He gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘If it would please you.’
Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed before answering him huskily, ‘I believe that it would.’
Rupert stood up to pull the bell for Pendleton, turning to watch as Pandora sat up to swing her legs to the floor before standing up.
For the first time in his life Rupert felt uncertain of how to proceed with a woman. With a wife. His wife.
The fact that he had a wife at all was going to take some adjusting to!
Pandora looked up uncertainly at Rupert once the butler had departed after being instructed to provide the bathwater for her Grace, not quite sure what she should do or say next. She felt a little shy still and it seemed … forward of her, to make the first move, and yet Rupert seemed equally as uncertain—reluctant?—to do so. She gave a nervous smile. ‘We did not seem quite so … awkward with each other, last night.’
Rupert returned her smile. ‘We were not husband and wife last night.’
She looked up at him curiously. ‘Do you truly think that makes a difference?’
He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Never having been a husband before, I have no idea.’
She frowned. ‘And you do not regret our hasty marriage?’
‘As I was the one to arrange it, I assure you I have no regrets at all. But surely I am to be allowed the nervousness of any new husband?’ he teased.
‘Nervousness?’
Rupert nodded. ‘I would be most displeased if I were to do or say something which caused you unhappiness.’
Pandora found his concern oddly touching, no doubt because her first husband had possessed absolutely no feelings whatsoever in regard to her happiness. ‘It is decent of you to say so, Rupert—’
‘Decent of me?’ He reached out to place a hand beneath her chin as he raised her face so that he might look down at her searchingly. ‘Were you ever happy with Maybury, even for a single day—no, pet, don’t turn away from me,’ he begged as she would have done just that. ‘Did you care for him at all? Did he care for you?’
‘No.’
Rupert frowned darkly at the flat promptness of her reply. ‘It was never more than an arranged marriage?’
Her lashes lowered over those expressive eyes. ‘I— We realised almost from the beginning that we did not … suit.’
‘Then Maybury was a fool!’ he rasped harshly.
She gasped, her lashes sweeping upwards as her eyes widened. ‘My parents brought me up to believe it is wrong to speak ill of the dead.’
‘Mine also.’ Rupert gave a derisive smile. ‘But maturity has shown me that the fact a person is dead makes no difference to them having behaved the fool before that death occurred!’
Pandora’s lips twitched with totally inappropriate humour. ‘You really must not say such things, Rupert.’
‘For fear the devil might claim me as one of his own when it is my own time to go?’ He eyed her teasingly. ‘Most of the ton believe that to already be a foregone conclusion!’
Then, in Pandora’s opinion, ‘most of the ton‘ would be wrong. No doubt Rupert took wicked delight in cultivating the reputation that had earned him the name of ‘Devil’ Stirling, but it certainly was not all of the man, did not allow for the loyalty and affection he felt towards his friends and which they so obviously felt towards him. Or to the way in which Rupert had honoured his father’s last will and testament in regard to the Dowager Duchess, despite the fact that it had caused him great personal discomfort. Nor could it deflect from the way in which Rupert had been so protective of Pandora once he became aware she was in any danger.
No, no matter his reputation, Rupert was far too honourable a man to ever suffer the fate of being ‘claimed by the devil as one of his own’ …
‘The ton do not know you as I do,’ Pandora declared with certainty.
He smiled slightly. ‘No?’
‘No,’ she stated firmly. ‘Nor do I believe it to be altogether proper to talk of my first husband when in my bridal bedchamber with my second.’
Rupert stared at her for several seconds before he burst into spontaneous laughter, a deep throaty chuckle that showed his even white teeth and made his eyes glow with the same humour. ‘I don’t believe I have ever laughed so much in the bedchamber with a lady before now.’
‘With her or at her?’ She arched knowing brows.
‘Oh, most certainly with.’ He continued to chuckle. ‘You have a way of saying exactly what is on your mind that I find deeply refreshing.’
Pandora stilled. ‘Would you care to know what is on my mind at this moment?’
Rupert’s breath caught in his throat as he saw the warmth in her eyes. ‘I believe I would, yes.’
‘How big is your bath?’
Rupert’s brows rose. ‘I believe it is big enough and deep enough for me to stretch out my legs and luxuriate in water up to my shoulders.’
‘Then it is big enough for two people to sit together?’
His smiled widened as he realised what she was about. ‘Most assuredly.’
She breathed out shakily. ‘Then would—would it be considered terribly … scandalous, if we were to bathe together?’
‘Oh, terribly,’ Rupert confirmed. ‘But, as it is also a suggestion of which I wholeheartedly approve, why should either of us care whether or not it is scandalous?’
Pandora blushed at her own daring in suggesting they bathe together.
Of suggesting the two of them bathe naked together …
Chapter Fifteen
‘You may come out from behind the screen now, Pandora,’ Rupert encouraged indulgently as he glanced at the exotic Japanese screen behind which she had some minutes ago disappeared in order to disrobe. ‘The last of the maids has now departed, after lighting the fire and delivering and pouring the hot water, so we are now completely alone.’ One of those maids had also quietly provided the information that the Dowager Duchess had departed Stratton House in high dudgeon just minutes ago.
Rupert had disappeared into his dressing room in order to accept the help of his valet in divesting himself of his own clothing, before donning his long black silk robe, allowing Pandora those minutes of privacy to do the same. Except she now seemed reluctant to come out from behind the black lacquered screen.
Bathing with a lady would be another first for Rupert—the most recent of many where Pandora was concerned. Oh, he had seen women in their bath before now, but he could never remember being invited to join any of them. Or anticipating an unexpected pleasure quite so much …
Pandora was in a state of agitation as she stood behind the screen now wearing only her pale-cream robe, her heart fluttering frantically in her chest at her increasing feelings of nervousness. It had all sounded so daring just a few short minutes ago, the height of risqué. But now that it came to the two of them actually bathing together, Pandora’s tummy seemed to be filled with butterflies as she felt too nervous to come out from behind the screen and face him.
What if Patricia’s scornful comments of earlier should prove to be correct and Pandora failed to hold Rupert’s interest for even as long as their wedding night? How would she be able to bear it if he were to eventually reject intimacy with her in the way that Barnaby had from the onset of their marriage?
No, Rupert was not Barnaby, Pandora instantly chided herself. He bore not the slightest resemblance to her first husband in looks, manner, or in his sexual preferences. The latter she knew for a fact, after the pleasures Rupert had already shown her—
‘I don’t bite, Pandora,’ Rupert coaxed huskily from the other side of the screen. ‘At least … not unless I am asked to do so.’
‘Rupert!’ Pandora gasped breathlessly, shocked—and at the same time filled with curiosity to know when, and in what circumstances, he might have been asked to bite someone …
A woman, no doubt. But where and why had he bitten her? And had that woman liked it when Rupert sank those beautiful white teeth into her flesh—?
<
br /> ‘Pandora,’ he now drawled teasingly, ‘if you do not soon come out from behind the screen I fear our bath water will have cooled and we will have to start the process all over again!’
She knew she was being utterly silly malingering behind the screen in this way. After all, Rupert had seen her naked only the night before, when he had helped her to wash before applying the salve to her burns, and then introduced her to that delicious lovemaking; the latter was certainly an experience Pandora wished to enjoy again. And again …!
She quickly averted her gaze as she stepped out from behind the screen, having caught a brief glimpse of Rupert wearing only a long black robe which reached down to his ankles, but leaving a vast expanse of his muscled chest bare where it crossed over and was belted about his waist, the skin there lightly tanned and covered in a fine dusting of blond hair.
Her shyly averted gaze meant she missed completely the appreciative darkening of Rupert’s eyes as he looked at her long golden curls loose about her shoulders and down her back. She was wearing only a pale-cream robe belted at her tiny waist, clearly revealing the outline of her pert breasts crested by those plump red berries upon which he had feasted the night before, her hips curvaceous, the bareness of her feet tiny and delicate.
But Rupert was not insensitive to the blush upon her cheeks, or the way she could not quite bring herself to look at him. A shyness on Pandora’s part, which would seem to imply she had not bathed with anyone before this, either. Something which pleased Rupert immensely.
He had managed to persuade few details out of Pandora as yet about her first marriage, but he wished, for her sake, that her marriage to him be as full of new experiences as he was able to make it. Certainly he had no intention of setting up a mistress in a house in a discreet part of town, as he believed Barnaby Maybury had.
‘Would you like to step into the bath first?’ Rupert encouraged.
‘I— Thank you.’ Pandora’s voice was trembling slightly as she turned away from him to unfasten her robe. ‘Oh!’ she gasped breathlessly as Rupert stepped behind her to slide the robe off her shoulders and down her arms.
‘Climb quickly into the warmth of the water,’ he said as he enjoyed the slender beauty of her naked back and her deliciously plump bottom above silky and slender legs, and caught a glimpse of that silky triangle of golden curls between her legs as she stepped lithely into the warm bathwater.
Rupert had never been in the least shy about his own nakedness and he saw no reason to become so now either as he slipped off his own robe and laid it on the chair beside Pandora’s. After all, he was not the first man Pandora had seen without his clothes. Far from it, if rumour—
Oh, to hell with rumour! Who was Rupert to pay any heed to rumour? He certainly did not believe in the adage of ‘Caesar’s wife must be beyond reproach’ whilst ‘Caesar’ himself could behave exactly as he pleased!
No, this must be a fresh beginning for both Pandora and himself, with no recriminations for past lovers or husbands to stand between them. Any other course of action would find their marriage floundering before it had even begun.
He looked at Pandora. Her back was towards him as she sat up stiffly in the tub, having somehow twisted and secured her golden curls loosely upon her crown, revealing the vulnerable arch of her nape and the gentle slope of her spine, the soft curve of one of her bared breasts visible as she rested one of her arms on the side of the tub.
‘Move forwards a little, Pandora,’ Rupert requested as he stepped up behind her, allowing him to see the flush which slowly spread up from her neck and into her cheeks as she hastily slid forwards.
Pandora kept her face averted as he stepped into the water behind her. One of his long legs slid either side of her as he slowly lowered himself into the water, trembling as he now sat snugly behind her, his bared chest against her back, his thighs cradling hers, the long length of his arousal pressing hotly against her bottom.
‘Remind me to thank Mrs Hammond most profusely for her miraculous salve when next I see her,’ he murmured appreciatively as his hands gently caressed the creaminess of Pandora’s bared shoulders. ‘There is hardly a mark or blemish left upon your delectable skin. Does it still feel sore?’
‘Hardly at all,’ Pandora whispered, her trembling having increased at the close proximity of his warm body to her own, and causing her to sit forwards so that her back no longer rested against the hardness of his chest.
‘You’ll be more comfortable if you lean back against me,’ he urged as his hands moved to grasp her lightly on the hips and pull her gently back against him.
Pandora could only breathe shallowly, her fingers tightly gripping the sides of the tub as she slowly allowed herself to relax against Rupert’s muscled chest, the fine dusting of blond hair there feeling ticklish against her spine as she rested the back of her head on to one of his shoulders.
‘You have the most beautiful breasts I have ever been privileged to see.’
She stopped breathing altogether as Rupert’s hands left her hips to move slowly, caressingly upwards, until they cupped beneath both those breasts. Seemingly disembodied hands, the fingers long, palms perfectly cupping the globes of her breasts.
It was at once the most erotic experience of her life and the most pleasurable, as Pandora looked down at those strong hands as Rupert’s mouth nuzzled against the sensitive place at the side of her throat, the latter sending shivers of delight down her spine as those long fingers now captured her puckered and swollen nipples to caress and squeeze those sensitised tips to hard and aching berries.
Pandora’s back arched instinctively as she felt the pleasure instantly course through her body, pushing her bottom back against him and her breasts up into Rupert’s hands as his lips, tongue and teeth continued to nibble delectably at the slender column of her throat.
She groaned softly at the warmth and tingling she felt as she pressed her aching thighs together, knowing she was once again swollen there, the sensitive hidden bud throbbing with need. ‘Rupert …?’ she groaned achingly.
‘Just relax and enjoy, pet,’ he murmured against the silkiness of her throat. ‘For I assure you, I don’t intend to stop touching you any time soon.’
There was simply no way that Pandora could relax, her awareness concentrated totally on those hands cupping her breasts and those fingers caressing and plucking her nipples. The heated pleasure sang through her body as one of his hands now moved slowly down into the water and between her thighs, seeking out that throbbing bud before stroking her there in the same rhythm as his fingers now gently squeezed and pulled on the aching tip of her breast, making her nipples longer, firmer.
Pandora gasped softly, unable to look away from Rupert’s hands, the one still cupping and pulling at her breast, the other caressing between her thighs, parting the gold curls there as she watched, revealing that ruby-red bud to her gaze as it pulsed to the tune of his caressing fingers.
It was—oh, God, this dual assault on her senses felt so good as her hips began to move instinctively into the stroking of those fingers against her, the pleasure growing hotter between her thighs, each plucking caress of her nipple increasing that pleasure. ‘Rupert!’ Pandora gasped breathlessly as that pleasure took her ever higher. ‘Please, Rupert …!’ she cried out, her head thrashing from side to side on his shoulder as she ached for relief from this pleasurable torment.
‘Tell me what you want, pet,’ he urged. ‘What you need.’
‘Harder,’ she pleaded. ‘Oh, please, Rupert, harder!’
‘Like this?’ He pulled and squeezed her nipple, the pulling on that turgid berry causing her channel to contract and spasm.
‘Yes!’ Pandora was beyond embarrassment now, beyond the awkwardness of her shyness as her hips arched up into Rupert’s stroking fingers, wanting—oh, God, wanting—
‘And this?’ Rupert’s fingers pinched that swollen, throbbing bud between her thighs.
Pandora screamed as she surged up on to the plateau of her pleas
ure before falling, floating on wave after wave of pleasure as Rupert now squeezed the tip of her breast to the same rhythm of two of his long fingers now plunging inside her, increasing and deepening the depth of her release until her head fell weakly back against his shoulder, her breathing laboured and gasping.
Rupert felt as if his chest was going to burst with the satisfaction he felt in watching Pandora reach her climax, revelling in the beauty of her nakedness, in the ready responses of that delicious body that had allowed him to give her that pleasure, and in doing so receive that same pleasure for himself. She was a veritable Venus come to life in his arms, a woman to be worshipped and adored, and Rupert knew he would happily spend the rest of his life making love with and to her.
For now he was happy to contemplate this one night together, their wedding night, hours and hours when Rupert intended to take Pandora in every way possible, binding her to him, claiming her, until he knew every dip and hollow of her body more intimately than he knew his own.
‘Where are we going?’ Pandora gasped as Rupert stood up to scoop her in his arms before stepping out of the bath, her own arms now clinging tightly about his neck as her hair slipped from its precarious hold at her crown and cascaded down over her shoulders and Rupert’s encircling arm.
He smiled as he set her gently down upon her own feet on the rug. ‘I thought I would ensure that you are completely dry before we go to bed.’
She stood completely naked in front of him as he reached to take one of the thick white towels from the stand, her cheeks turning a fiery red as he moved behind her to pat her back dry of the bath water, her legs still feeling slightly shaky from the intensity of pleasure she had just enjoyed under Rupert’s ministrations.
She had just enjoyed … Once again it had been she, and not Rupert, who had been given and had received pleasure.
Pandora moistened her lips before speaking.
‘You are a very generous lover, Rupert, but is it not time that I—that we—’
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