Chapter Five
When we arrived back to the house, the Dowager Countess sat in the drawing room with my Lady Grandmother, one calm, the other nearly frothing at the mouth. When Henrietta saw Edmund’s battered face she screamed in horror, and then flew to him, berating him loudly for fisticuffs, So ungentlemanly!
“Mother, would you like to meet Susanna?” Edmund ran a hand through his hair, shooting a quick, unreadable look towards me as he cut her off. “She is in the nursery, and she is the most enchanting creature…” Their voices faded as he led her from the room.
My Lady Grandmother turned to me, tutting at my grass-stained gown. “Well, child, you are in a world of trouble, it seems.” She patted the seat beside her, and poured me a cup of steaming tea. “You should have married the Duke when you had the chance, my girl. Now he will stop at nothing to ruin the pair of you.”
I took a measured sip of tea. “Word travels fast.”
“Do not think that woman will be distracted by her granddaughter for long, Perdita. I have seen how her son looks at you. She will do anything in her power to break the hold you have upon him.” My Lady Grandmother slurped her tea. “Do not give me that confused look. I may be old, but I am not blind. It is not the worst thing in the world to have your husband head over heels for you. I was young once too, you know.”
“He is my friend.” I fixed her with a firm look. “My dear, dear friend, and nothing more.”
She frowned. “Is that so? Well, if you two wish to retire early, I know I will not complain. I am entirely too exhausted at an early hour.”
“Who is retiring early, Lady Grandmother?” Edmund leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, tossing me a lazy wink.
“Why, it seems we all are, Ned.” I rose, but he crossed to one of the chairs beside the sofa, and sprawled upon it. His fingers brushed mine as I handed him a cup of tea, his eyes never leaving mine, and I shivered with the sudden flare of heat that licked between my thighs, sure that he could smell it on me by the way his pupils darkened, expanding. It was the look of lust Sinclaire would get, just before he threw me over any available surface and had his way with me.
“Hmm. Mother will have her say about that.” His eyes traveled to the ceiling. “But for now, she is content to be utterly charmed by her granddaughter.”
You left them alone together?! I nearly spluttered, but my Lady Grandmother made a small shake of her head in warning. “Oh?”
Edmund reached for my hand, squeezing it. A long moment, Golden and ripe, stretched out between us. “Susanna is truly her mother’s daughter,” he said, lifting my knuckles to his lips, his blue eyes never leaving mine. “Charming and sweet, and the Beauty of the Age.”
I felt myself flush, and fanned myself vigorously. “It is you who have the charm of the family, Ned. Tell him, Lady Grandmother,” I implored that grande dame.
My Lady Grandmother looked between the two of us, a small smile on her lips. “I never thought I should see the day. This old lady, however, must seek her bed. Good night, my dears.” Her papery lips brushed my cheek.
Edmund stood, bowing over her hand. “Good eve, madam.”
She tugged on his sleeve, pulling his ear to whisper in it. He looked back at me, his eyes widening, and the tips of his ears flared a deep crimson. “Good night, Edmund.”
“What did she say?” I nudged his knee with mine as he sat back down.
Edmund leaned back, his hands clasped behind his head. He smiled to himself. “Nothing, wife.”
I stood and he looked up at me, astounded, as I straddled him in his chair. “I was so worried for you today, husband.”
“Were… Were you?” he slid his hand up my thigh, cupping my backside. “Mmm. No wonder that old rogue could not keep his hands off this. I swear, Dita, you have the most shapely derrière in all Mayfair.”
I choked on my laughter, slapping him lightly on the chest. “Ned!”
“What?” My Husband raised a brow, holding up his hands. “I swear it is true!”
“Mmm.” I rocked my hips lightly against his, feeling his yard stiffen, bulging in his tight trousers. He leaned forward, brushing his thumb across the seam of my lips, and I melted into his touch.
His tongue teased my bottom lip, and then he cupped my jaw, tongue sliding into my mouth and teasing mine, gently, gently. I could taste the tea, and something else, something uniquely him that made me want to get even closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck, gripping his hair, and kissed him back with everything in me. Warmth suffused my limbs. When we broke apart, he was regarding me with such a warm look in his eyes that it fair snatched my breath away.
I unbuttoned his shirt, running my hands all over the hard planes of his chest. He bent his forehead to mine, and whispered, “Dita. Don’t stop. By God, I have missed you damnably.”
“Have you, Ned?” I leaned forward, bracing my hands against his chest as I nuzzled his neck. I felt dizzy with his scent, it intoxicated me. It was Town, smoke and leather, but it was also Edgewater, the forest and the meadow. He was breathing heavily, and I could feel his thick bulge leap against his trousers as I rocked against him again and again.
“Devilish minx,” Ned groaned, his hands sliding up my legs. “I swear, you will kill me one of these days.”
“But let it not be soon, Husband,” I purred, trailing one finger lightly down the line of dark gold hair that led to his lower abdomen. He jerked under me as my finger traveled further down, over his bulge and then inside my quim.
“Dita, you cheeky little tart.” His voice husky, he took my hand, licking my glistening juices from my fingers. “God, you taste so sweet.”
I caressed his jaw, tracing the scab on his cheekbone from where the Duke’s ring had gouged him. “Ned, may I kiss you?”
“Oh. Are you quite certain? Only, Br– most women — do not like to taste their own — “
Who else had he been with? The thought of it made me want to retch, scream and slap him all at once. But I would soon make him forget those other women. When I had done with him, I vowed silently, he would only think of me.
I leaned down, and kissed him hungrily, sloppily, wet and breathless. His hand cupped the back of my head, I tasted myself on his tongue, the heat of his kiss stirring the fire in my blood. “I love the way I taste on your tongue, Ned.”
His pupils turned utterly black at that, and his breath was ragged as he pulled me in for another kiss, deeper, more sensual. This time, he pulled my bodice down, plunging his hand inside of it to pinch my nipples hard between his thumb and forefinger, waltzing right along the edge of pleasure and pain.
I let out a muffled cry, biting his shoulder, and if I should not have been in his lap already, my knees would have buckled then and there. “I need you… I need your tongue…” Shameless creature that I was, I took his hand and pressed it to my quim. “Here, Ned.”
He groaned roughly, scooping me up, and turned around, setting me in the chair with my skirts pushed to my waist. He knelt before me, running his thumb down the sodden green silk of my drawers. He yanked them down, and then threw one of my legs over his shoulder, pulling me to the edge of the chair for a better angle. “You smell like sin,” he drawled, and there was note of yearning in his voice, so out of place with his casual tone, that I reached down and squeezed his hand. He jumped in surprise, and then he smiled at me, like the sun chasing away the rainclouds, and then he bent his head to my quim again, kissing me gently atop my mound.
I wondered who had taught him so well, I should thank her, I thought, my musings lost in the intoxication of his silky tongue lapping at my swollen nub, his evening stubble scraping at the inside of my thighs. “Ned…” I pressed down on his head, letting out a guttural cry. “Don’t stop!”
“Never?” He drew his head back, eyes dark, though his tone was teasing, light. “I shall oblige my lady tonight, if that is her desire.”
I thought I could not feel more pleasure, I was wrong. He pressed down hard on my nub with the tip of his tongue, and then began flicking it back and forth, slow at first, and then faster and faster. An intense sensation of heat gripped me, I felt as though I were being burned alive, and I let out a low, aching cry. “Ned…”
His hands were on my nipples, on my thighs, cupping my bottom. He hummed against me, and I Peaked — once, twice, again and again. My juices dripped down my thighs, he lapped them up. You taste like heaven, my countess. Then — he slowly slid his fingers inside me, and I thought of his cock, and how it had been an age since I’d ridden it to Paradise, and tears came to my eyes, unbidden, at the memory of Susanna’s conception.
“My lo– Dita, what’s the matter?” Edmund’s voice, heavy with concern, caused him to sit back on his knees and draw his fingers out. “Do you wish me to stop?”
“Oh, God no, Ned!” I locked my eyes with his. “Never, ever stop.”
His eyes went completely black again at that, and he dove back in, nibbling at the inner skin of my thighs until he came to my bud, and he began to suck on it as I went wild beneath him. A white hot rush of pure Pleasure gripped me as his fingers thrust inside of me, stretching me, rubbing against a magical button inside my quim, so that my hips shot off the chair, screaming his name so loud it scandalized the neighbor’s servants and our own.
“Ned!” I howled, exploding in a stupendous climax that nearly broke both the chair and my husband’s jaw when I clenched my thighs around his head.
“How was that?” He picked me up, settling me next to him on the sofa and wrapping one arm around me. He kissed my head. “No wonder Sinclaire cannot stay away from your bed,” he said in such a hoarse whisper that I must have imagined it.
“You know it was good, Ned.” I snuggled against his chest. “But now I think we should go to bed, lest we scandalize the servants even more.”
“You sound like a matron already, Dita. Before you know it, you shall be painting your face and glaring disapprovingly at the girls your husband flirts with.”
I pummeled him lightly, giving no quarter. “You are a fiend, Ned! I shall never be like that!”
“No.” He tilted up my chin, his voice ragged with some thing I dared not give name. “You shall always be utterly impossible, you saucy little minx. I fully expect to see you climbing trees and racing your horse down Rotten Row at breakneck speed until you are eighty.”
“Mmm, I shall do my best not to disappoint you, then.” I pressed my lips against his cheek, and he turned his head, so that our lips brushed. The spark between us was instantaneous, it lit Greek Fire under my skin.
He pressed his body against me, kissing me hard and deep, and his thigh was between my legs, he groaned as I rocked against it. “Come and ride me, you little she-devil,” he groaned into my mouth. “Or I swear I shall not take you until you beg me for it.”
“I am begging you for it now, Ned,” I gasped, my limbs loose with desire.
“Then get on your knees, Dita.” Edmund moved behind me as I sat up, and then his clothes and mine were on the floor. He struggled with the lacing on my corset, and then I heard it rip, cool air snaking down my backbone. It landed on the floor, and then his chest was pressed to my back, his big hands cupping my breasts as he nuzzled the crook of my neck. “You are so beautiful,” he exhaled, and then, parting my thighs, he slid inside of me. “Brace your hands on my thighs, my sweet.”
His first thrusts were slow, languid. His hands stayed on my breasts, brushing my erect nipples with the pads of his thumbs. When I tried to put a hand between my legs, he pushed it away, and swirled two fingers over my bud, pressing hard and making slow, firm strokes. He picked up the pace, nibbling my shoulder. Somewhere, I heard the door open, but it closed again, and I could concentrate on nothing but my husband’s hands, caressing every part of me.
“Ned,” I whimpered, feeling the tip of his length teasing my core with shallow thrusts, again and again, the heat building between my thighs until I wanted to weep from the aching need for release. “I’m so close, Ned…” I bit my lip, gasping as he sucked on my neck, his laughter a low rumble in my ear. “Harder, Ned! Please, please…”
“I need to see your face when you peak for me, Dita.” Ned’s words came out in breathless, jerky pants, and he flipped me over so I was right on the edge of the sofa, kneeling before me and thrusting into me before I could catch my breath.
The sofa creaked perilously, but we two were far too gone with one another to care.
He set a punishing pace, pinning my wrists behind my back with one hand, his mouth on my breasts, the sound of our bodies coming together seeming to spur him on. I choked out his name, my hips arched, and then his mouth slammed onto mine as I Peaked, shaking all over as the Rush completely overtook me. When the black spots had cleared from my eyes, he was staring down at me with an expression of such softness, such tenderness, that I did not know how to reconcile it with the face my husband so often showed to the world. It was only when he looked at me that he was like this, I realized, and I was touched to the heart to have such a dear, dear friend as he, the kind of man who showed me his vulnerability, and let me show mine in return.
If only… But he cares for Briar, not you, a little voice chastised me. The reality of it made hot tears prick behind my eyelids. This is only a comfort, nothing more… When he is done with you, he will go to Briar… His true wife.
“My Dita,” Edmund whispered, pushing a lock of hair from my damp brow. “You are truly one of the Wonders of this world.” His chest against mine was slick with sweat as he kissed me, and I could feel him pulse inside of me, as though his cock had a mind of its own.
I pulled his thick length from my quim, it was soaked and slick with my juices, and then I pushed him onto the sofa, kneeling before him and taking him into my mouth.
“You don’t have to — God — that is what whores do, not wives — Dita!” His eyes rolled back in his head as I bobbed my mouth up and down his thick length, and when I looked straight up at him, smiling wickedly, he moaned in such a way that I felt heat pool between my thighs yet again. “Keep going, yes, oh holy God, Dita…” His hands twined in my hair, lightly pressing my head down. I quickened my pace, hollowing my cheeks and swirling my tongue upon the engorged head as though it were a saffron flavored ice from Gunter’s. His whole body trembled, I could tell he was close. I drew my nails lightly down the center of his sack, tugging at it lightly, and his hips bucked into my mouth as he exploded, shouting my name to the rooftops. “Dita!”
He collapsed back against the back of the sofa, a look of warm regard in his eyes as I swallowed every last salty drop. “Let me get you something to drink,” he said, and rose to fetch two glasses of cordial water from a bottle on the bookcase. “It was made with last season’s blackberries, from Edgewater,” he murmured as I drank the taste of him away, and then he kissed me tenderly, his lips sweet as late summer beside the ornamental lake. Edmund pulled me against him, standing me up. “Come to bed.”
When we lay at last in my bed, curled up together skin to skin, he tucked my head beneath his chin, trailing one finger across the exposed skin of my shoulder. “Dita,” he whispered into my hair. “You must know how much I…” — but I had already fallen asleep.
•••
Upon waking, I learned from Violette that my husband had gone out to meet with Sinclaire at Tattersall’s, to find the fastest steed with which to win the race. My mother-in-law pounced upon me as soon as I entered the morning room, her thin lips stretched in a malicious smile.
“Perdita.” When she leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, she said, “You wicked little beast, how dare you encourage this… this tomfoolery!”
I cared not, she could not hurt me. I was too far above her now. “I trust him to see the matter through.” I adopted a lofty tone, pouring myself a spicy chocolate and grabbing my usual toast and marmalade from the breakfast spread. “In case you had not noticed, my husband is a man, and not a little boy any longer. He is entitled to make decisions as he sees fit without consulting you, madam.”
Her eyes narrowed at that. “You know nothing about him — nothing! You have had him for only three years, and I had him for twenty-five!”
I dabbed my lips with a napkin. “That is correct, madam. You had him. A son is a son ’til he takes a wife.” I smirked at her, taking a bite of toast. “Will that be all?”
Henrietta scowled, her face like thunder. She was beginning to age, with heavy jowls and a wobbling turkey neck. “You should not be so smug, at least I produced a male heir! You cannot even get that, for all your whoring!”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “You are Lucky your son loves you so well, or I should turn you from my door.” I would not let her see that she had gotten to me.
“You are the one he should turn from the door! Do not think I have not heard the rumors of the things you get up to with Sinclaire, you slattern!”
I was done with her slander. I pushed back my chair and stood, facing her down, my hands on my hips. “What, jealous?”
She spluttered. “You do not deserve him!” Then, she attempted to shove her way forcefully past me, but I did not move an inch. “By your leave, you uppity little madam!”
“Do you not mean Countess?” I dug in the knife.
She got right up in my face, pointing her finger, but whatever it was she was about to say fled from her mind the minute the front door crashed open.
“Fetch a surgeon!” Mr Sinclaire’s panicked voice thundered through the front hall.