Jasper pulled away from me, cool air hitting my most sensitive parts. Slowly the stars and spots cleared from my vision, and my breathing began to return to normal. When I was back to functioning mostly normally, Jasper leaned down and kissed me. I could taste myself on his lips, and the thought was erotic. I felt myself growing even wetter between my legs. I reached down, and with a flick of my wrist undid the button on his trousers. I sat up, pushing them over his hips.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I promised. He stepped out of his trousers and pants. He had seen me completely bare, and now it was my turn. I sat forward, wrapping my hand around his hardened member. I looked at the scene in awe. My hand looked so small in comparison. I couldn’t believe that something that massive had fit inside of me. I remembered the feeling of being filled so completely. It was something I wanted again.
I lay back, positioning him at my entrance, dipping the head of his penis in my juices.
He closed his eyes. “Oh, my God, Christine.”
I tugged on his arm, letting him fall on top of me. Again he supported himself on his arms. Ensuring that he was at my entrance, I placed a hand on his hip, guiding him deep inside of me. Slowly he filled me, stretching me open. The pleasure slowly lapped at me, just like the waves of the ocean, building and building. He started going faster, deeper, until I could feel him in every cell of my body. He was brushing just the right spot, and every time he hit it my pleasure intensified, thrumming through me. My muscles began to contract and this time I did feel the tingle of ecstasy all the way in my toes.
When we were done, we curled up together under the blankets, skin against skin. His arm was around my waist, lips pressed against the back of my neck. I could smell his musky scent every time I breathed. I was comforting.
For a moment, Jasper pulled away, and I thought maybe it was too much, that he was going to flee. He only leaned over to the small table beside his bed, turning out the lamp and plunging the room into darkness. He came back to me and we fell asleep, bodies entwined.
Chapter Fifteen
When I woke up the next morning, Jasper was gone. I rolled over, but there was nothing but empty space between the soft linens. I panicked for a moment, thinking that maybe he had left me again. I heard the soft sound of the door opening and closing, and turned to see him coming through the doorway with a plate of breakfast.
“I thought you might be hungry,” he said, setting the tray on the bed. “I was starving when I woke up.”
“Oh, yes,” I said, sitting up in bed. I realized that I was still naked, and pulled the sheet up to my chest in embarrassment. Things seemed so different in the daylight. Now, there was no darkness to obscure anything, and it was still a little uncomfortable.
Jasper noticed my embarrassment. “Here,” he said, digging through my trunk and pulling out a pale pink silk robe.
“Where did that come from?” I asked. I had never seen it before in my life, but it looked soft and luxurious.
Jasper and I looked at each other, and at the same time, said, “Annabelle.”
“She told me she had bought me a few things for our trip,” I said, taking the robe from Jasper, slipping it over my shoulders and securing it at the front. It covered up everything it needed to, but my breasts still seemed to swell out of it, giving me an abundance of cleavage.
“Remind me to thank her,” Jasper said with a smirk.
I pulled the blankets off of my legs and knelt down beside the tray. “So, what did you grab us?”
Jasper pulled the cover off the tray. “Eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea.”
“No coffee?” I teased.
“Oh, I got coffee,” he said, motioning to a cup of dark liquid beside my tea cup.
“I still don’t understand how anyone can hate tea,” I mused, picking up my tea by the handle. “It’s such an innocuous beverage.”
Jasper glanced at me. “Do you really want to know why I hate tea?”
I looked at him. “Of course I do.”
Jasper swallowed a bite of egg. “When I was a kid, about fifteen, I got very, very sick. I nearly died. Every day our maids would bring us tea to help us feel better, and every day I would vomit it back up. Now every time I drink tea, I feel like I’m going to be sick.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “Sorry you asked?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “You’re my husband. I want to know all there is to know about you.”
“Well, then,” he said, “it’s my turn to ask you a question.”
“Ask away,” I said, taking a bite of toast. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Do you remember anything from your time at Wolf’s Peak, when you were a child?”
I shook my head. “No. I wish I did. I don’t even have many memories of my mother.”
“That’s a pity.”
“Is it my turn to ask you a question?”
“If you like.”
“What happened to your parents?” I asked.
Jasper looked down at his coffee. “I was fifteen when they died. Hardly a man, hardly enough to be a duke. That illness struck our entire family. My brother and I survived, but my parents didn’t.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
He shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I’m still sad, of course. I’ve lost a lot of people that I’ve loved. It never seems to get easier, but after a while you come to accept that they’re gone.”
“I understand,” I said, thinking of my father’s long illness. “May I ask you another question?”
“I believe it’s my turn,” Jasper smiled. “When you first met me, what were your thoughts?”
I had to consider my answer for a while. “Well, my first thought was that you were the strange man from my father’s funeral. After that initial shock, I thought you were nice. I wondered why someone like you would be looking for a wife this way.”
He laughed. “That sounds fair.”
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to marry a stranger. At the same time, I really hoped you’d pick me.”
“Were you surprised?”
“I believe it’s my turn,” I teased.
“All right,” Jasper assented.
I would need to tread carefully. “I know you’ve lost a lot of people close to you, so how can you cut your only family out of your life?”
“It’s complicated,” Jasper sighed. He paused a long moment. “Seth and I have never gotten along well. He was always extremely competitive and a sore loser. He didn’t think it was fair that I should get the title just because I was older. Essentially, he tried to blackmail me. He said he would tell lies that would force me to abdicate my title. I doubt anyone would have believe him, but I let the others know his intentions. He was furious. I haven’t seen him since. That was, let’s see…three years ago that we had our last fight.”
“Three years. I can’t imagine.”
“My turn. Were you surprised that I chose you?”
“Completely. I had no family, no pedigree, and I had just gotten blood all over myself sewing up your cook’s arm. Now my question, to follow that: why did you choose me?”
“From the moment I heard that Annabelle had found you and brought you in, you were always the favorite in my mind. You sewing up the cook just clinched it. It showed me that you cared for others, unlike the other girls.”
“Some of them were really insufferable,” I sighed. “Except Hazel. I do like her.”
“All right, Mrs. Wolfric, Duchess of Faolancaster,” Jasper said, feeding me a slice of toast, “I have one final question for you. What would you like to do today?”
“Hmm,” I mused. “That might be the hardest question of all.”
He swatted at me playfully. “Get dressed and we’ll go,” he said.
I climbed off the bed and went to my suitcase. I would have to remember to unpack later so my dresses didn’t wrinkle.
“Pink or blue?” I asked him, pulling out two lightweight gowns perfect for the ni
ce weather.
“Blue,” he decided.
“It will match your eyes,” I said as I shimmied out of my robe. I could feel his eyes on me as I stood there, naked, my back to him. I climbed into my undergarments and pulled on the dress on.
“Need help?” Jasper asked.
“That would be lovely,” I said.
He came up behind me to do up the buttons. As he got higher on my back, I felt a slight ache.
“Ouch,” I muttered, my hands to my chest.
“Everything all right?”
“I’m fine,” I told him. My breasts ached slightly, but that was probably from all the attention he had given them last night. I was far too embarrassed to tell him that. My face flushed at the thought.
As soon as I was decent, our first order of business was to visit the beach. It had stopped raining sometime in the night, although I had been sleeping far too hard to notice. The sky was clear and blue as we left the hotel patio.
“This is beautiful,” I sighed. “Do you think anyone would mind if I took my shoes off? I want to feel the sand under my feet.”
“I think that’s a fantastic idea,” Jasper said. We both tossed our shoes on the steps and walked down the beach, arm in arm. The sun beat down brightly on us as the soft sand wove its way between our toes.
“It’s so warm,” I gasped. “I didn’t know the sand could be this warm.”
Jasper was looking at me, a sparkle in his eyes.
“What?” I asked, embarrassed.
“I love watching you discover new things. You think everything is amazing.”
“The world is amazing!” I exclaimed. “Look. Right across there, that’s the English Channel, isn’t it? Right across the English Channel is France. A whole other country! Not just France, but the whole of Europe. We’re part of a great big world that seems so infinite. And that world is part of a great big solar system, and we don’t even know how big that is. It’s fantastic.”
Jasper was still looking at me, only his gaze has shifted to one of wonder. “You’re amazing,” he said, bending down and giving me a quick kiss on the lips. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you want to do something just a bit undignified?” Jasper asked me as he pulled back.
“I’m intrigued.”
“Well, we’ve got our shoes off. Why don’t we dip our feet in the water?”
He didn’t need to ask me twice. We strolled to the water’s edge. I pulled up my skirts and inched toward the waves, the wet sand cool under my feet. The first bit of ocean water lapped at my feet.
“The water is freezing” I giggled. “Does it ever get warm?”
“Sometimes, toward the end of summer. Just like the lake back at home.”
“Perhaps,” I said, cautiously, “later in the summer, in the evening, we could go swimming.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Of course. Anything else would be improper.”
“More improper than a duke and duchess dipping their toes in the English Channel?”
“Oh, far more improper,” I told him.
He laughed and kissed me again.
I didn’t want this trip to end.
Of course, it would have to end. We stayed at the shore for almost two weeks, inseparable both day and night. Every night was spent in bed together, slowly learning each other’s bodies. We did more shopping than we probably should have, and visited the pier and several old buildings. It was fascinating to be in such a different part of England. The seaside was so different than the forest. The air here was still fresh, but smelled like salt instead of pine. The beaches were made of sand instead of rocks, making for a much more enjoyable beachside stroll. Even the food was different. While I wasn’t too daring during our holiday, on our last night, Jasper took me to a seafood restaurant.
“You have to try it at least once when you’re here,” he said. “If you hate it, I promise we’ll go get something else.”
“I’ll try it. That doesn’t mean I’ll like it,” I said.
The restaurant itself was lovely. Candles twinkled on the tables, and we sat at a wrought–iron table right on the beach. The air was warm with just a slight breeze that made the candle flames dance.
“You’ll have to order for me,” I told Jasper. “I have no idea what I’m looking at.”
As it turned out, I had no idea what I was looking at once the food arrived either.
“How do I eat this?” I asked Jasper, poking at the clam with a fork.
“Hold it like this,” he said, demonstrating, “use your fork, pull it out, and dip it in the sauce. You eat it in one bite.”
“Only one?”
“Just one.”
“Jasper,” I leaned forward in my chair. “I don’t know that I can fit that in my mouth in one bite.”
He smirked at me. “I think if last night proved anything, it’s that you can fit more in your mouth than you expect.”
My face immediately went scarlet. “Jasper Wolfric!” I admonished, “that is not proper language for a duke.”
He was laughing. “No one heard, Christine. Don’t worry.”
I was worried, but it was more in regard to the clams than his double entendres. “This isn’t still alive, is it?”
He was laughing even harder now, tears in his eyes. “No, Christine. The clam isn’t still alive. It’s steamed.”
“You never know,” I muttered, trying to follow his directions. The clams were slippery, but all together not awful.
Not right away, anyway.
We took a stroll on the beach as the sun began to set. As we were walking back to our room, I began to feel a little nauseated. My walk slowed as I tried to regain myself.
“Are you all right, Christine?” Jasper asked as I paused.
“Yes,” I lied.
“Christine, you’re very pale.” He put his hand to my forehead. “And very clammy. Are you feeling ill?”
“Perhaps,” I said as I tried to take a deep breath.
He put his arm around me, supporting me as we continued back to the hotel. “Come on. Let’s get you back to the room.”
As we walked, I prayed that I wasn’t going to be sick on him. Yes, we were married now, and yes, we had spent the last two weeks seeing each other in all kinds of compromising positions, but I still didn’t want to disgust him. His grip around me tightened as I stumbled, my head feeling light.
A few people gave us looks as we entered the grandiose lobby. For a brief moment I was worried that perhaps they thought I’d had too much to drink, but as another wave of nausea washed over me, I didn’t care. All I wanted was to get back to our room. Jasper helped me into the lift, and I rested my weight against the wall. I had broken out into a cold sweat, and my hands were clammy.
I made it to our room before I vomited. I could taste everything from dinner as it made its way into the toilet, and the taste of the regurgitated clams only made me want to vomit more. Finally, my stomach was completely emptied, and only the bitter green bile was left. Jasper handed me a cloth and I wiped my mouth. I rested myself against the base of the sink, completely drained.
“I’m going to draw you a bath,” he told me, turning the knobs on the tub.
“It was your clams,” I said, breathlessly. “Your clams did this to me.”
“Christine, that’s ridiculous.”
Using the sink and the toilet, I pulled myself into a standing position.
“I’m sure,” I said.
“Christine,” Jasper said, giving me a withering look before getting up to help me with my buttons, “if it was the clams, wouldn’t I have gotten sick as well?”
“I felt fine before dinner,” I said as his fingers worked at the buttons. “And I do feel a bit better now. I think your clams gave me food poisoning.”
“I really don’t think so,” he sighed, helping me step out of my dress. Then he hesitated, seeming to consider something. “Is it possible…could you be…”
It wasn’t a possibility I had
thought of until now. I considered it, doing the math in my head.
“What day is it?”
“Thursday.”
I rolled my eyes. “What’s the date?”
“Oh. June thirtieth.”
I felt light–headed again.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Jasper, I think I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Sixteen
I had never seen Jasper so excited. He was like a giddy child, and I think he would have been jumping up and down if he hadn’t been trying to stay composed. Our entire trip home he kept his hands on me, either around my shoulders or on my belly.
I myself didn’t know how to feel. I hadn’t ever really thought about having children. The last few years I had been so preoccupied caring for my father that the idea of caring for someone else had been too far out of reach to ever cross my mind. That, coupled with no men ever pursuing me, meant children had seemed so far on the horizon that it was never a consideration. At the moment, I was only feeling numbness.
At the very least, Jasper managed to control his elation while we were in public. He had a silly, wide grin on his face that drew a few looks, but he kept his hands mostly to himself. It wasn’t until we were in the carriage on our way back to Wolf’s Peak that his hands returned to my belly.
“I just can’t believe it,” he marveled, rubbing at my belly through dress.
“We don’t even know for sure,” I reminded him, although I was fairly certain. My cycle had been the same since I was fourteen. In the chaos of the last few weeks I hadn’t noticed I was late, and if I had I probably would have attributed it to the stress of adjusting to my new life.
The Wolf's Wife (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 1) Page 13
