Page 119 of A Murder at Kew Gardens

“Not if you value your life.”

I took that as a no.

“Oh, dear heaven!” Her fingers closed in my hair. I tasted her honey, and she gasped my name twice. And when I did more than taste, she screamed.

I could wait no longer, I came up over her. “This may hurt.”

“Then do it swiftly.”

“That is not how this works, darling.”

Going slowly, I held her while she learned the shape of me. An eternity later, when the the last resistance had yielded, I asked, “How do you feel?”

“Stuffed.”

I dropped my head to her shoulder and laughed until the bed shook.

“Warwick.”

“Yes, my darling.”

She smiled up at me, entirely pleased with herself. “May I have some more?”

Much, much later, there was more ham.

I had discovered several things about my husband in the course of a single night. One of them was that he could be persuaded out of bed to fetch a tray if the request was put to him while he was still catching his breath. He came back with it balanced on one hand and no clothing whatsoever. I took my time about the view before I took any of the bread.

“You are staring, Duchess.”

“I am appraising. There is a difference.” I tore the bread in half and gave him the larger piece, because he had earned it. “Warwick,” I said while he settled himself on the bed.

“Mm.”

I laid my head on his chest. “I should like to return the favor.”

“What favor is that, my sweet?” He asked, before feeding me a strawberry and licking the juice from my lips.

“You pleasured me magnificently. Turn about is fair play. I want you to teach me how to please you.”

“You have pleased me more than I can express.”

My hand went wandering down the flat of his stomach. He caught it two inches short of its destination.

“Another night.”

I frowned at him. “Why not now?”

“Because I would as soon not die of pleasure on my wedding night.” He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. “I will teach you everything you wish to know. In time.”

“How to touch you?”

“Among other things.” Locking gazes with me, he licked and sucked one of my fingers, while I grew liquid inside.

He put away the ham and the bread and returned to the bed where he settled his head on my belly with a long breath. My hand went into his hair of its own accord, and we lay like that while the candles burned down.

His face, in the half dark, was not a face I had ever been shown before. Not in a drawing room, not across a study desk, not in a first-class railway compartment with everything ending between us. The lines at the corners of his mouth had gone.

“I have never seen you like this.”