Page 82 of In the Money With You
“Good,” she said, kissing him again as she undid the buttons on her own. The four large silk-covered buttons slipped and skittered beneath her imprecise fingers, but she tore the garment from her shoulders.
He ripped off his neckcloth and collar and then helped her with the small pearl buttons on her shirtwaist. Enough were undone that he helped her pull it over her head. Pins from her coiffure pinged on the wooden floor. He pushed down his braces, letting them hang from his waist before pulling his own shirt off over his head. Finally. Skin.
She shivered in her corset and shift, despite the woolen stockings still in place. She worked the hook at the waist to her heavy woolen traveling skirt. He looked at her with hunger and need. She couldn’t keep her focus. She stepped out of the skirt pooled on the ground and pulled his face to hers. It was as if she stopped kissing him, she would drown.
“I need you, Leo.”
He picked her up. She squeaked in surprise, not realizing someone mightdosuch a thing. He placed her on the bed, his steel-gray eyes strong and fully focused on her. “I need you too.”
He kissed her, and they both rucked up her long shift, pulling off her boots and the woolen stockings and drawers. He unbuttoned his trousers and shucked off his shoes.
He dragged his hand from her jaw down her neck, across her still-cossetted breasts, down between her legs. His fingers gently swirled there, testing her, pleasing her. “I love you, Prudence. I do. I would do anything for you. I won’t ever keep anything from you again.”
“I know, I know,” she said, her back arching as pleasure built. “And I won’t stay away. You’re stuck with me now.” She gasped sharply as her climax shot through her, surprising her.
Leo shifted himself quickly, entering her as she was still in the throes of her pleasure. “I missed you.” He thrusted into her,and she wrapped her legs around him, grabbing his arms, urging him into her, pulling him, begging him with her body. They needed to be closer. They needed to be one, together, united.
And finally they were. Leo bellowed as he came, and Prudence shuddered in pleasure as he did.
Afterwards, hastily cleaned by their own dirty garments, Prudence lay in his arms, one long leg draped over his. “You’re stuck with me now, Mr. Moon. I hope you are prepared.”
He snorted. “I’m the one with the scandalous and strange family. You should be worried about that, not the other way around.”
“You haven’t met my family yet,” Prudence reminded him. But someday, she hoped he would. In fact, she looked forward to the quiet but strong handshake between her father and him. How her mother would tut and go to the kitchen to make him a plate of food.
He kissed her hair. “But I will. Let’s hope they’ll accept this London ne’er-do-well.”
“I’m just glad your mother can accept an American.”
“She’s full of misguided sentiment. Just look at her husband.”
Prudence gave him a playful bite on the arm and he chuckled. They were quiet for a moment. “Thank you for coming after me. I wouldn’t have thought you wanted me otherwise.”
“You are awfully hardheaded, like all Americans. But you aremyhardheaded American.”
“Go to sleep, you smelly redcoat.”
Leo murmured, and soon they both drifted off, exhausted from travel and misunderstandings, heartbreak and resolve. The Matterhorn sat unmoving in the distance, unwavering and majestic, awaiting the future and what it might bring.
The End.
