13. A Wedding Night
A few minutes later
John lit the only hurricane lamp in the room and worried Ella Mae had changed her mind when she stood by the side of the bed and audibly sighed. Earlier that day, he had made a deal with the hotel owner. In exchange for the use of the room for his wedding night, he would board the owner’s horse for a month.
Judging from the fine linens, two feather pillows, and the counterpane on top of the bed, he decided he had the better part of the deal.
“I take it you’ve changed your mind?”
Ella Mae shook her head. “Oh, I haven’t changed my mind. I am hoping the bed doesn’t break, is all.” She turned and reached out to pluck the cravat pin from his neckcloth.
Despite the seriousness of her words, John couldn’t help but laugh. “Goodness, Ella Mae, what are you planning to do to me?” He sobered when he noticed how she stared at the diamond tip. “It’s probably just paste,” he murmured.
“I don’t think it is,” she said in awe. “Where ever did you get it?”
He shrugged. “It came with my inheritance,” he said. “Along with everything else in the stable.” He took it from her and placed it on the small desk.
She undid the knot of his cravat. “I believe Mr. Perkins must have thought of you as the son he never had,” she said, unwinding the black silk from around his neck.
“I think you might be right,” he agreed, dropping a kiss on her forehead.
She undid the button at the top of his collarless shirt, and watched him grin when she pulled up on his shirt tails until they were free of his trousers.
He divested himself of the garment in one quick move then once again sobered when he saw her look of uncertainty.
Or perhaps it was awe.
“You haven’t seen a man without his shirt on, have you?”
“Only in drawings,” she admitted. “Mostly of Greek Gods. Oh, and a few lead miners.” She took in the crisp curls dusting his chest. His nipples were erect, much like hers were. Despite the soft fabric of her chemise under her corset, they felt as if they were chafed.
He stepped behind her. “I hope I don’t disappoint,” he said in a whisper, undoing the row of buttons at her back and the one holding her skirt closed at the top. Beneath it, he discovered ties for her petticoat and crinoline and began undoing them.
Ella Mae tittered softly. “Hardly.” She took a deep breath at the same moment her skirts and petticoats dropped to the floor in a round puddle. She lowered the bodice from her arms and tossed it onto the nearby chair. Left wearing only a corset over a chemise and her stockings, she suddenly felt vulnerable. “I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
“I rather doubt that would be possible.” He moved to stand in front of her and glanced down at her shapely limbs. The thin chemise ended well above her knees and did nothing to hide the dark triangle at the apex of her thighs.
She stepped out of the huge ring of fabric. “I am left wondering what it was I did that left you with such a good opinion of me.”
A smirk lifted the corners of his lips. “I shared a schoolroom with you for... for ten years,” he claimed. “You were the nicest of all the girls. And the prettiest,” he claimed as he regarded her corset. He reached out and encouraged her to turn around with his hands at her waist.
“You never... courted another woman?” Her eyes suddenly rounded. “While you were in the army? I hear there are women?—”
“Camp followers,” he stated, leaning forward to place a kiss on the side of her head. “And no, I didn’t.”
He undid the ties of her corset. “Am I doing this right?” he asked when he finally had the bow undone at the bottom.
“I cannot imagine how you could do it wrong.” Even through the stiff fabric of her corset, she felt the warmth of his hands, and the careful way he barely touched her as he struggled with loosening the ties. “When you left town... did you leave someone behind?”
“I did not,” he replied. “Can’t leave anyone behind if I didn’t have someone,” he added.
“Not even a...” She swallowed. “A lady of the evening?”
“Not even.” He clamped his mouth shut, surprised she would mention the prostitutes that serviced the miners.
She turned to look up at him. “Would you tell me... why not?”
He shrugged. “None of them were you,” he murmured.
She stared at him for several seconds, her breath held. “Oh, John,” she finally said on a sigh, wrapping an arm around his neck while she stood on tiptoes to kiss him. When she ended the kiss, she placed a hand over his, guiding it so it cupped one of her breasts as she pushed the corset from her body.
Although it didn’t provide enough light for the entire room, the hurricane lamp was close enough to illuminate her. Ella Mae felt far too exposed, but then she saw how the light played off John’s chest, and she inhaled softly. “You’re so... broad,” she whispered.
“Is that bad?” He rubbed a thumb over one of her nipples, the nubbin leaving a silhouette in the fabric of her chemise.
She inhaled sharply, which had her breast filling his hand. He repeated the move on her other nipple, and she mewled softly. “No,” she managed. She placed the pads of her fingers against his warm skin, trailing them through dark curls and down his stomach to the top of his trousers. She knew what caused the bulge below that, even if she hadn’t seen one directly. Cupping her hand along its length, she gently pressed it.
John inhaled sharply and covered her hand with one of his. “Careful,” he whispered hoarsely.
She pulled her hand away. “Did I hurt you?”
“Exactly the opposite.” He fumbled with the buttons of his trousers.
Ella Mae understood his struggle and immediately went to work undoing the fastenings. The trousers opened, and his manhood sprang out as she pushed the garment down his hips. “Oh, my,” she whispered.
“Is that a good ‘oh my’ or an ‘oh my’ of disappointment?” He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his boots and stockings from his feet, placing the footwear at the end of the bed.
Ella Mae gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Mayhap of fright?” She took in his nakedness from head to toe and back to his crotch when he stood and pulled her into his arms. She resettled her cheek against his warm skin. One of his arms had wrapped behind her shoulders while the other was at the back of her waist, as if he feared she might try to leave the room. She glanced up at him. “You’re very warm.”
“There is a reason,” he remarked dryly.
She pulled one of her hands from behind his back and smoothed it between them until it came in contact with his manhood. Drawing a finger down the side of it, she paused when his breathing hitched.
“It’s so soft,” she murmured.
“I beg your pardon?”
She blinked and then drew the finger up the vein that throbbed along its length. “The skin. It’s like velvet.” She added her thumb and gently squeezed, her hold on him giving way when he pulled back. “Like velvet stretched over a metal rod.”
“I don’t think it’s ever been this hard.” He took her hand and guided her fingers to wrap around the shaft and then moved them up and down, his breaths shortening when she tightened her hold. “I fear if you do that much longer, I’ll come too quick.”
“Won’t you feel pleasure? From your... your release?” A bead of moisture had formed at the tip of his manhood. She drew her thumb over it, spreading it out as John inhaled sharply.
“How do you know about that?” he asked between gasps for air.
Ella Mae glanced up at him. “Mother says making love is really quite pleasurable.”
He nodded before he remembered she hadn’t experienced the intense pleasure of sexual congress. “I think we’re about to find out.”
“Will you...?”
She couldn’t finish the sentence when he suddenly pulled the chemise from her body and scooped her into his arms. He had her in the middle of the bed and his body atop hers before she could react. His mouth covered one of her breasts, his tongue flicking across her nipple until she whimpered. Moving to the other side, he murmured something about how beautiful she was before doing the same with her other breast.
Needing something to hold onto, Ella Mae speared her fingers into his black hair, her fingernails scraping his scalp. She felt him shiver, heard his labored breathing, and thrilled when one of his hands smoothed down her belly, through her damp curls, and to her thighs. Knowing some of what to do, she parted her knees in invitation and almost drew them shut when his fingers slid past her folds and circled her most private place.
“Did I hurt you?” He stilled his fingers.
“You startled me, is all. Do go on. Please.”
He chuckled softly, reveling in how she angled her hips to welcome his touch. When he heard her breaths shorten and her soft whimpers increase in volume, he quickened his ministrations until he heard his name called out and her body quivered. He ceased moving his hand when one of hers suddenly covered it.
His need for her too great, he didn’t give her time to catch her breath. He hooked his arms beneath her knees to lift them and then pushed his manhood into her in a tentative thrust.
Ella Mae’s back arched in response, and he seemed to drive deeper into her before he pulled nearly all the way out of her.
He might have paused to prevent what he feared was about to happen, but his body required surcease. He had been too close to his release the moment before he lifted her onto the bed. Now that her thighs gripped his and her fingernails were leaving half-moon indentations in his back, John knew she was his. Only a few more thrusts, and his entire body spasmed, the intense pleasure blinding him to everything but the soft body beneath him.
He managed to hold himself up on his outstretched arms. Dipping his head down, he kissed Ella Mae until he no longer had any strength. He collapsed atop her, his head ending face down in the pillow next to hers.
“Are you all right?” she asked in a whisper.
He chuckled and eventually lifted himself onto his elbows. Glancing down, he saw how her breasts mounded against his chest. “My angel. You are so beautiful.” He was about to roll off of her when she tightened her grip on his back.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
He dropped his head to her shoulder. “Next to you, if that’s all right.”
“You’re still... inside me,” she murmured.
Grinning, he nodded. “My angel, trust me when I tell you it’s absolute heaven.”
“Then don’t leave me.”
John kissed her on the lips. “Um.. well... “ He glanced to his left and then to the right before saying, “Hold on to me.”
“I thought I...” Ella Mae let out a squeak when he suddenly rolled onto his back, taking her body with him. One of her knees ended up so close to the edge of the mattress, she couldn’t gain purchase, threatening to send them both tumbling off the bed. “Uh oh,” she whispered.
From somewhere under the bed, one of the cats let out a meow .
Despite his sudden weariness—he had thought he was on the verge of passing out—John chuckled and managed to center himself on the bed with Ella Mae still atop him. He pulled her head down to his shoulder, grinning at hearing her giggles.
“Now, how is that?” His voice seemed to fade even as he tightened his hold on her body. “Are you comfortable?”
“I am.”
“Good.”
“You seem rather pleased with yourself, highwayman.”
“Oh, I am,” he admitted. He kissed the top of her head. “You should be, too.”
Ella Mae gave a start, heartened at hearing his assessment. “When do you suppose we can do it again?” Despite how long it had been since he had pleasured her with his hand, tingles still darted through her, and awareness had her feeling more buzzy than the champagne had done the hour before.
She felt more than heard his chuckle beneath her body followed by an incoherent mumble and something about two more times before morning and every day after that.
“Two more times?” she repeated.
“ Meow .”
“ Meow .”
“Yes, according to the cats.”
Ella Mae giggled and reached down to capture the edge of the counterpane. She pulled it over them before settling her head into the small of his shoulder.
She fell asleep with a grin on her face as Colonel and Sergeant joined them on the bed, their purrs sending the most pleasant vibrations through the bed.
“It is paawsitively heaven,” she murmured.