Chapter 18 #2
“Everything,” he said. “Ignoring you. Pretending that you do not matter. Making you question…” He growled as if with frustration. “Making you question how I feel about you. About us. It is my fault.”
“Oh…” Thalia blinked. “Caspian, I was only dancing with Lord Northwick. He is my brother’s friend.”
“It is not about Lord Northwick,” he said. “It is the fact that he thought… that he even considered…” The side of his lip twitched. “It was my error, and I will not make it again.”
“What do you mean?” She swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling the change slowly transform the inside of the carriage.
It was electric. It was tense. It was weighted, as if the air itself were heavy. Thalia thought to look away, or to shift back, but she was worried to move, to even breathe, as if doing so would shatter the moment.
“It is about more than having a child with you, Thalia,” he said. “I want you to know that.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“It might have started that way, but that is not how it ends.”
“Caspian…” She laughed awkwardly. “You are not making any sense.”
“You’re right,” he said as he shifted forward. He hesitated, his eyes flicking to her hands, and then to her face. He bit into his lip, a battle raging behind his eyes. “Perhaps this will make things clearer.”
Caspian did not elaborate with words. Nor did he allow a second for his meaning to become clear. Instead, he reached across the carriage and took Thalia by the hand, pulling her from her seat, and forcing her to fall onto his lap.
“Oh!” she gasped as she tripped.
Her knees landed on either side of Caspian. Her spare hand grabbed his shoulder for balance. She might have tumbled, but his other hand was quick to wrap around the small of her back and all of a sudden she was straddling him.
And it didn’t end there.
Caspian let go of her hand and moved to rest it under her chin.
He made her look down at him, forcing their eyes to lock so that she could see what was on his mind.
It was the same look he had held her in when she was dancing, the same he had fixed on her the last time they had spent the night together.
It was not about business. It was not about fulfilling some promise or contract. It was a husband, wanting his wife, and finally doing what he needed to do to prove it.
And it’s about damn time.
“Caspian…” she breathed. “I… are we…”
“Yes,” was all he said.
Both of his hands found the side of her face, and they guided her down so that his lips were soon pressed against her mouth. The kiss was rough and rushed, it was hungry and untamed. It was the type of kiss that came because to delay it any longer might just see the two of them explode.
Soon, they found their rhythm. The kiss became more passionate and more intense.
Their lips parted and their tongues began to dance and play.
Caspian held Thalia by the face, and Thalia clung onto Caspian’s shoulders as she kissed him with such force and such desire that she worried the driver of their carriage might hear them.
And if he doesn’t hear this, he is bound to hear…
Kissing wasn’t going to be enough. Should they have waited until they returned home? Should they have been more patient? Likely, yes. But as soon as they started to kiss, Thalia knew that patience was going to be all but impossible to show.
“Oh, Caspian…” she moaned as his lips started to kiss across her face and then down her neck. “Caspian…”
“I want you,” he growled as he kissed her neck. As he bit into the flesh. As he sucked and licked and devoured her.
“I know you do,” she purred as she leaned her head to the side.
“More than you can imagine…” His hands slipped beneath her dress and latched onto her thighs. He squeezed so his nails dug into her skin.
“I have quite the imagination,” she moaned as he started to kiss across the nape of her neck.
“Not as much as me.”
“Show me.” She wrenched back and looked down at him. A raised eyebrow. A smirk on her lips. Her body was trembling. She could feel him grow hard in his pants. And the look he held her in was so intense that she worried the carriage might catch fire. “Show me everything.”
He pulled her face back down and started to kiss her again.
He then slipped his hands back under her gown and gripped her thighs.
Thalia started to move her hips back and forth, moaning as she did. She could feel him throbbing against her. She could feel his entire body shaking and trembling, wanting to feel that release. And she could hear the soft moans escaping his lips each time she thrust herself forward and into him.
Soon, Thalia’s hands moved on their own fruition.
She did not know the how of it, only that it was right.
She reached forward and leaned back, her hands hurriedly undoing the front of his pants.
Caspian helped her, also leaning back, lifting his hips somehow, wiggling himself so that his pants came down.
That saw his manhood release. It was already erect, already thick and throbbing and hungry. Thalia’s hand wrapped around it and squeezed, and Caspian groaned as his entire body turned stiff.
She fell into him so that his lips attacked her neck.
His hands were back under her gown, his fingers somehow finding their way between her thighs. It was awkward. The position she was in didn’t make things easy. But as they kissed, Thalia was able to spread her legs enough so that the tips of Caspian’s fingers were able to find her lips.
“Oh… God…” she moaned.
“Thalia,” he groaned as she continued to squeeze his manhood.
“Here?” she asked, panting heavily. “Or should we… should we wait?”
“I cannot wait any longer.” He was kissing her neck still, forced to speak between each messy kiss. “Now,” he then growled. “Do it now.”
Caspian’s hands found their way underneath her thighs so that he was able to lift her in the air.
She gasped and then laughed, finding her balance by holding onto one of his shoulders.
The other was still wrapped around his girth and as he lifted her, she guided it between her thighs so that she could feel it rubbing against her womanhood.
Caspian held her over him. He looked into her eyes, and she saw the desire in them.
More than that, she saw how much he wanted her.
And not because of some contract. Not because of a need to have an heir.
But because of who she was, what they had become, and what they marriage was destined to turn into.
“Ready?” she asked him.
“Do it,” he growled.
Slowly, Caspian lowered Thalia down. Slowly, she guided his member inside of her. Slowly, she felt him slide deeper. Slowly, she felt him stretch her. And slowly, the pleasure from every inch that she took crept through her body until she was just about ready to scream.
It didn’t feel like the last time. The pain that came with it. The awkwardness from not knowing what she was doing. The lack of confidence because it was her first time. Rather, as soon as Thalia felt her husband inside of her, on instinct, she knew what to do and what to expect.
She started to move her hips back and forth; slowly, but with power.
Caspian held his hands under her backside, helping to lift her up and down, guiding her back and forth, and easing her into her movements as his member slid in and out and in and out and in and out.
“Caspian…” she breathed as she lifted herself up and dropped her hips down. “Oh… yes…” she moaned as she thrust back and forth, each time pushing herself harder and faster.
“Like that,” he moaned. “Yes, Thalia… just like… don’t stop… keep… going…”
She kissed him with intense passion. Her hands holding his face, forcing his lips to her own, devouring his mouth as she continued to move up and down on him.
The carriage rattled along the road, and each stone they hit, each hole the wheels struck sent a jolt through the carriage, which only added to the ferocity of their movements.
Thalia could feel every inch of the Duke inside of her. She could feel it rolling up her body and stabbing at her heart. She could feel it growing like a fire, consuming her fully, threatening to destroy her in ways that excited her.
Her breathing became heavier. Caspian’s kisses became more intense. His hands squeezed and grabbed and bruised. Growls rumbled from his throat and at times she felt him biting into her neck.
This was not the act of two people needing to fulfill a promise. This was not contractual or businesslike or awkward. This was… it was… I don’t even know. All I know is that I never want it to stop.
“Yes!” Caspian cried out as he threw back his head and closed his eyes. “Don’t stop, Thalia. Don’t you dare…”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she moaned as she grabbed a hold of his shoulders and leaned herself back, all the while thrusting her hips forward and grinding them. Each time she did, she felt him throb and pulse inside of her.
“I will,” he said. “You’re my wife.”
“Say that again.”
“You’re my wife!” he growled.
She could feel it pulsing through her thighs. She could feel it washing over her body. She could feel it coming to life inside of her, about to explode, so that she feared for what might happen. It felt almost wrong, as if her body was trying to eject the feeling. But it also felt so very right.
“Caspian…” She buried her head into his neck. “I think I… I…”
“Me too.” He wrapped one hand around her head, holding her to him. The other was on her back, pulling her body close. “I’m nearly… I’m so close…”
“Me to… me to… me… oh God!”
It happened at the same time. Just as Thalia felt the flower inside of her bloom as if opening for the sun, Caspian exploded.
She literally felt his seed shooting from his member and filling her up.
She grit her teeth as the sensation took her, pushing her hips in harder, clenching her thighs tight around him.
“Thalia…” he moaned, his body turned rigged. “I’m… just like that… oh, God…”
The entire thing lasted only a couple of minutes; the journey home was still some time from being completed. But in those few minutes, Thalia felt as if her relationship with Caspian had moved forward in leaps and bounds.
She rolled off him and collapsed on the seat right by his side. Her body was shaking and she could hardly breathe. Caspian slid his arm under her, pulling her into him, wrapping his other arm around her body. He kissed her forehead, he held her close, and he did not let go.
“Where did that come from?” Thalia joked.
He laughed, and it sounded real. “Long overdue, I think.”
Thalia hesitated, remembering what happened the last time they had slept together. She looked up at Caspian, whose eyes were closed as his breathing returned to normal. She should have just left it, happy to stay in the moment…
“I wonder if I will be with child,” she said daringly.
Caspian exhaled. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”
“Are you not?”
“Honestly…” He pulled away to better look at her. It was dark in the carriage, but his eyes sparkled and she could see in them how he truly felt. No longer cold. No longer distant. He saw her like he never had before. “… as things stand, I don’t really care.”
Thalia beamed and leaned up and kissed him on the lips.
It had taken so long to get here. More than once, she did not think it would ever happen. But for the first time, Thalia felt like this right here was a real marriage, with a man who she cared for as much as he cared for her. For many, that might seem such a small thing, but for them it was huge.
Finally, this marriage was ready to begin.