The Muse (31 page)

“Yes…please.  I never wish to feel like that again.  I have been ill because of it.  You are here now and I am so grateful.”

“I should have never let you go in the first place—I should have begged you to stay, it was stupid of me.”  He put his cheek to hers and caressed her back, holding her.  “What were you writing when I came in?”

“I was trying to organize my words to say to you tomorrow.  I wanted to come home, but it was too late and Philippa and John said I’d have to stay the night.  Knowing sleep would have eluded me in my wretched condition, I was writing out what I wanted to say to you.”

“Let’s get you into bed.  I want to lie down next to you, and hold you.  I want to know you are here beside me the whole night long.”

She pushed out a heavy sigh. “Those are the best words I have heard this whole day.”

IMOGENE woke the next morning in Graham’s arms with deep green eyes staring at her.  “Good morning, my beauty,” he whispered.

She took in the sight of him lying next to her in his clothes—and his boots?  He was fully clothed, same as he had been last night when he’d come.  Imogene had to ask. “Did you not come to bed?  You’ve slept in your boots?”

“Well, I came to bed; I just don’t think I slept really.  I watched you sleep.”

“You must be joking.  Why would you punish yourself so?”

He shook his head firmly. “I had need of my wife.  I needed to hold you and reflect upon things.  I had everything I needed in this world.  It was not a punishment.  I have told you before I can never tire from watching you.  It is not possible.”

“Take me home,” she whispered.

“Thank Christ!” He moved off the bed and held out his hand to assist her, needing no further encouragement.  “How do you feel this morning?  Are you still feeling ill?”

“I am completely well today.”  He looked relieved and kissed her gently.

“I am going down to see to Triton and the carriage while you dress.  I’ll meet you there as soon as you are ready.”

Imogene nodded her agreement and smiled at his very evident eagerness to get away.

The carriage ride was slower than usual.  Triton had to be tethered and led along as he was not a carriage horse and Graham would not consider riding him home.  He sat in the carriage with Imogene, her body pulled right up against his side.

They were quiet, content to just be beside one another.

Soon though, Imogene felt Graham’s head list her way.  He had fallen asleep, the side of his head resting upon her breasts for a pillow.  She held him there, relishing the giving of comfort to him. 
He needs me.  Just for today I wish we lived fifty miles from Philippa and John…

As the carriage pulled up the drive to Gavandon, Graham awakened.  He stretched a little, took in his surroundings and lifted his head.

Imogene spoke reproachfully, “You need sleep.”

He grinned at her. “But I did, and it was very pleasant.”  He directed a knowing look at her bodice.  “I would like to continue the
sleeping
in our bed,” he said darkly.

“Sounds perfect.”

As they entered the house Imogene sensed a change in his demeanour.  They were home, in their place now, and Graham was no longer the repentant husband of last night.

HE was in desperate need of his woman.  He’d gone for her and had collected her back home.  They were back in his territory now, and he was frantic to reconnect their bond, to repair the damage of yesterday’s disaster.

On the way to their rooms Graham stopped to direct the staff.  In no uncertain terms were they to be disturbed unless he or the mistress rang for something.  He ordered breakfast sent to their sitting room, and then dashed after her, up the stairs.

Imogene was in his chamber, standing there, waiting for him.

He locked the door.

She watched him approach, her eyes clear with understanding of what was about to happen.  She knew what he wanted, and that was part of her magnificence.  She knew him better than he knew himself sometimes.

He stopped before he reached her.  He said, “I love you.  You know that.”

“I know that you do.”

“I need to be with you now.  To heal this…thing…that came between us.”  He paused for a moment before saying, “Take off your clothes.”  The words were spoken softly as a request, but his need behind his words was anything but soft.

Graham needed her.  Badly.  He needed to connect with her, get in as close as it was physically possible.  Sex was his instrument for meeting the driving need to repair their bond.  He needed to feel her soft, beautiful body underneath his hard, insistent one.  He wanted to fill her up, possess her, and get inside her head and her body.

Imogene undressed as he watched.  Removing her garments slowly, she deliberately looked at him the whole time, except when presenting her back so he could unlace her.

Graham took off his own clothes quickly, roughly, everything but his trousers, but he left them fastened.  He was hard all over with muscles tense and straining, his cock twitching, his bollocks painfully tight.  His need for Imogene was desperate.

She was soft, and lovely, and beautiful, standing before him with nothing but her chemise.  Hesitantly he reached out to touch her.

“You tremble, Graham.”

“I have such need of you, Imogene, I am afraid of myself right now, afraid of handling you too roughly and hurting you.”  Even to his own ears his voice sounded ragged and anxious.

“You will not.  I am not fragile.  I am here for you and I will not break.”

Her words were just enough encouragement to push him past his hesitation.

With a hiss, he crushed her down on the bed and took her.

He seized and she gave.

He dominated and she submitted.

She opened and he entered.

Hands and mouth firm and potent on her skin, he compelled her pliant body to surrender to him.  It was only as he melded into her, that Graham felt the broken link in their bond mend itself.  He felt himself shatter apart and then reform, anew, restored, and whole.

IMOGENE actually thrilled at Graham’s rough need of her.  It gave tremendous satisfaction to know she was the only one who could fulfil his raging want.

He gripped her hips as he covered her from behind and took her in that position.  Pounding strokes that drove him so deep inside her passage she felt him at her womb.  His teeth nipped in between her neck and her shoulder, holding her in place as he worked himself deeper still.  The angle of the penetration dragged his cock back and forth harshly over the edge of her swollen clitoris each time he thrust, driving her into a pummeling climax.

Graham didn’t stop as the sensual pleasure washed over and through her.

He continued to use her body, taking from her what he needed. When her knees buckled and she collapsed forward, he still moved within her—slower now—but still fierce and purposeful.  Face down and beneath him, the intense plunges of his iron-hard cock forced from her a shocking second climax almost instantly, rendering her utterly undone.

Pleasure, feeling and sensation took over.  Nothing else existed in those moments.  Any thought or action beyond the act of his body and her body coming together in the most primal of ways was impossible.

Near the end of it Graham choked out a gravelly roar—something she had never heard from him before.  He sounded so agonized, but yet so vitally complete.

She floated away with him and time lost all reference…

GRAHAM clutched her close and Imogene felt entirely replete.  But her glorious state didn’t last very long when the good feelings were soon replaced with trepidation.  Not from her, but from him.  She felt his guilt play out in a kind of time delay as he realized what had just passed between them.

He bolted up in bed, looming over her, inspecting her body with raking sweeps of his eyes, the expression in them frantic.  “Imogene?  Are you all right?” he asked, not waiting for her answer.  “I’ve marked you all over.  I’m sorry. Please, please forgive me,” he demanded in anguish.

“What are you talking about?”

“Look at yourself.  There are marks on your beautiful skin where I’ve touched you too roughly.  There are love bites, too.”  Gently, he touched the places where he had sucked hard enough and long enough to leave a mark that would be there a good while.  “I am a goddamned beast.  Look at what I have done to—”

“—Graham, you really must stop this.”

“I know I must.  I don’t know what comes over me.  I become demon possessed and I can’t say why.  I am so very sorr—”

“—No!  You misunderstand me.  Look at me, Graham.  Listen to me, and listen carefully.”

She waited for his eyes on hers before she spoke. “I refer to your recriminations, after.  I do not care for them and have no desire to hear them ever again.  Do you understand?”  She paused for a moment, staring. “When you love me, fiercely, as you have just done, there is no shame in it for me.  I know that you do it with love in your heart.  You have not given me pain or harmed or frightened me.  You have shown how much you need me.  When we are together it is not always as it was just now.  Sometimes we are gentle and tender and slow.  It is a balance of expression, and all of the ways of our loving are right, as they should be.  As for your love bites, I revere them and hope they remain visible for a long time so I can see them and remember how you loved me on this day.”