Page 74 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

“Do you really?” he asked, and then kissed her more deeply, her responsiveness provoking ever deeper stabs of physical need. “Even if I were to do more tonight than only kiss you?”

“You mean you would touch me again, like you did when we went riding?” Louisa asked huskily.

“More than that,” Benedict replied, very gently caressing Louisa’s shoulders, his hands glancing over the construction of her dress. “Shall I show you a little of what I have in mind?”

With Louisa’s nod, he pushed the white silk gown down so that her breasts were exposed in the moonlight. She moaned and shivered a little so that the pale flesh quivered irresistibly under the kisses that Benedict bestowed.

For Louisa’s sake, he had already looked around and made certain again that there was no one else in sight or hearing. From his own side, part of him would no longer care if they were seen, but Benedict knew he must guard them both against that instinct.

“We will be together every night from now on,” he told her, and meant it. “I do not want to be parted from you any longer, Louisa. It is wrong.”

Louisa gave a sharp little cry, her fingers in his hair as Benedict drew one stiffening nipple briefly into his mouth before returning to her lips and allowing his hands to enjoy the weight of those beautiful breasts. He loved giving her such pleasure and knowing that there was still so much more to come.

Benedict’s loins surged as their tongues danced together and he could not help imagining the likely softening and swelling of the slick folds beneath her mount of Venus, and similar condition of the velvet passage they concealed. His hand caressed her bottom longingly through the silk of the dress.

“Are you going to take me tonight?” Louisa asked, her eyes wide and her voice low with desire.

“Are you going to give yourself to me tonight?” returned Benedict, his own tones equally roughened and his lust only spiked again by her question. “For I do intend to take you every time you give yourself up to it.”

He held Louisa closer against his body so that there could be no mistaking either the hardness of his manhood nor the meaning of their words.

“I am your wife,” she sighed with pleasure as he ran kisses again down her throat and back to the trembling mounds of her bosom that had likely never seen moonlight upon them before. “I want all of you, Benedict.”

Benedict took the hand that now held his ring and kissed the golden band on her finger.

“Yes, I shall take you tonight, my sweet Louisa. Your desire is my duty and my privilege.”

“Oh!”

Louisa almost swooned in his arms with the passion of the kiss that followed this declaration, already panting from Benedict’s previous attentions. A more experienced woman might have now swiftly and easily been bent over the fountain or laid on the grass and mounted…

But Louisa was not experienced and Benedict knew he must be slow and careful, reserving the indulgence of pure animal instincts for a later time. Just as she had deserved a romantic proposal of marriage in the moonlight, she deserved to be deflowered with full care, comfort and pleasure.

“Not here,” he said, taking a long, deep breath to get himself under control again.

“But where?"

“The bushes by the gate beyond the stables and paddock, where we stopped the day we went riding. We should have some blankets and cushions…”

As Benedict spoke, he began to return Louisa’s dress to order, her little whimpers of longing and frustration at his slight touches resonating deep in his body and necessitating another deep inhalation.

“My hair, my dress…” she murmured as her own self-control and self-consciousness returned, “Benedict, I feel in such disorder.”

“Beautiful, beautiful disorder,” he reassured her, kissing her face and hair, not really so very much in disarray yet, although Benedict fully intended that it soon would be.

“I don’t want to go back into that ballroom like this,” she added.

“You may wait for me in the conservatory,” Benedict said, kissing her lips and taking her hand in his. “I shall get all that we need.”

Leaving Louisa quiet and dreamy among the palms in the conservatory, Benedict strode away purposefully on his errands. Avoiding the ballroom, he went to a nearby storeroom where he remembered the servants fetching out equipment for the picnic. It was unlocked and only the work of a few minutes to fill a canvas bag with a few blankets and cushions.

The bright moonlight should make a lantern unnecessary, and there was nothing else they needed, was there? If they were hungry, they would come back to the house to eat after their lovemaking…

Lovemaking? Benedict’s own mind registered surprise at itself when this word floated into view. It was not a term he generally used for the act of sexual intercourse, never seeming to fit what was to him an exciting, erotic and compulsive distraction that had nothing whatsoever to do with love. But this was different. Tonight was different. Louisa was different.

Yes, tonight Benedict would make love to Lady Louisa Ascot. Her old dreams were over but he would give her new dreams that belonged to both of them. There was an important chapter missing from Louisa’s favorite old book in his opinion – the chapter where Sir Benedict claims Lady Elizabeth and brings her to physical ecstasy. They would write it together.

Smiling, Benedict set down the canvas bag by the conservatory door, and put a lantern next to it after all. There was one more thing he must fetch and it was likely in Louisa’s room upstairs.