Page 42

Starkley Manor, Cheshire

S he was married. Finally, after years of waiting and fretting and praying it was done.

The contract had been executed and she was free.

But the best part, the thing thrilling her the most ever since the priest had said ‘man and wife’, was that her husband was Leo.

Some gods had intervened and given her mother a baroness for a daughter and Regina a prince of a man like Leo Kingston as a husband.

She had spent every day since the moment she found out about her marriage with an ever-present tension in her mind and heart.

A low thrumming dread and sadness about what was taken from her, what more she would be forced to give up.

Would she ever get her life back? Would she be altered beyond all recognition before it was over?

The first person who had ever seemed to understand what she had been forced to give up beyond dancing and time with friends, was Leo.

She still remembered the way he’d looked at her when he asked her what her real name was, the near wonder and sympathy she saw in his eyes.

And now she was waiting in her room for him to arrive so she could make love to her husband without worrying about what people would think or if anyone would see.

A man who loved chai, spoke her language, called her by her birth name and looked at her as if she was a wonder.

A man who was not only curious about who she was but prioritized what she wanted.

A man who kissed her greedily but touched her gently.

The freedom she felt knowing that she could finally be who she wanted to be with someone who wanted the same thing for her had a strange energy crackling under her skin.

She couldn’t sit and wait as her mother had told her to do. She had to move. There was nothing to fear, no anxiety over the unknown. She already knew what making love with him would be like. Now she wanted to know how it would feel to do that with no clothes on.

The door opened and she turned to see him closing it behind him. He only wore his shirtsleeves and trousers but already she was impatient. At least he’d left his boots elsewhere. He paused to look at her, and when she realized he wasn’t moving her eyes met his. Was he nervous? Was that possible?

She smiled at him, and he returned it in that slow admiring way she’d fallen in love with months ago.

This was her husband, and she couldn’t stay away from him a moment longer.

A giddy laugh bubbling in her throat, she ran across the room and leapt into his arms. He caught her easily, chuckling as she pressed kisses all over his stubbled jaw.

He caught her mouth with his, smiling against her lips as he walked them over to the bed.

Regina wrapped her legs around his waist gripping his shoulders as his hands slid down her waist to close purposefully around her bottom.

She sighed sliding one hand up the back of his neck to the short curls of his hair.

He placed her on the bed, and she set about removing his shirt immediately.

His mouth moved over her cheek down her neck.

Her fingers fumbled as a shiver of sensation slid through her.

She could never have believed her neck was so sensitive before Leo, before she’d known what it was like to have his mouth and tongue on her skin.

Finally gaining purchase on his shirt she dragged it up over his head pulling away just long enough to let the fabric pass before feasting her eyes on his bare chest. His skin was so smooth and warm, dusted with what she imagined was the perfect amount of chest hair.

Not that she had anything to compare it to. Lord knew the man she’d caught sight of last year didn’t count.

She pressed her mouth to the skin over his heart, feeling the muscle thud against her lips, then moved up to kiss his shoulder and neck while he yanked his hands free from his shirt and buried them in her loose hair.

He nuzzled her temple, allowing her time to explore while his fingers massaged her scalp.

Her hands slid around his waist and up his back, feeling the firm muscles moving under his perfect skin, drawing him closer to her.

“Rajani,” he murmured against her skin, and she shivered, closing her eyes against the wave of emotion.

She couldn’t get used to hearing him call her that.

He drew her head back, and she caught sight of the focused desire on his face before he took her mouth, his tongue sliding past her lips, stroking inside her mouth.

She didn’t notice that his hands had drifted under her nightgown until she felt the rough texture of his thumbs slide up the sensitive skin of her inner thighs.

She gasped breaking away from his mouth, her legs tensing against his hips as a rush of wetness flooded her center. His mouth drifted to her neck again, sucking her skin softly then releasing it before moving further down to do it again, melting every bone in her body.

“Leo,” his name drifted past her gasping lips as she squirmed closer. He hummed against her, the gentle vibration and rush of air summoning his name again.

“What is it, love?”

She didn’t remember closing her eyes, but the darkness was replaced with the dim firelit room as her eyelids lifted.

Had she asked him something? Her mind felt flooded with dandelion fluff.

She couldn’t keep one thought in her head save one: she wanted to feel all of him against her.

Now. “I cannot believe you came to me on our wedding night with clothes on,” she grumbled while she fumbled with the buttons on his trousers.

His snicker started off low before escalating into a full belly laugh.

“It’s not funny.” And how was it possible that these things were so impossible to unfasten? Buttons were buttons were they not? Honestly.

“Forgive me, devika,” he said between chuckles. She wanted to stay annoyed, but it was impossible with him calling her his ‘little goddess’. “I won’t do it again,”

“Which one?”

“The clothes.” His hands rested lightly on her shoulders just over the ties of her night gown and she looked up at him as awareness settled over her.

“Speaking of.” With one deft tug he unraveled them, and the soft, thin silk fell away leaving her bare to her waist. It was so different this time with more light.

There had been protection from unwanted eyes in the garden with only starlight and moonlight, and while Regina hadn’t wanted to hide from Leo’s perusal, the lack of light would have made it difficult.

Now, in their bedroom, the fire gave more than enough light to leave nothing to the imagination. She hadn’t been prepared for the intimacy, or how it would feel to be bared to him and his judgement.

His eyes darkened as they roved eagerly over her exposed flesh, his fingertips following close behind leaving trails of golden sensation over her neck, shoulders and breasts.

She wanted to keep watching him; to keep seeing the desire she elicited in him, but his touch drifted over her nipples as he cupped the full, heavy weight of her breast and her eyes fluttered closed.

She had missed that feeling. The way he made that molten sensitivity pool between her thighs with a brush of his hands, an exhale from his full mouth.

She forced her heavy eyes open and reached for the buttons on his trousers again, determined this time to unfasten them so she could finally see what she had taken inside her weeks before.

She wanted to stamp herself on him the way she felt branded by his kiss that first time in the rain.

He caught one of her hands in his and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Why are you so impatient?” he asked.

“I’m not… I just want to see you.”

He watched her for a long moment, and she wondered if the prickle of guilt she felt meant she was lying. She did want to see him.

“We have time devika,”

“I know but—”

“I let you have your way before did I not?” he asked. She looked away at that. She didn’t like that phrasing at all. It made her sound like a greedy task master. “Trust me now and give me my time.”

His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing tenderly over her skin.

It was true. As romantic as their tryst in the garden had been, there were so many things she barely remembered.

Was it because she had been too impatient and anxious?

They were man and wife now by law and by God’s holy ordinance according to the vicar.

Why shouldn’t she allow herself to enjoy her wedding night?

She met his eyes, noted the patience and fondness there, and concern.

He was worried. She nodded, conceding the point and he smiled.

“Lie down,” he commanded, leaning forward to press her backwards onto the feather mattress.

She reached for him but again he caught her hand in his, this time kissing her palm before laying a trail of adoration up her arm.

Flat on her back she watched in delirious fascination as his mouth moved down her body with deliciously slow intent, drawing the most unreasonable noises from her.

A low groan when he paused to tease her nipples into furled attention.

A shivering gasp when he scraped his teeth along her ribs.

He buried his face in her stomach, breathing in before suckling his way down the curved expanse until her nightgown paused his voyage right above her pelvis.