Chapter 52
What followed was splendid, and as you may have guessed, everything fit together appropriately.
Afterward, Cal loomed over me, elbow on the pillow beside my head, hand stroking the hair off my damp forehead. “Rosie, tell me. How did you imagine you could remain a virgin?”
I’d grown used to the looming, I guess, because it seemed normal now. Comforting even. “Why? What do you mean?”
“You give every part and parcel of yourself to lovemaking. You hold back nothing. You’re ferocious, gentle, commanding, pleading.
You gave your body and your mind to me, completely, without hesitation, in every way.
You held me in your body and demanded, begged, coerced, made me want.
” His lips looked fuller, his dark eyes kindled and sparked, and in his voice, vibrant and seductive, I could hear his rising passion overtake the recently satisfied passion in him.
“You were vocal—of course—but you made me vocal, too. I moaned for you, Rosie, and I’ve never moaned for another woman. ”
I couldn’t simply lie here, unresponsive.
I needed to say something appropriate in response.
An admonition from my bridal revel swam to the top of my pleasure-soaked mind.
When Prince Escalus removes his codpiece, look impressed!
At the time of the great unveiling, I’m pretty sure I looked terrified, so I thought to speak a compliment that would negate that impression.
Being me, I blundered right into speech.
“I don’t want you to think that I wasn’t awed by the sight of your bare body. I find you very …”
He gazed at me in interest.
I should have thought this through before I’d begun. “Structurally pleasing.”
Cal’s mouth curled up on one corner. “I’m honored. Shall I tell you what I find pleasing about your body?”
The way he said it, as if he was moved to poetry, made me brace myself. Because unlike me, he could make love with words … sometimes. Sometimes his botanical nature led him astray.
I headed him off with a suggestion that I knew to be true. “My tettes.”
“Magnificent,” he said. “Pale and smooth, with nipples that beckon me to put my mouth on them. Your womanly fragrance rises from them, rich as all the spices from the East. When you turn your head, the stem of your neck displays and reveals the blossom of your face. When you speak, your lips frame the words so beautifully, a man might be tempted to ignore the meaning as naught but tinkling bells, but I listen, for you speak with thought and with knowledge, with exasperation for the fools and appreciation for your friends, with a joy in each divine hour, past, future, and present. How glorious you are, my Rosaline, in all your aspects!”
Cal had just told me he liked me for more than my tits; he liked my mind and my heart. Suspiciously, I asked, “Do you think you can talk me into climax?”
“Can I?”
I was very much afraid he could. “You, oh, Escalus, you make me—” I searched for the right words, the poetry, the sensation, a way to convey how I felt. …
He put his finger over my lips. “I make you feel … good?”
Damn it. Damn him! My inability to provide a glorious symphony of expressive emotion gave him amusement. But I could do it. I could! “Really good.”
He kissed me even before the words left my lips. He laughed at me; he laughed with me. He worshipped me. He liked me; he adored me as I am, inarticulate, loud, and running into danger. What greater gift can a lover give?
He spent a long time kissing me, as if my breath sustained him, before he lifted his head and said, “Even now, all I can think is, when can we do this again?”
To that I knew the answer. “We’re married. We can do it now.”
Cal threw back his head and laughed.
Laughter? I had a stranger in my bed. Or … a husband? “What’s so funny?”
“I won’t hurt you more tonight.”
“You didn’t hurt me.”
He loomed again, his dark eyes glinting, demanding truth.
“Much,” I mumbled. I was definitely coming to the realization that hearing your parents and understanding what they were up to was not the same as anything involving Cal’s body parts and mine pressed together.
He slid his hands over my shoulders and down to my wrists and lifted my arms to wrap around his shoulders. “Let me show you what else we can do tonight … to bring you to ecstasy.”
“And you?” I scooted up on the pillow, got my elbows under me, and canceled his looming in my own way. “I learned a few things in these past frustrating weeks, and I know how to bring you to ecstasy, too.”
“It won’t be enough. It will never be enough.” His voice developed a tremor. He flopped back on the bed. “But give it your best shot.”