Portrait of a Scandal (7 page)

Husband. Yes, indeed he was. “No, wife.”

“Oh? And this is my chamber, so may I ask why you are not sleeping in your own?”

He looked down at her but the action was fruitless. He could not see a thing. “I have no desire to sleep apart from you, unless that is your wish?”

“No,” she was quick to say. “But I wonder why we are not making love, then?”

Always to the point.
He huffed out a laugh. “I would be more than happy to make love to you all night, my dear, but you looked at me with fear. I have no wish for my wife to panic when I approach.”

He felt her sit up and slap a hand down on his chest. “I am sorry,
my Lord
, but I am not a seasoned lover like you are used to. I have no clue as to what to expect and no idea what to do. If you wanted something or someone different, perhaps you picked the wrong woman to be your bride,” she said angrily, and poked him in the chest with an irate finger.

He laughed and pulled her down on him, her breasts coming to rest upon his chest and her face inches away from his own. He raised a hand to cushion her cheek.

“It is that fire that made me choose you,” he whispered back, and for the first time reached forward so his lips touched hers. This was a kiss so different to the rushed one they had shared in the church. He intended to savour it.

Nellie took a moment but as he brushed his lips along hers, she finally leaned into him, returning the kiss boldly, though she was clearly unskilled. He did not mind this. Thomas would take great pleasure in teaching her.

When he ran his tongue along her bottom lip, Nellie groaned and parted her lips. He swept inside her mouth, touching her tongue with his own. She rubbed it back, moaning into his mouth as she moved her hands to his face—one touching his cheek, the other sliding into his hair.

Thomas glided his hands down her curves, shaping her body in the darkness. As he moved his palms down her back, he enjoyed the silky feel of her shift, but wanted to touch her skin and nothing else. He slid lower, cupping her bottom and pulling her fully onto him. She gasped into his mouth as he settled her over him, so that she straddled his thighs and rested against his aching cock.

“You want me?” she asked.

“Can you not feel how much I want you?” he asked, and rolled his hips upward.

Nellie moaned. “I do not fear you,” she mumbled as he took her hips in his hands and rocked her against his hardness.

He smiled. “No?”

He could imagine her shaking her head. “No. I want to know what it’s like to be touched by another.”

Another?
“Have you touched yourself, my Nel?” he whispered as he pulled her down for one more kiss. Her lips eagerly locked with his upon the first touch. He broke away after a moment and laid kisses along her jaw. “Have you, wife?”

“Yes.”

He smiled against her skin. “Have you thought of me touching you?”

“Yes. It never felt this good, though,” she murmured and rubbed into him, a long moan escaping her lips.

God! She pleasured herself and thought of me!
His cock twitched in anticipation.

Grasping the fabric of her shift in his hands, Thomas pulled it up over her head and discarded the garment. He let his hands drop onto her shoulders and again shaped her body, this time from the front. The gentle swell of her breasts and the aroused points of her nipples made him groan as he slid a hand behind her and pulled her towards him, taking one of the aroused peaks into his mouth. Thomas smiled around the flesh as she moaned, her hips grinding into him as if of their own accord.

He wanted to see the desire for him in her eyes, but in the darkness he could see nothing. “I need light,” he muttered as he broke away from her skin, pleased by the moan of protest she issued. He leaned over, still holding on to her with one hand, then reached for the candle. The room was quickly filled with a soft glow and he looked back to his bride. Thomas could not help but smile at her nervous expression, her bottom lip taking the brunt of her worry.

“Do not hide from me,” he whispered, moving her hands from where she had placed them, over her breasts. He leant forward and blew gently onto the heated flesh. She shuddered.

Thomas reached up and pulled her lips down to his own. She worked her fingers into his hair once more. Slowly, he rolled her onto her back and came above, settling his weight in the V of her thighs. He could feel the heated moisture of her cunt against his stomach. She wanted this. It was all he needed to know.

Unwilling to delay his feast of her any longer, he travelled his hand to her core. A gasp escaped her as he threaded his fingers through the hair that guarded her heat. She was dripping for him, her body calling to him in desperation.

He ran a finger along the dampness. She tilted her head back, away from his kiss, and her groan, closed eyes and parted lips spurred him on. He rubbed his thumb along the bud of her clitoris and she bucked, jumping her hands to his back and digging her short nails into him. He slipped a finger inside her and she clenched at his digit, eagerly claiming it.

Massaging her both inside and out, Thomas watched as she inched closer and closer to release. He wanted her to come in his hands, then again with him inside her. He wanted her to be relaxed with pleasure when he took her, claimed her.

When he slipped another finger inside, she bucked and whispered breathless words of pleasure. Oh, she was close. She called his name, her volume growing as she writhed against his hands. He drove in farther, worried that she might not be ready to take his girth. She was so very tight. He felt her barrier, his assurance that she was a pure woman. Not that Thomas would have cared at this point, but the primal man within growled at this. She would only ever be his!

He fanned his fingers slightly, trying to gently stretch her as he increased his pressure on her clit. He wanted her to come, he wanted to be inside her soon or he would finish without her. That was something he was not willing to allow.

He leant forward and latched on to her nipple. At the same time, he flicked her clit and drove deep into her with his fingers. She gasped and froze, then all of a sudden her body quaked around his hand. He looked up to see her eyes wide gazing into space, her lips parted in a silent scream as her cunt milked his fingers. Thomas kept them moving and bit down gently on her nipple again. Nellie’s tremors slowly diminished and her body melted into the mattress. He smiled down at her as he withdrew his fingers and slid up her body.

Lazily, she opened her eyes and gazed up at him, her pleasure-filled expression warming his soul.

“We are not finished yet, wife.”

He slipped a hand beneath her bottom and lifted her hips slightly as his cock touched the heat of her. She moaned and he was hard pressed to hold in his own.

He moved the head of his cock between the drenched lips of her cunt. She arched against him and Thomas was mindful to go slow, while all his body wanted to do was fuck her hard. But still, he held back, slipping into her inch by inch. She was tight—oh, God, she was tight! But he fit within her perfectly. He reached the barrier and she looked up at him with pleasure-filled eyes. He leant forward and took her mouth with his own as he broke through, her gasp swallowed by his kiss.

Thomas paused inside her delicious warmth, waiting for her to relax. She slid her hands down his back and flexed her hips, as if testing for pain. He pulled back and she moaned as he slowly pushed back into her, her fingers digging into his arse.

Oh, God! I’m going to come!

Thomas ground his teeth together as he thrust into her warmth. Already, she had started to clench around him with each entry. She cupped his arse then let her fingers roam. He would not last long if she kept this up.

Keeping a hand by her head, holding his weight off her, Thomas rubbed her clit with his other. It only took two strokes for her eyes to glaze over and her hips to arch suddenly against his, drawing him deeper still. Her scream was not silent this time, digging her hands into him as her body quaked around him, her cries of pleasure filling the room. Thomas let out a growl of his own as he thrust into her a final time, then called her name as he shot his seed into her depths.

Chapter Four

Nellie snuggled into the warm embrace that held onto her from behind. Strong hands tightened briefly around her at her movement, before slightly prickled skin rubbed against the back of her neck. A smile grew on her lips as Thomas gently placed kisses along her bare shoulder. His hand had been resting around her waist, but he slowly slid it down to her core, pushing aside her moist curls and slipping into her. She couldn’t help but wince at the discomfort.

Thomas instantly removed his hand.

Nellie rolled onto her back and watched him as he jumped out of bed and tugged the bell pull to call her maid. He quickly slipped on his pantaloons and smiled down at her.

“Good morning, wife.”

She felt her own lips twitch. “Good morning, husband.”

Anne came into the room, all smiles, but stopped short as she noticed Thomas. Obviously, her maid had not expected to see him still in her room.

“Anne, can you please arrange a bath for her Ladyship? As hot as she will be able to stand, if you would.”

Anne gave a curtsy. “Certainly, my Lord,” she said as she left the room.

Thomas crawled back into bed and pulled her into his lap. “I am sorry for your pain this morning. I should have only taken you once, but, wife, you seem to have a raging desire for my body.”

Nellie bit her lip but could not help but smile. Yes, after their first time, he had awoken her once more then she had in turn done so to him—twice. She loved how he touched her, always finding her pleasure before he took his own. He was a wonderful lover.

“The pain is worth it.”

He pulled her back lightly and raised an eyebrow. “Even if it means I cannot take you again for a week, so you heal?”

She frowned. “It will surely not take that long?”

“I do not know, but the bath should help,” he said. The sounds from the room next door signalled her bath being prepared.

Thomas leant down and kissed her, the passion no different than it had been last night, yet she felt him holding back. She didn’t want him to. Curling in his arms, she wrapped her own around him and smiled against his lips. The cold air caused gooseflesh on her heated skin as the sheet dropped from around her.

“Her Ladyship’s bath is ready, my Lord.”

Anne’s voice startled Nellie, but Thomas held her firmly against him as he looked over her shoulder.

“Thank you, Anne. That will be all. I will assist her Ladyship.”

Nellie heard the door click and buried her face in his neck. Her maid would be giggling about this for some time.

“Are you embarrassed?” he asked, pulling back to see her face. “You are! Why? She is your maid, and helps you dress and bathe. Why are you embarrassed? She only saw your bare back.”

“Because I have never before been wrapped around a man while bare,” she said, with a shake of her head.

“Something I am indeed glad of,” Thomas said, and patted her on her bottom, earning him a gasp from her lips. He smiled broadly as he carried her into the bathroom. A large tub sat in the centre of the room, steam floating up from it.

He dropped a hand into it and gave a gentle nod before he started to lower her in.

Nellie tightened her hands around his neck as her feet touched the hot water.

“It will heal you faster, I promise. I will lower you slowly into it to allow your body to adjust to the temperature.” He soothed her with a kiss on her forehead as he lowered her.

Nellie closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to think of anything but the burning heat of the water she was now submerged in, her head the only part of her not under.

The scraping of a stool alerted her to his presence at the head of the tub. Thomas moved his hands to her hair and she tipped her head back automatically, as she did for Anne. He wet her hair without getting water on her face, before he proceeded to cleanse her hair.

“You are good at this. You should have been a lady’s maid,” she said, wondering how many other women he had done this to. Suddenly she didn’t feel so cherished.

“Well, I can’t say I have ever done this before,” he murmured, as if reading her thoughts, “but I must admit I enjoy the idea of soaping up your body.”

She smiled at his teasing tone, mollified by his words. “I will have to ensure I return the favour, my Lord,” she said, reaching for the soap and proceeding to rub it against her breasts. She could not help but laugh as a growl sounded behind her.

* * * *

Nellie was neither able nor cared to wipe the smile from her face. The passion she had experienced with her husband, paired with an unmistakable tenderness he had bestowed upon her this morning, made her feel treasured. His dismissal of her maid so he could tend to her toilette himself had shown Nellie a side of her new husband of which she had never dreamt. Could he love her? The broad smile that had graced her expression slowly fell as reality assaulted her. No, he did not love her. How could he? They barely knew each other. Yet, she had felt cherished in his arms last night, just as she had this morning under his predatory gaze as he had watched her bathe.

Nellie gave a nod to the footman who stood on the landing outside her room.

He bowed. “My Lady, his Lordship asked me to show you to the dining room.”

“Why, thank you. What is your name, sir?” she asked.

His eyes widened at her mode of address but she refused to regard the servants as merely help and not people. She would offer them the same respect as she expected in return.

“Geoff Miller, my Lady.”

“Well, Geoff, I would be grateful if you would indeed show me the direction of the dining room. I must confess, I am rather famished,” she said with a warm smile.

He nodded and attempted to precede her like a well-trained servant should, but Nellie did not want formality such as this in her home. How was she to relax in a place where others were not?