Chapter 20

CHAPTER20

For all the multiple ways Garmon had made love to Genevra already, tonight was different. Tonight, he would love her with his body, his heart and his soul, because tonight, she was his wife.

He couldn’t quite believe it. He had never thought he would marry, never thought he would meet someone like Genevra, who made him feel more than himself. Never thought that a woman so strong and brave and beautiful, inside and out, as Genevra, existed.

Mrs Lovell. It would take some getting used to, and unaccountably he was nervous about their first night as husband and wife.

The wedding had gone off smoothly, the ceremony held at St Giles in the Fields Church followed by a wedding breakfast at the Tavern, after which he had swept her off in his carriage for a night at Mivart’s Hotel. His choice of hotel was deliberately different than the night they had spent together at Grenier’s.

Mivart’s was an exclusive up-market hotel patronised by the haute ton. Fortunately, money was the entrée to most things and Mivart’s was no different. Mind, if he had been a loud, vulgar sort, no amount of money would have secured him a suite, but his years on the continent under the tutelage of the Chevalier de la Salle, had provided him with the requisite skills to ape the appearance of a gentleman, in dress, manners and speech.

Mr Robinson made his excuses and did not attend as per Genevra’s request, but her mother came and her eldest sister with her husband, which was a comfort to Genevra. Mary was a slender frail looking woman with her mother’s brown hair and pale blue eyes, her husband, a slightly pompous clergyman sliding quickly into middle age.

Garmon was supported through the ceremony by Mr Rooke and the enterprising Ben, but he missed Connor with a peculiar ache of the heart. He very much feared that something fatal had happened to Connor, because he could not believe that he would forsake him so thoroughly. Following that fear, he had charged the mud larks with finding Connor’s body, abandoned in an alley or coughed up by the Thames, like Jacob Tate. So far nothing.

Genevra was stunning in the deep blue satin gown she chose as her wedding dress, with blue cornflowers in her hair, the colour of her eyes. Adorned by a set of matching sapphires round her neck, his wedding gift to her, she was a sight to behold. She was supported by her sister, Miss Bethany Whittaker, recovered from her own ordeal in London’s streets and tastefully turned out in pale blue silk. She was a pretty girl, but her honey blonde hair and light blue eyes, were a pale imitation of Genevra’s bold colouring, as was her slight figure, that lacked Genevra’s luscious curves and height.

Genevra was a bold strong woman, and this was proclaimed in every inch of her being, and he loved her so much it almost hurt just to look at her. The thought that he could have lost her so recently to the fever, turned him into a quivering mess. If anyone so much as hurt a hair of her head, he would murder them. Fortunately for the health of London’s population no one seemed inclined to do so and they left their inebriated guests to continue their revelry at his expense at the Globe, while his carriage took them to Mivarts.

Alone in their suite he poured her a glass of champagne and offered her a toast.

“To a long and happy marriage, my love.”

She nodded, her eyes bright, and whispered huskily, “To a long and happy marriage.” They drank, but he didn’t miss the slight shiver that made her body quiver, and he put their glasses down and pulled her into his arms.

“Ghosts still bothering you sweetheart?” She snuggled into him and sighed.

“Sorry I shouldn’t bring the mood down.”

“But?”

“I just -” she stopped, and he waited with a heart thumping hard for what she would say. God don’t let her be regretting this already.

“I never thought I would marry again. I didn’t think I could bear to after -” she swallowed and wiped her eyes. “And then you.” She looked up at him and smiled through her tears. “You’re difficult to say no to!”

He grinned and kissed her. “I think I told you once I always get what I want, eventually,” he kissed her again. “And I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

“I still can’t quite believe it,” she said after another lingering kiss.

“I can’t either,” he admitted, stroking a lock of her lovely hair off her face. “You are so beautiful. You looked magnificent today, but you know you’re beautiful to me in your oldest gown with your hair in a mess.”

She smiled, “and when I’m sick as a dog or out on my feet with fatigue?”

“Yes, all of that,” he squeezed her close. “You will always be beautiful to me, I love you Genevra, I will never stop loving you.”

She hugged him tight, burying her face in chest. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve -”

“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you!” He cut her off roughly. “And as for deserving- “ he swallowed. “Genevra the pain you have suffered- no one should suffer like that. And in spite of it all, there you are running a business all on your own and worrying about your little sister and your staff and thinking about everyone else but yourself!”

“Garmon,” she sighed.

“Yes love?”

“I love you.”

He smiled and kissed her again. And went on kissing her. After a bit he said husky voiced, “I know it’s the middle of the day, but do you think we might go to bed? I want to make love to my wife.”

She nodded with a smile and even after everything they had already done, a slight flush to her cheeks. They undressed each other slowly, between kisses and caresses and appreciative murmurs, until they were both naked, and he lifted and carried her into the bedroom and set her down gently on the bed. It was warm enough not to have to worry about covers, and he joined her on the bed.

Starting with her neck, he worked his way slowly down her body, spending a lot of time on each voluptuous breast. God, how he loved her breasts, their full roundness and heft in his palm, those luscious, full, dark-rose nipples, their responsiveness to his touch.

All these were a heady aphrodisiac to him, but most of all was the way he felt about her. The intensity of his feelings lent a spice to the whole experience, the fact that he now knew she returned his feelings...he never knew it was possible to feel this level of comfortable warmth coupled with intense eroticism.

Since the moment he first kissed her, he had felt an intense desire for her body, but it was her heart and soul he now sought to encompass within himself. Her pleasure had been his paramount desire, now he wanted her to feel not only pleasure but love and comfort and above all safety. To know she was loved and protected.

Moving down her belly to the core of her pleasure, he used his tongue to lave her, his fingers to stroke and push inside her, making her moan and move in restless desire, to arch and mewl and beg. When he judged she was at the very precipice, on the very edge of going over, he swiftly changed position to enter her body with his straining cock.

Caging her with his arms, his eyes locked with hers, he slid inside her and joined their bodies as one. Moving inside her slowly, holding her gaze with his own, he felt as if his soul was bared to her, nothing to hide and nothing to come between them. Her arms and legs wrapped around his body, drew him closer as her breathing lifted along with his. Her pale skin flushed with her arousal, her pupils blown, her lips full from the punishment of his mouth, her warm, soft body beneath him, responsive and giving at the same time.

He ploughed her with increasing urgency, the pleasure rising and tightening. It felt so good it took his breath and suffused his senses with an overload of tingling, overwhelming pleasure. How could it get any better?

Her cry of delight, quickened his pleasure and he groaned, thrusting faster and deeper, he lost control when he felt her inner muscles squeezing and fluttering on his cock. She groaned deeply as she tossed her head and arched her back, gripping him tight in her release.

Plundering her body with the final strokes of his own crisis, he bellowed her name, loosing his seed in violent jerks of his body, grunting with the force of it. The intensity took him by surprise, the build-up had been so gentle, but the way his release tore through his body and left him boneless in its wake, was anything but gentle. He shuddered with remaining aftershocks, little rills of pleasure ebbing through his body.

Whether he possessed her body and soul or not, she certainly possessed his. He buried his face in her neck and pulled her close, his throat too tight to speak. She wrapped her arms round him and kissed his hair.

“I love you Garmon,” she murmured. He shuddered, battling the sudden rush of tears. Where they came from, he didn’t know, but some well inside him seemed to have opened up, and he didn’t have the strength or will to shove the lid back on it.

He curled into her and cried like a baby. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cried. Not like this, jagged sobs that shook his body. He had occasionally experienced the odd wetness in the eyes perhaps or tightness in the throat, but nothing like this.

He cried for his mother and his younger self. A young man wound tight as a drum and furious at life, hiding hurt behind anger. And so lonely. It hit him in this sudden attack of feeling how lonely he had been, without realising it.

The tears abated slowly, and he muttered an apology.

“Don’t!” she said softly but firmly. “Don’t you dare apologise to me for this. You have held me when I cried a half dozen times, I swear. Do you want to tell me what it was about?”

He rolled onto his back, sniffing and wiping his face. “I don’t think I realised until now how much I missed out on growing up as I did.”

“You were robbed of your childhood, Garmon. You never had a proper family.”

He smiled wryly. “I had the girls in the brothel, it was like having a half dozen mothers, aunts or sisters.”

“It’s not the same,” she said quietly.

He groped for her hand and squeezed it. “You’re right, but I didn’t know that. I made the best of what I had.”

“You did and it made you strong, but hard.” She rolled to face him, propping her head on one arm. “I marvelled at the softness in you, the gentleness you showed towards me. Where did that come from?”

He shrugged. “The girls I suppose. For all their rough ways and difficult circumstances, they looked out for each other. I learned to take care of them through making their lives easier, and it won me the occasional bit of appreciation and affection. I don’t think I fully realised how starved of that I was until you.”

She nodded and swallowed. Reaching out, she stroked his face and then leaned over and kissed him. “You have a new family now. We’re not perfect. Hiram and I don’t get on, but mama and Beth and Mary are sweet. Her husband is a good man, even if he is a bit of a know-it-all.”

“I miss Connor, it’s eating me up, not knowing what happened to him. He was like a son or a younger brother. It felt like such a betrayal when he left. But the longer it goes on, the more convinced I am that something has happened to him.”

“You’ve found no trace of him?”

“None. It’s as if he vanished into thin air. I can’t believe he would have left me with no word like this. Even if he was angry with me, and he was... I can’t shake the feeling that something has happened to prevent him contacting me.” He let out a breath. “At least I hope so, because the alternative doesn’t bear thinking of.”

He rolled towards her. “Enough maudlin thoughts, this is supposed to be a time for happiness and pleasure.” he kissed her. “And you have given me great pleasure so far my lady.”

“More could be arranged,” she murmured, her hand gliding down his stomach to his stirring cock. Palming his sticky member, she slid down the bed and when her tongue licked him, he jerked, his cock firming in her hand. In moments her hot mouth had him hard again. And shortly after, groaning with the pleasure of her tongue, mouth and hand.

“Genevra,” he protested, but she held up a hand staving him off.

“My turn,” she said releasing his cock briefly from her delicious mouth. “You have nearly killed me with pleasure before, my turn to drive you crazy.”

He subsided into the pillows, closing his eyes and let her. Her mouth and hands drove him relentlessly higher, until he was a panting, quivering mess, his hips thrusting and groaning for release. Which she refused to give him, teasing him to the brink and stopping over and over.

The last time he was so close to coming he felt the ripples beginning, the wash of pleasure through his body heralding the point of no return, and then she squeezed the base of his cock hard and stopped it dead.

He groaned in frustration. “Genevra, you’re killing me please, I need to come!” He sat up on his elbows and glared down at his red quivering cock. She grinned and sat up, straddling his legs, her quim on full display which made him groan again and his cock bob and dance.

“Alright. I suppose you have earned your reward,” she said shuffling up the bed on her knees and lining up his cock with her cunny, fed him inside her, and slid down until she was fully seated. Then leaning forward with her hands on his chest. “But you can’t come until I do,” she grinned down at him wickedly.

“I’m going to die,” he said fatalistically. “I take no responsibility for what happens next,” he added, moaning as she moved on him.

She moved faster and moaned, closing her eyes. “You feel so big and deep inside me,” she panted her breasts jouncing with the movement. He grasped them, squeezing and massaging, tweaking her nipples, watching her face with greedy delight. She was lost in her pleasure, and he forgot his own in absorbing hers.

He kept up the twiddling of her nipples, knowing how much that aroused her, using spit on his fingers to aid the slippery sensation. When she moved a hand to pleasure herself, a jolt of lust went through him at the sight. His balls felt tight, he couldn’t last much longer. That burning ache behind his ball-sack was getting worse and his cock was on fire. His hips bucked and he said hoarsely, “Come Genevra, please I can’t hold-”

And she came with a cry and stiffening of her whole body, her head flung back and her inner muscles quivering and throbbing on his cock. His body surged up, the lightening ignited, and searing pleasure rushed from his balls up his cock and spilled out in hot spurts that made his muscles cramp and made him grunt and groan with the intensity–yet again.

She collapsed on him panting, and he jerked with aftershocks until he was still and relaxed beneath her. Wrapping his arms round her, he sighed and murmured, “thank you, Mrs Lovell.”

She nodded and slipped off him bonelessly, curling into his side.

They drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms, and he thought muzzily he had never been happier.