Cressida's Dilemma

The patience in Justin’s smile as he fiddled with a lock of Cressida’s hair did not have the ameliorating effect for which he obviously strove when he objected, “My dear, Miss Hardwicke is to marry in three days’ time. For all your good intentions, three days is not nearly long enough to affect the necessary steps to achieve your undoubtedly well-intentioned plan. Besides which, the girl can’t possibly renege at this late stage. Think of the scandal.”

Cressida understood her husband’s sentiment. She herself had at first not considered that Miss Hardwicke had an option when it was her family’s decision to see her marriage to Lord Slitherton, with all its obvious benefits, go ahead. Now she understood the importance of making a stand for the sake of happiness.

The tone of her objection, however, was mild. “Would you condemn this poor young woman to a life of disappointment when a judicious word in someone’s ear could see her as happy as…well, us?”

Justin sent her a look she’d never seen before—lust and calculation laced with a good dose of humor. With deliberate movements, he raised himself, carefully straddled her and then, when he’d caged Cressida with his body and she could feel his hot, heavy erection pushing into her stomach, he lowered his head and whispered hotly into her neck, “After last night, Cressy, you might confidently say that I’d be willing to put myself out a great deal to advance Miss Hardwicke’s happiness, and the collective happiness of your entire sex.”

Chapter Eleven

Some days later, after a great deal of legwork—both in the bedroom and in the course of the duties that Justin had undertaken on Cressida’s behalf—Cressida stretched luxuriously and regretfully as she heard the chime of the late hour, and sighed. “I wish we could stay in bed all day, but we have a wedding to attend.”

“What time does Mary bring you your breakfast chocolate?” Justin sounded groggy, as well he might, having expended s

uch efforts lately on Cressida’s pleasure.

Without opening his eyes, he took her left nipple into his mouth while he gently stroked her belly and hips.

Cressida drew in her breath at the familiar surge of sensation to her groin, closing her eyes and twisting in his arms in order to offer Justin her other breast. With difficulty, she managed to croak, “My very discreet lady’s maid will know by the dancing slippers I placed outside my bedchamber door that this is one morning she is not to bring me my customary hot chocolate.”

Justin regarded her with feigned shock through one opened eye. “I should be surprised at nothing concocted by my wife, ever again,” he murmured. “Now, my dear, did you not say we had a wedding to attend today?” His look was inquiring as he drew his finger through the slick wetness between her legs. “Should we perhaps concentrate on the happiness of the very fortunate Miss Hardwicke, rather than our own?”

How quickly he could whip her into a state of desperate desire. Cressida, though, was equally conscious of his erection jabbing into her thigh as he continued his languorous pleasuring of her.

“I think we should certainly make a plan to be out of bed in…” She stopped on a pause, which became a squeak. “Ten minutes, Justin, if Mary is to make anything passable out of my hair, which rather resembles a bird’s nest after the activities of last night.”

“I envy the lucky bird who makes it its home, then,” Justin said, playfully. “In either of your little nests,” he added, tickling her between the legs.

Cressida squealed as Justin threw himself on top of her and captured her mouth with his.

Lord, but her husband knew how to kiss. She knew now the heavy roiling sensation she felt in her womb was not attributable to the possibility of a living creature growing inside her, but to the primal need to be joined as one with this man.

As his tongue thrust inside her mouth, the ache at the juncture of her legs became unbearable, but he seemed insensible to her wriggling, for he refrained from entering her. Did he not know what she wanted?

Finally, he dragged his mouth away long enough to rasp, “Cressy, darling, the hour is growing advanced. We should be mindful of our responsibilities, both to Miss Hardwicke and to ourselves. You know I love you too much to burden you with another little angel so soon.”

“We took precautions twice last night,” she reminded him, archly, “and of course, we’ll do so again. Justin?”

He shook his head, sadly, as he rolled off her. “Our precautions are working overtime, and there are none that can be used right now, if you understand my meaning.”

“Please, Justin,” she begged hoarsely, “I want to feel you inside me. I want to make up for all that I’ve missed these long months.”

“We’ll spend a lifetime making up for that,” he murmured, kissing her lingeringly on the mouth. “We’ll enjoy every moment we have together, because our splendid union has been blessed in a way few others are, my darling.”

She caressed his smooth cheek with her fingertip, which she then laid gently upon his lip. “We conquered what kept us apart by bringing it into the open.”

“And we learned it was nothing more than fear. So insubstantial—”

“When words and this can heal all the hurt.” Cressida finished her sentence with energy before she shimmied down beneath the bedcovers, clearly catching him by surprise, judging by his response as she took him into her mouth.

“You do like it, don’t you?” she demanded, coming up for breath.

She was more than reassured by his groan, though before too long, he was once more on top of her, grinding out through clenched teeth, “You don’t know what you do to me, Cressy, my darling. Right now I could refuse you nothing.”

Supporting his weight on his forearms, he raised himself above her and looked down, his expression grave and deeply reverential, and in the brief silence, she felt her brain and body swirl with love and longing before craving for the physical held sway, and she arched her pelvis up to meet his.

“Then come to me, Justin,” she whispered, closing her eyes, for now she had the comfort of knowing there were a variety of ways to reduce the risks of pregnancy, and that was good enough for her. “I want to feel you inside me. I want to revel in you as you revel in me. I’m not afraid like I was before. I know so much more and you can withdraw. Oh—”

For without further preliminaries, he had taken her at her word, and in an instant her body was filled with him as her world was once again dominated by the man who’d stolen her heart so many years before.