Having Patience (6 page)

James’s dark eyes grew even darker. “That means you will have to select a passage for me earlier than usual. Say, noon?”

Patience boldly held his gaze. He did remember. “Noon it is,” she whispered.

Chapter Five

“I haven’t yet read the passage you underlined for me this morning,” James said once the carriage was under way.

Lips parted in surprise, Patience peered at him from beneath her lace-trimmed bonnet.

James hadn’t read the book on purpose. He hadn’t wanted to know what Patience had planned before their outing this afternoon. Still, anticipation nagged at him. Surely after last night, she had decided to consummate the marriage. Surely!

He’d pondered the situation into the wee hours of the morning. Obviously, Patience didn’t fear the pain associated with losing her virginity. Last night had proved that. She’d come alive when he’d spanked her. His cock stirred at the memory of her bent over his lap with her hands bound behind her. She’d pushed her bottom higher and spread her legs, urging him on. Warmth trickled downward inside him despite the biting chill in the air.

“Shall we take a turn about Rotten Row?” the driver called from his seat.

“That would be splendid,” James told him.

“I’ve always wondered why they call this Rotten Row,” Patience mused as she gazed at the winter-brown grass and skeletal trees.

James chuckled. “Because of the rotten bastards who ride up and down it.”

Patience laughed and the sight of her face alight caused James’s heart to swell. “Really, James.”

He enjoyed making her smile. “This path was originally established as King William’s private drive to St. James palace. Perhaps his subjects thought him to be a rotten monarch.”

“You jest,” she said, amusement evident in her voice.

“The sand mixture used to cover the road is also referred to as rotten,” James explained.

“Really? I never knew that,” Patience said as the driver turned onto the famed thoroughfare.

Already, the road was thick with men on horseback and carriages belonging to the members of the
ton
.

This was just the joyous outing for which he’d hoped. Here, there was no tension between them. Patience would once more be free to be herself with him—to be the Patience he so admired.

A wintry breeze blasted through the open carriage and she shivered.

“Are you warm enough?” he asked, tucking the plaid wool blanket that she’d placed across her lap closer.

Appreciation and wonder shone in her eyes. “Yes, thank you,” she said.

James settled in beside her and listened to the rhythmic clopping of horse hooves along with the grinding of the carriage wheels on the sandy drive. He heaved a silent sigh. His mind raced with what he’d done the night before. It made no sense that a woman unversed in coitus would want to be spanked, of all things. Yet, James did not doubt his wife was a virgin. That fact had been most obvious to him the first night.

He wanted to ask her why she’d chosen that particular scenario but he feared in doing so, he would embarrass her. The result would prove disastrous for she was already terrified of the idea of copulating with him.

Perhaps she was testing him to see if she could trust him. His chief aim was to please her but above all else, he wanted her to know that she could rely on him.

Their carriage rolled alongside another that James recognized as belonging to Lord and Lady Beauchamp. James gave the pair a curt nod of his head.

“Good afternoon, newlyweds!” Lady Beauchamp called from amongst her brightly colored ensemble consisting of a feathered bonnet and voluminous fur blanket.

Patience gave a little wave and afterward, James caught her gloved in his. Refusing to release it, he slipped both their hands back under the thick wool. “You know, love,” he whispered, leaning close to her ear. “I could do unspeakable things to you under this heavy blanket and no one would ever be the wiser.”

She tensed.

“In fact,” he added, “if we had a fur blanket such as the one Lady Beauchamp has, I could draw up your skirts, wriggle my finger through your—”

“Good day, Lord and Lady Somerset!” another passing neighbor interrupted.

James groaned his frustration but affected a broad smile as he tipped his top hat to the neighbors. His actions drew a tiny laugh from Patience. He smiled, his eyes catching hers. The expression of amusement faded but the sparks in her eyes did not.

James inhaled the brisk air. “Are you enjoying our little game?”

“Game?”

“Of choosing passages from romantic novels,” he explained.

“Yes.” Her voice was but a breath that turned to fog in the wintry air. Her gaze shifted to the driver and then back.

“He can’t hear us,” James whispered. He longed to nuzzle his cold nose against her cheek, to brush his lips against hers until she opened her mouth to his. But he did neither of those things. Instead, his hand tightened around hers. “Why don’t you
tell
me what you chose for us to do tonight?”

Her eyes widened dramatically. “
Tell
you?”

He nodded. “I can’t imagine what it must be and I’m dying to know.”

The prettiest blush warmed her cheeks. “I’m afraid it’s not what you hope.”

James had been hoping that she finally was ready to consummate the marriage. Did she know that? There was one way to find out. “And what am I hoping?” he asked.

“That I…I am…want…to become your wife…in deed as well as name,” she stammered with difficulty.

“I admit, I had hoped…” he began. “But I have all the patience in the world.”

Her apprehension seemed to fade at his pun.

He caressed her cheek with his gloved fingertips. “All jesting aside, my darling—you are worth the wait.”

She started to look away but he tipped her chin up, forcing her gaze back to his. “Now tell me what you have planned for me,” he said.

The muscles in her throat worked beneath his fingers. Her lashes fluttered.

“Don’t be shy with me,” James told her. “I am your most willing servant.”

She trembled and James knew it wasn’t from the damp cold. “I’ve been thinking,” she began. “Thus far, you haven’t been…been…satisfied.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”

As if the man passing by them on horseback could hear her, Patience waited until he was far ahead before she spoke. “You will need your scarves again.”

A tendril of panic laced with excitement slithered through him but the thought of being bound and blindfolded with Patience in control intrigued him nonetheless. “For me?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m afraid it’s quite shocking.”

One side of his mouth pulled into a grin. “Shock me.”

His statement seemed to embolden her. She batted her lashes and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Well, in the story, the hero ties the heroine’s hands, blindfolds her and forces her to…to take him in her…mouth.”

Thank God for the blanket. James’s cock leapt to full attention. Images of a voluptuously naked Patience tied and blindfolded, on her knees with a mouthful of his cock were almost too much to bear. He moaned his approval.

“You said somethin’, yer lordship?” the driver asked.

“No, nothing at all, Jasper,” James said quickly. “But I think perhaps we might cut our outing short.”

Patience blushed profusely. “I’ve offended you,” she said under her breath.

“On the contrary,” James said. “I’m very much looking forward to tonight.”

* * * * *

Wearing nothing but her chemise, Patience trembled as James tied the blindfold in place for the second time in as many days. What would it be like to take him in her mouth? At first, she’d thought such an act would be offensive. Degrading. The stories she’d read and her fantasies about James had led her to believe otherwise. Of course, the portion she’d underlined in the novel she’d given him earlier this morning included having her control and will stolen completely away and Patience looked forward to that aspect of tonight more than anything.

“Put your hands behind your back,” he ordered. His voice was like roughhewn leather.

A delicious tremor swept through body. “Not again,” she mewled—but it was just a part she was playing. This was easy when she was pretending to be someone else.

A smart slap landed on her thinly clad rump. Patience jolted but luxuriated in the wonderful heat that radiated from her backside to her inner thighs. Her clitoris throbbed in violent anticipation.

“Shall I have to punish you, slave?” James teased. He was playing his part well, tonight. Too well.

Patience shook at the thought of just what pleasurable punishments he would mete out to her.

“I won’t allow you to tie me,” she said. Her heart drummed wildly against her rib cage.

A hand grasped her arm. A foot caught her ankle and without warning, she tipped forward. She caught herself when her palms met the soft covers on her bed. Here’s where it was going to get interesting. Patience’s cream gathered and she ached for him to touch her between the legs. Her blood thickened until her pulse roared in her ears.

“For your disobedience, you’ll receive three lashes,” he said. “Pull up your shift.”

Patience swallowed and wrenched up the back of her chemise.

Something leathery tickled the backs of her thighs.

Patience held her position. Her bottom tingled in eager expectation as James pushed his knee between her legs. “That’s it. Bare your lovely bottom for me. Spread your legs.”

Bracing her hands back on the bed, she inched her legs apart.

“Farther,” he commanded.

Her inner thighs burned as she stretched them as far as possible.

“Put your face on the mattress,” he said. “I want your bum high and exposed.”

Her stomach turned flips as she laid her forehead on the counterpane. The leather that Patience guessed was a strap teased her legs and then slapped her mons gently. Instinctively, she pushed back and up, wanting more attention
there
.

“I think you like having your cunny touched,” he said.

You have no earthly idea…

“Do you?” he asked. “Do you want me to touch you there?”

She whimpered.

This time—with more authority—the strap popped her again, setting her clitoris aflame.

Patience exhaled a quick breath. “Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, master,” she said.

“Tell me explicitly what you desire.”

Her forehead furrowed. “Touch me. Between the legs. Please.”

“If you want pleasure from me, you will first have to earn it. I have decided to add a fourth lash to your punishment,” he said.

“I’m ready,” she said. Oh God in heaven was she ever ready. She dipped her spine down so that her bottom raised a fraction higher. Her pulse pounded between her legs.

As he moved to her side, he braced a hand on the small of her back. Patience longed to squirm, to squeeze her thighs together—but she had not been permitted to move.

She clutched the embroidered counterpane in her hands and waited.

The tip of the strap teased her cleft and moved over her bum and then it went away. It only took a second but waiting for the first real blow to fall was the most exquisite torture Patience had ever known.

Heat flashed where the strap fell. Patience shook. Her knees threatened to buckle.

“Count them for me,” James said.

Patience gulped. “One.”

“That’s one for your disobedience earlier,” he mused.

Three more. Something within her gave, as if her resistance snapped. She relaxed.

Again, the strap found its mark.

Patience moaned aloud. “Two.” Her voice no longer sounded like her own. It was husky. Breathy. Sexual.

“Your bum is red,” James said as his hand moved from the small of her back over her offended bottom. His touch was a caress meant to soothe but more than that, Patience wanted to feel his fingers delving and exploring.

After she took that fourth lick, would he touch her? Would he bring her to climax with his fingers? Impatient, she made a mewling sound. “Again,” she said, not believing she’d actually asked for it.

In a split second, his hand moved away and the strap popped as it made contact with her flesh for a third time. Patience relished the sting. “Three,” she cried.

One more and then…

There was no time to wait for it. The strap fell across her cheeks and then Patience heard it clatter to the floor as James reached between her thighs.
Four.

Her fists clenched as his fingers found and kneaded her clitoris. Her cunny was sopping wet and she spread as far as possible, wanting to give him access everywhere. He did not disappoint.

A fingertip prodded the opening to her channel. Patience tensed. No one had ever been inside her there. No one. A curious, sharp pain coursed through her as he pushed his finger into her but once it was inside, it felt oh-so good.
Yes, yes, finally!

“You’re tight and warm and wet,” he said.