Chapter Twenty-Eight
With Nina sleeping and cradled in his arms, Elliot stepped into the bedchamber and pushed the door closed with his foot. Thankfully, the grate was lit, taking the chill out of the room. And, by some miracle, Zeb was fast asleep on his own pallet.
After laying Nina down, he removed her satin shoes and draped a woolen blanket over her. He strode over to Zeb and ruffled the fur behind his floppy ears before patting his head. “Be a good fellow and stay here throughout the night. That’s a special lady lying over there.”
Elliot stepped into the adjoining bathing room. One of the first improvements he’d made upon taking residence in this town house was to modernize the bathing room. He turned on the hydronic pump, sending warm water up from the kitchen to the copper tub, then stripped off his clothes and lowered himself into the crystalline water.
The hinges on the door squeaked.
A sleepy-eyed Nina stood at the threshold. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Oh, I tried.” He laughed. “My sister says you sleep more soundly than one of her old school chums.”
An adorable shade of red crept over her cheeks. “Please don’t tell me I snore.”
“Then I won’t tell you.”
“Goodness, do I?”
“No.” He grinned.
Nina released a heavy breath. “You are a tease.”
He wanted to tease her even more, but in a different way. He crooked his finger and held out his hand. “Why don’t you join me?”
She stepped closer. As she did so, her hands were already unfastening the pearl buttons on the front of her dress. The fabric parted and she slipped it off her shoulders and arms. It fell and billowed around her feet.
His cock grew hard and thick.
While holding his gaze, she removed her other garments and stood completely naked except for her silk stockings and lace garters, which were adorned with beads and stitched blue flowers.
“I heard in Lancashire they believe a bride should wear something blue on her wedding day.” She traced the tip of her nail over the blue flowers.
Elliot’s gaze settled on her finger, which was moving gently over the garter on her thigh. He wanted to remove the silky scrap of embroidered material with his teeth.
Nina pulled the small stool in front of her and set one foot on it, giving him a perfect view of her sex, nestled below the triangle of curls. While glancing coquettishly at him from her lowered lashes, she slowly unrolled the first stocking.
He nearly climaxed. Holding his body in check, he swallowed hard and grabbed on to the side of the tub, forcing himself not to pull her into the water, stockings and all.
She lifted her other leg and rolled down the second stocking with the same deliberate slowness. What an adept pupil his wife was.
“If you don’t get in here soon, I might drag you in.” Once again, he held out his hand.
Taking it, she stepped into the tub.
“Sit on my lap, love, and let me bathe you,” he said huskily.
Nina glanced down at the water and his engorged cock. A small lump moved in her throat. His sweet wife knew what he wanted. She slipped into the water, placing her knees on each side of his body, and sucked in a breath as she lowered herself onto his hard length. “I don’t think I can take you all the way in at this angle.”
“You can,” he said. “Just relax.” He licked her nipple before taking it into his mouth.
Nina’s eyes drifted closed, and she lowered herself, sheathing him completely with her tight, wet warmth.
Unable to stop himself, he bucked his hips.
Her eyes opened and she smiled. “Do that again.”
With his hands on her bum, he moved as she rode him. Her rhythm matching his. Shortly, they would both find their pleasure. He cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth down to his and tangled his tongue with hers.
Her sex clenched against his manhood.
“Come on, love. That’s it.” He placed his hands on her perfect derrière again and squeezed.
Nina’s breaths were short and shallow. Her body stilled and she tipped her head back as she reached her climax.
The sight of his wife with beads of water glistening on her naked skin as she orgasmed was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen, and Elliot toppled over the edge with her.
* * *
In their dark bedchamber, Nina snuggled closer into her husband’s embrace. His heart beat steadily under her ear. She shifted and realized the sheets below the counterpane were tangled about their legs. After she and Elliot had made love in the bathtub, they’d washed each other. Her soapy hands had glided over the hard planes of his body as his had traveled over the softer curves of hers.
She smiled as she remembered his wicked words about there being so much more a couple could do once married.
Elliot’s arms tightened about her. “What are you smiling about?”
She lifted her head off his chest.
He watched her with the same intense gaze as last night.
“I think I’m going to like being married.”
Smiling, he arched a brow. “You just think?”
“Well, I’ve only been married less than a day,” she teased.
“Perhaps there’s something I can do to make you say you are enraptured with being married.”
“You’re doing it right now.”
“Am I?”
“Yes, this room is dashed cold. So, I’m enjoying you holding me.”
“I know a better way to make you warm besides just holding you.”
“Ah, you’re willing to get up and revive the fire?” She laughed.
“What a killjoy my new wife is.” Elliot grinned and kissed the tip of her nose. “Your wish is my command.”
Naked as the day he was born, her husband slipped from the bed and padded across the dark room to the cooling grate. Missing the warmth of his skin against hers, she pulled the blankets tighter around herself as she watched him. He seemed so at ease with his body. It made her think of when she’d undressed for him. She’d acted confident, but inside she had felt anxious, her stomach a bit queasy, but the look of appreciation as she’d removed her clothing had bolstered her confidence.
As he squatted before the grate, her gaze drifted down the breadth of his shoulders and to his bum. Elliot possessed a beautiful body.
He stood and turned around.
She tried to keep her gaze on his face and not on his manhood and the crop of dark hair around it as he strode back to the bed. “Aren’t you cold?” she asked.
Elliot glanced down at his erection. “Not in the least.” He slipped into the bed and pulled her close to him. “Good lord, woman, your feet are like icicles.” He tossed the blankets over his head and made his way under them to her feet.
“What are you doing?” She laughed as his hands rubbed at her feet.
“Warming you,” came his disembodied voice from under the blankets.
She lifted the bedding and peered down at him.
“Get back up here.” She smacked his naked arse.
Laughing, he pulled her back into his arms and held her tight to him. “Night, wife.”
“Good night, husband.”
* * *
Nina had learned from her lovemaking with Elliot that the human mouth could do so much more than consume food. Yet, even in her groggy state, she questioned Elliot’s desire to wake her up in the morning by licking at her cheek with robust enthusiasm.
She opened her eyes and almost screamed at the bloodshot eyes staring at her and the large snout only an inch from her face. She might have contained her yelp, but her hand squeezed Elliot’s thigh as she realized she lay sandwiched between him and Zeb.
“Well, aren’t you frisky this morning, Nina?” Elliot mumbled, slipping a hand over one of her breasts.
“Not exactly,” she replied, staring at Zeb, who, in turn, stared at her as if she were an interloper. “Elliot, it appears we are not alone.”
“Not alone?” he echoed. Then he jerked upward into a sitting position and stared at Zeb. “Damnation, Zeb. Even on my wedding night, you don’t possess the decency to stay in your own bed.”
The dog sat up and bowed his massive head and gave what Nina could only describe as a whimper.
“Oh, Elliot, you’ve hurt the poor dear’s feelings.”
Next to her, Elliot flopped onto his back and released a long weary sigh. “Fine. If you want him to invade our bed so be it, but one morning you could end up on the floor.”
Our bed? Nina stopped patting the dog’s head and peered at her husband. “Am I to share this bedchamber, Elliot?”
“I had hoped you would, but it will be bloody crowded with Zeb in it as well.”
True. And after spending a night snuggled up next to Elliot, there was no place else Nina would rather be. “Zeb,” she said, in the sweetest voice she could muster, “you need to return to your own bed.”
“Good luck with trying to get him to do so,” Elliot grumbled.
But he’d no sooner finished talking than the dog slowly slipped off the bed to make his way to his pallet on the floor.
Elliot blinked as if watching a mirage. “I’m not sure how you spoke to him differently than I have a thousand times before, but I should reward your genius.”
“And how do you intend to do that?”
Slowly, he trailed his finger over one of her breasts before he lifted the blankets and climbed under them, and this time it was not her feet his wicked hands stroked.