Ten

“I wished you would trust me.” Harry nodded. “Oddly enough, it is what I want above all things.”

“Oh, Harry, of course I trust you.” Had she not learned tonight that his fidelity was true and fast? She trusted him. It must not have been the right phrasing though, because the coin dulled. Bettina stared at it, willing cooperation. Nothing happened.

“And another thing I learned later tonight,” Harry began. Bettina had the feeling he was trying to distract her from their mutual disappointment. He faced her, and Bettina looked into his eyes. “Do you, darling wife, have any idea how men look at you?”

“Look at me?”

“They want you. Every man who looks at you wants what I have. A loving, loyal wife.”

“Nonsense. If they would practice a little love and loyalty themselves, every one of them would have the same from their wives. They want sex with me. They want my body and nothing more.”

“Bettina! How can you be so cynical?”

“I spent the evening listening to your chums tell tasteless jokes and bet who would be Patricia Melton’s next lover.”

“What are the odds that it’s the Regent?”

“Harry!” Bettina moved away from him a little. “I would not tell you if I knew.” And she would never tell her husband that the male consensus was that the Earl of Fellsborough was Mrs. Melton’s personal preference. “I will tell you this. I am forever cured of wanting to drink brandy and remain at table. I will go with the ladies happily.”

They both looked at the coin, which seemed to have no opinion on the subject.

“I think we should go to bed. It’s late and obvious that nothing is going to happen tonight.”

Bettina nodded agreement and watched while Harry locked the coin in the jewel chest once again.

“Bettina, you left the key in the lock. It is not a wise habit to cultivate.”

“Oh, Harry, we never left the room. Besides, I almost always remember to lock it and hide the key.” Bettina shrugged off the criticism. She went to the connecting door and realized that Harry was following her.

“Let’s sleep together in the big bed tonight,” Harry suggested. “The way we did when we were first married.”

“Oh, yes,” Bettina said on a sigh. She closed the connecting door then stared at it for a moment, wondering if sleeping together in their current states was a wise idea. She didn’t care. More than anything, she wanted the comfort of being close.

“Harry, I’ll help you undress.” Like we did when we were first married and so in love. Tears filled her eyes, and she fumbled with the buttons.

“Now you know why it took me so long to undo the buttons. A man’s hands are not made for such delicate work.”

He’d misunderstood her clumsiness, and Bettina did her best to hide the tears. When she reached the new shoes, she eased them off, lifted a foot, and began to massage the reddened toes.

“God help me,” Harry sighed as he flopped back on the bed, dressed only in a chemise. “Don’t ever stop doing that. It’s almost worth wearing those torturous slippers to feel you work magic like that.”

Bettina smiled and felt the male part of her respond. To what, she wasn’t sure. To the feel of soft, warm skin. To the body spread on the bed in surrender. To the utter bliss in Harry’s eyes. To the idea of giving with no expectations. Bettina amended that. One expectation was now very much present. Do not speak. Do not say a word. It will destroy the moment.

Bettina undressed quickly and moved to lie on the bed crosswise but beside Harry, trailing a hand over the chemise, the fine, fine lawn chemise that was a favorite because it hinted at so much.

Harry lay still with eyes closed, and Bettina reached inside the scooped neck of the chemise and rested a hand on a full round breast.

She had touched her breasts dozens of times, but with Harry’s hand it felt different. His hands were rougher, and her skin felt as fragile as a rose petal.

The most masculine part of the body she was in grew hard as a rock. Bettina moved her hand away, ended all contact, and lay back beside Harry, not touching, doing all she could to bring the lust under control.

“How do you do it?” she gasped.

Harry turned to look at her and sighed. “I think about something awful. The worst thing you can think of that does not have to do with sex.”

“Sex is all I can think of. My whole body is begging for release.”

“Then come to me.” He leaned over her and smiled.

“No.” Bettina tried to push herself deeper into the down mattress. “It feels as though I would be having sex with myself.”

“Close your eyes and don’t think. I find that amazingly easy to do at a time like this.”

“I can’t stop thinking. Besides, all I wanted was to know how you feel and now—I—do.” She parsed out the last three words with effort.

With a speed that was totally unexpected, Harry moved over her and with one deft movement guided the erection into place inside the hot wet sheath of her body. Bettina closed her eyes and tried, really tried, to control the release, but it was impossible. The pleasure pulsed from her, concentrated in the core of her male body with an intensity unlike her female experience of sex. Not better, just very different.

“That was so fast,” Harry said as Bettina rolled away from him and buried her head in her hands, embarrassed and relieved at the same time. “And it didn’t hurt at all.”

“Of course it doesn’t hurt.” She raised her head and leaned on her hand. “Have I ever said that it hurt?”

“No, but I thought after Cameron was born it would be different. Your body was used so brutally in the birth process I thought you would never welcome my advances again.”

“Oh, Harry, is that the reason your lovemaking has become so tentative? Not because you are merely doing your duty?”

“Of course. I never make love to you out of duty. I want you more than I want water,” Harry answered.

“Oh, Harry, I love you. Trust comes in so many different guises. I can see why the coin was not content with my simple statement. Harry, believe me, when it comes to our love life here together in bed, I trust you completely and can never have enough.”

Bettina felt the male member leap to attention at thought of more sex. Harry noticed and laughed.

“Is it always like this? So easy?” Bettina asked.

“Almost always. Don’t you remember the time we did not leave the bed for near twenty hours?”

“Oh, yes. I think that was the night, and day, Cameron was conceived. How do men ever learn control?”

“From a very young age and not without some embarrassing incidents.”

“Harry,” she began in a pensive voice. “Do you think that is why men hold their feelings so close? They have learned a physical control that women have no need for?”

“Possibly,” Harry said with that vagueness that made it clear his mind was on something else. “In fact, Bettina, I can feel that the female body is much more circumspect. But I can tell that I want you as much as I do when I am fully myself.”

It was an invitation Bettina could not, would not, did not want to ignore. She closed her eyes and proceeded to use her knowledge of her true body to show him that she felt exactly the same way.