Chapter Nineteen #2
His head bent down towards her, and she closed her eyes expectantly. Velvet lips brushed against her mouth, causing whispering tingles to spread from her lips across her cheek to her ear, where the touch of his fingers ended.
His mouth pressed against hers again, firmer this time, and she opened her mouth for him, as she’d done in the cabin and had once seen a young woman do for her beau in Regent’s Park when they’d thought no one could see them.
Magnus’s tongue tasted her gently. She let him take whatever he wanted, the kiss deepening as she tried to learn this new waltz. One moment she was being sweetly kissed, and then the next moment he was gathering her in his arms and pulling her close. Crushing her to him.
The sheet was tossed aside, and she was glad of the lack of light, worried after seeing all those elegantly tall women that he would find her plump short limbs disappointing. She gulped a shocked breath as his hand cupped her breast and squeezed her lightly.
‘Is that pressure acceptable?’ he murmured quietly against her ear as he trailed kisses down her neck.
‘Uhh, yes?’ she said, a little confused at the politeness of his question, considering she was being fully ravished.
His thumb stroked across her nipple, causing a tightening sensation to twist across her breast and shoot down to the dampness between her legs.
An eager ache was beginning to build there, and she squirmed when he removed his thumb from her nipple, replacing it with his mouth.
Leisurely, as if this behaviour was perfectly normal, Magnus began to suck and lick at the tenderness of her nipple.
At first, she thought it strange, and then her toes began to curl.
‘Oh!’ she gasped, unable to remain silent, and utterly mortified that she wasn’t reacting as Aunt Mary had said she should: Lie down, open your legs, and let your husband take you. My mother said it was the easiest thing to do if you didn’t make a fuss.
Dash it! She’d forgotten to open her legs!
Immediately, she opened them, her hip and thigh brushing against Magnus’s leg and manhood, which she’d happened to see when he disrobed.
She was more than a little nervous about that going inside her.
Surely it wouldn’t fit! Of course, she wasn’t a fragile woman, but the size of it had still surprised her.
Aunt Mary had mentioned it was no longer than a quill, but she’d never mentioned the girth!
Although, why she should be taking her advice from a spinster was also beyond her!
Selina didn’t have much time to question her aunt’s poor comparison to a quill because Magnus made a deep and desperate groan.
‘Have you done this before, Selina?’ he asked, his hand slipping down to squeeze the hip farthest away from him while he rubbed himself against her thigh.
His tone hadn’t been accusing, but she was offended by the implication. ‘No, of course I haven’t!’
‘Then, I am lucky you are so responsive.’ His hand slipped down from her hip and cupped her intimately between her open legs.
She couldn’t help it— she sucked in a sharp breath and stifled a moan. How was he able to draw such sounds from her? When imagining the bedding ceremony, she’d only thought it’d be some pleasant kisses before a joining that would be slightly ridiculous and most definitely embarrassing.
His index finger began to rub a sensitive spot between her legs, and she bucked with unexpected pleasure, her hand snapping out to grip his elbow. Unsure if she should push him away or pull him closer, instead she gripped his forearm tightly holding him in place.
‘You’re so wet,’ he moaned and began to rub more urgently until she was panting. ‘You will be the death of me.’
‘I’m…sorry?’ she said, not quite sure what Magnus meant. But he did have an odd way with words, especially in the bedchamber. She had never heard him so…anguished before, as if he were in pain…with the exception of the waltz earlier, when he’d seemed irritated with how distracting he found her.
Magnus reassured her by chuckling lightly and kissing her mouth at the same time as he touched her. Her usually busy mind finally became quiet. Magnus’s touch and kisses leaving her helpless to concentrate on anything more than the intense pleasure building within her.
Pressing the back of her head into the pillow and mattress, she began to arch against him, desperate to feel his mouth on her breast, her ear, her lips, anywhere he wanted, as long as he didn’t stop touching or kissing her.
All thoughts were gone, only sensation remained.
The smell of Magnus, salty musk with a heady taste of rich brandy.
The feel of his skin, smooth and hard with a fine coat of hair across his chest and forearms. The flex of his muscles, and the throaty moans in her ear.
All suggested he was enjoying this as much as she was.
The idea that he wanted her, truly wanted her, was overwhelming.
She cupped the back of his neck with her free hand and tightened her other on his forearm as a spiralling pleasure began to build between her legs, holding onto him so tightly because she was terrified that he might pull away and stop, reject her, and she couldn’t bear that.
‘I knew it would be like this with you,’ he groaned against her panting lips.
The gruff melody of his accent was far stronger and deeper in the darkness.
She couldn’t see his expression, could only feel ripples of delight flow through her as his mouth covered hers again, his tongue filling her mouth and then receding with hot heavy breaths.
The twisting cord of pleasure building within her snapped, and she cried out in rapture, her heels digging into the mattress, as her body climaxed and arched towards him.
It was as if a starting pistol had been fired, because Magnus broke from her touch with blinding speed and shifted his body to kneel between her thighs. Either that or she was still too dazed to comprehend what was happening.
The remaining waves of pleasure still held her tightly in its grip, and she allowed her body to feel every shiver, tightening squeeze and exquisite release, revelling in the delight, and not wanting the sensation to fade.
Magnus grabbed a pillow from his side of the bed. ‘Raise your hips.’
She did as he asked, unable to follow coherent thought, but willing to do anything he commanded.
His arm reached around her and pulled her hips up higher as he tucked the pillow beneath her bottom, and then he let her sink back down again. It was an odd position, her hips raised up, her legs splayed.
However, it made sense when he grabbed her hips with both hands and pushed forward.
His member pressed into her entrance until she felt the sharp sting of her body stretching to accommodate him.
She winced, but the pain wasn’t so bad. The euphoria of the moments before considerably easing the discomfort.
Magnus hissed something in his own language and fully sank into her, until his hips and belly pressed against her pelvis, causing new shivers of tingling pleasure to build.
She wanted to hold him, but he was too far away from her, and the best she could do was touch his spread knees, but she hesitated.
He looked so beautiful and fierce in the fragile candlelight, and she wasn’t sure if she dared touch him, in case it distracted him… He didn’t like to be distracted.
She slipped her hands under the pillow beneath her head, gripping the fabric of her nightshift instead.
His eyes lifted to her face, then down to her breasts, which were lifted because of the position of her arms. The grip on her hips tightened, as he slowly withdrew and then thrust forward again, causing her breasts to bounce and a moan of pleasure to ripple from her arched throat.
He began to pump in and out of her, driving the hardness of him deep inside until she was moaning against the sensitive pressure of his body against her core.
Magnus continued to hiss and groan words as he thrust. Selina couldn’t understand them, but she could feel the urgency and passion of every word, and the rope of tension began to tighten once again within her, until she was rocking against him, eager to give and receive.
She fell into blissful release for a second time, whimpering his name, and desperate for him to join her.
He made a harsh and guttural sound, raising his face up to the canopy above and closing his eyes as his neck strained and his chest rose and fell with deep, shuddering breaths.
Relieved that she had pleased him, she closed her own eyes for a moment to catch her breath. The bed creaked as he moved, and she couldn’t help but giggle. ‘I don’t think Aunt Mary really knows what happens in the bedchamber.’
There was a whisper of cool air against her skin, followed by the bed sheet drifting down to cover her. Opening her eyes, she realised Magnus had begun to dress, and she blushed wondering if she should have covered herself straight after. Was it improper that she hadn’t done so herself?
The next realisation was even worse, as she realised Magnus was retying his robe and preparing to leave.
‘Goodnight,’ he said politely, all previous passion gone from his face.
She sat up, squirming a little to get off the damp pillow, she pulled it out from beneath the covers and absently noted the tiniest smear of blood on the bed sheet. Proof of her virginity, but it might as well have been a mild nose bleed, it had made such a small stain.
Magnus glanced at it and then turned away, picking up the candelabra on his way to the door.
Selina watched him leave, the sweat on her skin chilling and causing her skin to tremble with goose bumps.
She couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong…if she had done something wrong… Was this normal? It didn’t feel normal. She would have asked him if he’d given her even a moment to recover. Married couples in the aristocracy had their own bedrooms, so perhaps she was being overly sensitive?
Her father had always lamented over her sensitivity as a child, like when he’d told her about whales and she’d hidden his hat so he wouldn’t leave, then wailed and cried for an hour when he’d insisted she return it.
Was this the same? Was she being silly?
She quickly put on the nightgown, grateful that Margarite had said to put it under her pillow.
The dry fabric was comforting and soft on her skin, and she pulled the folded coverlet at the end of the bed up and over her to keep away the deathly chill that seemed to have arrived with Magnus’s departure.