Chapter 12 #3
They did not have to wait for everyone to leave. In fact, they couldn’t. Hester was not certain if this was amusing or horrifying. After all, just about all of their guests lived at Heron House.
Her parents had departed, thank goodness. And she felt such love and support from her new family that their presence had not left her quaking.
In fact, she almost felt sorry for their desperate need to win the approval of a duke.
She had not even tried to win the approval of the Briarwoods and the Duke of Westleigh, but they had clearly given it.
Hester looked to Ellen, who was picking up the silk robe from the edge of the bed and fidgeting with the ribbons. “Are you nervous, Hester?”
Hester nodded. “I confess I am. Just a bit.”
“He is a wonderful man,” Ellen assured, draping the robe over Hester’s shoulders.
She gazed around Calchas’s chamber, which was now to be hers. “He is. He really is.”
Ellen took her hands and with the loving care she’d never received from her actual mother, she pulled her into a quick embrace. “You’ve chosen happiness, Hester, and I couldn’t be prouder of the little girl I raised. She’s become a fine woman.”
“Thank you, Ellen,” she returned, those words meaning more than Ellen could ever know.
Then Ellen quietly slipped out of the room, leaving Hester to await her new husband.
She strode about, a charged energy flowing through her. She toyed with her hair, which was down about her shoulders, and she tried to remember to breathe.
What would he think of her? How would this go? It was such a strange thing, the union of two bodies. And it required so much trust.
The door snicked open and Calchas, tall, powerful, driven, kind Calchas, entered.
The moment he spotted her, his eyes darkened with admiration. He crossed the candlelit room slowly. “Good evening, my lady wife.”
She smiled. How could she not? “And to you, my husband.”
He hesitated. “This can’t be easy for you. So, if you wish to wait until you feel more secure—”
“I feel secure,” she broke in. “You couldn’t do anything else to assure me of how safe I am. And cared for. You’ve already done that.”
He nodded, a bit of the tension to his shoulders easing, and she realized he would have allowed her to sleep alone this night if she’d requested it.
But that wasn’t what she wanted. That was the last thing she wanted. So, she decided to make herself plain so he was left without any confusion at all.
Hester slipped her robe off her shoulders, then pulled the ribbon of her nightgown, opening the neck.
She let the soft fabric float down her body, revealing her nudity.
Calchas’s gaze traveled her frame, drinking her in, his mouth parting slightly as if she were a dish he wished to devour.
She longed for him to devour her. Every part. Every inch. Every nook and cranny, and then she wished to do the same to him.
She was glad she was no blushing girl, afraid of her first time.
No, she was a woman grown, with experience, and though she was nervous, she would act as if she knew what she wanted because she did know.
Hester then turned on bare feet and walked to the bed with her shoulders back.
His slow groan of appreciation at the sight of her bottom and her long hair tumbling down her back filled her with delight.
She loved that he desired her so much.
Slowly, deliberately, she pulled herself up onto his big bed. Drawing in a slow breath, she looked back over her shoulder and asked, “Would you care to join me?”
He did not need to be asked again. Calchas started striding towards her, all but tearing his own clothes off.
A smile pulled at her lips, loving the sight of him tugging at his cravat. He flung it aside, and then he shrugged off his waistcoat and whipped his shirt off, tossing them across the room.
His hands worked at the button of his breeches, moving with a wild need.
His sex sprung free and she swallowed, rather stunned at the sight of how large and ready he already was. She bit her lower lip, eager for him. Eager for them to be one.
And the next thing she knew, he was naked. All sinew, strength, and male prowess. He all but rippled as he took the last step to the bed and joined her.
Calchas wasted no time. He slid his hand to the nape of her neck, wound his fingers into her thick hair, tilted her head back, and kissed her.
Kissed her ferociously, passionately, as if he had been waiting all his life for this moment.
They did not need to say anything. Their bodies spoke for them.
Her softness pressed against his hardness. Their need sparked into a fire that made them almost frantic for each other.
Their hands explored each other, their legs entwined as he lowered her to the bed.
Calchas palmed her breasts, teasing her nipples, and then he took them one by one into his mouth. She gasped at how her nipples hardened and her breasts ached with desire under his ministrations.
His hand went between her thighs, stroking her slick petals. She was already ready for him, and she was eager too. As was he.
They had been patient for so long, and she had no wish to be patient now. So she grabbed at his hips, urging him closer.
But he wouldn’t be moved, not until his fingers had teased and circled over her most sensitive spot, just as his tongue delved into her mouth.
She arched against him and her body coiled with pleasure, rippling again and again as she unraveled under his skilled touch.
The intensity of the peak stunned her, but as soon as she began to ease, he climbed over her, took his hard sex in hand, and rubbed it along her sensitive folds.
She gasped, but she needed him, needed that hard pressure in her, so she wrapped a leg about his hip and tried to direct him.
He heeded her well, grasped her hips, tilting them ever so slightly, and thrust forward.
The first moment was tight, and she gritted her teeth as he slowed for a moment, his gaze meeting hers.
Even now, he could wait for her. Even now, her pleasure took precedence over his, and she felt her heart expand. Locking gazes with him, she lifted her other leg and wrapped it about his waist.
He let out a groan of ecstasy as the angle of his sex inside her changed, and her breathing grew shallow as they pitched upward together.
He thrust deep in long, slow, assured strokes. One after the other, each building on the last, until they crested together. His entire body grew taut, his face transformed as he left everything behind and gave himself utterly to her.
And she lost herself in that moment. Lost herself to him. To her new life. And it swallowed her whole, in pleasure and in promise.