by Debra Glass
He enjoyed making her smile. “This path was originally established as King William’s private drive to St. James palace. Perhaps his subjects thought him to be a rotten monarch.”
“You jest,” she said, amusement evident in her voice.
“The sand mixture used to cover the road is also referred to as rotten,” James explained.
“Really? I never knew that,” Patience said as the driver turned onto the famed thoroughfare.
Already, the road was thick with men on horseback and carriages belonging to the members of the ton.
This was just the joyous outing for which he’d hoped. Here, there was no tension between them. Patience would once more be free to be herself with him—to be the Patience he so admired.
A wintry breeze blasted through the open carriage and she shivered.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked, tucking the plaid wool blanket that she’d placed across her lap closer.
Appreciation and wonder shone in her eyes. “Yes, thank you,” she said.
James settled in beside her and listened to the rhythmic clopping of horse hooves along with the grinding of the carriage wheels on the sandy drive. He heaved a silent sigh. His mind raced with what he’d done the night before. It made no sense that a woman unversed in coitus would want to be spanked, of all things. Yet, James did not doubt his wife was a virgin. That fact had been most obvious to him the first night.
He wanted to ask her why she’d chosen that particular scenario but he feared in doing so, he would embarrass her. The result would prove disastrous for she was already terrified of the idea of copulating with him.
Perhaps she was testing him to see if she could trust him. His chief aim was to please her but above all else, he wanted her to know that she could rely on him.
Their carriage rolled alongside another that James recognized as belonging to Lord and Lady Beauchamp. James gave the pair a curt nod of his head.
“Good afternoon, newlyweds!” Lady Beauchamp called from amongst her brightly colored ensemble consisting of a feathered bonnet and voluminous fur blanket.
Patience gave a little wave and afterward, James caught her gloved in his. Refusing to release it, he slipped both their hands back under the thick wool. “You know, love,” he whispered, leaning close to her ear. “I could do unspeakable things to you under this heavy blanket and no one would ever be the wiser.”
She tensed.
“In fact,” he added, “if we had a fur blanket such as the one Lady Beauchamp has, I could draw up your skirts, wriggle my finger through your—”
“Good day, Lord and Lady Somerset!” another passing neighbor interrupted.
James groaned his frustration but affected a broad smile as he tipped his top hat to the neighbors. His actions drew a tiny laugh from Patience. He smiled, his eyes catching hers. The expression of amusement faded but the sparks in her eyes did not.
James inhaled the brisk air. “Are you enjoying our little game?”
“Game?”
“Of choosing passages from romantic novels,” he explained.
“Yes.” Her voice was but a breath that turned to fog in the wintry air. Her gaze shifted to the driver and then back.
“He can’t hear us,” James whispered. He longed to nuzzle his cold nose against her cheek, to brush his lips against hers until she opened her mouth to his. But he did neither of those things. Instead, his hand tightened around hers. “Why don’t you tell me what you chose for us to do tonight?”
Her eyes widened dramatically. “Tell you?”
He nodded. “I can’t imagine what it must be and I’m dying to know.”
The prettiest blush warmed her cheeks. “I’m afraid it’s not what you hope.”
James had been hoping that she finally was ready to consummate the marriage. Did she know that? There was one way to find out. “And what am I hoping?” he asked.
“That I…I am…want…to become your wife…in deed as well as name,” she stammered with difficulty.
“I admit, I had hoped…” he began. “But I have all the patience in the world.”
Her apprehension seemed to fade at his pun.
He caressed her cheek with his gloved fingertips. “All jesting aside, my darling—you are worth the wait.”
She started to look away but he tipped her chin up, forcing her gaze back to his. “Now tell me what you have planned for me,” he said.
The muscles in her throat worked beneath his fingers. Her lashes fluttered.
“Don’t be shy with me,” James told her. “I am your most willing servant.”
She trembled and James knew it wasn’t from the damp cold. “I’ve been thinking,” she began. “Thus far, you haven’t been…been…satisfied.”
He arched an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”
As if the man passing by them on horseback could hear her, Patience waited until he was far ahead before she spoke. “You will need your scarves again.”
A tendril of panic laced with excitement slithered through him but the thought of being bound and blindfolded with Patience in control intrigued him nonetheless. “For me?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I’m afraid it’s quite shocking.”
One side of his mouth pulled into a grin. “Shock me.”
His statement seemed to embolden her. She batted her lashes and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Well, in the story, the hero ties the heroine’s hands, blindfolds her and forces her to…to take him in her…mouth.”
Thank God for the blanket. James’s cock leapt to full attention. Images of a voluptuously naked Patience tied and blindfolded, on her knees with a mouthful of his cock were almost too much to bear. He moaned his approval.
“You said somethin’, yer lordship?” the driver asked.
“No, nothing at all, Jasper,” James said quickly. “But I think perhaps we might cut our outing short.”
Patience blushed profusely. “I’ve offended you,” she said under her breath.
“On the contrary,” James said. “I’m very much looking forward to tonight.”
* * * * *
Wearing nothing but her chemise, Patience trembled as James tied the blindfold in place for the second time in as many days. What would it be like to take him in her mouth? At first, she’d thought such an act would be offensive. Degrading. The stories she’d read and her fantasies about James had led her to believe otherwise. Of course, the portion she’d underlined in the novel she’d given him earlier this morning included having her control and will stolen completely away and Patience looked forward to that aspect of tonight more than anything.
“Put your hands behind your back,” he ordered. His voice was like roughhewn leather.
A delicious tremor swept through body. “Not again,” she mewled—but it was just a part she was playing. This was easy when she was pretending to be someone else.
A smart slap landed on her thinly clad rump. Patience jolted but luxuriated in the wonderful heat that radiated from her backside to her inner thighs. Her clitoris throbbed in violent anticipation.
“Shall I have to punish you, slave?” James teased. He was playing his part well, tonight. Too well.
Patience shook at the thought of just what pleasurable punishments he would mete out to her.
“I won’t allow you to tie me,” she said. Her heart drummed wildly against her rib cage.
A hand grasped her arm. A foot caught her ankle and without warning, she tipped forward. She caught herself when her palms met the soft covers on her bed. Here’s where it was going to get interesting. Patience’s cream gathered and she ached for him to touch her between the legs. Her blood thickened until her pulse roared in her ears.
“For your disobedience, you’ll receive three lashes,” he said. “Pull up your shift.”
Patience swallowed and wrenched up the back of her chemise.
Something leathery tickled the backs of her thighs.
Patience held her position. Her bottom ting
led in eager expectation as James pushed his knee between her legs. “That’s it. Bare your lovely bottom for me. Spread your legs.”
Bracing her hands back on the bed, she inched her legs apart.
“Farther,” he commanded.
Her inner thighs burned as she stretched them as far as possible.
“Put your face on the mattress,” he said. “I want your bum high and exposed.”
Her stomach turned flips as she laid her forehead on the counterpane. The leather that Patience guessed was a strap teased her legs and then slapped her mons gently. Instinctively, she pushed back and up, wanting more attention there.
“I think you like having your cunny touched,” he said.
You have no earthly idea…
“Do you?” he asked. “Do you want me to touch you there?”
She whimpered.
This time—with more authority—the strap popped her again, setting her clitoris aflame.
Patience exhaled a quick breath. “Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes, master,” she said.
“Tell me explicitly what you desire.”
Her forehead furrowed. “Touch me. Between the legs. Please.”
“If you want pleasure from me, you will first have to earn it. I have decided to add a fourth lash to your punishment,” he said.
“I’m ready,” she said. Oh God in heaven was she ever ready. She dipped her spine down so that her bottom raised a fraction higher. Her pulse pounded between her legs.
As he moved to her side, he braced a hand on the small of her back. Patience longed to squirm, to squeeze her thighs together—but she had not been permitted to move.
She clutched the embroidered counterpane in her hands and waited.
The tip of the strap teased her cleft and moved over her bum and then it went away. It only took a second but waiting for the first real blow to fall was the most exquisite torture Patience had ever known.
Heat flashed where the strap fell. Patience shook. Her knees threatened to buckle.
“Count them for me,” James said.
Patience gulped. “One.”
“That’s one for your disobedience earlier,” he mused.
Three more. Something within her gave, as if her resistance snapped. She relaxed.
Again, the strap found its mark.
Patience moaned aloud. “Two.” Her voice no longer sounded like her own. It was husky. Breathy. Sexual.
“Your bum is red,” James said as his hand moved from the small of her back over her offended bottom. His touch was a caress meant to soothe but more than that, Patience wanted to feel his fingers delving and exploring.
After she took that fourth lick, would he touch her? Would he bring her to climax with his fingers? Impatient, she made a mewling sound. “Again,” she said, not believing she’d actually asked for it.
In a split second, his hand moved away and the strap popped as it made contact with her flesh for a third time. Patience relished the sting. “Three,” she cried.
One more and then…
There was no time to wait for it. The strap fell across her cheeks and then Patience heard it clatter to the floor as James reached between her thighs. Four.
Her fists clenched as his fingers found and kneaded her clitoris. Her cunny was sopping wet and she spread as far as possible, wanting to give him access everywhere. He did not disappoint.
A fingertip prodded the opening to her channel. Patience tensed. No one had ever been inside her there. No one. A curious, sharp pain coursed through her as he pushed his finger into her but once it was inside, it felt oh-so good. Yes, yes, finally!
“You’re tight and warm and wet,” he said.
But when he suddenly removed his finger, Patience cried out in frustration. He leaned over her, his body heavy and hot. Before Patience could consider that he might take her in spite of their agreement, he pushed the finger that had been in her cunny into her mouth.
“Taste yourself,” he said. “Suck my finger. Show me how you’re going to suck my cock.”
Again, instinct consumed her and her lips closed around the finger. She sucked and licked, tasting her own sweet cream and wondering what it would be like to taste that same cream on James’s tongue. He slid the digit in and out of her mouth over and over. “I’m going to fuck your mouth like this,” he warned. “But first, I’m going to put my finger back in your cunny and fuck you with it.”
Patience moaned as he pushed his finger into her channel once more and continued his intense, breathtaking onslaught.
“My cock will fill you much more than this finger,” he told her and Patience quivered at the thought of it.
Wonderful sensations built inside her and she struggled to keep from sagging against the bed. She clutched the covers and pushed back to meet his thrusting finger.
“You’ll do as I say for the rest of the night,” James said.
“Yes, yes!” she cried more than ready to submit to anything he might suggest. Just, please don’t stop…
And then, Patience lost all control as sheer ecstasy rushed like a wildfire out of control through the body. Wilting, she pulsed around James’s finger. Spasm after delicious spasm caused her to jump and cry out but she rode it to the very end and when the last of the tremors eddied away, strong hands seized her arms and dragged them behind her body. She gasped for breath. When he bound her wrists, her body seemed to dissolve as he dragged her off the bed and pushed her to her knees on the carpet.
He seemed suddenly tense. Choking fear rose in Patience. But there was little time to be afraid—or to protest.
His fingers threaded into the hair at her nape and he pulled her head forward until she felt something warm and big prodding her lips. His cock! Her mind screamed that this was wrong, sinful. Her body reacted entirely differently.
At once she parted her lips and engulfed all she could of her husband’s cock. He tasted both clean and slightly salty. Droplets of sweet liquid fell on the back of her tongue.
Rough gasps met her ears and she realized the hand in her hair trembled. His other hand fisted around the base of his cock and he began pumping himself into her mouth with reckless abandon.
Her jaw ached but she relished the sensation of her husband’s brute strength punctuated by his bridled control. He could easily have torn her apart if he wanted and that knowledge drove Patience mad with desire.
“Suck me,” he rasped. “That’s it. Damn, that’s good.”
Encouraged by his ribald words, Patience licked and sucked and ran her tongue along his length despite his thrusts. Her knees hurt. Her cunny throbbed. Her shoulders burned from the strain of having her hands tied.
“This is what you’re made for, Patience,” he said breathlessly. “For sucking and fucking. God, I want to bury this hard cock in your cunny.”
If she hadn’t had a mouthful of his luscious cock she would have begged him to do just that.
“Oh,” he moaned. “Oh, Patience. Oh, yes. Yes.” The hand around his cock joined the one threaded into her hair and he held her head as he cried out and erupted in her mouth.
Patience gulped and swallowed as his essence spurted onto her tongue. His hands tensed and she could tell he was trying with all his might to hold back. And as suddenly as he’d exploded, all the tension melted from his entire being.
Disappointment surged as he withdrew his cock from her mouth. Patience could have sucked him all night. But then, she sensed he’d dropped to his knees in front of her. Reaching around her, he jerked the scarf free of her wrists and then he gently removed the blindfold.
Patience blinked against the light given off by the fire in the hearth. Gratitude and something Patience could not define shone in James’s eyes. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her swollen lips and then lifted once more. Before she could take her next breath, James’s mouth sought hers. His pressure was insistent. His lips teased and his tongue tantalized her mouth until she opened for him. When she did, her heart ran wi
ld. She returned his kiss as if she’d been kissed dozens of times, eagerly exploring his mouth. Everything but James faded until there was only his heat, his strength, his hunger.
He urged her body the rest of the way to the floor and clinging, Patience allowed him to move over her. His knees pushed hers apart while his mouth continued its passionate invasion.
His spent cock raked through her folds and Patience lifted her hips, wishing he was still hard, wanting him to take her. She wanted to thrash, to scream—anything to drive this maddening desire out of her soul.
Through her chemise, he palmed one breast and squeezed. She moaned into his mouth and arched. His penetrating kiss deepened even more and then abruptly, he dragged his lips from hers.
“I love you,” he uttered.
Patience’s lashes fluttered open. Dazed, she stared up at her husband.
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. His eyes blazed almost black. “I love you, Patience.”
She gaped. All the warmth and desire inside her drained away and in its place, inexplicable panic exploded. She pushed at James’s shoulders. “That wasn’t in the passage. This wasn’t in the passage. Enough. Enough!”
Stunned, James stared. For the first time in his life, he’d told a woman—his wife—that he loved her…and meant it. Anger flared urging him to show her what it meant to be loved by him but miraculously, intellect prevailed.
He pushed himself to his knees and did up his breeches as he stood. Patience shoved her wrinkled nightgown back down as she struggled to sit.
James longed to lash out at her. He ached to dominate her, to show her what being a wife entailed. But instead, he forced himself to breathe.
“The scene is over,” Patience said as she scrambled to her feet. “I have played my part.”
Part? Part!
He snatched her arm and hauled her body against his. “I’ve been more than patient with you but it’s high time you understood that you are not playing a part, my dear. You are my wife and I—”
Realization consumed him. She’d only grown cold when he’d told her he loved her. Patience did not fear losing her virginity. She feared intimacy. She feared love.