Love in a Mist

by Patricia Grasso

  “I’m not afraid,” Keely said. “Not exactly.”

  Richard put his arm around her shoulder and drew her against the side of his body. “Have you ever been alone with a man?”

  “Yes.”

  Richard snapped his eyebrows together. Her honest answer wasn't the one he’d expected. “Who?”

  “Odo and Hew. And Rhys, of course.”

  Richard relaxed.

  “And—”

  “Who?”

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “Never answer my questions with questions of your own,” Richard said. “With whom else were you alone?”

  “I was alone with you at your house,” she reminded him.

  Richard smiled with relief. “Do you understand what we are going to do tonight?”

  “Yes.” Keely wished with all her heart that she didn’t know what her fate would be.

  “Tell me, dearest.”

  Keely stared at him. “Don’t you know?”

  Richard struggled against a shout of laughter and won. “I wished to know if what you’re thinking is correct.”

  “You’re going to futter me,” Keely blurted out, her voice rising with her panic.

  Richard felt no urge to laugh now. His bride feared him, and he wanted to calm her in order to maximize her pleasure. Whatever happened in their marriage bed that night would color their relations for as long as they lived.

  “I should never have used that word,” Richard said. “Animals futter, sweetheart. Men and women make love together. They share their bodies, their hearts, and their souls.”

  He searched his mind for a solid analogy she could understand. “What are the physical earthly things you love to feel?”

  Keely thought a moment and then cast him a shy, thoroughly enchanting smile. “I love the dewy grass between my toes, warm sunshine on my shoulders, and a gentle summer’s breeze tickling my face.”

  Richard smiled. His bride was the only woman of his acquaintance who would have given such a priceless answer. His heart filled with aching tenderness for this unaffected innocent he’d made his wife.

  “Making love feels like all that and more,” Richard promised.

  That perked her interest. Keely cocked her head to one side. “Truly?”

  Richard nodded, correctly reading the shining interest in her eyes. He stood then and faced her, holding his hand out in invitation, as if he were asking her to dance.

  Keely dropped her gaze from his emerald eyes to his outstretched hand. When she raised her eyes to his again, Richard saw that apprehension had crept into her gaze again. Her small white teeth worried her full bottom lip, an endearing nervous habit of hers that he’d noticed at other stressful moments.

  “I’ll stop whenever you say. Trust me?”

  In an unconsciously sensual gesture, Keely flicked her tongue out and wet her lips, gone dry from nervousness. She dropped her violet gaze to his hand once more and placed her smaller hand in his.

  When she stood and faced him, Richard reached out with both hands and slid the straps of her nightshift off her shoulders. The gown fluttered to the floor at her feet. Wearing nothing except for the gleaming dragon pendant, she appeared like a pagan princess.

  Keely blushed and bowed her head in maidenly shame.

  Instead of reaching for her body as he wished to do, Richard tilted her chin up. “Let me admire your proud beauty.”

  Keely knew what he meant. She raised her head high like a beautiful pagan queen and squared her shoulders, which thrust her perfectly formed breasts forward.

  Richard worshipped her with his eyes. His gaze dropped from her lovely face to her dusky-nippled breasts and then traveled down to her tiny waist, her slim yet curvaceous hips, and finally her dainty feet.

  When his scorching gaze returned to hers, he asked, “Do you feel the sun’s warmth yet?”

  Keely smiled at his words.

  Without taking his gaze from hers, Richard began to unfasten his bedrobe’s belt.

  Keely panicked. “Stop.”

  The instant she said the word, Richard stilled his hands. “As you stand naked before me, dearest, I would stand naked before you. I need to feel your admiring gaze on my body.”

  A long silent moment passed between them. And then Keely nodded.

  Richard shrugged his bedrobe off and stood before her in all of his masculine glory. Keely refused to drop her gaze below his neck.

  His lips twitched with the urge to laugh, but he controlled himself. Instead, he affected a slightly pleading tone in his voice. “Look at my body, Keely. Please?”

  Keely dropped her gaze from his broad shoulders to his magnificent chest covered with a mat of copper hair. Her gaze dipped lower to his tapered waist, but her eyes widened when she saw the apex of his manhood, which stiffened beneath her curious stare.

  “May I touch you, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice a soft caress.

  Keely lifted her gaze to his. For one awful moment Richard thought fear would overrule her curiosity. Then she nodded.

  Richard stepped a hairbreadth closer. He reached out with one hand and caressed her silken cheek, then glided his fingertips down the column of her slender neck to her shoulders.

  Everywhere he touched her skin burned. Keely closed her eyes. “I can feel the sun‘s warmth.”

  Richard smiled at that. Reluctant to frighten her by reaching for her breasts, Richard trailed the tips of his fingers along their gentle swell and continued down her side to the alluring curve of her hips.

  “I do feel the summer’s breeze,” Keely murmured.

  “If you wish to feel the dew,” he whispered hoarsely, “then we must kiss.”

  Keely opened her eyes. She smiled and nodded at him.

  Ever so gently, Richard drew her into his embrace. Allowing her no time to think, he captured her mouth in a lingering kiss.

  Keely entwined her arms around his neck and pressed her nakedness against his. For the first time in her young life, she experienced the incredible sensation of masculine hardness touching her female softness. And she liked it.

  Without warning, Richard scooped her into his arms and placed her on the bed. Then he lay down beside her and gathered her into his embrace.

  As his lips hovered above hers, he asked in a seductive whisper, “Shall I stop?”

  “Not yet.”

  His mouth claimed hers in a slow soul-stealing kiss that seemed to last forever. Swept away by his passion, Keely returned his kiss in kind. And then some.

  Richard flicked his tongue along the crease of her mouth, and Keely willingly parted her lips for him. He explored the sweetness beyond them, and she surprised him by following his lead. Their tongues touched tentatively and then grew bold, swirling together in a primitive mating dance as old as time itself.

  “Can you feel the sun’s warmth?” Richard breathed against her lips.

  “Yes”

  “Me too.”

  His words tugged at her heartstrings and inflamed her blossoming desire.

  Richard sprinkled dozens of feathery-light kisses on her temples, eyelids, nose, and throat. He held her as if he wished never to let her go. His mouth returned to hers, and they kissed for an eternity. Richard caressed her body from the delicate column of her throat to her thrusting breasts to the juncture of her thighs.

  Feeling her shiver, he whispered, “’Tis the summer’s breeze, sweetheart.”

  Again, his lips claimed hers in an earthmoving kiss. His hands caressed her as lightly and gently as the summer’s breeze, while his lips moved down her throat and then beyond.

  Capturing one of her dusky nipples between his lips, Richard suckled upon it and ignited a heat between her thighs that banished all coherent thought from her mind. Keely burned to be possessed by her husband.

  “I need—something,” she panted, her innocence making her ignorant of what she yearned for. But her husband knew.

  “Spread your legs for me,” Richard said, his voice thick with desire.
/>   Keely did as she was told. Richard kissed her thoroughly, and then, watching her face, he slowly inserted one long finger inside her.

  Keely opened her mouth to cry stop, but Richard was too fast for her. He covered her mouth with his own, drugging her senses with the urgency of his kiss.

  When he judged her shock had passed, Richard inserted a second finger inside her. “Be easy, my love,” he whispered. “Accustom yourself to the feel of it. You’re so wonderfully tight I want to make you ready to receive me. Can’t you feel the sun's burning warmth between your thighs?”

  Without waiting for an answer, Richard dipped his head to her breasts and suckled upon each of her aroused nipples. His talented fingers began to move inside her.

  Keely relaxed and, catching his rhythm, began to move her hips. She enticed his fingers deeper inside her writhing body and moaned her need. Her hips moved faster and faster. And then his fingers were gone.

  “Don’t stop,” she whimpered, protesting their desertion, as her eyes flew open.

  Richard knelt between her thighs. His engorged manhood teased the dewy pearl of her womanhood. Keely moaned at this sensuous torture and closed her eyes.

  “Look at me, my love,” Richard said, his manhood poised to pierce.

  Keely opened her eyes and stared in a daze of desire at him.

  “One moment of pain, my love,” Richard promised. “Like a passing cloud blocking the sun’s warming rays.”

  Richard pushed himself inside her with one powerful thrust and buried himself deep within her trembling body.

  Keely cried out in surprised pain as he broke through her virgin’s barrier.

  Richard lay still for several long moments, letting her become accustomed to the feel of him inside her. He began moving, enticing her to move with him.

  Keely wrapped her legs around his waist as innocence vanished and instinct surfaced. She moved with him and met each of his thrusts with her own.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, a thousand suns exploded inside her. Wave after wave of sensation carried her to paradise and beyond.

  Only then did Richard unleash his own need. He groaned and shuddered and poured his seed deep within her womb.

  They lay still for long moments, their labored breathing the only sound in the chamber. Richard rolled to one side, pulling her with him, and planted a kiss on her forehead. He gazed with budding love at her wondrous expression.

  With her heart shining in her eyes, Keely looked at her husband. “Stop.”

  “Stop?” Richard pulled her across his chest. One of his hands massaged the fragile nape of her neck while his lips claimed hers in what he intended to be a passionate kiss; but for the first time in his life, the worldly wise earl laughed into the mouth of the woman he was kissing.

  Keely rested her head against the mat of dark copper curls that covered his chest. She heard the rhythmic beating of his heart and sighed with contentment.

  Richard lifted the gleaming pendant from between her breasts. “Do you always wear the dragon?”

  “I will never remove my mother’s legacy.”

  “You loved her very much.”

  “I still do. Love lives for all of eternity. It cannot die with the loved one’s passing.”

  Richard felt comforted by that thought. “’Tis time for sleeping.”

  “I’m not tired.” In fact, every nerve in her body tingled in a wild riot, the natural by-product of her husband’s lovemaking.

  “I have a gift for you,” he said.

  “And I for you.”

  With no regard for modesty, Richard rose from the bed and crossed the chamber. Keely lingered there a moment longer and admired her husband's magnificent body with its broad shoulders, strong back, tapered waist, and firm buttocks.

  Feeling her eyes upon him, Richard glanced over his shoulder and winked at her.

  Keely blushed and leaped off the bed, then remembered her own nakedness. Grabbing her husband’s discarded bedrobe, she covered herself. Keely heard his husky chuckle and cast him a quelling look before heading across the chamber to her own belongings.

  They rendezvoused at the bed. Refusing to relinquish her husband’s bedrobe, Keely sat on top of the coverlet and tucked her legs beneath her. Richard sat with his back resting against the headboard and covered his more interesting features with the coverlet.

  “Happy wedding day, dearest.” Richard handed her the smaller of the two packages in front of him.

  Keely opened the lid of the lacquered box and stared at its contents. On a bed of blue velvet lay the most beautiful brooch she’d ever seen. A gold flower basket filled with love-in-a-mist, the brooch’s blossoms had been created in sapphires, amethysts, and diamonds.

  “’Tis worthy of a queen,” Keely said.

  Richard leaned forward and planted a sweet kiss on her lips. “You are my queen.”

  Keely stared at the brooch and blinked back the sudden tears that filled her eyes, but her bottom lip trembled with the effort. Once again she wondered what the earl would do when he realized he’d married the wrong woman. She could never fit into his world, nor would his world accept her for what she was. She didn’t even know how to dance.

  “Open the other,” Richard said.

  Keely shook her head. She pasted a bright smile onto her face and offered him one of two packages. “I fear ’tis not so fine as what you’ve given me.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” Richard said, opening the box. A heavy band of gold with an immense red carnelian stone stared up at him.

  “As you already know, the carnelian protects its owner,” Keely told him.

  Richard handed her the ring and then gestured for her to slip it onto the third finger of his left hand. “Thank you, Keely. I will cherish it. Por tous jours.”

  “For always,” Keely whispered, slipping the ring onto his finger. “I couldn’t ask His Grace for money because I wasn’t speaking to him at the time. So Odo and Hew robbed a fancy lord along the Strand. I do hope the fact that the ring is stolen doesn’t bother you.”

  “Your cousins stole—?”

  Keely burst out laughing. “I’m teasing.”

  “’Tis a magnificent gift, but not quite as magnificent as your amethyst eyes,” Richard told her. “Did you know that the amethyst represents virtue?”

  Keely shook her head. “What about emeralds?”

  “Emeralds signify constancy.”

  Richard offered her his second gift. “In view of your unusual beliefs, I thought you could use a bit of redemption.”

  Keely unwrapped the package. “A book?”

  “Lives of the Saints.”

  Instead of laughing as he’d expected, Keely frowned at the book without really seeing it. She recalled the gibberish she’d seen that day in the study and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Her husband knew she was a penniless bastard. What would he think upon discovering she was also ill-educated?

  “Is there a problem, dearest?”

  Keely heard the concern in his voice. She stared at his chest and confessed, “My lord, I am unable to read any language but English.”

  “I know,” Richard said, his expression tender. “If you look closely at the book, sweetheart, you’ll see that I’ve translated Lives of the Saints into English.”

  Keely smiled and held the book in her arms. “What a wonderful gift. I’ve never owned a book before.”

  “Will you read it?”

  “Someday.”

  “Soon, I hope.”

  “In view of your lack of faith,” Keely said, handing him her second gift, “I decided you could use a smidgeon of salvation.”

  Richard unwrapped the package. He stared at it for a long moment and then, realizing what it was, shouted with laughter. Richard unfolded the hooded white ceremonial robe and caressed his bride’s handiwork, his initials R and D embroidered with golden threads.

  Will you wear it?” she asked.

  His lips twitched. “Some night.”

  “Soon, I hope
.”

  Richard pulled her down on the bed and stroked her back. “You must be exhausted, sweetheart.”

  Keely shook her head but rested her cheek against his chest. “Your advice about forgiving my father was correct,” she said. “I feel as if a tremendous weight has been lifted off my spirit.”

  “And so does he, my love.”

  He’d called her “my love,” Did her husband harbor tender feelings for her? Or were his words a figure of speech, another English custom of which she was unaware?

  “What are you thinking?” Richard asked, noting her troubled expression.

  Keely reared up and faced the object of her thoughts. “Would you have stopped if I’d asked you?”

  His hand paused in its stroking. He gazed into her eyes and lied, “Yes, dearest. Your merest wish is my command.”

  Keely arched an ebony brow at him and then gifted him with a flirtatious smile. “What if I say start?”

  A lazy smile spread across his handsome features. Richard flipped her onto her back, and his sensuous lips wiped the smile off her face. An hour later they dropped into a sated sleep.

  Richard awakened during those hushed magical moments before dawn when the world still slept. Without bothering to open his eyes, he moved toward the middle of the bed in search of his wife’s hot little body. It wasn’t there. One emerald eye opened first, and then the other. Where the hell had she gone? Richard rolled over and saw her.

  Naked, with her ebony mane cascading to her waist, Keely stood in front of the window and gazed outside at the dawn. The palm of her hand rested against the window glass, and her lips moved in a silent chant. His wife was greeting the sunrise, as she’d said she did each morning.

  Richard rose and padded on bare feet across the chamber. Holding the veil of her ebony mane aside, he brushed his lips along the nape of her neck and sensed every fiber of her being smile a good morning greeting to him.

  Without shame or modesty, Keely leaned back against the hard muscular planes of his body. His strong arms encircled her and cupped the perfect globes of her breasts, his thumbs flicking across her sensitive nipples.

  “What do you see?” Richard asked.

  “Beyond the horizon.” Her voice sounded dreamy.