Barely a Bride (Free Fellows League 1)

Griff answered honestly, “I was afraid you might find me entirely too comfortable. Afraid I might enjoy it too much. Afraid I might succumb to temptation.”

“Temptation?”

“I’m a man, my sweet, not a eunuch. You may find me entirely comfortable and cozy as your pillow, but the picture of you lying sprawled atop me is more than I could stand.” The fact that a lap robe and his jacket covered her was proof. He’d spent most of the journey with her sleeping on him, and the image he carried in his brain of her lying with her head in his lap and her firm, rosy-tipped breasts nearly spilling out of her transparent chemise had been enough to nearly do him in.

He’d been hard and aching and almost afraid to move for fear of exploding since he’d been foolish enough to try to preserve her clothing from the ravages of travel. Griffin looked at her. “And, my sweet, no bride should wake up to find she’s lost her virginity in the coach on the way to her honeymoon.”

He didn’t seem to notice the endearment, but Alyssa’s heart caught at the sound. “I believe you’re stronger than you think. I slept upon your lap for nearly four hours, and I felt entirely safe in your company. I knew no harm would come to me.”

Griffin chuckled. “Which shows how little you know of randy young bridegrooms. Harming you wasn’t what I had in mind, my lady.” His voice was low and husky, filled with meaning.

The timbre of his voice and the expression on his face intrigued her. “I know nothing of bridegrooms, randy or otherwise. For you are my first,” she replied in a voice equally low

and husky and filled with meaning. “What did you have in mind, my lord?”

“I told you, my sweet. I was tempted to do something no gentleman would ever do.”

“And what was that?” Suddenly warm, Alyssa pushed his jacket and the lap robe off her shoulders and sat up.

Griffin bit back a groan as she bared her near naked chest for him to view and brushed the vee of his thighs with her fingers. His body tightened even more. “Relieve you of your innocence while you slept, so that I might ease the aching in my groin.”

“Was it possible for you to relieve me of my innocence while I slept?” she asked.

Griffin closed his eyes and nodded.

Recalling the conversation she’d overheard between the members of the Free Fellows League, Alyssa smiled. “I’ve heard that losing one’s innocence is a messy, uncomfortable, and shockingly distasteful business. Especially on one’s wedding night. And that young ladies seldom find pleasure in the marriage bed.”

Griffin opened his eyes and narrowed his gaze at her. “Who told you that? Your mother?”

“Oh no,” she explained. “I just heard it somewhere.” She had also heard Griffin proclaim that the husbands of those young ladies were ignorant fools—and that he was neither. Alyssa waited for him to repeat that proclamation.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear,” he warned.

Alyssa was disappointed until Griffin continued speaking. “Especially the kinds of conversations you often hear when women gather at parties to talk. You see, my lady, a great many women are married to ignorant, overbearing fools. You are not.”

Alyssa beamed at him. “Then the marriage bed needn’t be a terrible place?”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “I’m told it can be a bit uncomfortable for the woman the first time.” Griffin cleared his throat. “But the marriage bed should be a heavenly place. A place of supreme satisfaction and enjoyment.” And he was eager to experience it, for Alyssa’s transparent chemise offered him an enticing view of the joys to be had as soon as he reached the marriage bed. He clamped his teeth together as the twin points of her breasts formed tight, dark pink buds against the delicate lawn fabric.

“Is there any way to ease the discomfort?”

Which discomfort? Hers? Or mine? Griffin groaned. “There is.”

“How?”

“A little wine. A little whisky. And a game of seduction.”

“I’m intrigued.” Alyssa leaned closer. “Tell me about this game, my lord.”

Griffin cleared his throat once again. “Why bother telling you, my lady, when we can go right to the instruction?”

“I like to be well-informed,” Alyssa teased, watching as her husband’s blue eyes darkened. “How do you play it? I want to know the rules.”

“Well,” he drawled, “seduction is a teasing game, and there is only one rule, my sweet. And that’s to ease the ache by giving only pleasure.”

Alyssa frowned at him. “Will I lose my innocence in the coach?”

Griffin laughed. “You’ll lose a great deal of it,” he promised, “but we shall add a caveat.” He looked at her. “Because you are a bride, and because no bride should lose her complete innocence in a coach on her way to her honeymoon, we’re allowed everything that gives pleasure—except consummation. That shall have to wait until we’re properly settled in the great, big comfortable bed in the master’s chamber at Abernathy Manor. In about three hours. Agreed?”