He began at her shoulders, kissing, licking, tasting, following the alluring path of her curves. With infinite patience he worked his way down to her full, feminine bosom. He drank in her sighs and the soft catches of breath as he toyed with her nipples and the delicate undersides of her breasts. He used his tongue to delineate the majesty of her hips, and then kissed lower as she pleaded
no, no, no
.
He thought to himself,
yes, yes, yes
. He held her gaze as he spread her legs wider with gentle but inexorable pressure, then he kissed the inside of each trembling thigh. Her feminine scent excited him beyond measure. He’d memorized every note of it by now, knew it as well as he knew his own face. He had made it his business to learn the sophisticated pleasuring of women over countless experiences of his youth, and now Aurelia would benefit...if only she would relax. When she tried to close her legs, he pinned them open with his shoulders, then slid his arms beneath her hips to draw her closer to his mouth.
The silly woman actually braced as he pressed his lips to her wet, silken folds—but he knew how to deal with resistance in this quarter. He swirled his tongue around her silken center, teasing and exploring until he found the thrusting bit of flesh that made her moan. He worried the nubbin between his teeth and paid it devoted attention. He opened her with his fingers, probing inside her with infinite patience when she whined and pulled away.
This didn’t hurt her. It only hurt her sensibilities, her prim self-identification. “Let go,” he whispered. “Think only of pleasure, and your animal needs.”
“I’m not an animal,” she said.
Yes, he knew that. Not a mouse or a grasshopper, but a woman overwrought with need. He would do this for an hour if that’s what it took to fight through her defenses and reduce her to the delectably wanton creature he wished her to be.
But in the end, it took much less time. He didn’t scold her when her hands left their ordered place above her head and curled into his hair, and pulled it in an urgent signal of need. He hummed against her heated flesh, spreading her wider, and then lapped delicately at her quim. He learned what made her shudder and what made her groan, and what made her buck against his mouth as he’d told her she would do.
“Please, please,” she begged. “Please.”
“Yes,” was his only reply.
Yes, yes, yes.
When he felt her come off, he slipped his fingers deep inside her to feel her inner muscles contract. He was hard again, hard as steel, hard as granite, and he might have pushed his cock inside instead, but he decided not to. This had been about her pleasure, not his. This had been a lesson in gratitude for them both.
Her fingers loosened in his hair, coming to rest weakly on his shoulders. He kissed back up her belly to the enticing pillow of her breasts, then laid his head there to listen to her wildly beating heart. He lay back and pulled her close, enfolding her in his arms so her head ended up on his shoulder. It was a comfortably pleasing weight.
“Sleep here tonight,” he said, nuzzling her shoulder. “There’s plenty of room here for the both of us.”
She didn’t answer for long moments, and he realized his exhausted wife had fallen fast asleep.
Aurelia loved the library at Somerton. Her husband had outfitted a long, soaring room filled with books and huge leather chairs that somehow managed to feel cozy. Thick, deep brown carpets softened the floors. Three great branches of candles lit the space, since dinner had come and gone, and the day’s light with it. Townsend sat near the fireplace in a great wingback chair, leafing through some of the London papers as he sipped his port.
Aurelia had staked out a corner of his grand desk for her writing materials and correspondence, and worked now on a letter to her parents. She was careful not to disturb his papers, as she had come to know him as a fastidious landowner who took great care in all his interests.
She understood now that
she
was one of his interests, and that he was doggedly developing her into what he would like, while looking after her with close supervision. As day followed day, she noticed the little things he did to try to make her happy, even as he demanded his own happiness by requiring her to do all manner of licentious things.
Each day, honestly, she minded it a little less.
Oh, she didn’t enjoy the spankings. Not the pain part of them, anyway. But there was something in the way he touched her and smiled at her afterward that made the pain and embarrassment seem worth it. His dark looks, which used to repel her, came to seem rather handsome and dashing. His smiles, which used to terrify her, now set up a clamor in her heart. Sometimes she even wondered if he loved her.
But it could not be so. They’d been married less than a month, and they were so very different in manner and temperament. But if love was caring for someone and making them smile ten times a day... She stared across the room at her husband, at his fine long legs, at his strong shoulders, at the faint frown lines between his brows as he concentrated on his papers and occasionally turned a page. His lips arrested her attention, pursed as they were. She noticed them relax into a faint smile, and then realized he was looking back at her.
She glanced quickly down at her letter, as if she hadn’t been staring at him, but her pen had long since been put down on the table. She pasted on a thoughtful look as if she had only been considering what to write.
“How is your letter coming?” her husband asked. She could hear the teasing beneath his tone.
“I am nearly finished.” She looked down at the rather scattered niceties she’d composed so far.
“I would like to read it before you post it, as usual.”
She lost herself a moment in the dark depths of his gaze. “If you wish. But, as usual, I have not written anything negative about you.”
His smiled widened. “A difficult task indeed.”
She laughed at his teasing expression. Had she ever laughed so much in her life? She was coming to appreciate his dry, often ridiculous humor and enjoy his many jokes.
“Well, there are certain matters I cannot discuss with them,” she said, attempting her own joke. “And those would be the matters where I could righteously complain of your faults.”
He rewarded her with a great burst of mirth. The sound rang from the high ceilings and she grinned so wide she covered her mouth in a wave of shyness. She didn’t know if he really found her jokes funny, or only laughed at them because she’d grown brave enough to make the clumsy attempts.
He looked back at his papers and she bent back over her letter, checking it to be sure she hadn’t said anything remiss about Lord Townsend. From the start he had forbidden her to send any letters without his permission, and without them being read first by him. She supposed it was because she had threatened to tell her father and brother what a monster he was, but she’d never do that now.
After composing a few more lines of daughterly news and affection, Aurelia put the last flourishing touches to her signature, then sanded the paper dry.
He looked up as she approached him with the letter, and opened his arms.
She allowed herself to be drawn into his lap. They used to spend this time after dinner in their separate places, in entirely different areas of the house. She used to hide away from him like the mouse everyone assumed her to be, but she enjoyed this better, being close to him. She leaned back against his chest and nestled her head beneath his chin. He assisted in arranging her skirts, murmuring in a gentlemanly fashion about the prettiness of her gown, and then held up the letter before him.
“Let me see.” He made a great show of squinting at her handwriting, although she knew it to be perfectly neat and ladylike. “
Dear Mama and Papa...
” He squeezed her lightly. “An estimable beginning.”
She giggled at his silliness. “It is a very standard beginning, I believe.”
He read on in his deep, rumbling voice. “
I was delighted to receive your letter. Everything continues lovely in Berkshire. You would be impressed indeed with Somerton. There are fields and beautiful gardens turning all the colors of autumn, and a great stately home with windows to the loveliest views. You must come and visit when you may.
Good lord,” he muttered. “Let us hope they stay too busy.”
“But I would like to see them!”
“So you may return to being their prim, miserable daughter, after all the strides we’ve made? I think not.” He kissed her on the nose, an innocuously tender gesture after the anger in his voice. “You may invite them, of course. But if they come, I’ll find some way to be in London on business.”
“What if they come for weeks?” she asked.
“Then I’ll jump off the north tower,” he said with a sigh. “What else have you written in this pinnacle of a letter?
Townsend is well. He stays busy with his duties and takes time to spend with me as well. He is congenial and courteous in all things.
” He snorted. “What a bounder, Aurelia. You do not mention here that I spank you nightly, sometimes until you cry.”
“I can add it as a post-script,” she said, pretending to take the letter.
He made a quelling sound and lifted it out of reach. When she resettled against him, he resumed where he had left off. “Kind and patient in all things. Blah blah blah.
We had pheasant for dinner last night. It was delicious. Townsend’s cock came with us from London.
”
“Cook,” she corrected him.
“Oh, I thought things were finally getting interesting.” He pointed to the word in question. “That looks very much like a c.”
“It is an o,” she said firmly.
He rolled his eyes. “
Townsend’s cook came with us from London. It wasn’t a very long ride from his city home, only a day’s journey. His traveling carriage is much like papa’s finest rig, only done in ivory rather than pale blue. I believe the seats are also not quite as wide
. This is gripping stuff, my darling. Your parents will love this letter. But why do you only talk about my cook and my carriage,” he asked, peering down at her, “and say nothing about me?”
She pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. His mouth curved in a smile.
“
Give my love to Brendan and Georgina, and be assured...
” He paused, his gaze lingering on the page. “
Be assured that I am eminently happy here with Townsend. He has proved a respectable sort of husband with a great facility for kindness. He makes me smile every day.
” He looked down at her with a glint of something indefinable in his eyes. A muscle ticked in his firm, strong jaw, and his hand moved a little where it rested on her back.
“Will it do?” she asked, feeling shy.
He looked back at the letter. “Well, I think it very poor that there is no mention whatsoever of the grasshopper, or its churlish attempt at escape, or our valiant struggle to recapture it unharmed. But such subversive activities might well send Duchess Lansing into a swoon, or cause her to come charging over here to rescue you, so perhaps you are a good daughter for omitting that tale.”
He lifted her from his lap, and she followed him over to his desk, where he folded the letter and sealed it by imprinting the Townsend crest in wax.
“Very prettily written, my love. Mama and Papa will be in ecstasies when they receive it.” He placed it on the pile with his other correspondence. “Perhaps as a reward, we’ll postpone tonight’s spanking and begin with some fun.” He sat back in the upholstered leather desk chair and pulled her closer. “Let’s practice what you’ve been learning. Kneel down.”
“Here?” She glanced toward the open door.
“Yes, here. No one will enter unless I summon them.”
Aurelia feared she gave him a very ungracious look as she sank to her knees before him.
“No. Stop.” He lifted her up again. “You know that was not fetchingly done. Whether or not you agree with my directions, you must obey me in a respectful way. How should you look? How should you reply when I direct you?”
She bit her lip. “I should say, ‘As you wish, my lord.’”
“With more docility, if you please, or you will have that spanking first after all.”
“As you wish, my lord,” she attempted again, with more sweet submissiveness in her tone.
He nodded, and she reached to unbutton the flap of his breeches. She had become somewhat more comfortable around his large, thick rod. Somewhat.
In truth, her husband lay with her every day, sometimes more than once a day, and they did this too now—every day. She might have complained about so much oral copulation if she didn’t fear what type of copulation he intended to teach her next. He alluded to it, toying occasionally with her bottom hole, making descriptive promises that sounded more like threats. She hoped if she kept him satisfied enough in this way he might postpone or forget completely about the other things he wanted to do to her.
But another part of her knew that would never happen.
She freed the evidence of his virility and dutifully caressed it with her mouth and lips. Grunts and sighs accompanied softly spoken instructions to lick this or pay more attention to that, or suck harder, or pump him faster. Sometimes he held her head and controlled her movements, but other times he was very still and left her on her own to try to please him.
She wondered how long he would take this night, and whether she’d be able to bring him to completion. The last couple times she had, even though it had taken an interminable amount of time, and then he’d spent inside her mouth, which had appalled her. But when he warned her that she must not spit it out, but swallow it down, she had done so because of the sharp insistence in his voice.
He brushed fingers through her hair, gave a soft moan, then called out, “Landon.”
Aurelia froze. Why was he calling one of the footmen? His fingers traced down to cup the back of her neck, preventing her from drawing back the way she wished.
“He won’t be able to see you,” he said beneath his breath. “Continue, please.”
Aurelia felt that she would choke. He held her trapped, his rod nearly to the back of her throat, forcing her to breathe through her nose. But if she choked, surely the servant would hear that. She moved her tongue a little and swallowed, and as she hoped, he loosened his grip.