He sat down carefully, praying he could maintain some self-control in spite of being so close to her very soft and very naked body. He folded his hands tightly in his lap. “I am ashamed—”
“You should not be,” she interrupted, pressing two fingers to his lips.
“But I’ve not seen to you as I should.” He spoke right through her fingers. “I’ve kept you here in this bed, giving you no time for yourself—”
She pressed a little harder with her fingers. He blinked at her and kept right on speaking. “You have to tell me! Gina, I’m an imbecile. I don’t know anything about—”
She kissed him on the lips to shut him up. And thank Christ she did. Who knows how many other sins he might have confessed.
“I disagree with you, Mr. Greymont. I have it on good authority that my husband knows many things. So he is definitely not an imbecile.” She peppered each statement with short kisses. “He has been nothing but sweet and gentle and caring of me,” she said firmly, “but now, I think the time has come to leave the bed and have our breakfast, and then I’d like a tour of my beautiful new home.”
He nodded stupidly before finding his voice. “And you shall have your wish, my sweetheart. Again, I apologize for being so ravenous with you, but I know it’s inevitable whenever you are near. From the moment I saw you in that rainstorm and smelled your scent.” He tilted toward her neck and inhaled. “Is that eglantine you use? I love the way you smell.”
She smiled some more at him. “Eglantine with a hint of orange. It’s what my mother wore and reminds me of her. I’m glad you like it, Jeremy, and no more apologizing for being as—as a husband wishes to be with a wife. I’m happy that you want me, and I don’t mind that you are…ravenous…” Her voice trailed off, that adorable shyness creeping in again.
He leaned in for a soft kiss and then looked down to where the sheet covered her breasts. “You are a beautiful woman. I love to look at you, and I’ll never get enough.” He inserted a finger under the edge of the sheet. “I’m greedy.” His finger dipped lower. “I always want more.” His finger tugged at the sheet. “Will you grant your ravenous husband one last peek, my sweet wife?”
She bit her lip adorably and got a saucy glint in her eye before lowering the sheet, giving him a full view of those luscious breasts he so admired.
He had to catch his breath at the sight. Hair spilling over bare shoulders framed the soft flesh smattered with the marks made by his mouth in the night. The dusky centers budded at the tips from his bold gaze.
“Splendor,” he breathed. It was all he could say, really. He didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to look.
Because she was so beautiful and because she was so giving and accepting of him, he couldn’t respond, couldn’t speak words, or be coherent in any meaningful way without embarrassing them both. The best thing he could do for Gina right now was to give her the privacy she had so gracefully requested.
He stood and crossed his palms over his heart, bowed his head, and told her he would meet her in the breakfast room.
As he pondered his good fortune in gaining a wife such as her, Jeremy knew. He knew it with certainty because the feeling of leaving her behind was so acute. He knew it because he wondered how many minutes he’d have to wait before he could be with her again. He knew it because he’d never felt anything even remotely close to this before. He knew what it was. Love. He loved her.
Chapter Twenty
O Love, O fire! Once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Fatima” (1832)
Georgina watched Jeremy stalk out of the room. His distress at misunderstanding her request was charming. The look on his face! He’d been afraid to confront her after he’d leapt out of bed, the poor man. His response surprised her.
In fact, the whole of their wedding night had been astonishing to her. Her perceptions and then the reality coming together from such opposite extremes and ending in the most wonderful disclosure. Being with him, making love, the closeness, the intimacy, was glorious. And something never to be feared again. Nothing had prepared her for wanting the sex. And she had. Last night she had been wanton in his arms. Another flush overtook her as visions of what they’d done clouded her thoughts.
She was a wife now. She had duties and responsibilities to her husband, the foremost being to give Jeremy the heir he needed. She had been willing to do as such when her agreement to wed him was given, but never in her wildest dreams had she believed she would desire the actions necessary to get her with his child.
She drew her hand over her belly and thought about what was inside her. His seed. A great deal of it she supposed from how wet she felt and the number of times he had shuddered into her.
She remembered how wild and unbound he looked each time he’d done it. How he stared into her and seemed to need the contact of their eyes meeting in that most all-embracing moment. Perhaps they had started a baby already? She hoped so. But regardless, whenever they came, she hoped his resemblance would be born in them. Boy, girl, rascal, or angel, Jeremy’s babies would be beautiful.
A knock at the door interrupted her musings. The small, dark-haired maid, Jane, who’d assisted her last night bobbed into the room. “Good morning, Mrs. Greymont. Mrs. Richards has sent me to attend you. How may I serve you this day, madam?”
Georgina felt the thrill of Jane’s address, first as “
Mrs. Greymont” and then as “madam,” and had to make an effort to keep her composure. It was hard to picture herself as a Mrs. or a madam, but there it was. The monikers were her due now.
“Thank you, Jane. I believe I would like to start with a hot bath,” she said bravely, eyeing the bed for her dressing gown. Where was it? She had used it to cover up when she’d gone to the water closet in the night… Oh, right! She blushed, recalling how Jeremy had delighted in “unwrapping” her, as he put it, when she had returned to the bed. God knows where the garment ended up.
Jane speedily came to her rescue, sweeping the blue silk up from somewhere and holding it open for Georgina while discreetly turning her head.