Trials of Artemis (17 page)

He
kissed her again. The gentle, drugging kiss that made her forget everything
else. After a few moments he started to move in her again and there was no
pain. When she relaxed he quickened his pace and she felt a new aspect to the
pleasures her body had experienced earlier. She instinctively tilted her pelvis
and met his rhythm with her own, feeling a wild abandon beyond curricle racing
or fighting. Her body began to pulse and she dug her nails into his skin from
the intensity of the shuddering contractions that made her body quake. As she
began to call his name he shouted hoarsely and after a final thrust he slumped
forward, taking his weight onto his elbows above her and breathing heavily. His
face was mostly covered by his dark, wild hair and she brushed it back to see
his eyes. She didn't recognize his expression but decided that it was good. He
leaned down to kiss her mouth and forehead before pulling rolling onto his back
and pulling her on top of him. She tucked her head into the crook between his
neck and shoulder while he ran his hands down her back and over her bottom.
This aspect of marriage to him was, as she had suspected, quite pleasing.

Gideon
squeezed his beautiful, passionate wife's bottom and tried to get his breathing
and galloping heart under control. Entering her tight, wet body had been one of
the most amazing experiences of his life. When he had driven fully into her he
had almost forgotten his concern about hurting her, as the whole of his being
had sighed with relief and joy at finally joining. That first deep thrust had
been accompanied by the thought "Oh, thank God." Then she had yipped
in pain and it had felt like he himself had been stabbed. She had recovered quickly,
once again a lush, demanding goddess. Just thinking about what it was like to
be in her, he could feel himself hardening again, but it wouldn't do to cause
her pain. He set her back on the towel and stood up to get the water bowl and
assess how much blood there was. Seeing it smeared on his cock cooled his ardor
for entering her again tonight. He cleaned himself off and then came to the bed
to clean her as well. There was a small amount of blood on the towel and a bit
more on her inner thighs and the lips of her cleft. He washed her silently
while she watched him and the circumstance, which could have seemed awkward,
was intimate and slightly erotic instead. Through her relaxation she signaled
that he had full access to her body, and it was difficult not to start arousing
them both again. After he set the bowl and towels aside she reached out for him,
and he lay down next to her on the bed but she gripped him on his sides and
pulled.

"On
top," she said.

"You
want me on top of you? I'm heavy."

"I
like it."

As
he liked it, too, he complied. She had spread her thighs and he settled into
the intimate connection, his cock hardening and throbbing against her. She was
running her hands through his hair again, then over his face and shoulders. It
was both arousing and relaxing, and he thought it would be the better part of
valor to sink into a nap rather than slide into her again as he intensely
wanted to do.

"Gideon."

"Yes,
love?"

"Are
you falling asleep?"

He
kissed her shoulder. "Perhaps, if you'll be quiet."

"Then
am I doing it wrong?"

He
rose up on his elbows to look down at her. She was worried now, he could see it
in the tiny crease between her brows and the troubled look in her eyes. He
kissed her on that tiny crease and smiled. "If you were doing it any more
right I would probably burst into flames."

"Then
why aren't we… I can tell that you're...interested."

His
cock pulsed again. "Oh yes, I'm very...interested. But I don't want to
hurt you." He stroked her cheek. "We have plenty of time."

She
gazed up at him, looking oddly serious. "Do we?”

"Tomorrow
isn't soon enough?"

She
seemed to give it serious thought. "Tomorrow is an abstract concept. All
we really have is today."

"Very
well, you clever little vixen. I suppose this is what I get for marrying a woman
who can read Greek. Philosophy in the bedroom." He rolled onto his back
and pulled her on top of him. "If we're going to do this then I want you
to be able to stop if it hurts too much. Do you remember this from the
book?"

She
gave him a triumphant smile. "Oh yes."

He
helped her to place her knees to the side of his hips and sink down onto his
throbbing erection. She tilted her head back with a soft moan and began to move
over him. As she found her rhythm he saw the flush bloom over her heavy,
rounded breasts, bouncing with her movements. He thought it was very possible
he would die from the pleasure of his new wife. His thumb found and stroked the
pearl between her thighs to make sure she experienced her climax before he
gripped her hips and drove up into her until he found his own release.

As
Jack entered the drawing room on Gideon's arm before dinner, she felt herself
flush as she spotted her childhood friend. She wondered how long it would be
until she stopped feeling like she had just been discovered doing something
naughty. But that brought thoughts of exactly what they had been doing upstairs,
which made her face burn even hotter.

Justin
had changed into dinner clothes, which meant that either he had packed some,
which she doubted, or her husband had ordered his staff to produce some for him
from somewhere. They actually fit rather well, if a few years out of style. He
bowed politely to them both and it made her smile, remembering how Sabre would
lecture him on his manners.
'Even as a
bastard you may have occasion to move in Society one day and it will reflect
very poorly on me, indeed, if you cannot do so with aplomb.'
Jack knew that
Sabre had put in that extra twist about how it would reflect on her because
Justin would do almost anything to help his half-siblings, and would be
appalled to have his own behavior reflect poorly on them.

How
prescient Sabre had proven to be, now that Justin was here, making his bow to
an earl and countess, preparing to eat at their table. Even the viscount had
never allowed Justin to eat at table with the family. From what Jack had seen
the viscount tried very hard to ignore that Justin even existed, which had been
both boon and bane to the boy. On the one hand, it meant that Justin could do
almost anything as long as he didn't run afoul of the viscount. On the other
hand, it meant he didn't have the attention and affection of the person who
meant the most to him. It was, Jack thought, a very strange and sad life to
lead. And it was evident that without his half-siblings and the rest of the
Haberdashers around, Justin had settled into less than what he had the
potential to be.

When
entertaining, it was customary to chat in the drawing room until dinner was
announced, and as the two friends hadn't uttered a word, Gideon started the
conversation. "Have you found your room satisfactory?"

Justin
nodded, "Yes, thank you, my lord. The view of the gardens is stunning and
the room is quite comfortable."

Jack
suppressed the impulse to applaud him, as she used to do when he gave a
particularly good answer as they played what Sabre called "Lord and
Lady." It had been a game designed to prepare all of them for precisely
this circumstance. And, as Jack recalled, she had always been abysmal at it.
She had preferred to watch the others play. Justin with his earnestness, George
with her sly wit, Sabre with her haughty arrogance, and Sam with her sweetness.
On the rare occasions that they could press Robert and Charlie into playing
with them, she had enjoyed Robert's smooth authority and Charlie's silly
playfulness as well. Just then she had a terrible wave of nostalgia and missed
her friends all the more acutely. She missed those innocent games with her
friends and now, as she realized she still hadn't participated in the conversation,
she also wished she had been more diligent in using them to improve upon the
flaw in her character that made her silent in social situations. She searched
her mind for something to say and blurted out the first thing she found,
"We're having a ball. Next month. I do hope you can come."

She
realized that both of them seemed stunned. The first person she was going to
invite to this nebulous idea of a ball was the nearly unacknowledged bastard of
a peer? She had made the mistake of letting her genuine feelings run her mouth
again, rather than putting a Society gloss over all her true thoughts and
emotions. But if she were to choose who would be at her ball then of course
Justin would be on her list. If she had her druthers it would be completely confined
to her "Lord and Lady" playmates, save she supposed she had to add
Gideon. Perhaps she should go back to the silence that had formerly seemed like
such a bad idea.

Justin
flushed and looked at the earl, then back to Jack. "If I am able, then of
course I would be most honored."

Fortunately
Dibbs saved them by announcing dinner.

Their
places had been set at Gideon's end of the table as Jack had requested, placing
her in her usual seat and Justin across from her at Gideon's left. She remained
quiet through the first course and fortunately her friend and her husband found
an accord in conversation almost immediately. Their topics ranged from regional
agriculture, including the proposed Importation Act, to the latest news from
the Congress of Vienna. After pushing her peas around her plate while listening
she finally said, "It's nice to hear the latest news after being out here
without the newspaper."

Gideon
stopped and looked at her. "We take the paper. It's a day late from
London, but we get it."

"We
do? Since we never read it at breakfast I assumed we didn't."

He
reached out to take her hand. "Yes, we do. I take it in my study. You may
come by any morning you like to read it."

She
smiled at him, thinking this would be something else they could share.

"Well,"
Justin said, spooning up some potatoes. "I'm glad to see that what they
say is true."

"What's
true?" Gideon asked, turning his attention to his young guest.

Justin
looked from the earl to Jack as though not sure he needed to say anything.
"That it's a love match."

Gideon
withdrew his hand stiffly from Jack's and picked up his fork again. "Yes,
well, if you can't trust London gossip what can you trust?"

Jack
raised a brow at Justin and said tartly, "And what else did Samantha put
in her letter?"

Justin
smiled down into his fish course and shrugged. "Some other things."

"Gideon,
I have to apologize for my sister. She is immature and intrusive."

"Jack!"
Justin exclaimed, ready to defend his ladylove.

Gideon
leaned forward slightly to catch the young man's eye. "Are you shouting at
my wife?"

Justin
slinked down in his seat a bit. "My apologies, my lord."

"So,"
Jack said briskly to divert them, "what were you saying about the Corn
Laws?"

That
set them off into another fifteen minutes of debating agricultural issues while
Jack wondered what other things Sam had mentioned that had made Justin smile.

Gideon
considered it lucky that Jacqueline's young friend was a rather well informed
and intelligent conversationalist, otherwise there would be nothing stopping him
from taking his wife back upstairs for another round of lovemaking, and it was
too soon for that, certainly. He found that he couldn't stop touching her, although
he tried to make it less obvious after Justin's comment. Just a tap on the arm
or sliding his foot to intercept hers under the table. It began to feel like a
game. The "how many times can I touch Jacqueline without anyone
noticing?" game. He knew that she had entered into the spirit of it when
she leaned forward to ask Justin a question and used that opportunity to set
her hand on her husband’s knee. Being just as surreptitious, he took her
fingers in his own and they spent all of the dessert course holding hands under
the edge of the table. Fortunately the berry compote chef had served was easily
eaten one-handed.

After
dinner Jacqueline insisted on withdrawing to leave them to their port,
something Gideon resented both because it meant there would be a stall in his
game, and he didn't fancy taking port with a wet behind the ears bastard pup.
The more he chatted with the lad, the younger he assumed the boy to be. Not
that there was anything wrong with being young per se, but undoubtedly they
would run out of agreeable topics before long. And besides that, he didn't particularly
care for port and he wanted his wife and really there wasn't anything wrong
with either of those things, and what was the point of being an earl if you
couldn't avoid what you disliked and have what you liked?
His mind was clicking along on that track while his
mouth was talking about agriculture when the young pup in question threw out an
unexpected observation.

"I
think the most important thing in marriage is what you bring out in each
other."

"Pardon
me?"

The
boy had slouched down in his chair as befitted the coze of after dinner drinks,
and now stared down into the port glass he had barely sipped from. "What
you bring out in each other." When the earl remained silent the boy looked
up again. "I don't know you, my lord, I can't say as to what effect Jack
has had on you. But I can certainly see the effect you've had on Jack."