“Ania,” she heard behind her, her husband’s voice a deep rumble. She put down the brush.
“Yes, Your Grace?” she asked primly, well aware of how churlish she was being.
Nicholas approached her chair, and it was not long before she felt the tall column of his warm against her back and head. He lowered his hands to her shoulders and kneaded them, unkinking every tight muscle that had managed to stiffen with the weight of his silence over the past week. “Ania,” he said again, nudging her to rise from her chair.
She did, and turned, a ready remark at her lips that died as his mouth closed down on hers. There was a different feeling to this kiss, a kind of hunger that made her feel as if Nicholas wanted to climb inside of her and hide there forever. It was a fierce sort of possessiveness that quite made the blood rush completely from her head, so that when at last he released her, she stumbled and would have fallen if Nicholas had not wrapped his large hands around her waist and was holding her upright.
“Nick,” she gasped, and with some careful angling, their mouths closed again.
They scrambled at each other, releasing folds of clothes and hardly noticing as the garments began to sink to the ground around them. Nicholas was quickly divested of his shirt, allowing Ania to delight in exploring the broad expanse of his muscular chest with her hands. He caught her mouth again and again, and she wound her arms around his neck, drawing him closer and deeper, allowing her tongue to slip into his mouth. She hardly noticed as she did this, but when she did, the fissure of excitement at her own boldness expanded, and she was suddenly filled with the incredible knowledge that Nicholas enjoyed her ministrations as much as she did his. She flicked her tongue against him once, then twice, and heard his sharp intake of breath as his own tongue tangled with hers in an instinctive dance.
She was divested of her chemise soon enough, and as he gazed down at her nude body, Ania was caught somewhere between unbearable shyness and wanton desire. Under his eyes, her body felt beautiful; as he lowered a palm to stroke her from collarbone to nipple, her breasts plumped and her head fell back, exposing a white morsel of throat that Nicholas took advantage of. She gasped as his tongue parried with the tender flesh there, flicked against it, inflaming her and causing her head to positively swim. With one miniscule step, she pressed her bare chest against his and felt him fully nude against her. She could sense his excitement from the low rumble in his throat as she repeated his actions back to him, catching his earlobe in her teeth and, having cloaked her teeth with her lips, bit him gently.
Nicholas shuddered. Where had his wife learned all this? But he knew. He knew that he knew, that her explorations were sourced by naught but her own imagination, which he had come to speak to her about. But having seen her so lusciously righteous before the vanity mirror, he had been unable to help himself. Now, as she pressed her thigh against his arousal, Nicholas lost his train of thought completely yet again, and relied instead on pure instinct to guide him.
He almost bent her body in twain as he leaned in to drink the next kiss from her lips. Responding to him and the position of their hungry bodies, Ania wrapped her arms around his neck and hooked each of her legs around his hips; when he straightened, he lifted her, and she felt the softness of her sex brush against his, leaving her shivering, wanting more. He supported her lower back with his arms and carried her over to the lush bed, setting her down as carefully as a package to be opened on a holiday morning, unwrapping her hands from his neck and looking down into the wide expanse of her green eyes as one looks into the hearth of the home, understanding it is the place where one wants to be most of all.
He saw a thought pass through her mind and saw the expression in her eyes change as he bent over her body. “Nick,” she said, her voice delightfully hoarse from arousal, “Margaret came to me today.”
Nicholas stilled.
Ania lifted one hand to his face and he wanted to close his eyes against it as she stroked his cheek gently, but the nervousness he felt peeled his lids open. “She said that Turnquist proposed marriage to her last night.”
Nicholas smiled and Ania went visibly lax.
“Was it your doing?” she asked wonderingly.
Nicholas shifted so that he laid sidelong his deliciously naked wife. Running a hand down the smooth skin of her stomach, he felt something swell inside of his chest that he had never felt before. It was possibly because he had never felt quite this way about another woman. Looking at her small form and trusting eyes, a surge of protectiveness filled him, and he knew that this was a moment that could make or break the future of his relationship with his wife. His wife, who he had looked for such a long time, his wife, who had stumbled into his life by some lucky accident, becoming his family at a time when his own had managed to fall apart so spectacularly.
“Margaret being unhappy made you unhappy. Myself, I think Thunrow is a right arse, but for better or worse, he is your sister’s choice,” said Nicholas finally, fingers inching towards Ania’s hand. Intertwining his digits with hers, he lifted her hand to his lips to plant a soft kiss there, feeling her eyes follow his every motion. “So I simply explained to him that if I could be married to the Illustrated Lady herself, surely he should have no objection to being wed to her sister.”
He saw Ania’s body go rigid and realized he had forgotten the most important part. Locking his dark eyes with her green ones, he continued. “As for me, Duchess Connols, I want you to know something. I have been a right boorish pig this past week. I do not care what you do.”
A small crease of concern made its presence known on Ania’s forehead.
Nicholas shook his head. “I spoke out of turn. What I mean is, I was bowled over! The Illustrated Lady herself revealed—what a revelation! I did not know whether to laugh or weep; I had always pictured her as a slightly bored matron with quite the imagination, but here she was, accomplished and sharing my bed. Mine!” he cried, and laughed after all.
“Nick,” breathed Ania, and the look in her eyes melted him entirely.
He gathered her up so that her pale curves swayed attractively over the slenderness of her delicate waist. Cupping her breasts in his hands, he lifted each one to his mouth, enveloping each of the rosy nipples in his mouth and tugging gently there. As he felt Ania rake her fingers through his hair in response, the tugging grew more urgent, and he flickered his tongue against the growing thickness of the tissue that signified her arousal until the moans that were coming from her throat were consistent and unceasing.
He released her breast from his mouth with a satisfactory pop and watched it spring back, shining, wet, and significantly pinker than before. The flush that she had over her breasts spread appealingly over her neck and face, and Nicholas lowered her against the bed again. As he scattered kisses all over her stomach, his hand crept to possess her breastbone and neck, knocking the wind out of her wonderfully and anchoring her in place as his other hand fingered the curls between her legs.
“Mmm,” she said, and the little noise almost upset his self-control entirely. He found the folds of flesh between the dark, soft curls and spread her gently open, the rosebud of her most intimate flesh now accessible for viewing. He bent his head to lick her once, twice, and then felt her fingers digging into his shoulders. “Nick.”
He smiled into the valley of her sex.
Then again, more urgently still. “Nick!”
He rose up over her like the sun over the horizon. Wrapping his hand over hers and holding it over her head, Nicholas used his other hand to ease himself into her body, feeling her stretch full as he brushed against the barrier of her virginity.
“Trust me,” he said, and with one quick motion, the pain had subsided, and he moved not an inch, allowing her to become accustomed to the feel of him in her body. When she finally met his eyes, he knew that she was ready. The parry and thrust of him into her crevice was accompanied by her soft gasps as she bucked her body, trying to match his rhythm. They moved together, with a rising in tempo tha
t made them lose all sense of the boundaries of their bodies until all there was was the crush of her breasts against his chest and the sharp whiteness of her teeth against the blush of her lips as her mouth parted to match her exertions.
Nicholas could feel himself losing control as the sensations whirled around him with increasing force. The softness of her body, the rise and fall of her hips against him, it all swirled into one great feeling until he felt surely he could take it no longer. But no, she had to be first. It was her right.
Counting backwards from twenty, his cock found the ridge inside of her above which a hot little button laid. Fifteen, he nudged against it, hearing her cry out once. Ten, he rubbed her from the inside out, watching her squeeze those incredible eyes shut as the blood roared inside of her. Five, her body began to shake against him and her legs rose up to lock behind his hips and draw him in deeper and faster. One, Ania exploded over him, calling out his name like a prayer to the deity above, over and over, senseless and lost in her own newfound pleasure.
Moments later, Nicholas joined her, allowing himself a release he had staved off for a very long time. As he shuddered into her body, she kissed him, welcoming him into every opening of her body as willingly as a blind man drinks water. Collapsing against her body, Nicholas realized that in his daze, he had still not spoken aloud the words that had plagued him since he realized their truth just about a week before. Rolling off of her, but pulling his wife close to him with his arm, he said:
“I just want you to know, Ania; I want you to know that I love your stories. They make you who you are, and I have looked too long for someone just like you to be put off by some nonsensical notion of what is right and wrong in this uptight society. Your secret will always be safe with me.”
Ania felt her eyes fill with tears. Sitting up so that she could look her husband full in the face, she said, “Oh Nicholas! What a big heart you have!”
“All the better to love you with,” replied the Duke of Connols and kissed his duchess so passionately that all rational thought fled from them both quite willingly, for the next several hours, at least.
THE END
The Duke’s Dark Secret
It would never do to be late to the social event of the year, and Charlotte Woodhall had every intention of arriving on time. But her sisters Margaret and Catherine were conspiring against her, as usual. Consequently, she was beyond frustrated as she rushed about trying to get her dress just so.
“You’ll never make it, you know.” Margaret mocked her, putting the last of her ribbons in her hair. “Mother said the carriage was to leave at 7:30 sharp.”
“Sharp, she said” Catherine piped up. She was the youngest of the sisters, but was always ready to support the eldest of the three of them in torturing Charlotte. “And you may as well not even bother, as once they see me, there won’t be anyone interested in dancing with you anyway. It is my debut.”
Charlotte held her tongue. Though certainly the youngest, Catherine was also by far the homeliest of the three, and with Margaret for competition, that was saying something. The eldest of the Woodhall daughters was rapidly approaching spinsterhood. Though known as a social climber and having some residual hint of aristocracy to claim offsetting the family’s dire financial circumstances, Margaret was able to compound a lack of physical refinement with the social graces of an artless butterfly. She would dart from conversation to conversation, seeking the nectar of gossip and distributing the same in equal portions, whether it was known to be true or false. Though it initially may have warmed her to the “right sort” of people in Bath society, she had managed to develop a questionable reputation by her eagerly wagging tongue.
While Margaret had harmed the family stock in social circles, it was Catherine who was noted for scandal. It was her social debut, but already she was noted for sneaking out, partaking in drinking, and stepping out with gentleman callers known to ride roughshod through the town in their carriages. On one such outing, a village blacksmith in a remote Somersetshire village had broken his foot and barely escaped being trampled by Margaret and her beau of the moment.
Charlotte- well, Charlotte was Charlotte, and as she gazed into the mirror feeling frumpy and frazzled, she began to dread the notion of being out at all. As though it were a charitable duty, her mother and sisters dragged her along to all such events, perhaps in the theory that there was greater safety in numbers. While she did not think herself plain with her smart, raven hair and pleasant cheeks and lips, the loud and greedy nature of her kin seemed to put off all interested parties. She was starting to fear that unless she were able to escape the vortex of her family’s sins, she would be left to languish alone at every dance, overlooked by men already unnerved by the Woodhall reputation.
She was becoming known as a wallflower, and it was a reputation that bothered her greatly.
“And still you dally.” Catherine mocked, and realizing she’d been staring forlornly into the mirror thinking about her plight, Charlotte let out a huff of impatience.
“I tell you I’d have been done long ago had you both not helped yourself to my things. I thought I’d misplaced them, but I see you’re using my good brush, sister, and Margaret is using ribbon I purchased not a week ago.”
“It’s not as though you were going to look any good in them.” Margaret sneered. “If you put a ribbon on a sow, it’s still a sow, isn’t it?”
Both girls cackled at this and before Charlotte could respond, the two flounced out of their shared room, crying, “We’re ready, mother, we’re ready!”
Charlotte rushed to fasten and clasp the last portions of her dress and quickly snatched up the brush to try to do something respectable with her hair. Fortunately, she’d had the foresight to get her short curls set early on, but wearing a bonnet as she’d gone for a walk and to read in the countryside had taken a slight toll on her intended appearance. As she was getting the bun reset, her mother slowly allowed the door to the room swing open as she darkened the doorstep.
“Why are you not ready, Charlotte?” The large-framed, unsmiling woman demanded. Before she could receive a response, she glided behind her daughter and roughly took hold of the back of her hair. “Wrong. This is not how I taught you to do your hair. You will sit in silence as I do this so that you will not make the rest of us any later.”
“Mother, I have it-”
“You will kindly observe silence.” She replied crisply. “I would prefer you to be seen and not heard, which would be a proper policy for you to observe at the dance. I shall never find you a husband if you can not learn to mind your tongue.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Beatrice Woodhall pulled and shaped her hair quickly and without mercy. In short order, Charlotte’s hair was a rough approximation of what she’d wanted- a little old fashioned for the dawning of the 1820’s, but near enough she knew she had little grounds for complaint. Complaint was the furthest from her mind among considerations, anyway. It would do no good. Her mother was unkind, but not normally cruel; there would be no physical punishment for rule-breaking. However, if she spoke out of turn, word would be put round to their two remaining servants and the girls not to speak to her under any condition. A week or two of pure silence was not entirely unwelcome, yet just unnerving enough that Charlotte had determined to avoid it if only for the sake of peace in the family.
“There. You are presentable.” Charlotte’s mother proclaimed. There was no father to admire the handiwork; Charles Woodhall had died two years ago and the family was saddled with his debts. They’d gone from a modestly comfortable, upper class lifestyle to giving up their apartments in Bath for their country cottage. The people in service to the Woodhalls had gradually gone from nearly one dozen to the elderly couple that seemed to have born into Woodhall employment, and Charlotte suspected even their days of cooking and cleaning for the four women were dwindling.
“Let me get a look at you.” Beatrice insisted, and after Charlotte spun around slowly, her mother sighed. “Ver
y well. You are a pretty girl, Charlotte, but you must stop shrinking into everything you wear. How a girl can be so timid around men and yet clomp about without any hint of femininity is quite beyond me.”
The words stung, but Charlotte bore them up as she had before. “I will do my best to reflect well on us tonight.”
“See that you do. That’s enough tarrying, we must leave now before we become the very last guests to arrive at the Sedgewick’s..”
*****
They arrived late, but still within the range of fashionably late enough that Charlotte was not to incur too great of an amount of wrath from Beatrice. As soon as they were announced and had entered the rooms of the Segewick’s fete, Charlotte’s family abandoned her. On some occasions, this might be cause for irritation, to be left alone with nobody to talk to. Fortune favored her this time, though, because Frances Cook spotted her and immediately made her way across the room to her.
Frances was a waif of a thing, much more petite than Charlotte, with equally dark hair and a penchant for laughter. She was already laughing over some funny comment that was either told to her or that she’d shared with a fellow guest when she took Charlotte’s arm. “Thank heavens you’re here,” she declared, leading her across the room towards a servant carrying a tray of punch. “I nearly died of boredom! There’s no one to talk to within our station- all right, I’ll be candid, within my station- and I have taken to accosting lonely and shy girls to trade jibes about the worst-dressed.”
ROMANCE: His Reluctant Heart (Historical Western Victorian Romance) (Historical Mail Order Bride Romance Fantasy Short Stories) Page 116