,” Lottie said, obviously struggling to keep a straight face. “You were gone quite some time, after all.”

“I do hope you are well?” Eleanora added.

If they were any more pleased with the gossip they had picked up, Mya thought, the both of them would be giggling like children. She gave them a disapproving look. “I am just fine. Thank you.”

“And Kayden?” Lottie asked, pretending to look behind Mya, as if expecting Kayden to appear any moment. “He made it home safely, I assume?”

“I’m sure he did.”

Mya edged around the room, toward the closet, hoping to slip into the dressing room and change there, without them seeing the damage to the back of her dress. She had, of course, no such luck.

“Grass stains on the back?” Lottie asked, with the air of someone who had experienced just that particular trouble.

“What?” Mya blurted. “No! There aren't any grass stains. What on earth would give you that idea?”

“Perhaps,” Eleanora suggested, “the fact that you are attempting to move all the way around the room while still facing us. And the babbling.”

“Also the blushing,” Lottie said. “You went an even brighter red just now when I asked about grass stains.”

Mya sighed. There was going to be no getting past them, it seemed. “There are no grass stains,” she said again.

The other two women looked at her expectantly.

Slowly, shaking her head, Mya turned around…and waited.

There was a moment of silence. Mya wasn't sure whether they were startled, or appalled. When she glanced back over her shoulder, they were both staring at the back of the dress.

Lottie broke the silence first, clapping her hands delightedly together. “How did…? No,” she said, laughter filling up the words. “Those are, admittedly, not grass stains. I think those are better than grass stains. What do you think, dear?”