Chapter 17

"Now?!" Dorothy squeaked, her mouth running dry.

It was only a little after three o'clock in the afternoon, and she had imagined that she would not have to confront the physical reality of their marriage until that night.

The Duke nodded and reached out to caress her cheek. "I believe you fear the consummation of our marriage," he observed. "But we are both longing for it. You are a passionate woman, and the sooner I show you how good the physical union between a man and a woman can feel, the better. It would be cruel to both of us to postpone it unnecessarily."

"Would it?" Dorothy whispered, still feeling vulnerable but quivering deep inside in intimate places no one else's words had ever touched in such a way.

"Come," the Duke urged and put his arm around her waist. "Our suites are on the second floor."

The large house seemed relatively empty as they passed through and up the grand staircase. The Dowager Duchess and her companion had retired to her rooms, and the servants were presumably all busy with their work elsewhere.

At the second-floor landing, Dorothy's tall, handsome husband suddenly smiled knowingly and then swept her up into his arms without warning. She gasped but could make no protest, her arms automatically coming around his neck for security and the scent of his skin dizzying at such proximity.

"Your Grace! What are you doing?!"

"Aaron," he reminded her, striding purposefully down a corridor to the left of the landing. "I'm going to carry you over the threshold of my bedroom, and then I'm going to strip you naked and kiss you all over before I deflower you thoroughly to our mutual satisfaction. Does that answer your questions, Duchess?"

She had no words to immediately respond to such statements.

A door swung open before them, and Aaron carried her into a spacious, light-filled bedroom where the only feature Dorothy's brain could register was the huge antique bed in the center, its blue brocade curtains tied back at the four wooden posters.

"Oh God!" she moaned into his neck, unsure whether she was asking for deliverance or forgiveness in wanting so very much everything that Aaron had described to her.

"There is no need to be afraid," he said as he pushed the door closed behind them and carried her to the bed. "Even if you still don't like me…"

The Duke sat down on the bed with Dorothy in his arms and caressed her face.

"I don't know you," she murmured, shaking her head at the reminder of her earliest opinions about this man. "We are married now, but I still don't know you, do I? How is it even possible to dislike someone so entirely unknown?"

"You will like what I do here now," Aaron assured her, slipping her dress down one shoulder and kissing the bare skin there with a slightly open mouth as his other hand roamed across the back of her dress. "From what I have already seen of your nature, I believe I can promise you that much. Liking me beyond that is perhaps not required…"

Dorothy closed her eyes, her breathing heavier and her skin tingling with every slight touch.

"I don't understand," she breathed and then inhaled abruptly as she felt her dress pooling around her waist, Aaron's hands having unfastened her sash and loosened the neckline of her dress under the cover of his kisses.

"You will," he said, his voice roughening with longing, and the hunger in his face stronger than ever. "When you are naked in my arms, crying out my name, you will understand…"

One large, warm hand had already taken possession of an exposed breast, and Dorothy found herself clinging to the hand's owner amidst her maelstrom of desire and trepidation. He squeezed and caressed the warm globe reassuringly as he kissed her mouth. The pangs of desire in her stomach were turning into an almost painful throbbing in the secret place between her thighs.

"Oh, Aaron," she moaned. "Please…"

"Please what?" he prompted breathlessly, laying her down on the bed and covering her bared breasts with kisses. "Please stop? Please continue?"

Dorothy squirmed and shook her head on the silken bed cover, her breasts quivering under the touch of his tongue as well as his lips and hands.

"Oh, don't stop! Please don't stop…"

Clutching uncontrollably at his clothing under this erotic onslaught, Dorothy accidentally tore off a waistcoat button, alarming her but only coaxing a breathless laugh from the man beside her.

"If you want me to undress quickly, my Duchess, you had only to ask." Aaron grinned, pausing his attention to take off his coat and waistcoat before flinging his shirt and stock to the floor after them. "Is that better?"

The sight of his well-muscled chest with its sprinkling of dark hair drew her gaze with almost as much compulsion as the eyes in his handsome face. Instinctively, Dorothy buried her face in the expanse of his torso as he pulled her back into his arms, breathing in the clean male scent of him, overlaid with the light woody cologne she'd smelled earlier.

"Or perhaps this is better still?"

Now his strong hands pulled off her dress entirely, leaving her shockingly unclothed except for the pale silk stockings and embroidered garters at her thighs. Aaron sat up and pulled her astride his lap, his hands luxuriating indecently in the lush curves of her body as she blushed and gasped at his handling, her long chestnut-brown hair escaping its pins and tumbling over her shoulders.

"My beautiful wife, who deserves every physical attention a man can give," he whispered in her ear as he cupped her silky bottom. "Imagine how it will feel to have my hands running over your hot, excited body while I am deep inside you…"

"Inside me?" Dorothy gasped, wishing she had possessed the courage to ask the better-informed Annie for more of the specific details of marital congress.

Without a mother or even any aunts to guide her, there was no one to offer her instruction on her wedding night and the expectations of her husband. Buzzing with the excitement and anticipation Aaron had aroused, she felt slightly ashamed of her ignorance at this moment, wanting to be an equal and active participant in this but held back by her very limited experience.

Gently, Aaron took one of her hands and laid it on the front of his trousers, where she felt something large and very solid beneath the fabric.

"Inside you," Aaron confirmed, the fingers on his other hand unexpectedly running through the length of her soft, pink slit and making her cry out. "Here."

"Oh God, Aaron!" she moaned, shaking her head at the strangeness of the idea he had planted in her head before throwing it back and crying out again as he launched a new round of ravishment on her quivering breasts.

Before she knew it, Dorothy was on her back again and the Duke's kisses were drifting lower across her stomach and thighs, closing inexorably on the intimate folds previously untouched by all hands but her own. The throbbing inside her was becoming rhythmic in its intensity, and she wanted more than anything the touch she felt sure must arrive but feared might not.

When he held her thighs open and gazed lustfully upon her womanhood, the longing and vulnerability she experienced stole her voice.

"So wet and ready for me already, Dorothy, just as I always knew you would be," he growled, and then before she could react, his lips were pressing a first kiss to the excited nub of her pleasure and his tongue was flicking against her swollen lips in exploration.

She cried out helplessly at the rising current of sensation as his intimate kisses gradually became more purposeful, his tongue swiftly learning to follow her responses and then driving her towards an unknown destination. Aaron's fingers soon joined the fray, first one and then two finding the entrance to her tight channel and stretching her inside.

These were experiences and feelings Dorothy had never dreamed of, and her mind was soon as overwhelmed by them as her hands tangled in Aaron's hair as he continued to kiss and stroke her in this strange manner.

"Aaron!" she heard her panicked voice calling out as a first powerful wave of something unknown swept through her body, threatening to drag her over the edge of some metaphorical waterfall. "Aaron!"

But then she was falling, at the mercy of the spasms of pleasure rippling through her from her most intimate depths, places that the Duke had somehow touched and spurred into this condition.

As the last ripples of sensation subsided, Dorothy lay panting with one arm over her eyes, trying unsuccessfully to comprehend what had happened even as Aaron kissed his way back up her body.

When she lifted her arm and opened her eyes to look at him shyly, she found that he too was naked now, his undergarments discarded at some point when she was distracted by his tongue. The ramrod-hard organ she had felt beneath his trousers stood proudly to attention between his thighs, and her eyes went wide at the sight.

"It is for your pleasure," Aaron said, following her gaze and then kissing her mouth and throat as he moved himself above her, "although I will undoubtedly enjoy you equally. You need have no fear. Here…"

He took her hand and laid it on his manhood, allowing her to feel its size and warmth and then groaning softly as she explored him, finding both the swollen crest and the mysterious balls hanging beneath.

"Feel how it throbs for you, Dorothy. You know where it belongs now, don't you? Inside you."

"Inside me?" she repeated faintly, the throbbing ache of longing beginning once again inside her at this thought, however incomprehensible.

"Where my fingers were a few moments ago," he explained patiently, deploying further caresses that caused her to arch into him. "Put me inside you this first time, and I will move as slowly as you need."

Dorothy hesitated at the instruction, instinctively grasping that this act was natural and right, but still not quite knowing how to obey her husband's request in practice. He seemed so large that she did not know how what he wanted could be achieved.

The Duke appeared to understand that she was not being willfully disobedient and showed no frustration. He simply kissed her once again, his tongue teasing hers and his hands playing with her breasts until she was gasping and moaning.

"Now, open your thighs a little more and guide my shaft to your entrance," he instructed her once more, his intense blue gaze holding hers. "Put me there."

"Ah!" Dorothy cried out breathlessly as she did as he described. "Like this?"

"Just like that," Aaron confirmed with a groan of pleasure and then made a small movement that buried the head of his manhood in her tender, slippery flesh, causing her to cry out and clasp his arms.

Yet again, his touch was overwhelming, and Dorothy was conscious only of pleasure, wonder and confusion. What was happening? How was any of this possible? Why did it feel so good?

Inch by inch, her new husband pushed deeper and deeper into her, gradually realizing the act that had seemed impossible to Dorothy minutes earlier. She only whimpered at the sensation of impossible fullness when he slid his hands beneath her hips and held her tight against him, the entirety of that large organ somehow now inside her and giving her pleasure with every throbbing heartbeat.

"There," Aaron said, kissing her damp forehead and gasping mouth. "You have all of me now…"

Of their own accord, Dorothy's legs rose and pressed themselves to his sides in response to his words as he remained still between her thighs for some moments. His jaw and the tendons in his neck strained with effort, and Dorothy dimly sensed that he was holding himself back.

Aaron's size and strength at this proximity were unmistakable and thrilling, and when he began to move at last, Dorothy briefly recalled the panic and excitement of riding a spirited stallion that had once run away with her as a girl. Then, she could not physically control the ride, only trust that the powerful creature would not hurt her in his frenzy.

The movements of her new husband's body were deep and rhythmic, punctuated by ravenous kisses and low grunts of enjoyment. The sensations soon began to call up again those all-encompassing waves from within her body. This time, she wailed as she came undone beneath him, his thrusts immediately quickening as if urged on by her loss of control.

The Duke's triumphant cry of pleasure rang out a few moments later as Dorothy's cries were subsiding. His manhood lodged inside her throbbed sensibly as he clasped her tightly to him.

For some minutes, they lay entangled together in sensual disarray, Dorothy smiling up at the ceiling as Aaron rested, both catching their breaths with closed eyes after their vigorous congress.

"Now you are deflowered, Duchess," he said matter-of-factly when he opened his eyes. "As a new wife must be in order to conceive an heir."

Planting a brief kiss on her mouth, he stood up and began searching for his clothes on the floor.

Dorothy frowned in consternation at this sudden shift in mood, even while her eyes followed the movements of her husband's well-formed body around the room.

"I have some business correspondence to attend to before dinner. You may sleep now if you wish, and you are not obliged to join me in the dining room. Given how much we both enjoyed this experience, I warn you that you are unlikely to get much sleep tonight…"

Suddenly furious, Dorothy bolted out of the bed and stood in front of him. "I will not be dismissed like that, Your Grace!" she shouted. "Not even by my husband. Especially not by my husband! Certainly not after that—after what you just… did. Do you have any idea how that felt to me?!"

"What?!" The Duke seemed as astonished by her reaction as she was by his intended departure.

"You are my husband, and I am your wife," Dorothy insisted. "You will stay with me now, and we will eat dinner together tonight! Otherwise, I don't know…"

Realizing she was suddenly close to tears at the thought of Aaron abandoning her alone in his bedroom, Dorothy stopped and bit her lip. She wanted to be angry, not pitiful. Then, her silence turned into bewilderment as her fingers flew to her thighs to check the unexpected sensation of warm liquid trickling down her gartered stockings. Surely, her monthly was not due for weeks?

"What is happening?!" she spoke aloud, finding no blood on her fingers, only some clear, slippery fluid.

"Come here," Aaron said, throwing back the bed covers and drawing her down into the sheets with him. "You are right that I should not leave you yet. I am sorry. I forgot for a moment how strange and new this must be to you."

Slightly mollified but still confused, Dorothy allowed him to pull her back into the secure warmth of his embrace, laying her head on his chest and listening to the steady beating of his heart. His hand stroked her hair.

"I never knew of… all this," Dorothy admitted quietly. "I did not even know that our bodies could do such things, feel such things."

"All is as it should be," he assured her. "But I should explain a little more to you, I think, now that you have the experience to understand."

For some minutes, Dorothy listened with round eyes as Aaron spoke of the facts of life, the act of physical union and its implications.

"So, I could have a child because of what we did?" she asked eventually, unsure how she felt about this idea, and unnerved by the stickiness of the Duke's seed on her thighs but also soothed by his warmth and gentle caresses.

"Perhaps, although we must repeat it many times to be sure," he replied. "Are you averse to doing that again with me?"

As Dorothy hesitated, Aaron planted another long and explorative kiss on her mouth, a hand returning to palm one of her breasts again, her nipple stiffening quickly under his touch.

"Oh, Aaron," she sighed, feeling something inside her catching fire once again. "I want you."

It was true. All ambivalence about whether she even liked him or wanted to bear his child seemed to fade into the background with his embrace. When the Duke rolled her onto her back and wordlessly mounted her for a second time, Dorothy cried out with joy and wrapped her legs around his waist.