Chapter 27 A double wedding takes place. #2
“I am ravishing you, my beloved,” she replied in a breathy voice.
“Although I am delighted with your enthusiasm, I think you should reconsider your intentions.”
“It is not as if we have not been in this situation before, Fitzwilliam,” she said, then added with a loud whisper, “We can be discreet.”
“Yes, my love,” said he, “but I would prefer our wedding night in a more comfortable setting. I fear I must educate you on the pleasures we can achieve while saving our true union until we are comfortably in our wedding bed.”
And how must we accomplish this?” she asked impishly, thrilled by the sound of his suggestion, though not sure exactly what he meant.
He gave her a crooked smile, and then his lips and tongue found hers again.
She triumphantly ascertained that he was adjusting his response to match her ardour.
She ran her hands over his elegantly muscled chest, savouring the feeling of the hardness beneath his clothes, pleased to hear his sensuous groan in response.
Darcy tugged her dress down until her bared breasts were cradled in his large hands. He kissed them reverently, and then grasped her about the waist and laid her back along the seat. He covered her body with his as their mouths melded once again.
She succumbed to his caresses and allowed him to release her lips only to pay appropriate attention to her breasts.
At once, the aggressor became the captive as she lost control of her senses.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself just to feel the glorious awareness of his sucking and nipping.
Every inch of her body was alert, begging to be touched.
As his fevered kisses returned to capture her lips, she felt his hand sliding under her skirt, ascending along her stocking, skimming along the supple skin of her inner thigh, and she was wild with the need for his fingers to touch her where she was aching to be touched.
She was writhing under him, running her hands over his back, unable to think about anything but where his hands were, where his mouth was, where the tension was building in her own body, craving release.
She was desperate with anticipation until he found the place where he could provide her with the most pleasure.
It did not take long for Darcy’s ministrations to appropriately provide her with a satisfaction that he had theretofore been unable to complete. As she reached her peak, he stifled her cries with a passionate kiss.
At length, he pulled back to look at her, and they both smiled in smug satisfaction.
“You must understand, my love, I had to take control of the situation before you mounted me and the consummation of our marriage was within the hearing of my coachmen,” he said hoarsely between kisses.
“I was very likely to do exactly that.”
She sighed in response to a trail of kisses he dropped along her neck.
“But trust me, we shall enjoy our first time much more in the privacy and comfort of our chambers,” he said while nuzzling the spot between her breasts.
“I intend to make love to you in the sitting room and dressing rooms as well. In fact, I look forward to having you in every bedchamber in Darcy House and Pemberley. Does that please you, my love?”
She looked at him with incredulity. “Miss Bingley said there are over one hundred bedchambers at Pemberley!”
“Please, do not mention Miss Bingley on our wedding day. Thinking of her was how I managed myself while we were courting.”
“Fitzwilliam, why would you think of Miss Bingley while we were courting?”
“To cool my ardour, my love, before your father caught me about to despoil you,” he said with a laugh, showing his handsome countenance to its best advantage.
“It was a lovely wedding. You impressed everyone, even the high and mighty Lady Catherine and the superior Miss Bingley,” Thomas Bennet said to his wife as they settled at the end of the day.
They were propped up in bed, and he had one arm wrapped around her protectively while she rested her head on his shoulder.
“Thomas, please do not mock our guests when their compliments were so kind.”
“I suppose I should not. But today was truly a delightful day,” he commented while he traced gentle lines up and down her arm.
“It was.”
“And the mother of the bride was as handsome as the brides.” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“I appreciate your admiration, but were your daughters not extremely beautiful? It was worth all the work and all the shopping.”
“They were as beautiful as I have ever seen them, the decorations and flowers were second to none in the county, and the breakfast demonstrated your usual fine taste. You do not need my praises, though. You know you are the most accomplished and gracious of hostesses.”
“With people from the first circles of society on hand for the festivities, I was unsure of myself, so I do thank you for your compliments.”
“Do you regret it? That you have suffered a life away from the first circles because of my insistence that I be unknown?” he asked.
“I do not. I would never give up what we have for that kind of life. I am reminded of something you once told me long ago: think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. I am resolved not to regret what could have been and to rejoice in what we have now.”
“It is a good philosophy, though sometimes hard to follow,” he replied, and they shared a look of silent understanding such as takes place between a husband and wife.
“Fan, the girls’ connections may now be Shelton’s, but I am absolutely, irrevocably Thomas Bennet, your husband.
I am content to be with you here in our quiet little town and proud of all you have become.
You have made two beautiful babies with me, and we have shared three others as if they belonged to us both.
Our country life may not be desirable to others, but our felicity will be envied by all who see it. ”
“That makes me very happy.”
“Good night, my love,” he said, dropping a brief kiss on her lips before he pulled his arm away and began to turn towards his side of the bed to retire. She reached out and pulled his head back towards her for a more passionate kiss.
Any married couple knows the promise of such a kiss.
“It is that way, is it?” Thomas Bennet turned to acquiesce to his wife’s amorous advances. And with that, he expressed himself with his body as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.