Chapter Fifteen #2
“You know, I honestly have no idea,” he said cheerfully, evidently thrilled that his amorous ministrations had had such an effect. “But you’ll never make the stairs like that. Here.”
“Reginald!”
Her sudden gasp did nothing to dissuade him, for he had swept her up in his arms and was now carrying her to the door to the great hall.
“Reginald, put me down!” Jessica hissed as he opened the door, her legs over his arm. “Reginald—”
“You would rather walk?” he teased.
There was nothing she could do but huff—not only because he was right, her legs still felt impressively weak, but because now that they were in the great hall. The last thing she wanted to do was make a noise and bring half the household to their notice.
That would not be a good idea.
And so all she could do was rest against Reginald’s chest and watch his face as he carried her slowly yet steadily up the stairs.
Jessica had to admit. It was intoxicating, to be carried like a princess up a tower, waiting for her prince.
Thank goodness the guest bedchambers were in an entirely different wing to the rest of the family. By the time Reginald had stepped along the South Wing corridor and turned the corner, Jessica was able to push the door shut.
“There,” she said in a normal voice. “No one will be able to hear us from here.”
“You are certain?” Reginald’s voice was still in a whisper.
Jessica grinned. “Very certain, for two reasons. Firstly, because my ancestors built this place with thick walls, and secondly, because when we were young, we Chance cousins were all stabled here, as my Uncle William put it. The theory was that no amount of screams could ever reach the adults.”
She felt as well as heard his chuckle reverberating through her body.
“And did it work?”
“They didn’t hear us when Frank and Samuel tied up Lilianna and left her here for six hours,” Jessica said with a shrug that brushed her arm up against Reginald’s chest with a spark of heat.
Their laughter filled the corridor, but when Reginald stepped through a bedchamber door and gently lowered her to the floor, Jessica’s merriment died in her throat.
Well, she was here. A gentleman’s bedchamber.
No matter that it happened to be the one that she and Irene had shared as children, whenever they had come to visit Stanphrey Lacey.
It had been redecorated in the intervening years and was now a resplendent blue with heavy, damask curtains and a velvet armchair set either side of the now-marble fireplace. And the bed—
Jessica swallowed. The bed. It was large, not like the set of beds that had once been here.
No, this was a large, four-poster bed with magnificent hangings of blue velvet.
The bedsheets were blue too, with a pattern that swirled and quite distracted one from the fact that she was about to lie on it and enjoy amorous congress for the first time.
She attempted to clear her throat. Not completely distracted, that was.
“You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Jessica spun around. Reginald was standing by the door that he had just closed, and there was a shadow of something she did not recognize in his eyes. “‘This’?”
“If you have changed your mind—if you have had your fill, if I have hurt you—”
“Do not do this,” Jessica said firmly, striding as quickly as she could over to him and splaying her hands against his chest, her eyes fixed on his. “Do not do this, Reginald.”
“Do what?”
“Retreat as soon as we are open with each other,” she said, her gaze flickering from one eye to another as her spirits leapt.
“Yes, this is frightening. It is frightening, to be so exposed, to be so vulnerable with another, but I choose it, Reginald. I choose you. I will embrace any chance I can take to be with you, like this, and…and when we’re married, I want to be by your side whenever I can. ”
Perhaps she had said too much. Reginald stood there, staring, his hands hanging by his sides, his lips parted.
Heat flushed through Jessica. “Reginald?”
“Close your eyes.”
For a moment, she was certain she had misheard. “Close my—”
“Eyes,” he exhaled, taking her hands in his and walking her to the center of the bedchamber. “Close your eyes.”
There was not a moment’s hesitation. Jessica closed her eyes, finding it strange indeed to be standing in such a manner but utterly convinced that he had asked her to do so for a reason.
And then she gasped. Fingertips had brushed across her neck, the hem of her gown, and her whole body crackled with expectation.
“You are so beautiful,” came Reginald’s voice from behind her. He continued to speak as his fingers moved down her back, slowly undoing one button after another. “Your shapely form has transfixed me from the first moment I saw you.”
Jessica tried to breathe, but it was difficult; her whole body was quivering from the sensation of strong, warm hands slowly peeling away her gown. The fabric fell in a swoop to the carpet and she stood there in her chemise and underclothes.
Her eyes were still shut.
Another gasp as Reginald pressed a kiss to her now-bare shoulder. “But it isn’t just your gorgeous breasts, or the curves of your hips, or the way your eyes sparkle. Those aren’t the only reasons I love you.”
Jessica willed her knees to strengthen as the sound of Reginald stepping around her filled her ears, and eager lips pressed another kiss, this time on her décolletage.
This… This is…
“It’s because of your softness. Your kindness.”
Another kiss, this time on her other shoulder, as confident fingers slowly drew her chemise down and allowed it to drop to the floor.
“Because of the goodness you see in the world, an expression of the goodness within you.”
She whimpered ever so slightly, clenching her eyes shut as Reginald’s fingers moved to her stays. It did not take him long to remove them, the fabric falling, the soft thump following.
“You simply cannot believe in anything less than the best because you are the very best of us, Jessica.”
She cried out this time, and who could blame her? Reginald’s lips had enclosed on one of her nipples, sucking and twisting it around with his tongue, and Jessica arched her back into him as his hands held her hips.
There were only her undergarments to be removed now. Goodness knew what he would do then.
“And so I fell in love with you, Jessica, and now… Now I get to show you just how much.”
Jessica gave a sigh of almost relief as her undergarments were removed. It felt right, somehow, to stand here in Reginald’s presence entirely denuded, knowing that he could see all of her, everything she was.
“Open your eyes.”
Slowly flickering her lashes upward, Jessica looked into the adoring eyes of a man who was very much her own.
“Lie on the bed,” Reginald said, his voice ragged.
It took Jessica but three steps to make her way to the large four-poster, and though he had uttered no further instruction, she did not need to be told what to do. Turning around, she sat on the edge of the bed and moved onto the covers, lying on her back as she stared at her future husband.
He was doing a rather wonderful job of taking off his clothes. Reginald’s fingers did not stumble, he did not rush, yet there was a steady fall of fabric onto the carpet as one by one, he removed garments. Cravat. Jacket. Waistcoat. Shirt—
Jessica inhaled hard as she saw the hard planes and rough, wiry hair revealed as he removed the last of his upper garments. Dear Lord, she had thought the man attractive with all the accoutrements upon him.
He was an absolute marvel without them.
There was a glint of knowing in his eyes. “Like what you see?”
Jessica swallowed. “Yes.”
It felt wrong to admit to such a thing, and yet there was surely nothing more natural in the world. This was to be her husband. Why should she not admire?
There was a great deal more admiring to do as Reginald slowly removed his boots then languidly unbuttoned his trousers. Jessica discovered that her lungs had decided not to operate, for she could not inhale as he allowed the fabric to drop and—
“Oh my,” she whimpered.
His manhood, tall and proud, was jutting out and was evidently very pleased to see her.
The idea of him—of that part of him—and her… How, precisely, is it supposed to work?
Reginald said not a word as he stalked toward the bed. Jessica found herself shifting backward unconsciously, but it was a welcome relief when he mounted the bed and covered her body with his own.
Oh, this was everything: the hot, hard planes of his body seemed to perfectly fit her own and when he lowered his head and kissed her, the kiss deepening with an eager need that Jessica felt thrumming through her own limbs, she gave herself completely to him.
His hand stroked down her neck to her breasts, tweaking and teasing her nipples while his mouth lavished kisses on her before his hand continued down, caressing her hips, eking out flurries of gasps as she tried to breathe and accept his loving touches, and Jessica knew that nothing would ever compare to this.
She would never be able to share this with another. Never.
Only when the aching need was building once again between her legs and Jessica instinctively pulled him against her, her legs somehow around his hips, tugging his manhood closer, did Reginald break off his kisses.
“Ready?”
Jessica looked up, her eyes lust hazed, but her decision determined. “Yes.”
She had expected pain. Well, the basic geometry of the situation would suggest that it would be most uncomfortable indeed to have such a man as him—such a manhood as that—enter her.
And yet while there was pressure, there was also pleasure. A sharp jolt at first, then Jessica moaned as her body welcomed him, drew him in, made room for him, eagerly accepting more and more as Reginald groaned, sinking himself into her.
“Christ alive, Jessica,” he muttered, leaning on his elbow and seeming to grit his teeth. “You… You feel…”
Jessica arched her back, tilting her hips as her body took over, knowing precisely what it wanted.
Reginald muttered a curse.
“Are you quite well?” she asked.
His laughter was not mocking, but genial. “You have—you have no idea what you do to me.”
She grazed his cheek with her knuckles, smiling with the enthusiastic expectation of another climax. “Oh, I think I have a relatively recent idea. Ravish me, Reginald. Love me.”
He did not need much more of an invitation. The rhythm he built, pulling almost completely out of her then sheathing himself inside her with growing intensity and speed, was not unlike that of his fingers, downstairs in the drawing room—but it was so much more.
Oh, the intimacy of welcoming another into her body, the spirals of bliss roaring through her, the pants and groans of a man working to please her yet working to hold back his own release—it was intoxicating, and soon all Jessica could do was cling on to his wide shoulders and throw back her head, welcoming the building, hot ache between her thighs.
“Al-Almost there,” she panted, moaning a little as Reginald plunged deeper within her than ever before. “Yes—yes, there—yes—”
And it was a good thing indeed that they were in this part of the house, because the scream of agonized ecstasy that was ripped from her mouth as Jessica was pumped to her peak was astounding.
Clinging on for dear life, Jessica lost herself in the ecstasy, unaware of anything but Reginald’s muttered moans and eventual groan of climax as the ripples of satisfaction washed through her body, carrying her up on a tidal wave of sensual carnality.
Reginald cried her name and jerked once, twice, three, four, five times before collapsing into her welcoming arms.
Silence fell, save for their heavy breathing and the whispered sweet nothings that he poured into her ears.
“…beautiful… so precious… mine, my own…”
Jessica was not sure what was best: the climax itself or the knowledge, as she held Reginald in her embrace and warmed at the lover’s words that flowed through her, that they would soon be able to share these moments every day.
Every day, for the rest of their lives.