Finding Bliss (28 page)

Finally, when she could gain no support, she called Marla
and the chambermaids to witness for her.

Ozzie had requested that it be left to Victor to tell the
news to the guests. But when everyone in the two families remained skeptical,
Bliss had no choice but to interrupt the sleeping mother and child to prove it.

Of course, neither Penelope nor Erica was asleep yet. Being
handed from her mother to her father, to Uncle Ollie and Aunt Luxie, the baby
hadn’t been able to settle down. When Bliss knocked and all but dragged in the
others to see their required “proof”, Penelope was thrilled to see everyone.

“Look what we did!” she shouted in triumph. Victor did a
double take. Maxwell hurried over to where his father stood holding the
swaddled bundle, turned, looked at Bliss and shook his head in bewilderment as
he moved to the nearby chair to sit.

Merryann and Cori each apologized to Bliss for doubting her
sincerity and then cooed over the baby. Then each expressed their surprise that
they’d been left out of the pregnancy news. Penelope explained that the only
one who knew for certain was Bliss, but as usual no one believed her! Then she
told all of them the baby’s name. The room was full of quiet congratulations.

Ozzie dispatched Bliss along with Victor to announce the
wonderful news to the ball guests. They found Eric near the punch bowl,
drinking a few cups of the dregs, and entreated him to act as witness to the
pregnancy’s strange circumstances. Some people were amazed and many voiced
questions about how something like that could be possible in a woman of her
years.

Eric quietly explained that it wasn’t unheard of in women as
healthy and active as Lady Osterburg to be mistaken about a pregnancy. He graciously
accepted a drink for a toast to the good tidings for the new mother and
daughter.

Victor made apologies for having to end the ball so soon,
but given the unusual circumstances, he saw no other alternative but to declare
the ball done. He assured everyone they would all be invited back as soon as his
mother was in top form once more. Whispering into Victor’s ear and giggling
when his reaction was so comical, Bliss allowed him to extend another
invitation.

“Apparently my cousin has just gotten engaged. Lady Bliss
Penwood will be marrying Sir Eric Benchley next Thursday at the Penwood Manor Estate
in Cardiff. I’ve been told the event is to take place at exactly half-past nine
on the morning, followed by a grand celebration brunch until two. You are all
invited to join them on their special day!” Victor said in awe. The room
erupted in thunderous applause.

It took nearly another hour for all
the carriages to be summoned and all the guests to depart. Bliss would normally
have been exhausted, but the evening was far from finished in her mind.

There was still much to be done. It was half past midnight
when Bliss said good night to her parents and siblings.

She went to her room to get ready for bed. She took a quick sponge
bath with extremely cool water. Then she donned fresh stockings and ribbons, a
very thin nightgown and took down her hair. She spritzed lavender water over
her gown and walked over near the low fire to dry the dampened fabric.

At quarter of one she put on her robe and snuck from her
room through the servants’ hall, knowing no one would be in the passage again
that evening. She let herself into Eric’s room, removed her robe and waited
patiently for him to arrive. Even though she’d given him fair warning, he was
surprised to see her there.

“Bliss, what are you doing? Your father is just down the
hall,” Eric whispered, though not really in a discouraging tone. He walked in
and locked the door behind him.

“Everyone is exhausted from the excitement. The baby will
get all the attention if anything makes a noise. We have a lot more freedom
than you might realize. No one will disturb you this night. And I know there
won’t be any emergencies.

“We’ll be so busy during the week before our wedding that we’ll
hardly see one another. So I’m stealing all the time I can until that day!”

“Is time all you plan to steal,” Eric asked as he watched
her walk forward and take his shirt front into her hands for the second time
that evening. She worked the buttons with efficient ease as she shook her head.

“Perhaps stealing isn’t the right word. A thing is not
stolen if it’s freely given. Just like you can’t steal anything from me, I am
not stealing anything you’re not willing to give me,” Bliss said softly.

Eric’s shirt was sliding off his shoulders with her efforts.
He closed his eyes to the sensation of her fingertips brushing across his warm
skin. As the shirt fell away behind him, Eric stepped forward to embrace Bliss.
His urgency and need now unbound by propriety, conventions or even his own
stubbornness, he wanted to be with her. There was nothing in the world better
than Bliss. His Bliss.

Letting his arms wrap around her waist, Eric drew his hands
up through her soft curly hair and eased her face forward to accept his kiss. Bliss
rose to her toes to be able to reach his mouth, giggling a little at the
difference in his height to hers.

Eric took the humor along with her sweet tongue’s dance for
a moment before sweeping her up, crushing her body in a long, full torso hug as
he moved her to the bed. Her breathing grew shallow as he laid her back into
the soft cushion of the downy mattress. The heat of her blush warmed her skin.

Eric wasn’t trying to rush her, having being in a near
constant state of arousal for almost an entire month assured him that a few
more days wouldn’t hurt. Bliss made no move to stop him, though, as he began
kissing her again. In fact, she practically encouraged the efforts he was
expending by trying to be as close to him as she could possibly get.

“Bliss, I love you. That’s absolute. We’ll be married next
week. So if you wish to wait, I’ll understand. I’m not going anywhere, dear. I’m
yours and you are mine,” Eric whispered as he kissed down the side of her neck.

Bliss pressed her hands to his chest and pushed him
backwards. Taking that as his cue to stop, he rolled to his back on the bed
beside her and tried to master his control. However, Bliss had other plans.

“I’m sure you don’t wait. You wouldn’t want to anyway. Our
wedding day is so exhausting, much worse than today even. We have to board the
ship late that evening here in Bristol and sail for Dublin.” Eric rolled to
face her again. His face is full of amusement.

“Really? We have difficulties on our wedding night? And you
still want to marry me?” Eric asked attempting mock seriousness.

“Oh it’s dreadful! Unfortunately I suffer seasickness that
first evening and you end up tending to me for the first hour of the journey. We
manage to be successful and consummate the marriage, fear not. But it’s over
quickly, and it would appear that we don’t sleep a wink.

“I couldn’t see a lot of what happened there. Like I told
you, it’s all a bit blurry where sex is concerned,” Bliss frowned. Eric fought
back a smile as he toyed with the ties at the neck of her nightgown.

“What about our second night?” Eric asked as he tugged the
bow loose and began to explore the contours of her cleavage with delicate strokes
of his fingers. Bliss’s throat moved as she swallowed thickly with her
concentration beginning to evaporate.

“When we arrive in Ireland, my cousin is so excited to see
us that he and his wife throw a large party to celebrate the next generation of
Patterson relations. We end up drinking a little of the mead that my father
gives you as part of my dowry.

“It’s not as much as the rest of the party guests drink of Madoc’s
ale, but we end up having to listen to the celebration much longer than we like
while trying to have a little time to ourselves. Again, I see us together but I
don’t have any way to judge the time spent. It looks rather short to me,” Bliss
sighed a little as Eric’s fingers began to edge toward her nipples.

Her breath caught at the first brush of contact, and she
stopped talking. Her nipples puckered at the sensation of cool air when he
opened the nightgown buttons and began to peel back the loose, thin cotton and
toy with the rosy pink tips between his fingers. He leaned down to kiss the
nearest one to him while whispering for her to go on.

Her voice became lighter, hollow as the amount of air going
into her lungs with each breath seemed to be shorter.

“They’ll knock on the door early the next morning and
disturb our next opportunity. That surprised me because I didn’t really realize
what that part meant until you agreed to marry me. When I saw that scene I
blushed to my ankles because I realized people could really do it any time of
day!”

Eric’s mouth slipped away from her nipple as a laugh rolled
from his belly and caught him up. Bliss couldn’t help giggling with him. Eric
had to catch his breath and kiss her lips again. Then he cleared up the
mystery.

“There isn’t a time of day that we can’t do that if we
really wanted to, you know. Sex between married people doesn’t happen in the
dead of the night. If I want to make love to my beautiful wife I can come home
in the middle of the afternoon and spend an hour loving you. But I’m
interrupting your reasons why we should make love tonight, and it’s interrupting
my attention to your perfect breasts. I love everything about you, but your
breasts are perfect,” Eric whispered.

Then to prove it, he cradled her entire chest between his
palms and lowered his face to kiss her nipples in succession and dip his tongue
into the valley between them. Bliss’s eyes closed and she drifted for a moment
on the unique and new sensation of her fiancé kissing her breasts. The tingling
of her body in places she didn’t expect made her remember to finish her story.

“Anyway, we apply for a cottage in the glen and declare
ourselves in honey month, with our supplies and only a couple of maids for
convenience and ease. It looks like the third day is amazing! But I really
don’t want to wait that long. I’ve been seeing snippets of our marriage bed for
well over three years now, and I’d really like to solve the mystery if you
don’t mind. You ought to know I can’t stand it when I can’t see how things end!”

“You don’t know how it ends?” he teased her.

“My gift of knowing only extends so far as how others react,
the choices they make and the consequences of their choices. But making love
for the first time will be unique I suppose because it’s personal and not the
same for any two people in the world. The emotional level of response is never
easy to read. That’s why our first sexual experiences are so unclear, out of
focus. I have no experience to relate,” Bliss said blushing beautifully. And
for that Eric was grateful.

Eric moved his hand down the length of her leg, going so
slowly the effect was torture.

“If what you say is true, then I suppose we could go ahead
and solve the mystery,” Eric suggested as he took the hem of her nightgown
between his fingers.

“Yes,” Bliss said, then swallowed again.

Eric raised his hand once again, pulling the nightgown
upward as he did. He used a second hand to free the gown from beneath her
bottom. Bliss lifted her shoulders to allow him to pull it the remaining
distance upward and over her head until it was completely away from her body.

Bliss was now lying naked in front of him, unashamed. Eric
looked at her with open-eyed wonder. Her body was more beautiful than even his
dreams hinted. Slowly, with his pulse racing, he lowered his mouth to her
again.

With tantalizing care, he used his tongue to paint a picture
of his love on her exposed flesh. The circles of his tongue making the canvas
pucker and stipple with each pass across her breasts. He teased the tips with
gentle bites as he moved his hands over the ridges of her ribs.

Bliss’s breathing was erratic and choppy as her body reacted
to his oral pleasures. She lifted a trembling hand and placed it on his chest,
feeling heat and his throbbing heart as he grew more aroused with his
activities.

After another gentle suckle, his mouth began to move lower,
pausing at the dip of her navel to trace the delicate indentation with the
skill of experience. Bliss’s own expectation of their seductive dance made her
body vibrate with energy. Her hips flexed in automatic response as Eric’s hands
reached the pinnacle of her most sensitive skin.

His fingers brushed lightly over the spot in subtle flickers
like lightning on a warm summer evening. Her heart matched the pulsing response
from each textured exploration.

“There’s something missing,” she said off-handedly as he
lowered himself between her legs.

“That comes much later, sweetheart. For now, just let me
show you the way this feels. You’ll thank me later, of
that
I’m
fairly
certain,” Eric said in a dark whisper that made her blood burn in points where
her nerves drew forth sharp pangs of something eager and wild.

Bliss concentrated her attention on his every move. It was
as though the scene came to life both mentally and physically before her eyes. It
was like waking from a dream and finding it continued into reality.

Eric’s hands gently moved her thighs aside, making a wider space
for himself between the boundaries of her body. Bliss watched his face going
lower until only his eyes were visible in the semi-darkness of the lone
candle’s light.

The exact space in time when his lips touched the
too-sensitive skin, she cried out softly. The pleasure she felt was mirrored in
the twinkling of his near green eyes. He was beautiful, but what he did to her
was beyond the realm of physical beauty.

Bliss felt the recognition of desire as her very core
replied to each liquid soft slip and stroke. Her hips angled to make the
contact surer, her back arched in a dance with the dizzying tilt of her world. It
felt as though everything suddenly drew tightly into the center of her body. The
building pressure forced the nerves in her sex to sizzle like flame on a
newly-lit wick.