Chapter 46 #3
“As the lady commands, so I happily obey.” He pulled out of her enough to kiss both of her wrists in turn before tying them to the bedframe above her with his loosely affixed cravat, then looked at her as he thrust in again, in, out; until they rediscovered their rhythm.
He took one breast in his mouth, then the other as he held her arms firm above her.
She watched the ripple of his muscled abdomen as he moved atop her.
She felt slight pressure from one of his teeth as he nipped at her neck, releasing a pleasurable hiss.
The slight, tender pressure of his hands against hers, the tension that kept her in place, echoed through all her limbs.
Not being able to touch him with her hands allowed the rest of her body to explore his on their own.
“God, the sounds that you make, princess,” he said as she rode the pleasure along with him, canting her hips in time to his.
“And the faces you make, all flushed and glistening,” he brought his mouth to hers and painted more tender, roving circles with his talented tongue inside her mouth, “You are exquisite.”
Her feet pressed into the small of his back, pulling him in tighter, closer.
He gasped. She ground her hips tightly against him as she shuddered on a wave of release.
She felt him tightening and loosening inside of her like a sprung coil.
They both moaned and clung to each other as they found connection and completion one followed quickly by the other.
He untied her hands, and for an even longer moment, neither moved as they remained connected.
He stroked her hair and planted a kiss near her temple.
“I love you,” she whispered, the words falling like a rush of cool, welcome air on his ears.
He pulled her close, tangling with her in the wrinkled bed linens. One hand held her against his chest, the other snaked around her hip as her leg covered his.
“I don’t see how you couldn’t,” he said, as she playfully hit him in the chest with her hand. He took her hand and nipped at one of her fingers.
“You do have your share of faults, my lord.”
She’d been teasing, but after a beat of silence he spoke. “You weren’t…angry? When I hid the truth from you?”
She turned to look up at him. “About the letters?” She wrapped a hand around his cheek, “Why would I be angry?”
“I lied to you. When I wrote you all those letters…all those months. I was afraid you’d feel like I lied to you.”
“Obviously, you should have told me. But I love you for doing that. For what it cost you simply to care for an old friend.” She laid a hand on his chest, and he brought it to his lips.
“I looked forward to every letter that you sent. Your handwriting, your words, your cleverness, the way they smelled…no one had ever written or said such words to me, taken such interest or consideration in what I had to say. And the things that we shared with one another,
I was never anything but honest, I hope you know that. I may have…improvised a bit…but I was always honest with you.”
She leaned in closer to seal her mouth with his, “You have no idea what Queen Victoria’s letters…what your letters did for me. I’d never believe you having trouble with the written word. When I was locked inside a walled room of grief you built me windows, through your letters,
to see a world beyond. You built me a ladder to climb out, a door through it all, to what could lay ahead.”
He pulled her closer, burrowing her into him. She felt the salty drop of a single tear fall into her hair.“And I’d do it again.”
“I did wonder ... why you only wrote to me ...and no one else?”
“While I do love your family,” she snickered at his attempt at levity, “it was you that day, just before you all went to mourning, that I had to comfort,” he tilted her face so that she looked up at him, in response she tightened her leg around his, “It was you that I had to know…
how you were faring, what you were thinking, if you were thinking about me too. My intentions weren’t purely selfish, but neither were they pure.”
“Thank god for that, I wanted you for longer than you know,” Noelle gifted him with a long, slow kiss, situating herself atop him with her hands around his neck, his strong arms instinctively wrapping around her waist. “Longer than anyone knew, I suppose.”
Fitz let out a laugh, “Oh, they knew. When you ran away to the library as soon as I made that dramatic entrance to the ballroom.”
Noelle hid her face in his shoulder.
“They have a lot of opinions, but I’m grateful for your family. It feels nice to be included in something bigger than myself. And I do mean a lot bigger, there’s quite a lot of them.”
She sat up and her husband leaned into the warmth of her supple body.
She closed her eyes at the exquisitely familiar contact of his chest to her back, his chin against her shoulder.
One hand of his draped the blankets around them both.
They stayed like this for some time watching the sun caressing the water outside the window, birds calling, ships tumbling across the bay.
Finally Noelle broke the silence to utter, “We are a family now, you and me and Howler.”
He stifled a laugh as he leaned up to wrap an arm about her waist and pull her against him. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”