Chapter 17
The next morning was sunny. Emily could not believe her eyes. It was actually a sunny day. It had been months since she had seen the sun and it was shining on her wedding day. She had spoken to the maid the evening before about what she should wear. A dress which had been hanging up in her wardrobe was just the thing. It was yellow and had lace trim. It was not too fancy but not too drab.
Beryl, the maid, had suggested wearing it with her pearls and a bonnet decorated with roses. She had assured Emily that there were roses growing in the gardens of Aelton Manor. She had organised the head gardener to pick enough roses for her bonnet, a small bouquet for her and to pin on the jackets of the Viscount and the Earl, assuming the Earl would accompany them over the border.
She hoped he would but there was no guarantee.
She had breakfasted in her room, rather than going down to meet the men. They would be leaving early for the border.
She was standing in the large foyer, at the bottom of the sweeping staircase, feeling a little lost, when Robert strode out of his study and stopped. She noticed he had a rosebud pinned to his jacket. Did this mean he was accompanying them?
“Good God, Em, look at you.”
“Oh! I did not think to bring anything, well… I…”
“You look like a proper lady. Mama and Papa would be so proud of you.” He was scowling as he said it but his eyes looked suddenly very bright.
“Oh Robert, you are a beast.”
“In what way am I a beast? I am complimenting you.”
“You shall make me cry on my wedding day.”
He walked over to her and enveloped her in a great big embrace. “I’ve only ever wanted you to be happy, Tiny.”
“You have not called me Tiny since I was about five years old. You always called me clumsy, or Ninny.”
“Yes, well I sat and drank rather a lot of port with your fiancé last night. I was planning to give him a piece of my mind. It turned out, he gave me a piece of his mind. He told me that you have a rather low opinion of yourself because you think these things about yourself.”
She pulled away from him and swiped at her wet eyes. “It is true though.”
“Perhaps, but it seems to be something you cannot control or you would. I am a prize ass for being a beast about it. Beattie is quite right. I have not helped matters. More than likely it just makes you more nervous and more likely to get yourself into bother.”
“He said that.”
“He seems to care very deeply for you.”
“I sort of forced his hand. I did not mean to. I was a ninny.”
“He explained what happened. “
“You are not angry with him?”
Robert sighed and wiped a hand across his face. “I wish he had waited and married you by special licence instead of eloping. It’s still a bit of a scandal, in all honesty, Em. I understand why he did it. We might live far from town up here but you know we do still get the papers, albeit a few days late. I know what is happening in the south of the country and on the continent. We have not worked out the particulars. We shall discuss it on the way to Scotland. I shall bring my horse with us tied to the coach so that I can travel home more quickly. I have work to do.”
“I understand. Thank you for coming with us.”
“I would never refuse to attend my own sister’s wedding, Em. Come, I think we have left your fiancé waiting in the coach long enough. I think that is punishment enough.”
“You left him in the coach? Robert!”
Robert chuckled. “I may be willing to let up on being a beast to you, Tiny, but your fiancé has years left to catch up.”
She punched him on the arm, refused to take his sleeve and marched out of the house on the way to her wedding.
“Well, Scottish weddings are not too bad.”
They were sitting in a private parlour in an inn just back over the English border from Gretna Green after the wedding, and that was the considered opinion of the Earl of Whitsnow. Gideon swallowed his mouthful of wine and nodded his head.
“Not bad at all. It appears that we are properly and legally wed, my love.” Gideon grinned at the new Lady Beattie, she blushed and smiled coyly at him over the rim of her own wine glass.
Was the little tease thinking about what he was thinking about? He had a damned hard cock, despite the presence of her brother. Luckily, he still had two more courses to get his traitorous body under control, and Whitsnow was not sharing their carriage back to Aelton Manor.
“Really Beattie. Are you intending to make cow eyes at my sister for the rest of the meal? If so, I may just get on my horse now and go home. This is supposed to be a celebratory meal, not the damned prelude to your consummation.”
Gideon shook his head. “I do apologise, my good man. I was distracted for a moment. I have had a certain lack of sleep the last week. As you know, it is difficult to sleep when one is not in one’s own bed, and I suspect I have not fully recovered from the injury I sustained to my head.”
“Y-e-e-s, possibly,” Whitsnow had raised an eyebrow and did not look convinced. Gideon gave him his most innocent expression but had the most horrible feeling he was failing miserably.
Eventually, their meal was over. Emily had been correct. Her brother did live very close to the Scottish border. Robert jumped onto his horse, waved to them and dashed off. Gideon handed his wife—he liked the sound of that—up into the carriage and followed her in.
He sat down beside her, placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side.
As soon as they were out of the inn yard and trundling along the highway, Gideon untied her bonnet and tossed it onto the seat opposite. He then removed his own hat and discarded it likewise.
Then he lifted her bodily onto his lap
“Husband?”
“Lady Beattie, you make me very hard when you call me that.”
She feigned innocence.
“Really Lord Beattie. Which part of you, in particular, gets hard.”
He peppered little kisses along her jawline and she sighed. A truly feminine sigh that went straight to his groin.
“My cock, Lady Beattie. My cock gets hard. Call me husband again.”
“My lord, are we going to make love in the carriage?”
He chuckled.
“No, my lady. We are not. You shall not be arriving back at your brother’s house looking completely tumbled. You shall arrive looking like a lady.”
“Then why, pray tell, am I on your lap, and why do you want me to make you hard?”
“You are on my knee because I am allowed to put you on my knee and no one can say a damned thing about it. I just wanted to hear you call me husband. I do not care that it makes me hard. I love when you do it.”
She sighed and rested her forehead against his. “I like being on your lap, husband. You make me feel safe, and cherished.”
“Then let us just enjoy being in one another’s company, wife. Rest your head on my shoulder and we shall just enjoy being together for a while.” He rested his own head back against the squabs and soon they were both dozing.
He woke when the carriage turned into the private road up to Aelton Manor. He shook his sleeping wife awake. She looked a little tousled but not tumbled. She had the imprint of his jacket on the skin of her face.
“I must look a complete fright.”
“You look beautiful.”
“What will Robert say.”
“Robert can go to the devil.”
“Yes, I suppose he can. I am your concern now.”
“You are indeed.”
Robert was holed up in his study when they arrived back and was not to be disturbed, according to the butler. They could go wherever they wished in the house and grounds. He had arranged for them to be sent dinner to their apartment at eight o’clock. If that did not suit, they were to inform the housekeeper.
Emily was looking a little askance at this information and looked up at him as if not sure how to proceed.
“It is a lovely day. We could go for a stroll around the park. I have missed the sunshine, I must confess.”
“Oh, I have too. Yes, let us go for a walk.”
Colour came back to her cheeks and she led the way back out the door. They walked in silence for a while through some well-tended gardens until they arrived at what appeared to be the beginning of a wilderness walk.
Gideon spoke up.
“Back at the house, you looked afraid as though I was going to jump on top of you and ravish you right there and then, but in the carriage, you seemed rather keen on the idea.”
She pursed her lips and looked past him. She clearly did not wish to meet his gaze.
“We were in high spirits in the carriage. If you had taken me there and then, I would not have had time to get nervous. I must admit though, I am a little afraid.”
“Of what?”
“The pain. Of not being good enough. Of being clumsy and awkward.”
He nodded. He understood her concerns. He was sure had he stopped long enough to consider his own worries when he had been a virgin, he would have had the same concerns. However, he had followed the direction his cock was pointing in. He’d drunk a little too much of his father’s brandy and tumbled his sister’s very young governess. It had come as a shock to him that the very young governess was older than she’d looked and was, in fact, not a virgin. She’d taught him a thing or two, been a very skilled lover and instructed more than his sister that Season. Sadly, she had found herself a vicar to marry, obviously convinced him she was an innocent young lady and he never saw or heard from her again once she headed off to rural Shropshire.
“I have no concerns, my love. You are a quick learner. You were very adept at bringing me pleasure that day in the carriage when we had to change out of our muddy clothes. I understand the pain is fleeting as long as I only take you once and prepare you properly, which I shall.”
She nodded in understanding.
“Am I being a ninny about this?”
“Anything we have not yet experienced is bound to give us a certain amount of apprehension, so no, you are not a ninny about this. You did say you trusted me. Trust me now that I can make the experience good for both of us.”
She drew his face down and pressed a delicate kiss to his lips.
“Yes, you are correct. I do trust you. Thank you for being so understanding.”
“Show me around the rest of this park and let us enjoy the sunshine before we must return to rainy old Herefordshire.”
Never mind going to hell, Gideon Beattie believed he may be beatified when he died if this week was anything to go by. He had just spent an hour watching Lady Emily Beattie eating her dinner, her tongue sticking out to lick her lips, her lips wet from the wine in her glass, her bosom almost spilling out of her evening dress and her cheeks almost scarlet every time he looked at her. He was changing in the dressing room off the green bedroom and could hear the murmurs of voices, Emily and her maid in the room next door.
He stroked his hard shaft in the hope of getting some sort of relief from the persistent ache.
At last, he heard the outer door of the room click shut. He waited a moment and knocked.
“Emily, may I come in?”
“Uh, yes, I suppose you may.”
“Well, you know how to make your husband feel welcome,” he said, the sarcasm evident in his tone as he walked into the room. Expecting to see her sitting at a window or her dressing table in a nightgown, waiting for him, he was surprised to see her naked, scrambling into the large four-poster bed.
“Where is your nightgown?” he asked.
“There.” She pointed to the chair where a nightgown lay discarded.
“Why are you already naked?”
She frowned. “I understood that to be the point, Gideon. Oh, give me the nightgown.” She started to scramble back out the bed but he hurried to her and caught her by the hips.
“No, you are right. That is the point. Do you ever have a moment thought out in your head so many times that when it does actually happen, it is not how you imagined it and you say entirely the wrong thing?”
She chuckled. “Frequently.”
“All week I have imagined this moment, but you were sitting at the window in your nightgown and I came over and pulled you to your feet and kissed you on the lips then led you to the bed. Instead, my hands are already on your bare hips, my teeth…. tugging at your earlobe, your pert little bottom pressed against my erection. I must say, it does feel divine. Much better than in my imagination.”
He moved his hand up and cupped her breast, brushing his hand over her erect nipple.
“Gideon!” Her voice was a breathy moan and his cock jerked against her bottom.
“Get on the bed and lie on your back while I remove this dressing gown.”
She did as he asked and he was crawling between her knees and up her body seconds later.
She giggled nervously when his cock jerked and touched her stomach. He looked between them and smiled.
“He’s happy to see you. He knows we are at last going to consummate this marriage.”
“He?”
“It does sometimes feel as though it has a mind of its own, especially when I am near you.” He moved to her side and onto his hip drawing her into a heated kiss. His tongue plundered her mouth as he moved his hand between her legs. She was tense—obviously worried about this moment. He had to get her to relax or it would be so much worse if her muscles were tight.
He moved his hand away from between her legs and just concentrated on kissing her again. When she threaded her fingers through his hair, moaning and rubbing her calf against his, he knew he was doing the right thing. She was responding as a lover should.
He broke the kiss and her lips trailed over his chin and down his neck. Damn, she was a sensual woman. She was clearly going completely on instinct, but it was his turn.
She was kissing his chest and trying to wriggle down the bed, her hand reaching for his shaft.
Devil take it. It was tempting to let her, but it would be all over in seconds and he would not disgrace himself on his wedding night, no matter how good it might feel in the moment. He caught her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing down the inside of her arm, warm, wet, sensual kisses, her skin was as soft as satin.
She was becoming pliant in his arms again instead of being the aggressor. Gideon would have no problem with Emily being in charge in the bedroom occasionally. He liked his woman to ride him to completion sometimes, but not tonight.
He kissed down her breast until he closed his mouth over the tip of one beautiful pink nipple. Yes, she did have large nipples and he loved them. Using the flat of his tongue to lick around the areola, the mewl of pleasure he pulled from her made him groan with need. He needed to be inside her soon.
He moved a hand between her legs. This time she opened for him easily. She was wet and wanting. As he stroked his fingers through her folds, she bucked into his touch.
He needed a plan. He would have sex with her, let her recover and then, since she would be sore, he could use his mouth on her later. She could use her hand. That would suffice. He already needed her again and he had not yet slaked his lust with her the first time.
He loved her breasts. She was so wet for him.
He pushed a finger inside her. She grabbed his shoulder.
“Gid…”
“Shh. I said I would prepare, you, my love.” She relaxed onto the bed and he eased his finger in and out of her. Damn, she was so hot and tight. Her breasts were better than any dessert. He feasted on them. When she started to moan, he added a second finger. Her grip on his shoulder tightened slightly but then she sighed and allowed her knees to fall to the side. He flicked her pearl with his thumb.
“Oh, husband.”
Christ, was she trying to send him over the edge?
“Do you like that wife?” His voice was deep and gravelly. He did not think he had ever been this aroused in his life. He had never had a virgin before, and though he had given her two releases on the way here, they had been fast and furious, he had felt a sense of unease both times. For though he had planned to marry her, he knew he had not yet done the deed. Now, however, she was his, she had his fingers buried in her as deep as they would go and she was on the edge of the precipice.
“Gideon, I…”
“Let go, my love,” he urged.
“Gideon!” Her body went rigid and the gentle strokes she had been making through his hair became a painful pull. She arched off the bed and closed her eyes. He moved up the bed, the muscles inside her still pulsed around his fingers but he removed them and enveloped her in his embrace.
He held her as she wrapped her thighs around one of his and rubbed herself against him.
Then Gideon rolled her over. It was now or never.
“Bend your knees, my love.”
She did as she was told and again she looked at him with hardly disguised terror. He placed a hand under her bottom and angled her slightly. Better to do it in one swift move once he was inside a small amount.
He pushed in. She did not scream in pain but her thighs were like bricks. He was only in past the head of his cock. He would never get past her maidenhead going this slowly.
He had noticed on the journey up that Emily was very easily distracted. She would start to tell a story, drift away for a second then tell a different story. He supposed she was unaware of this. But she was definitely very easy to misdirect.
“What is that?” He lifted her arm.” She looked at the inside of her arm that he had just raised.
“What?”
Gideon leaned over her. He took the skin between thumb and forefinger and tweaked it.
“Ouch!” she yelled. He was aware of her body relaxing and he drove home.
“Sorry,” he muttered. Damn, she felt good.
“Oh!” The look on the Viscountess Beattie’s face was priceless.