Taming the Beast

I grunted and kept her body in my arms. She felt so good and her scent was enhanced in the rose garden. I buried my face in her neck, smelling her. I could feel a moment of tension and shock in her body, and then she relaxed like a kitten in sunlight.

“You were trying to escape.” I said it like a lover, but my bear put a bite into my voice.

“I wasn’t. I promised. We’re married,” she protested.

“You’re not leaving my side until I can be sure that you’re not going to try to escape again. It’s only been one day.”

“But I...”

My mouth fell upon hers. Her hands went to my waist. My small wife was kissing me as hard as she could. I would have to be careful to keep her happy. I sniffed a little harder. No wonder her scent was so strong. I broke the kiss and said, “You’re bleeding.”

Both of us looked at her. Her hands were badly scratched.

“What’s wrong with your hands?”

“I tried to pick a rose. That’s what I asked my father for... flowers.”

“That’s why he tried to take my rose.”

“Your rose? You have so many. They’re wild now, but they’re still lovely.”

I looked around the rose garden that I’d spent time in as a child but abandoned as an adult. “Too many thorns.”

“Sometimes, you have to take the rose with the thorns.” There was a hint of steel in her voice, as if she were censuring me for not appreciating the beauty of the garden.

I looked at her, still in my arms, the most beautiful flower in the garden. She was everything that I had asked for and more than I deserved. She was beautiful, I knew. She had an acceptable bloodline. Her father might only be a baronet, but he was a good man. He had followed through on his promise.

I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder.

“What are you doing?” She hit my back with a fist. “Put me down now.”

“I’m saving you from the thorns, Princess.”

She laughed, although the sound was strange when she was upside down.

“My hero,” she said. She was still laughing when I got us out of the thorny rose garden and onto the main path. I put her back on her feet.

“I think that’s enough of an adventure for you today, wife.”

“What else did you have in mind, husband?”

“I think that we need to...ah...see something in our bedchamber.”

“Bedchamber?”

“Bedchamber.” I was firm. She was smiling at me. The warmth in her face melted something in the darkest part of my heart, ice that I didn’t even know was there.

Upstairs

Marceau

I would like to tell you that we were decorous when we went upstairs, but we were not. We were like children on a secret mission. We snuck upstairs into the bedchamber, which the maids had already tidied. I had her dress off within seconds. She fumb

led with my clothing, but we were naked and holding each other within a minute or so.

“I’d like to try something different today,” I said, moving her on top of me. Her thighs fell to either side of my body.

“Oh?”