She giggled. “That tickles.”
He responded with another kiss to the sensitive intersecting of her palm. She swatted at him. “S-stop,” she commanded. “Jasper?”
He sighed, and pulled away. “Yes, Katherine.”
“Can we go abovestairs?”
Jasper narrowed his eyes. “Abovestairs?”
Katherine wet her lips. “Er, yes.” She scuffed the tip of her ivory slipper along the floor. Did his wife have slippers of any other color? He imagined her in a scandalous red slipper. Imagined himself tugging it loose, tossing it aside, and then lowering her stockings inch by agonizing… “I was hoping, that is to say, imagining,” She furrowed her brow. “Well, imagining might not be the right word.”
“Katherine?”
“Yes?”
“Out with it.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, er, yes, of course. I want to spend the night with you.” Her cheeks flamed a red to match the carpet, only heightened by the pale white of her satin evening gown with those ridiculous lace ruffles along her décolletage.
Did she just say…?
“I know it is not at all the thing. Wives and husbands sharing the same chambers. Mother and Father never shared a chamber.” She grimaced. “Not that I care to think of Mother and Father sharing a chamber. It is just…” Her words ended on a high-pitched squeak as he swept her into his arms.
“What are you…?”
“Katherine?”
“Yes?”
Jasper shifted her in his arms, angling her in a way that her breasts were crushed against his chest. “Will you cease talking?”#p#分页标题#e#
“Er, right, yes, of course.” She peeked around his shoulder. “Jasper?”
He sighed. In addition to spirited, he would add loquacious to his wife’s sometimes endearing, in this instance, exasperating, attributes. “Yes, Katherine?” He pressed his lips to the place where her neck met her ear.
She giggled and swatted at his chest. “That t-tickles,” she managed to pant out between gasping laughs.
And ticklish. He could add ticklish to the growing list of his understanding of Katherine Waincourt, the Duchess of Bainbridge.
“You were saying?” he whispered against her neck.
She erupted into another fit of laughter. “Someone w-will undoubtedly hear us or see us.”
“Undoubtedly,” he said with a sardonic smile.
Katherine slapped her hand to his chest again. He grunted. She was rather strong for one so diminutive. “It wouldn’t do to create a scandal here.”
Jasper shook his head, bemused. “Katherine, you are my wife. There will be no scandal.” And if a servant was unwise enough to step into their path, then he’d sack the demmed fool.
Katherine frowned. “I do not like that dark glower, Jasper.”
It appeared she’d also come to know him. Jasper ignored her and carried her up the long, sweeping staircase, down the hall.
He paused a moment outside his chambers. No one had entered these rooms in a very long time. Not even Lydia had frequented his rooms. Instead, Jasper would pay visits to her, and then she’d insist for propriety’s sake he return to sleep in his own chambers.
Jasper pressed the handle and carried Katherine inside.
~27~
Katherine imagined this is how mere mortals felt upon entering the dragon’s lair. She shoved aside such silly musings as Jasper carried her over to his wide, four-poster bed, and deposited her amidst the center of the soft, feather mattress.
A little grunt escaped her at the unexpectedness of the movement.
She shoved herself up on her elbows and eyed her husband.
Jasper shrugged free of his jacket and tossed it to the ground. His black waistcoat and shirt followed. Her mouth went dry as his hands went to the fastenings of his form-fitting breeches.
Then he turned his attention to her.
Oh, God, I will never have enough of him.
Then, with the infinite gentleness she’d come to expect from him, Jasper sat at the edge of the bed. He held his arms out and Katherine scrambled onto his lap.
She captured his face in her hands. “I love you, Jasper.” Katherine willed him to hear the strength of her profession. “I…”
He kissed her until all rational thought fled with the magic of his kiss. His hands worked her gown up over her ankles, calves, ever higher, and then around her waist. The cool night air slapped her skin belied by the warmth of his kiss. Then his expert hands moved to the back of her gown.
Jasper paused. “I. Thought. I said. No buttons.” He punctuated the hoarse command between deliberately placed kisses to her eyelids, earlobe, the corners of her mouth.