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RAIN-FRESHENED BREEZES WAFTED IN THROUGH the open French doors and windows of the master’s bedchambers, billowing lace panels out beyond the deep, green velvet draperies elegantly drawn aside by braided silk cords. Through the wavering divisions of ornate cloth, sunlight filtered in, seeming almost fickle after penetrating the swaying boughs of the live oak growing near the end of the house. At times, bright shafts came through the foliage unrestricted and, like a gleaming sword of light, pierced the windowpanes, dazzling the eye of the beholder. Other moments, fluttering leaves scattered the rays before they could escape, sending them flying in every direction, like fireflies frolicking in carefree abandon.
Whatever the shape of the capricious brilliance, it seemed intent upon searching out some sublime nectar as it swept over the one lying amid the rumpled sheets. The blazing beams highlighted auburn tresses curling in glorious disarray upon a downy pillow and impishly chased across darkly lashed eyelids serenely closed in slumber, but whenever the radiance masqueraded as a scintillating array of tiny specks, it seemed to take special delight in dancing across swelling mounds partially concealed by a snowy white sheet edged with embroidered lace.
Lean, brown fingers reached out and, with careful diligence, lifted away the covering, exposing the pale, lustrous body to the dappled light. From the edge of the bed where he stood tall and naked, Jeff slowly perused the curving form now illumined by the whimsical radiance of the solar orb. It was much like considering a lavish feast; he didn’t know exactly where to begin.
Bending a knee upon the edge of the mattress, Jeff leaned across the bed until he lay braced on an elbow beside his sleeping wife. For a long moment, he made no effort to touch her, only admired her dainty features and softly parted lips, but the temptation to do more than just look proved stronger than his power to resist. As lightly as the brush of a butterfly’s wings, his mouth caressed hers with fleeting kisses, parting her gently curving lips until they began to respond. Her creamy throat provided a pathway to more tantalizing ground, and soon he was savoring the sweetness of a delicately hued crest. Smiling sleepily, Raelynn threaded slender fingers through the short, raven strands at his nape and arched her back to receive the best of his attention. He gave it eagerly and continued on with fervent dedication until she was all but writhing beneath his delicious assault.
“Please, no more, Jeffrey,” she pleaded. Against her will she had found herself swiftly advancing toward that same rapture he had taken her to time and time again during the night gone past. “I’m nigh faint.”
Pressing her down flat upon the bed, Jeff leaned above her and smiled down into eyes that had grown luminous with desire. “Why would you have me stop now, madam?”
Admiringly Raelynn traced a forefinger over the male visage as the scent of his cologne drifted with the strength of a well-aged brew through her senses. The morning light bathed the chiseled planes and angles of a warmly bronzed cheek and the muscular contour of a shoulder and arm, making her keenly aware of his fine, manly appearance. Had he been some Greek god who had awakened from stone to vibrant life, he could not have aroused her awe more readily.
Her fingers continued their inspection, touring the fascinating grooves that marked his handsomely chiseled cheeks. From a distance, a stranger might have supposed them small scars that had puckered his cheeks, albeit captivatingly, except that when he grew solemn, they disappeared entirely. Just as quickly they deepened with the degree of humor he displayed.
During the brevity of their marriage, Raelynn had come to the realization that she had difficulty believing in her own good fortune. Being the wife of such a man seemed a position reserved for loftier, more dignified ladies, not one barely past the difficult years of puberty. Just as frequently she had wondered when reality would awaken her and she would realize that all of it was nothing more than an enchanted dream. “Because I want to wait for you.”
“Do you now?” Grinning, Jeff cocked his head curiously as his hand paused. “And have you no liking for my caresses?”
Beneath his glowing eyes, a blush crept into her cheeks. “So much so, Jeffrey, that you make me forget everything else, and I am swept away by the bliss you create within me, yet I enjoy such pleasure far more when we’re joined as one and can share the experience as husband and wife.”
He searched her face, amazed by her wifely commitment to their unity. Not more than a day or two ago, he had suspected something entirely different about the woman he had married. “You’re not overly tender after our night of love?”
Though Raelynn lowered her gaze from his probing stare, her mouth curved upward winsomely at the corners. “I forget about all of that when you assuage the hurt.”
His lips twitched as he teased, “No longer afraid of my base parts, madam?”
Color suffused her cheeks even as she shook her head with a definite denial. She sent a fleeting glance chasing upward. “You’ve made me crave everything about you.”
Willing to accommodate his beauteous wife, Jeff rolled upon her, but surprise soon lit Raelynn’s face when she realized that he had other things in mind. His eyes gleamed into hers, much like those of a puckish little boy pestering a girl with pigtails. Except that this was no child’s play, but a married couple bent on extracting exotic delights from every moment of their foreplay. Raelynn became a willing spectator to his teasing as he used his maleness to awaken that part of her that was most sensitive to stimulation. She experienced the same quickening excitement, the same catches in her breath as he had done in the carriage the day before, yet, whereas his passions had gone unappeased until they had gained the comfort of their bed, she had every hope that both of them would reach that lofty height well before they ever left its soft confines.
Lifting her head from the pillow, she kissed his brows, his cheeks, his nose and his subtly cleft chin with a womanly appreciation for all that she saw. In claiming his lips, she soon gained his ardent response, and their mouths and tongues joined in an avaricious search. Still, he tantalized her, stroking himself against her dewy softness, boldly skimming beneath the outer fringes, until strengthening tremors began to assail her. Unable to subdue a muted moan, Raelynn rose up against him in an anxious quest to ensnare the fiery blade. Chuckling softly at her mounting impatience, Jeff yielded to her urgings and pressed fully home, causing her breath to catch at the onrushing waves of pleasure that washed over her. Scrubbing her hands over his tautly fleshed ribs, she cooed near his ear as she whispered assurances that she did indeed feel as if she had been made for him. In the next moments she was meeting his quickening thrusts with a growing eagerness to please and be appeased.
RAELYNN CLASPED THE SHEET HIGHER OVER HER bosom and, in spite of the restrictions of the confining shroud, shuffled across the room to an east window, from whence she could view the world outside. Jeff had informed her that they would have to wait until their bath cooled before they could make use of it. During the interval, she had sought to familiarize herself with her new wifely domain and to see all the sights available from the master’s chambers. She could hear Jeffrey stropping his razor in the bathing chamber as he hummed softly to himself, evidencing his cheery mood after a night of sensual delights and, more recently, a return to their own private nirvana. Though hardly a qualified judge of voices, she was led to believe that he could sing fairly well as a baritone; he certainly could hum on the proper key, but as far as making any final judgment, she would just have to wait until he actually burst out in a song. A bride normally had many things to learn about her spouse, but in her case, there was much more than the usual, considering the fact that they had been complete strangers mere hours before they had spoken their vows.
Pulling aside a silken panel, Raelynn scanned the scenery beyond the window and smiled as she took note of the early weanlings frolicking in a lush meadow beyond the stable. Apparently they were feeling rather frisky in the cooler weather presently gracing the countryside. Seeing them chase each other about, she made a men
tal note to ask her husband to take her out for a ride one day soon and to show her some of the land that comprised the plantation. It was doubtful with the thousands of acres he owned that she could view it all during one afternoon’s excursion, but she had to start somewhere. Then, of course, there was the fact that she hadn’t been riding for almost a year, and though like the older foals, she was anxious to test her skills, she wasn’t all that confident about her stamina.
In turning aside from the window, Raelynn became mindful of the desk that was angled in such a way that the front of it faced three corners of the room, allowing whatever light that streamed through the French doors and window to be of immediate benefit to anyone working there. Residing on top of the finely tooled leather were a pair of glass inkwells in a brass holder that bore a small statue of a bronze horse and a slender brass sheath for a quill. Nearby lay a curved knife with a handle carved in the shape of a ram’s head. Although rather large for such a service, she could imagine that it functioned fairly nicely as a letter opener. The hazard would be if it slipped across a hand or finger, for the blade looked positively wicked.
Her gaze fell on a leather-bound volume lying open on the desk top. In growing curiosity she picked up the book, turned it over to see the title, and discovered that she held within her grasp a copy of “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” by Sir Walter Scott, a collection of poetry published in Britain to great acclaim the previous year. It had sold so well that many of Sir Walter’s readers had gone in want of a copy. To see the book here in the Carolinas left her totally amazed by the resourcefulness of the man she had married.
Raelynn leafed through the pages, noting as she did so that the edges had been neatly cut to the very last page, no doubt by the knife she had just seen. Jeff had obviously readied the book for a reading and, from the presence of a bookmark tucked near the center, she guessed that he was in the process of indulging himself in that particular pastime.
Raelynn smiled at the idea of her quintessentially masculine husband having a desire to read such a book. Jeff conveyed such a strong manliness in nearly everything he did that it was difficult to imagine him enjoying poetry. More pronounced than the pleasure he took in reading was his love of horses, his skill with firearms, his dedication to his work, his plantation, shipping company, and the lumber mill he owned with his brother. Then, of course, there were his very manly attributes, some of which made her blush with secret delight to recall.
“Our bath is now tolerable, madam,” Jeff announced, stepping from the bathing chamber with a scant linen towel wrapped about his narrow hips. “Coming?”
“Your obedient servant,” she said, playfully bobbing a curtsey before him.
Jeff braced his fists against his lean waist and, feigning the scowl of some dreaded pharaoh, peered down his noble nose at her as he arched a dark brow to a lofty height. “A servant, you say?”
“Yes, my lord,” Raelynn replied in a guise of humble obedience. “Your every wish is my command.”
“Is it now?”
She peered at him suspiciously and decided she didn’t trust the devilish gleam in his eyes. Her responding grin was reminiscent of an elfish sprite. “Then again, sir, a lady must have some reservations.”
“I see.” He thrust out his chin reflectively as he pondered her reply. “What about scrubbing my back?”
Raelynn dipped her head in a consenting nod. “I believe I can manage that well enough, sir, but only if you’ll scrub mine first.”
“Agreed.” Jeff pivoted about-face and strode back into the bathing chamber as she struggled to follow along behind in spite of the sheet that seemed dedicated to coming loose and tripping her. Pausing to readjust her makeshift clothing, she scooped up the bottom of the linen and quickly joined him.
The large, elongated copper bathtub all but dominated the room and, as she had discovered the day before, was spacious enough to comfortably accommodate both of them. Jeff halted beside it and, freeing the towel, tossed it aside, leaving his wife fully cognizant of his growing assets, those same which she had blushingly recalled hardly a moment ago. The heat now infusing her cheeks had naught to do with shame, but a warming admiration of all that she saw.
“You seem distracted, madam,” he challenged, glancing at her askance with a smile that resembled a leer.
“So do you, sir,” she rejoined meaningfully.
“Aye,” he admitted. “ ‘Tis a weakness I suffer when you’re around.”
“I see no weakness, sir.” Deliberately Raelynn dragged the end flap of the sheet from her substitute bodice and, with a wiggle, hastened the shroud’s descent to the floor, capturing her husband’s undivided attention. Biting a grinning lip, she sauntered forward provocatively and reached out to claim the object of her interest, snatching his breath forthwith. “I hope you don’t parade yourself before other women as casually as you do with me, sir,” she said with more than a grain of sincerity. “I wouldn’t be at all averse to staking my claims on you with claws bared now that we have truly become man and wife.”
“What you have in your greedy little hand, madam, is yours alone to have and to hold,” he assured her, carefully avoiding any mention of past involvements. “As for Nell, you’ll never have anything to worry about, please believe me.”
Raelynn grinned up at him as he slid an arm behind her. “As long as you understand what will set my temper awry.”
“I understand completely, madam, for I, too, would be greatly offended if you were to bestow your attentions upon another man.” He extended a hand to assist her into the bath. “The water will be getting cold if we stand here much longer.”
Suffering some reservations Raelynn considered first the tub and then his long legs. “Don’t you think you should get in first this time, Jeffrey? We sat at opposite ends yesterday, but it wasn’t as cozy as it could be if we were sitting together.”
Grinning, Jeff inclined his head, readily acknowledging the truth of her statement. “I didn’t want to seem a cad by going first or dictating the way I thought it should be, madam, but you’re right, of course. It would be a lot cozier if we’re both at the same end.”
Some moments later Raelynn lounged back contentedly against her husband’s chest as he lathered soap over the hills and valleys of her bosom and all the other tempting terrain within reach.
“I’ve a mind to let our neighbors take a gander at you, Mrs. Birmingham.”
“Gander?” She was all but purring from his ministrations, but grew curious nevertheless. “Whatever do you mean, Jeffrey?”
“Gander . . . you know, look.”
She cast a coquettish glance at him over a glistening shoulder. “Surely not quite like this, Jeffrey? I think I should get dressed first . . . unless, of course, you don’t mind your friends seeing me completely naked.”
“I do indeed, madam,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear. Bending low, he nipped playfully at the dainty lobe as his hand slid around to encompass a round breast. He eyed the delicate pink protrusion thrusting outward through his fingers and marveled at how pale and lustrous her skin looked in comparison to his. “When I spoke with Reverend Parsons in Charleston several days ago, he all but made me promise that we’d attend the Sunday social coming up this weekend at church. ‘Twill be a chance for you to meet some more of our neighbors before our ball.”
“And will Nell be there perchance?”
“Wench,” he growled playfully and batted the water in front of her face, drawing a protesting squeal from her. She returned the favor, which soon evolved them in a contest of dampening proportions. Some time later they stood adorned in nothing more than towels as they considered the floor, where a large ring of water wreathed the outer limits of the tub. Like children, they entered into a race to see who could clean up more of the puddles before the task was complete. The game definitely entailed some scurrying on the part of Raelynn, who was not above treading upon her husband’s bony feet in an effort to get to a wet area first or pinching his backside to mov
e him swiftly out of the way.
It was just as much fun for the imp to run up behind him while he was wiping up the floor and to reach underneath the towel, well forward of his buttocks, bringing him upright like a stiffly coiled spring. When the tables were turned, however, that was an entirely different story, or at least it was from Raelynn’s point of view, for she was not above screeching, stamping her foot to show her irritation, and threatening dire consequences over his outrageous audacity to accost her in such a lewd fashion, which of course only enticed her husband to do it all the more.
GARBED IN NOTHING MORE THAN A LOOSELY FLOWING peignoir, Raelynn left the master’s suite moments later and entered her former bedroom from which she immediately rang for Cora. After selecting a soft, white muslin day dress adorned with a blue satin sash and striped vertically with narrow, embroidered bands of the same hue upon which had been appliquéd tiny pale blue flowers, she set about garbing herself in stockings and chemise. She was just slipping the gown over her head when the housekeeper arrived with a young, black woman whom she immediately introduced as her cousin, Tizzy.
“Mistah Jeffrey said yo’d be needin’ a lady’s maid, Miz Raelynn. Tizzy used ta work for some folks in Virginnie ‘til her pa went ta fetch her last week wit’ a letter from Mistah Jeffrey an’ a bag o’ coins ta buy her papers.”
“You mean she’s a slave?” Raelynn asked, noticing an ugly laceration on Tizzy’s cheek.
“Well, she’ll have ta works for de mastah ‘til she pays off de debt he laid out fo’ her. O’ course, dat won’t be so hard what wit’ Mistah Jeffrey bein’ such a fine gentl’man an’ all.”
Raelynn lifted the girl’s chin to inspect the raw gash. “Whatever happened to your face, Tizzy?”
“My ol’ massah, he comed home drunk as an ol’ robin eatin’ ferment’d berries an’ started whippin’ ever’one in sight, includin’ his missus. Ah tried ta help Miz Clare ’cause she always been like an angel ta me. Dat’s when Mistah Horace snatched up a knife an’ swung ’round on me in a rage. Afore ah could skedaddle, he whisked it across my cheek. If’n Miz Clare hadn’t laid a vase o’er de back o’ his head an’ knocked him out cold, ah’da’ve been a gonna fo’ sho’. Aftahwards, Miz Clare sent a rider ta my folks, beggin’ fo’ dem ta finds a way ta fetch me home. Straightways my pa comed here ta Oakley an’ asked Mistah Jeffrey if’n he could help.” Grinning, Tizzy spread her arms and declared, “An’ here ah is.”
A Season Beyond a Kiss Page 10