Epilogue

EPILOGUE

“Have you decided you are repulsed by me, after all?” a shy voice asked from somewhere close by as Nancy leaned on the balustrade of the pagoda, gazing out at the beautiful lake.

She had sought refuge there after the long journey back from London, hoping to watch the sunrise, though dawn had not yet broken.

She turned to find her unfairly handsome husband walking up the steps to the pagoda. “What? Why would you think such a thing?”

“You vanished,” Adam said simply.

“I needed a moment of peace. My mind was racing, and I knew I would not sleep if I attempted it in such a state of unrest,” she explained, holding out her hand to him. “I did not mean to run off.”

Adam pulled an apologetic face. “Nor did I. I should have woken you before I departed for London, but you looked so peaceful that I could not. Foolishly, I thought I could resolve everything and return to you without you ever knowing I had left.”

“It is all resolved now,” Nancy assured him as he took her hand and came to stand beside her, his arm around her shoulders. “Is this not one of the steps for the waltz?” she teased, remembering the unusual arm positions. That moment in the ballroom seemed like it belonged to another lifetime.

Adam chuckled. “We could waltz again if you like. That might help you fall asleep.”

“Goodness, no. I would hate to have to look at my reflection in all of those mirrors.” Nancy grimaced. “But… we should have a ball here soon. I think it would please your mother, and I know it would be the grandest ball of the Season, for there is nothing Society relishes more than curiosity and scandal. They will not be able to resist coming to our ball.”

Adam breathed out a sigh of something like relief. “So, you are not intending to leave me once our honeymoon is over?”

“Certainly not,” she told him, leaning into his side. “Were you not listening at your townhouse? You are stuck with me. This is my home.”

He peered down at her. “Does it feel like your home?”

“It is beginning to,” she replied, smiling up at him.

“I love you, my dearest Nancy,” Adam murmured, bringing his hand up to cup her cheek. “I shall do everything in my power to be the man you believe me to be.”

Nancy closed her eyes, savoring his words. “I love you, too. And as there is nothing I need to improve upon, I shall stay exactly the same.” She chuckled. “No, that is not quite true. I was… not strong before I met you. I relied on others to be strong for me—my sister, primarily. So, I shall endeavor to continue to be strong, for you and because of you.”

“My medicine,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her lips. “My cure.” Another sweet kiss. “My future, my love.” He caught her mouth with his, his last kiss the hungriest of all.

And as she kissed him back with equal fervor, the fatigue that had weighed her down since London quickly began to lighten as if he was taking the burden from her with his love and his promises.

Turning into his chest, Nancy wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him harder, wanting him to know how awake and alive she felt. He smiled against her lips, receiving the message loud and clear, his arms wrapping around her waist as he pressed her up against the pagoda’s balustrade.

“Have I thanked you already?” he purred, lifting her up and setting her down on the wide plane of the balustrade.

She grabbed him tighter, fearing she might fall. She need not have worried, for in his arms, she was perfectly safe.

“You have,” she replied, chuckling. “Many times already.”

“But I have not thanked you properly,” he told her wryly, his palm sliding down her thigh to her knee. There, he grasped a handful of her skirts and gathered them up, before allowing his hand to sneak beneath the layers to her bare flesh.

“Ah, yes, I forgot you had not,” she said, biting her lower lip as his fingertips caressed the inside of her thigh, his head dipping to kiss the curve of her neck, while his free hand held her steady on the balustrade. “You had best remedy that swiftly,” she added, her breath catching as his fingertips caressed a particularly sensitive patch of skin. Her “tingles,” as she called them.

His tongue tasted the hollow at the base of her throat. “I intend to.”

Nancy gasped, her fingernails sinking into the muscle of his broad shoulders as he lightly touched her hidden pearl, teasing her with a slow strum that became tortuous circles, each revolution blowing on the embers of her unyielding desire.

Soon enough, he had the flames of her passion licking higher, tonguing through her veins in white-hot streams, her skin flushing with that delicious, delirious fever of need. Her breathing shallowed, her lungs ablaze, her stomach tightening as his expert touch tipped her closer and closer toward the most exquisite explosion.

“Oh… oh, my love!” she panted, clinging to him as the sparking fuse raced toward the powder keg of her bliss. “Yes, my love! Oh… oh, yes!”

Her body erupted with light and pleasure, her head swimming as she arched back, forgetting there was a balustrade she could fall off. But Adam’s powerful arm held her tight, allowing her to revel in her bliss however she pleased, even if that meant leaning over nothing at all, like she was flying on the storm of her almighty peak.

“Oh, my love,” she moaned, her legs shaking violently, her breaths ragged, every muscle pulled tight to hold her together through the rush of ecstasy.

But all too soon, the feeling began to fade, her muscles loosening, her body relaxing. She smiled gleefully, allowing Adam to pull her back into his chest, where she pressed her palms against the broad muscles. His heart beat hard beneath her hand, his eyes gleaming with passion.

“Is that apology enough?” he asked, grazing his teeth across his lower lip.

Flushed and content, Nancy shook her head. “Not quite.”

“I thought not,” he said as he moved his hand down the length of her thighs, urging her to lock her legs around his waist.

She obeyed, her eyes widening as he lifted her up and tugged her skirts up to her hips in one swift movement. When he set her back down on the balustrade, she understood why. With a coy smile, she raised her arms up, her heart warmed by the sound of his soft laughter as he drew her dress up over her head.

“You are very obliging,” he told her, grinning.

“I am too weary from saving our future happiness to wrestle with garments,” she replied, relishing the laughter that seemed to always be present whenever they made love.

She hoped it would always be that way.

He chuckled and made swift work of her stays while she reached for the buttons of his shirt and the fastening of his trousers, until they were naked before one another—her perched on the balustrade, him standing between her thighs, his manhood straining for her.

Curious, she let her hand encircle the impressive length… only for him to take hold of her wrist gently and shake his head.

“If you do that,” he warned, “this shall be an exceedingly quick apology, and you may feel somewhat disappointed.”

“I shall bear that in mind,” she said, smiling.

With her hand still on him and his hand on her wrist, she guided him toward her entrance. As she felt the pressure of him against her, she forgot to breathe, her eyes closing in anticipation as he slowly eased himself inside her. Feeling every teasing inch, she drew in a small breath with each increment, until her lungs and her silken depths were entirely full.

“Oh…” she moaned, locking her legs tighter around his waist to just hold him there for a moment, enjoying the sensation of them entwined and connected.

But she could not bear the stillness for long, eager to feel the glorious friction that would ignite her bliss and blaze her toward another fiery peak.

The moment she relaxed her legs, he slowly drew his hips back, her breath lodging in her throat as she braced for the first exquisite thrust. There was no sting this time, she noticed, her body prepared for the tide of pleasure that was coming her way. A pleasure that could not be spoiled, not even a little bit.

As the dawn broke around them, the sun beginning to rise into what would be a clear blue sky, hazy with the heat of summer, they moved as one in their own private realm of the pagoda. While the world continued to sleep, they were utterly alive, the air crackling with the lightning of their lovemaking, their gasps and moans and murmured declarations of love whispering through the gardens.

Bracing her hands against the balustrade to hold herself in place, while Adam held her by the waist, his free hand slipped between her thighs, his skilled fingertips strumming her swollen bud. All the while, their lips danced in set after set of ravenous kisses, their tongues dueling, their mouths sure to be bruised when they returned from their paradise.

But Adam made certain to lavish his attentions upon as much of her as he could reach, too, straying from her lips to kiss her neck, her throat, her shoulders, her breasts, his mouth driving her into a frenzy as he drew her nipples into his wet, warm mouth, sucking gently until she bucked, adding layer upon layer to the strength of her euphoria.

“Yes, my love,” Nancy urged, feeling that now-familiar rise of pure magic within her. “Oh… yes, my love!”

Adam responded to her words and the change in her breath, his fingertips attuned to the sound of her body, pleasuring her precisely as she needed to be pleasured. When her moans grew louder, he did not stray from his concentration, maintaining the pace and pressure until her entire being was a trembling, shivering, gasping mess of raw, blissful feeling. And though his moans betrayed his own desires, Nancy knew he would not race ahead without her.

Just as the sun’s light touched upon Adam’s face, gracing him with an ethereal glow that only made her more convinced that he was divinely blessed, her pleasure bolted through her. It ricocheted up her abdomen, pulling every muscle tight, her back arching as it shuddered through her veins, her limbs, every part of her. Her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth parting in a cry of ecstasy, her hands gripping the balustrade until she was certain she would break the wood with the intensity of her orgasm.

“My love!” Nancy gasped, and Adam seized the opportunity to suck on her nipple once more as she stretched back. “Oh… oh… oh, my love!”

As her head spun with the power of her orgasm, Adam quickened his pace, his breaths growing ragged as he plunged into her depths, chasing his own pleasure to its blissful conclusion. And just as hers was beginning to ebb, he pulled her to him and stilled, a moan slipping past his throat as he held her tight.

“My… Nancy,” he rasped. “My love.”

He thrust once more and slumped against her, burying his face in her neck, and trailing lazy kisses down her skin.

Breathing hard, Nancy mirrored his kisses, smiling against his neck as she held him close.

“I love you,” she said softly, reveling in the freedom of being naked and entwined with him in the first of the morning light.

Adam pulled back slightly and pressed a kiss to her lips. “As I love you,” returned, smiling.

Gazing into one another’s eyes, it was as if they were both harboring a shared and precious secret, for neither had expected to find love with the other. Neither had expected their marriage to be a happy one, or to even have the hope of being a happy one.

Yet, the marriage that was supposed to be in name only now held the promise of forever, and Nancy had the most wonderful feeling, while wrapped up in her husband’s arms, that even her favorite fairytales and romance novels could not have a happier ending than their story.

The End?