Chapter Twenty-One

Once again, a rather battered Lord and Lady Allenbridge stumbled through the front door of Bridgeford House. But this time there was little fanfare attached to their arrival, just Runcorn, who gasped when he saw the blood on Lord Allenbridge’s face.

“It’s not serious, Runcorn,” reassured Allegra. “Would you make sure that there’s hot water and clean cloths in my Lord’s room? I want to look at that cut, but the bleeding has almost stopped, and he’s adamant about refusing to call the physician.”

Pip snorted. “A minor bump—nothing to worry about at all. Go to bed.” And Pip allowed Ally to take his arm and lead him to his rooms.

“Come on, wounded soldier,” crooned Ally, pulling Pip over to a comfortable chair by the fire.

“Ally, a bump on the head is not a wound, and I am not, nor have I ever been, a soldier.” Pip found himself very aware of the woman hovering close to his shoulder.

A tap from outside heralded the arrival of a footman with a steaming pitcher of water and some crisp white towels. With a smile of thanks, Ally took the supplies and closed the door firmly after him.

“What are you going to do?” Pip asked the question suspiciously, as Allegra pulled off her turban and dropped it behind a chair.

“I’m simply going to clean you up and examine that cut. I’m still not absolutely convinced you don’t need to see a doctor, but maybe once I get a good look at the damage, I’ll be able to make a better judgement.”

She gently eased his coat away from him, dropping it with a motion of disgust on top of her turban. “It’s good to get rid of these ugly things too.” She leaned over the bowl and moistened a cloth.

Pip agreed, opening the buttons on his shirt, and heaving a sigh of relief. His moment of relaxation was short-lived, however, as Allegra approached and stood up against his thigh to clean his cut. Her breasts rose and fell just inches from his head, and his senses swam with an awareness of her.

Her scent surrounded him, soft and womanly, and shot to his groin like a bolt of lightning. He shifted as his breeches became almost painfully tight.

“Am I hurting you?” She dabbed carefully at his scalp.

“Not in the way you mean,” he growled, biting his lips against the urge to lean over and run his tongue across her cleavage.

“There—I think that should do it.” Ally stepped back and looked critically at her handiwork. “It wasn’t a terrible cut, and I doubt if you’ll even have a lump there come the morning.”

“I have a lump somewhere else, Ally, and it needs taking care of. Right now.” Pip grasped her hand and drew it down his exposed chest, past his waist.

Following his movements with her eyes, Ally blushed as she saw the telltale evidence of Pip’s desire bulging beneath the tight fabric of his trousers.

“I...um...” She tried to ease her hand away.

“It’s time for us to continue our ‘discussion’ Ally...” Pip rose to his feet in front of her and took the cloths from her hand.

Allegra drew in her breath and released it choppily. “Alright. But I need to tell you something.” She gazed at him and raised her chin slightly.

“I’m not very good at...at having relations with anybody.” She gritted her teeth and looked Pip straight in the eye.

“You did some really nice things to me the other day in the barn, and I admit that I liked them a lot, but when it comes to the entire matter, well, it’s just never been much fun or anything I’ve enjoyed. I know I’m probably no good at it.” She swallowed and straightened her shoulders even more. “But I thought I should tell you, so you won’t be disappointed.”

Pip was silent for a few moments, studying the woman in front of him, who now looked like she was ready to face a firing squad rather than indulge in an intimate sensual experience with him.

“Well, Ally—there’s a slight problem here...” He eased his shirttails out of his trousers and letting them hang loosely around his thighs.

“I understand,” said Ally, shutting her eyes briefly. “I’ll go back to my room now, you must be quite tired.”

“Oh no—I don’t think so.” Pip caught her elbow before she could move a step.

She was puzzled, aroused, and uncomfortable, but did her best to conceal all three emotions. “But—you said there was a problem?”

“Yes.” Pip ran his fingers up the inside of her arm and raised the little hairs on the back of her neck. “The problem is that we will not have relations, as you put it, tonight...”

“Oh.” Ally tried to ignore her disappointment along with the man now circling her, and the heat of his breath on her skin. “We’re not?”

“No Ally.” Pip stopped behind her and dropped the lightest of kisses on her bare shoulder. “We’re going to make love.”

Allegra went still for a moment, and then tilted her head slightly to one side, giving Pip’s mouth better access to the sensitive area under her ear. “There’s a difference?”

She felt his lips curve into a grin as his hands gently tousled her hair back into its tumble of curls.

“Oh yes, sweetheart. There’s a big difference. For instance...” He crossed in front of her again. “If we were just having relations, I probably wouldn’t want to kiss you like this.” He touched his mouth to hers in the gentlest of ways, just barely brushing her lips with his, then pulling back, then touching again.

Allegra closed her eyes, eagerly parting her lips slightly and anticipating the next touch of his mouth. This was something she knew she enjoyed.

But he moved behind her, away from her enticing kisses, almost as if he was a hunter, circling his prey. “If we were just having relations, I’d probably tell you to take off your clothes. I wouldn’t do this...”

Ally gasped as she felt the laces at the back of her dress loosen. His hands gently eased the ugly gown from her shoulders and down past her hips, caressing the warm skin through her chemise as they went. She automatically stepped out of the rumpled folds as he pulled it away from her and tossed it onto the growing pile of discarded clothing.

“Now—” He turned her to face him once again. “If we were just having relations, I probably wouldn’t enjoy the sensation of your silky undergarments rubbing against my chest...” He slipped his arms free of his shirt as he spoke and tossed it away.

Allegra found herself within inches of his body, and drew in her breath as his hands clasped her shoulders and rocked her gently, allowing her sensitive breasts to brush against the firm planes of his chest. Breathing increased the pressure between them, and Ally was helpless to resist her instincts—she leaned in even closer.

Pip made a sound like a stifled groan, but ignored her matching whimper of disappointment as he pulled away from her.

“Now, to continue...” He kept his hands on her waist as he walked around her yet again.

“Pip, you’re making me dizzy...” complained Ally.

“That’s the idea,” he smiled. “Now, where was I? Oh yes. If we were just having relations, I probably wouldn’t feel the urge to do this so slowly...”

She jumped and crossed her hands in front of her as her corset fell free of its lacings under his Lordship’s clever fingers.

Tugging it away from her arms, Pip made sure it joined the clothing pile in the corner of the room. Ally wondered somewhat hysterically if the maids would notice. Her torso screamed its relief at being free of such restriction, and she drew a much-needed full breath of air. Then Pip leaned over her shoulder and untied the ribbon at the front of her chemise, and all that air emptied out of her lungs as his hands brushed the tops of her breasts. She decided that breathing was an unnecessary pastime, anyway.

Slowly easing the silk away from her shoulders, Pip pushed it from her body to the floor. “Now, people who are just having relations don’t do things like this...”

Ally squeezed her eyes tight shut at the first touch of Pip’s tongue. He delicately traced the red marks left by the stays on her skin, one after another. Up her side to just below her armpit, then back down to just below her waist—his tongue slowly and softly caressing the indentations in her tender flesh.

“Aaahh...” She moaned, her head falling back as she gave herself up to the pleasure of being loved like this. Her breasts felt as if they were swelling to catch his attention, and she could feel a dewy warmth spreading through her from her thighs to her eyebrows.

Pip found himself entranced by the taste of her skin—it was like licking rose petals soaked in gentle rain. He could happily have spent a couple more hours just worshipping every inch of her with his tongue, but he knew that his strength of will would give out long before he was finished.

With a sigh, he rose to his full height behind her and pulled her bare back up against his chest. “Now, Ally, you’ve seen some of the differences between just having relations and making love. What do you think so far?” His breath feathered her cheek, and she quivered as he flicked his clever tongue across her ear.

“I...I...think you’re right...” She struggled to speak coherently. “There is a vast difference between having...r...r...relations, and making love... ahhh...”

She moaned again as Pip’s hands crept up to her breasts and cupped them. He played gently with her nipples, rolling, and pulling them, and interspersing that with light kisses around her neck and ears.

“Now, I have to confess...” his voice was getting hoarse since he was working diligently to keep his own control. “There are certain areas involved in both relations and making love... and here we have two of them.” He gave a slightly harder tug on her sensitive nipples, which bunched even more tightly and brought a gasp of exquisite pleasure to her throat.

Allegra surrendered. To his touch, his words, his tongue...all of it, all of him. She wanted him, needed him in a way she’d never imagined possible, and thoughts of anything but Pip and what he was doing to her vanished from her mind.

She felt an immediate sense of loss as his hands dropped away and he moved from her back. The cold air rushed to replace his heat, and tears sprang to her eyes. But before she could turn around, he was speaking again.

“We have to discuss some other similarities between having relations and making love, Ally—but I think we need to become used to each other a little first...” She felt his hands on her back, guiding her towards his enormous bed. “Let’s get really comfortable and go exploring.”

The soft mattress and downy pillows felt as if they were swamping her as she snuggled beneath the coverlet.

The bed dipped as Pip followed her in, and she realised he had rid himself of the rest of his clothes. They were finally skin to skin, and he took immediate advantage of that fact by gathering her close into his arms.

She felt the soft hairs on his chest tickle her breasts, and the muscles in his legs flex against hers. She could smell his musky elemental fragrance, and above all, she could feel the solid length of his arousal pressing insistently on her thigh. It was this last which made her tense up—remembered pain flashed through her mind and her eyes darted fearfully to Pip’s face, seeking reassurance in the candlelight.

“Are we going to do it now?” she asked hesitantly.

Pip sighed. “Darling Ally...you’re forgetting. We’re not doing it, or just having relations...we’re what?” He nudged her with his elbow.

“We’re making love.” She whispered the dutiful answer, like a student reciting a lesson.

“That’s right.” He ran his hand rapidly up her side and snuffled her neck at the same time. It shocked a gasp of laughter out of her.

“You tickled me...” She sputtered and giggled in surprise.

“Yes, I did.”

“But, we’re in bed, we’re...we’re making love.”

“And is there a law against tickling and laughing in bed while making love?” inquired Pip smoothly.

“Well, I...I never thought...I mean...” she stumbled, completely at a loss for words.

“Let it go, Ally, let the past go. This is now, today, and we’re going to make love for the first time...” His hands slid up to her breasts and she sighed as he fondled them affectionately.

“All right, Pip...whatever you say.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, loving his touch. She felt him move over her and then gasped as his lips replaced his fingers and pulled on her nipple.

“Oh, my.” His tongue and lips teased her into mindless bliss.

“Do you like that?” He released one breast only to transfer his attentions to the other.

“Oh God, yessss...” She turned her head restlessly on the pillow.

Her movements became more ragged as Pip continued his exploration of her body with lips and tongue and hands. She sighed when he left her breasts, only to tense again as he caressed her belly and licked around her navel.

His hands smoothed, touched, kneaded, and gentled whatever parts of her body he could reach, and her shoulders writhed as his kisses took him further towards the centre of her heat.

His fingertips brushed up and down the delicate skin of her thighs when his breath stirred the first curls on her mound, and she sat bolt upright. “What are you doing? Pip, stop that at once...”

“Why?”

“Why? Why? You’re not supposed to do that...oooh...oh...” She collapsed back onto the bed as Pip’s lips found the exact spot to tease and taste and turn her into a mindless mass of singing nerve endings.

Panting now and lost to everything but his touch, Ally shamelessly raised her hips, bringing her body closer to that flickering tongue. Little moans of pleasure echoed across the chamber, and when he grabbed her buttocks and brought her to his mouth, she nearly passed out with shock.

Pip was in heaven.

He could feel her muscles growing ever tighter, and her moisture was drenching him, but he could not stop until he knew she was on the very edge. Each moan, groan and squirm of delight was a joy to his heart, he was determined that this night would be the beginning of a new life for this woman, and he was just the man to accomplish it.

“Piiip...” She cried out, bowing off the bed at his touch.

“Yes, Ally...”

He raised himself back up along her body, aligning himself between her thighs. “Yes... it’s time. Open your eyes—look at me.”

She had to know it was him bringing her this pleasure. He wanted to see her eyes when he finally claimed her as his own.

He held himself above her, sweat beading his face and a vein thrumming in the side of his neck. The hot firm tip of his erection nudged at the brink of her body, and he moved slightly, spreading her moisture over both of them.

With a gasp, she raised her hands to touch his cheeks. “Now, Pip...please...I can’t wait...”

Obeying her command and his desire, he slid himself into her silken depths.

She froze for a moment, still holding his face between her palms. “Oh, ooohhh—.”

Pip, exerting superhuman control, didn’t move. His body told him he had to be either dead, dying, or unconscious to stay so still, even though his mind knew otherwise—Allegra’s eyes were bewitching him with their expression of wondrous amazement. Then she lifted her hips slightly and the spell was broken.

He pulled out of her only to plunge once again into her willing body—she met his thrusts with a rhythm of her own, and within a few short moments her back arched, her fingernails dug into his shoulders, and she screamed, finding her release in an explosion of contracting muscles and bliss.

The sensation of her pulsating climax tore the last of Pip’s control away and, with a few quick thrusts, he gave in to the inevitable letting the ecstasy take him. It seemed to go on forever and was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. He emptied himself into his wife with his own hoarse shout, spurting all that he had, all that he was, into her body for safekeeping.

Totally drained, he collapsed, and let her take his weight while he recovered. If he ever could.

Finally pulling himself free, Pip turned them both onto their sides and kept their bodies joined by hooking a leg over Allegra and gently tugging her close. Boneless, she cuddled into his arms.

“So,” said Pip. “Any comments?”

A snuffle answered him, then a tousled head moved, wide eyes looking up at him. The amazed and joyous smile on his wife’s face was something he’d remember for the rest of his life.

“Yes,” she replied softly, swirling a finger into his chest hair. “Can we do it again?”