Epilogue #2
They made their farewells, accepting congratulations and deflecting invasive questions about names and christenings. The carriage ride to Ashmere passed in comfortable silence, Theodore’s arm wrapped around her shoulders as the countryside blurred past the windows.
When they arrived home, Mrs. Agnes greeted them with knowing eyes and tactful silence.
Theodore dismissed the staff for the evening, taking Cressida’s hand as they climbed the stairs to their chambers. He closed the door behind them with quiet finality.
“Alone, at last,” she said.
“Finally.” Theodore pulled her close, his hands spanning her waist. “I’ve been wanting to do this all afternoon.”
His mouth found hers with the intensity of six hours’ worth of restraint. Cressida melted against him, her fingers tangling in his hair as the kiss deepened. When he lifted his head, his eyes had gone dark with want.
“How are you feeling?” His hand drifted to her still-flat stomach, protective and possessive at once.
“Perfectly well.” She tugged at his cravat. “Stop treating me like I’m fragile.”
“You’re carrying our child.”
“And I’m not made of glass.” She succeeded in loosening the cravat, her fingers working the knot free. “Besides, the midwife said activity was perfectly acceptable. Encouraged, even.”
“Did she?” His voice was rough.
“Mmm.” Cressida pushed his coat off his shoulders. “Something about maintaining marital harmony.”
Theodore laughed, the sound warm against her throat as he kissed a path down her neck. “I’m very interested in maintaining harmony.”
His hands found the fastenings of her gown, fingers sure and practiced. Fabric whispered to the floor. Cressida worked his waistcoat free, her breath catching as his teeth grazed the pulse point below her ear.
“Bed,” she managed.
“Eventually.”
He backed her toward the wall, his body pressing hers against cool plaster. One hand slid beneath her chemise while his mouth claimed hers again. Cressida arched into him, greedy for contact, for the weight of him, for everything they’d learned in six months.
When he finally lifted her, she was already trembling. Theodore laid her down gently and followed immediately, his weight settling with familiar rightness.
“I love you,” she said against his mouth.
His answer was a kiss that stole all thought.
Cressida’s fingers undid the remaining buttons of his shirt, parting linen to find warm skin and hard muscle beneath.
Theodore broke the kiss to pull the shirt over his head. His hands returned to her chemise, drawing it up with deliberate slowness. Cool air kissed her skin as he bared her completely, his gaze trailing over her with hungry appreciation.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, his hands sliding along her ribs, across the point where their child was growing, then higher to cup her breasts. His thumbs brushed over her sensitive nipples, drawing a gasp from her throat.
“Theodore!” she moaned.
“Patience.” He lowered his head, beard rasping against tender skin. “We have all night.”
“I don’t want all night.” She reached for his trousers. “I want you now.”
He caught her hands and pinned them gently above her head while exploring lower. “Greedy.”
“Yes.” She arched into his touch as his hand drifted lower. “Please.”
The word unlocked something in him, and she saw the moment his control fractured, replaced by raw need.
He released her hands to strip away any remaining clothing, returning with nothing between them but heat and want. His weight settled over her, his thigh nudging hers apart.
Cressida wrapped her legs around his hips. She felt him against her entrance, hard and ready, and then he slid home in one smooth thrust that punched the air from her lungs.
“God.” Theodore pressed his forehead against hers, his breathing ragged.
“Don’t stop.” Her nails dug into his shoulders as she squirmed beneath him. “Please don’t stop.”
He moved with purpose, each stroke hitting depths that made her cry out. His hand slipped between them, finding the sensitive bundle of nerves that made thought impossible.
Cressida gasped, her body tightening as pleasure built with devastating speed.
“Look at me.” Theodore’s command was rough. “I want to see you.”
She forced her eyes open, meeting his gaze as he drove into her. The intensity there—possession and love and desperate need—pushed her over the edge. Pleasure crashed through her in waves as she climaxed.
Theodore followed moments later, his control finally breaking as he buried himself deep with a groan that sounded like prayer and profanity combined. She felt him pulse inside her, felt the heat of his release.
He collapsed against her, careful even in exhaustion, his face pressed into the curve of her neck while they both struggled to catch their breath. Cressida’s hands stroked his back, feeling the perspiration there, feeling the rapid hammering of his heart gradually slow.
“I love you,” he said against her skin.
“I love you too.” She kissed his temple. “So much it terrifies me sometimes.”
He pushed up on his elbows to look at her. “Good terrified or bad terrified?”
“Good terrified. The kind that makes me grateful I get to feel this at all.”
Theodore rolled onto his side, taking her with him, his hand splaying possessively across her lower back. “Stay. Just like this.”
“Always,” she promised.
Later, they lay tangled in the moonlight, her head on his chest, his hand resting on her stomach.
“Do you think about it? The future?”
“Constantly.” His fingers traced patterns on her skin. “A little girl with your eyes. A boy with your stubbornness.”
“My stubbornness?”
“You’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. It’s one of the things I love most about you.”
She smiled against his chest. “Good. Because I’m not planning to change.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.”
They drifted into comfortable silence, the kind that came from knowing each other completely. No walls between them now. No secrets. Just warmth and trust and the extraordinary life they were building together.
“Cressida?”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you. For not giving up on me. For seeing past all my defenses.”
“You were always worth it.” She kissed him softly. “Even when you were impossibly stubborn.”
“Stubborn?”
“Yes. Terribly. But I can tolerate it.”
His laugh rumbled beneath her ear. “How generous.”
A summer breeze drifted through the open windows. Inside, wrapped in each other and in certainty, they simply breathed together.
The future stretched ahead, unknown but not frightening. Whatever came, they would face it together.
And that, Cressida thought as sleep pulled her under, was everything.
The End?