Lynne Connolly by Maiden Lane

people have the chance for a second wedding night. Our first had been delayed by a few weeks, but this one could follow directly on the wedding.
    He kissed my hand and the finger that held the rings he’d given me, twice now. Both of us naked, we stood in the midst of our discarded clothes as if they meant nothing. Here, now, they didn’t. They were what we had to wear to fulfil our roles outside this room. In here, we had each other. Nothing else mattered.
    He led me to the bed and drew back the covers for me, watching me climb in. I lay back against the pillows and held out my arms to him, but he stayed where he was, standing by the bed, and gazed at me. His blue eyes were clear and bright in the light streaming through the windows, perceptive. They took in all of me, my altered shape, from my toes to my eyes. He didn’t look away, but the slow smile that curved his lips warmed me to my soul. Everything I had belonged to him. I knew I’d remember this moment forever, and his appreciation of what he had, what I was giving him. I could feel nothing but fully one with him though we weren’t touching.
    Climbing on to the bed, he lifted his hand and slowly brought it down to rest on my belly. “You’re warm enough?” The words, although mundane, displayed the love and care he always showed to me.
    “Not even Gervase would credit how open you are here.”
    He gave a self-conscious laugh and spread his arms wide. “What do I have to hide?”
    “Yourself.” I put my hand on top of his and enjoyed the sight before me. Deceptively broad shoulders that made his tailors weep with joy gave way to a strong chest and a beautifully flat stomach that at present I envied, and then down to his slim hips and the proof of his manhood, currently stiff as a result of his perusal of my naked body. But we were in no hurry. We had all the time we needed. “You could appear in public stark naked and still conceal the truth of what you are.”
    “Which is?”
    “Many men. But you only show me this side of you and I think this is the Richard with everything else stripped away.” I’d never found myself capable of explaining it before. “But you shed your outer self with those.” With my free hand I indicated the clothes we’d cast aside so heedlessly. “Inside everything else, inside the man of fashion, the powerful aristocrat, the businessman, there’s Richard Kerre. I think Helen and I are the only people to see that man.”
    He shook his head, still smiling. I thought I’d wrecked the mood, but it seemed not. The inner man could be difficult, sometimes impossible to reach, especially in words. He could show me easier than he could articulate his needs and his wants. “Even Helen only sees a part of me. I’m her father, I have to be careful to remain strong and calm for her. I can trust you with everything. I might have done that with Gervase before I was breeched at seven, but after that our parents separated us, treated me as the son and heir, gave me preferential treatment. It’s to Gervase’s credit that he never wavered in his support of me.”
    “Do you think your parents tried to push you apart?”
    “Yes, undoubtedly. It would have been easier to control us apart. We never obliged. But even he hasn’t seen all of me. You have. I have nothing to hide from you, my love.”
    “Nothing?”
    “No, nothing. Ask and you shall receive.”
    His eyes blazed into mine and I knew what he wanted me to ask. I separated my thighs. “Then make love to me, my husband, my only love.”
    His smile broadened and he leaned forward to cover my body with his. Careful to keep his weight off my ripe belly, he took his shaft in hand and eased it between my legs. It entered my body as if coming home. I felt it in the same way. “I never feel completely whole unless you’re there.”
    He lifted his gaze from my lower body. “I’m always there, my sweet. The first time I made love to you it felt so right that I knew only you would do