Petals on the River

  “Aye, my sweet, the gown is beautiful,” he breathed, “but not nearly as lovely as the one who wears it.”

  Gage returned the candlestand to the table and, leaning near his young wife, bent his head aslant to caress her mouth with his own. The kiss was warm and heady, no less intoxicating than the Madeira, a leisured meeting of parting lips and questing tongues, the eagerness of one yielding to the bold intrusion of the other. A faint sigh wafted from Shemaine’s lips as his kisses blazed a trail along her throat, brushing past the delicate lace collar and continuing downward until his mouth claimed the soft peak of her breast. She caught her breath at the sudden jolt of pleasure that leapt through her. The sultry wetness penetrated the delicate fabric of her nightgown, torching the sensitive pinnacle until a breathless moan escaped her lips. Her head fell back upon the pillow as her senses basked in pure bliss, and for a moment she wondered if she would be able to bear it all without dissolving in ecstasy.

  “Oh, don’t stop,” she begged in a plaintive whisper as her husband drew back. Her whole body quaked with what he had started. Lifting her head, she searched his chiseled face, silently pleading for him to continue.

  The brown eyes delved into hers as he leaned over her. “ ‘Tis only a brief delay to allow me to disrobe, my love,” he murmured huskily. Clasping a hand over a breast, he stroked a thumb across the dampened cloth molding the peak. “I must pace myself carefully lest I cheat you of your wifely pleasure.”

  “Oh, sir, I daresay you haven’t been cheating me,” Shemaine assured him in a voice that quavered with emotion. “Feel my heart, how it quakes beneath your touch.” She caressed the back of his hand lightly with her fingertips as he pressed the fullness more firmly to feel the swiftly thumping rhythm beneath. “You see? You make me anxious for more of what you have to teach.”

  “Never have I had a more willing student,” Gage breathed, turning his palm toward hers and threading his fingers through hers. Lifting her hand to his lips, he pressed another kiss upon the back of it and then rose to his feet, making no effort to turn aside as her gaze was drawn irresistibly downward. Almost as quickly the green orbs flew upward to meet his smiling regard. “Aye, madam, I’m anxious, too.”

  Gage moved around the end of the bed and approached a chair that stood against the far wall. Turning aside slightly to spare her the full shock of his arousal, he stripped to his breeches. Peeling that garment downward, he clasped a knee and, with his other hand, dragged the narrow legging free as his young bride eyed him furtively. Muscles flexed tautly in his buttocks and thighs as he balanced on one foot. Shifting his weight to his right leg, he raised his left knee to pull the breeches free, allowing other manly parts to come boldly into view. Shemaine felt a scalding hotness rushing into her cheeks as she viewed the fullness thrusting outward from under his thigh. Unable to drag her gaze away, she sat as one frozen by shock. The moonlight by which she had twice observed him had been rather deceptive, revealing his body as something incredibly beautiful. It was all of that, to be sure, but it was immensely threatening as well. At the moment nothing seemed quite as intimidating as that bold blade of passion.

  Gage turned back to the bed in all of his naked glory, and Shemaine quickly averted her gaze, fixing it nervously upon the armoire until he slipped into bed. Tactfully keeping the lace-edged linen over his hips, Gage slid close beside her and propped a pillow behind his back as he leaned against the headboard. He noticed the trembling of her hands and, taking one, threaded his fingers through hers. With a free hand he turned her face to his until he could search those wide, hesitant green eyes.

  “Are you afraid, Shemaine?”

  “A little,” she confessed in a barely audible whisper.

  “It seems but a fleeting discomfort, my sweet,” Gage said gently. “A sacrifice for a bride, to be sure, but a small one compared to the pleasure that’s to be had beyond the rending of her virginity. And I promise you, dearest wife, I will give you as much enjoyment as I’m able.”

  When her bridegroom seemed so concerned with her fear, Shemaine could not believe he would be anything but considerate of her. Though the smile she offered him still wavered unsteadily, it was from the heart. “ ‘Twas nothing more than a fleeting moment of panic, Mr. Thornton.”

  “Aye, Mrs. Thornton,” Gage replied, comforted by the tender gaze she bestowed upon him. “Now, madam, I would like to propose a toast to our marriage.” Reaching across her, he claimed his goblet and waited until she had lifted her own glass. Then he smiled into her searching eyes. “May it be all that we both want it to be, and after a long life together, may we look back in peaceful contentment, knowing we’ve been amply blessed with a large family.”

  “Hear! Hear!” Shemaine agreed, her cheerfulness restored. Looping her arm through his, she tentatively took a sip. The wine was a bit stronger than she was used to, and she had to clear her throat before she could beg a blessing of her own. “And may we find at the end of our lives that we’ve enjoyed a deep love that has bound us together in a caring, nurturing unity.”

  “Amen!”

  They dissolved into laughter and leaned their heads together to sip from their glasses again. A brief meeting of their lips promptly dissolved their amusement and swiftly ushered them toward emotions far more sensual. Gage took their goblets and set them aside. Then he raised an arm and laid it around his wife’s shoulders, gathering her close for another kiss. It was an enticing exchange of lip and tongue, breathless sighs blended with the flavor of Madeira, and a leisured exploration of two hearts and minds in one accord. When Gage lifted his head, his warmly flecked eyes delved glowingly into hers as he plucked open the buttons of her gown. They were tiny and difficult, but he was tenacious.

  He swept the garment open, pushing it around one creamy mound and then another until the swelling ripeness of her bosom thrust forward impudently. Shemaine watched him with bated breath as he indulged his senses, searing her skin with the heat of his gaze and making her shiver with ecstasy as he stroked a thumb across a soft, pliant peak.

  In some awe Gage feasted his gaze on the lustrous orbs, amazed at their perfection. They were creamy satin adorned with delicate pink rosebuds, incredibly soft to the touch. Beneath his roaming hand, they seemed even more daintily hued.

  “I’m besotted with such rich fare laid bare before me,” Gage whispered. “You’re more beautiful than I imagined.”

  He leaned down to lightly caress a pink crest with a licking torch, snatching her breath for one ecstatic moment. Then he straightened, and Shemaine’s disappointment reached its zenith. She watched him worriedly until she realized he had only paused to readjust their positions. He pulled her lower in the bed, and a soft mewl escaped her lips as his mouth returned to take full possession, devouring the hills and valleys with ravenous greed. Her fingers slipped through the hair at the back of his nape as she arched her back, thrusting the creamy mounds upward against the wet, fiery brand that caressed her nipples with slow, undulating strokes. His teasing tongue sent sparks flaring upward until she was nearly overwhelmed by the ever-rushing excitement washing over her. It was difficult to catch her breath with such pleasure billowing over her, arousing her to a heightening fervor that made her loins hungry for appeasement.

  The sheet was dragged away from her silken limbs, and a lengthy caress of a slender thigh swept her gown upward. Even as his mouth worked its wiles upon her breasts, his hand slipped between her thighs with purposeful intent, quickening her breath and evoking soft blissful moans of pleasure with his rousing enchantment.

  When he drew away, Shemaine followed eagerly, lifting her face to claim another passionate kiss. Gage held nothing back, seizing her mouth much like a starving man who had just been served a feast. A sigh slipped from her lips when the kiss ended, but the effects lingered like a strong intoxicant, leaving her in a delicious trance. She was only vaguely aware that her gown was being pulled up over her body and lifted free of her arms and head. Then she was swept flat upon the bed, and
when her husband pulled her close, she could feel every muscular curve and bulge of his naked body. The experience was immensely arousing. No longer did she fear the warm, alien hardness that she had glimpsed and now felt against her.

  Gage was aware of the strengthening tremors quaking through his own body as he struggled to pace himself and forestall the driving urges that raged within him. His hard-won restraint was sorely tested, but when he felt the timid brush of his wife’s hand against his thigh and her slender fingers searching out the manly hardness, he was brought up short by the sweet, brutal intensity of his hunger.

  “Ah, love, you’ve lit fires that must now be quenched,” he rasped, closing his steely fingers around hers. It was exquisite torture, but he could not endure it for long. He was far too close to ecstasy to trust himself. “My needs roil in merry pain, madam, yet I would seek to give you pleasure ere my release.”

  Sweeping her beneath him, Gage kissed her with all the zeal of a lusting suitor as his manhood probed within the sweet moistness of her. Penetration came with a clean, swift thrust, startling a gasp from his bride. Yet he held himself in rigid reserve upon the threshold of rapture, soothing her pain and fears, kissing her mouth and fondling her soft breasts until by gradual degrees he could feel her warmth yielding to his intrusion, becoming more pliant and, then, increasingly hungry for what was coming.

  It was a ritual of lovers, mesmerizing movements that made Shemaine’s breath come in quickening gasps and her heart race to a swifter rhythm, nearly matching the thunderous roar of her husband’s. Like silk, her limbs twined about his narrow hips, catching him close against her as her fingertips dug into the muscular ridges of his back. Responding to the guiding hands beneath her buttocks, she rose upward to meet the surging strokes of his body. Of a sudden, she felt driven by some strange, heightening urgency that she had been hitherto ignorant of. Gage knew it well enough and sought it with fervor and zeal, and it came for them both in a stunning array of splintering brightness that pulsed in an ever-increasing crescendo through the fibers of their beings, lifting them on soaring wings to a rapturous exultation and ultimately into a dazzling pinnacle beyond the realm of reality, into a place of such pure bliss that it left them spellbound as they floated like soft thistledown back to earth and their own bed.

  Shemaine clasped a trembling hand to her brow and gazed up in amazement at her smiling husband. His eyes glowed with a luster that she had never seen before. “Oh, Mr. Thornton, you do overwhelm a girl.”

  “And you, my beautiful Shemaine, have amazed this erstwhile widower far beyond my expectations,” he averred. “I cannot, in truth, lay the merit to my lengthy abstinence. Were I to search out the cause for such exquisite delight, I’d lay it to your eagerness to pleasure me and be satisfied in return.”

  Shemaine was a bit concerned about her own behavior. “You are displeased with my boldness?”

  “Indeed no, madam!” Gage laughed at the absurdity of the idea. “I was gratified beyond belief to discover that you are a very passionate woman, so gratified I would like another taste! But you are tender, and I promised I’d be careful of you.”

  Shemaine twined her silken arms about his neck, enjoying the thrilling pressure of his manly body upon her own. “Strange, I don’t feel tender.”

  “Perhaps we should explore this matter further,” Gage suggested, contemplating the idea. Still, there were other things he wanted to show her. “But ‘twill have to wait until a later moment, my sweet. Right now, I have a surprise for you. Your wedding present awaits in another room.”

  “My wedding present?” Shemaine was clearly astounded. “But I have nothing for you.”

  “How can you say that, dear wife, when you have just given me what I’ve been yearning for ever since I brought you home with me?” He kissed her with renewed ardor, making her aware of his passion. “There now, you see how much I want you? But I’m just as eager to show you your gift.”

  Gage withdrew from her and, rolling to the edge of the bed, came to his feet. Striding to the door in naked grandeur, he paused there to look back at his wife, who had been intent upon observing him until he glanced around. Shyly she dragged the sheet up to cover her nakedness as he grinned invitingly. “Are you coming?”

  Eagerly Shemaine nodded and left the bed, wrapping the top sheet around her and tucking the tail of it between her breasts. As she came forward, Gage’s gaze wandered back to the bed. Glancing over her shoulder to see what had caught his attention, Shemaine saw the red stains marring the whiteness of the sheet. Her cheeks brightened with a blush, but her husband laid an arm around her creamy shoulders and pulled her close against his side, saying nothing, only smiling.

  As Gage led her into the parlor, Shemaine couldn’t resist a glance askance at his manly torso. Though her husband seemed completely at ease with his lack of attire, she was still timid about openly appeasing her curiosity. Like so many other parents with their daughters, her own had preferred to shelter her, keeping her for the most part ignorant and in the dark about men. Yet their reticence had in no wise prevented Shemaine from being curious. She was eager to gain all the wifely knowledge she could about her husband, for no one had to tell her that Gage Thornton was truly a fine specimen of the male gender.

  Gage smiled as he glanced down and caught her ogling him. “Can I interest you in taking a bath with me, my dear?”

  “You jest, of course.” Considering the limited space in the washtub, Shemaine was sure he was teasing her. “We’ll certainly need a larger tub if we’re ever to share one together.”

  “Do you not think such a thing would make a fitting wedding present?” he asked, leaning down to brush his lips against her brow.

  Placing a hand on his chest, Shemaine leaned her head back to look up into his face as he straightened. “What would make a fitting wedding present?”

  Gage swept a hand toward the closed door of the storeroom. “After you, madam.”

  A slight frown of confusion lingered on her face as she picked up a tallow lantern and led the way toward the back. Pushing open the door of the storeroom, Shemaine gasped in surprise as she saw a lavish bathtub, easily large enough for two, in the middle of the room. A folding screen stood behind it, and as her eyes swept about the small room, she realized that it no longer resembled a storage area but was a bathing chamber outfitted with a washstand, a dressing table with its own chair, Gage’s shaving stand, and a chamber chair barely visible beyond a screen. There was even a tall stool near the washstand, no doubt to aid Andrew in reaching it.

  Gage followed her through the doorway and, taking the lantern from her, lit several other candles to chase away the darkness. “I had the Morgans working in here while we were gone today. Do you like the changes they made?”

  “Oh, yes, Gage!” Whirling, Shemaine flung her arms about his neck, giving him an exuberant hug, and then leaned back in his arms to express her pleasure in eager tones. “Thank you for being so thoughtful!”

  Gage smiled down at her. “I’ve noticed how much you relish your baths and thought of the pleasure I would derive from sharing them with you when I have the time. The tub is too heavy for you to move on your own, even when it’s empty, so I determined that it needed to be drained where it stood. I had Flannery Morgan bore a hole at one end of it, fashion copper sheathing into a funnel beneath the hole and extend more of the sheathing under the floor so the water could run away from the house. All you need do, madam, is pull the cork out of the hole in the tub and watch it drain.”

  Shemaine marveled at the cleverness of his plan. “You’re ingenious, Mr. Thornton!”

  His brows flicked upward as he dismissed her compliment. “I was motivated to a great degree by my own desires. You’re a very tempting bride, Shemaine, and I wanted to share with you all the comforts and pleasures I could possibly imagine.”

  A smile coyly curved her soft lips. “No one need tell me how vivid your imagination is, sir. There is ample proof of that everywhere I turn.”

&nbs
p; A slow grin accompanied his reply. “It always helps to be inspired by such beauty as yours, my sweet.”

  “Now you’ll be able to enjoy the comfort of bathing indoors,” she pointed out happily.

  Gage reached up to pluck the corner of the sheet from the enticing valley between her breasts. “Bathing in the stream isn’t so bad when it’s shared by two who are enamored of each other. On the morrow I’ll show you some of the delights to be had there.” Sweeping his hands downward over her round breasts and slender waist, he watched her eyes grow dark and limpid as he hastened the descent of the sheet. It caught on her hips, where it lay bunched in folds.

  “Shall we add the water now?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Get the soap and the towels,” Gage bade huskily, leaning near to nibble at her ear. “I’ll get the water.” But he made no effort to leave as his hands continued their stroking caresses downward, loosening the sheet in the process.

  Shemaine caught the falling linen and, swirling it around behind her, held it outspread like giant wings as she willingly submitted herself to the magical seduction of his hands. They moved with knowledgeable boldness over her body and were complete in their possession, exploring, fondling, and searching out the hidden places. The ecstasy he elicited made her catch her breath in quick snatches and then slowly release it in blissful sighs. Like a moth warmed by a flame, she followed irresistibly as he stepped slowly backward toward the high stool. Upon reaching it, he sat upon the edge. Her eyes glazed with passion as he lifted her astride him and resettled her onto the full warmth of him. The sheet fluttered to the floor unheeded as she arched her back over his encompassing arms, thrusting her breasts forward to meet his hot, greedy kisses and the blazing heat of his tongue. His hand slipped downward to clasp her buttocks, urging her response in the sensual rites of love and passion. She stroked against him with increasing intensity until a surging rapture began to wash over her, wrenching breathless gasps from her. Gage’s own breathing grew harsh and ragged as his passion raged in a zealous quest to be sated. Once again they were forged together in a rhapsodic bliss, and it was a very long moment before reality came sweeping back.