Page 6 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

“ J ames was the one who suggested Move-All as our final game of the night,” Emma said as supper was coming to an end a few hours later.

“Yes, can you explain it to me?” Adelaide asked. “I’m not sure I’ve ever played before.”

Her husband, Graham, pivoted toward her. “Have you not? You’ll love it, it’s absolute chaos, especially the way this lot plays.”

Meg leaned around him to look at Adelaide directly.

“There’s nothing to it. We begin with a group and chairs enough for all.

While one person plays a short tune, we circle the chairs and the host removes one.

When the music ends we all try to find a seat until there are only two people left and one chair.

Whoever puts their backside on the final cushion is champion. ”

“That sounds like a very good way to hurt one’s self,” Adelaide said with a laugh.

“It is,” Charlotte said. “Remember when Baldwin turned his ankle five years ago and had to hobble around the rest of the summer?”

Baldwin pulled a face. “Perhaps I should be the host and remove the chairs, lest I repeat such a humiliation. ”

Meg noted that Simon was watching Baldwin closely and saw the look of concern she knew so well on his face. He had always been very aware of the feelings of those he cared for. A peacemaker through and through, he always wanted to help. If Baldwin needed such a thing remained to be seen.

“I can provide the music, though it will be very ill,” Emma said.

Charlotte shook her head. “I will play this time, Emma, so you may participate.” Ewan signed something to her rapidly and she shook her head. “No, my love. You need to represent our family in the game.”

Ewan shook his head but his smile was very sweet and secret as they all stood and he offered an arm to his wife.

Meg took Simon’s and they headed toward the parlor where the game would be played. “You know, I don’t think Ewan would have ever played such a game before.”

“No, he would have put himself on the outside of the circle,” Simon agreed.

Then he leaned down and stole an all-too-brief kiss.

“Isn’t it nice how love heals all.” Then he patted her backside lightly.

“Now prepare to be solidly trounced, Your Grace. Good luck!” He said the last in an almost singsong tone and Meg couldn’t help but laugh as he slipped away to the other side of the room where he claimed a chair for the game.

Eventually Charlotte began to play a little meaningless tune and once everyone had gotten up and begun to circle the room, Baldwin removed one of the chairs and set it to the side.

When the music stopped, all hell broke loose.

People dove for chairs, Emma ended up in James’s lap, much to Meg’s brother’s booming laughter.

The duchess removed herself from the floor and they started again.

One by one, each partygoer was eliminated, boons like kisses or even little bottom swats were collected amongst the couples…that was why one played these games, of course. To be able to be a little freer with physical affection in a world where it was frowned upon.

Laughter abounded and Meg sank into the fun as much as the glory of always collecting her seat. And in the end, just as before, it came down to her and Simon at last. One chair was placed between them and Simon gripped the back of it.

“Shall I collect my boon now,” he asked, his tone silky as he leaned over as if to kiss her.

She turned her head playfully. “Don’t shine your trophy yet, Your Grace.”

He arched a brow and she blushed as she realized what she’d said and the manner in which he was receiving it. When James covered his ears and grunted, “Oh, keep it to yourselves!” she couldn’t help but laugh.

Then Charlotte began to play and the laughter ended as they circled the chair, circled each other, anticipating the end of the tune, leaning toward the seat they would battle for.

Suddenly the notes ended and Meg dove. Her backside hit the seat first and she sent Simon onto his arse on the floor beside her.

He was roaring with laughter as he stared up at her.

Her face felt hot with triumph and was even hotter when she leaned down, cupped his cheeks and collected her public boon by placing a hard, quick kiss on his lips.

“I hate to lose, but what a way to go,” Simon quipped when she released him and the crowd politely applauded before servants began to pour into the room with drinks and to remove or move the chairs for the party to gather for talk and more reverie.

Meg stood up and offered Simon a hand. “May I help you, Your Grace?” she asked.

He took her hand and rose before he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Are you ready to claim your boon? Your real prize?” he asked.

She nodded. “I think we must stay a little while for appearances, but the sooner we can go to our chamber, the better.”

He agreed, then slipped off to join the gentlemen.

The rest of the night was passed with heavy glances and teasing brushes of hands.

By the time the gentlemen decided to end their night with a game of billiards, Meg felt quite on fire.

Eventually Simon approached her with a wicked smile on his face.

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek as he whispered, “I’ll slip away. Meet me in our room.”

She nodded and watched him, go her heart racing, her breath short. He would always do that to her, she thought. She would always want him as much as she liked him and loved him and that made her heart soar.

She waited a few moments after he left, watching the door, trying to seem unaffected and not draw attention. Sneaking off was part of the game, after all. To pretend like they were doing something wicked.

But at last she couldn’t take it anymore. She squeezed Emma’s hand. “I think I might have played a little too hard today. I must take to my bed and celebrate all my victories.”

Emma arched a brow and looked at her a little knowingly, but she only leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Sweetest dreams, dearest.”

Meg left the party and then all but danced up to the chamber she was sharing with Simon during their stay.

It was her old room in the estate, though it had been transformed into their room.

Still, it held such special memories. This was the first place she’d made love to Simon, after all.

Every time they shared each other’s bodies here it held a different meaning.

She entered the chamber and smiled to find Simon stoking the fire. A few candles were lit around the space to give it a warm glow. He had stripped out of his more formal attire and wore only his trousers. His boots were gone, shirt was gone.

She drank in the sight of him before he turned toward her and the real games began. He was so utterly beautiful, sometimes it stole her breath. Then he turned to face her and her breath was truly gone .

“You’ve been busy,” she managed to say, her voice shaky.

“You earned a boon,” he said, moving toward her slowly. “I’m very anxious to pay my debt. What do you want?”

He punctuated each word of the question with a gentle kiss against the column of her neck.

She wrapped her arms around him with a shiver.

“You,” she gasped out. "I want you, Simon. All night. I want to be bleary-eyed tomorrow. I want everyone to exchange knowing glances when they see us. I want you.”

He lifted his head from where he was kissing her and smiled. “Your wish is most definitely my command.”

He pivoted her and began to unbutton her gown with efficient speed.

When his hands slid inside the fabric, she hissed out his name, wobbling on her feet at the sensation of his touch against her bare skin.

When she’d dressed for dinner she hadn’t worn undergarments, in anticipation of this moment no matter who won the secret competition between them. He let out a groan.

“You are temptation embodied,” he said before he pushed her dress forward and curled his bare chest against her naked back.

He pressed hot kisses against her spine as he guided her forward toward the bed. She gripped the edge when they reached it and arched back against him while he pushed the rest of her dress down and kicked it away impatiently.

He stepped back and she felt him watching her. She glanced back at him over her shoulder and saw the glitter of desire in his eyes. The glow of love for her.

“I want my prize, Crestwood,” she said with an arch of her brow.

His look of adoration transformed to wickedness and he caught her by the hips. He spun her around, pressing his body flush with hers. “Oh, you’ll get it. You earned it.”

With that he lifted her onto the edge of the high bed and dug his fingers into her hair, drawing her in for a kiss.

There was such heated promise in the way he claimed her mouth, in the way he moaned against her like she was everything.

In the way he glided his mouth away and down her body as he pushed her to lay flat across the bed.

He moved away from her then and she heard him moving a chair over from near the fire.

She sat up on her elbows, watching as he positioned the chair between her legs and then draped her thighs over his shoulders.

She opened herself wider, her breath catching as he leaned in and lightly kissed the length of her sex.

He traced there with the tip of his tongue even as he massaged the sensitive area with his thumbs.

“Your prize, Margaret,” he breathed against her and then he went to work at her with focus.

He took his time with her, licking and stroking, teasing her clitoris and reveling in every fold of her body.

He moaned against her like doing this to her was just as arousing and pleasurable to him as it was to her.

She knew it was. There was nothing this man liked more than watching her come for him, feeling her come around him, drawing out her pleasure until she was weak and needy and incoherent.

He did it now as he teased her and she fell back off her elbows, gripping the coverlet and rocking her head back and forth as the pleasure built. Brick by brick, he drew it out, building it higher and higher until she felt like she was flying toward the edge.

And then he sucked her clitoris gently, repeatedly, swirling his tongue just like she liked it and she fell, arching beneath him, crying out his name in the quiet, rolling her hips against his mouth with mounting urgency as the pleasure rolled over her in wave after wave after wave.

At last her shaking eased, the pleasure subsided like tide rolling back from a beach and she sat up again on her elbows.

He smiled up at her, his chin slick with her pleasure, his eyes bright with his own desire.

She sat up straighter, caught his cheeks with her hands and drew him to her for a kiss.

He pressed a hand on either side of her and leaned across her, lowering her back to the bed with his weight. They shifted together, their mouths tangling so that he fully covered her and immediately she began to grind beneath him.

He chuckled as he lifted his head. “So insatiable.”

“Entirely,” she agreed as she glided her hands down his chest and began to unfasten his fall front. He shifted and kicked the trousers away, then pushed her legs wider with his hips and settled between them, the head of his cock teasing the slickness of her entrance.

“I have you at a disadvantage, you know,” he said, nuzzling her neck with his lips. “You’ve received your reward for your win, but what about your punishment? For besting me.”

“You’d tease me all night for besting you?” she asked, lifting against him and forcing him inside her just a fraction.

He groaned against her shoulder. “I could.”

“But you’d be punishing yourself as much,” she said softly and lifted again to take him further inside. The stretch of him was delicious and she sighed as he pulsed forward even further.

“True,” he gasped and began to thrust in earnest.

She met him stroke for stroke, their eyes locked, their bodies merged and perfectly matched.

They knew each other’s pleasure so well now that it took nothing for him to grind against her just right and have her on the edge all over again.

Just as it was easy for her to grip him so perfectly that his arms began to shake.

She drew his mouth to hers as she came once more, muffling her cries against his tongue, swallowing his answer as he pumped hot inside of her and then collapsed over her, murmuring her name against her skin in breathless tones.

She held him there, reveling in his weight over her, celebrating that he was hers. All hers. Only hers. Forever. But at last he moved and settled next to her on the pillows.

“Do you really hate being bested by me?” she asked, cuddling into his shoulder and tracing his bare chest with the tip of her finger.

He glanced down at her. “ Never ! Watching you win at games, at life, is one of my most favorite pastimes. Especially when you dole out such lovely ‘punishments’.” He leaned in and kissed her once more. “I love you Meg. I have and always will love you.”

She felt those words down to her soul and soaked in them and in him as she held him closer. There were no more games or competitions now. In love, they had both won the day.

“And I love you,” she said. “Forever.”