Page 66 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
Still silence.
She was about to turn away when the door suddenly opened.
It was Hal. “Margaret? Is something wrong?”
Looking past him into his sitting room, she could see the valet, Rahat, rising to his feet from one of a pair of chairs by the window. From the looks of the glass in his hand and the one near the matching chair, he and Hal had been sharing a nightcap.
Margaret looked helplessly at Rahat. “No. Nothing.”
“I am going to bed, Snowy,” Rahat said. “Goodnight, Lady Charmain.” He put down his half-full glass and walked away through the door into the bedroom, a slight hitch in his walk the only sign of his recent injury.
Of course. He was still sleeping in Hal’s dressing room. Margaret blushed.
“Nothing?” Snowy prompted.
The heat in her face deepened. “I just…” She could not find the words.
Snowy cast a glance over her shoulder. “Just a minute. Stay there.”
He lit a spill from a wall sconce, then used it to light a candle before taking her hand and leading her back through her door into her own sitting room, shutting the door firmly behind him. He led her to the matching pair of chairs by her window. “You just…?”
“I can’t stop thinking about this afternoon,” she confessed.
“Our kisses?” he asked. “Do you want a goodnight kiss, my love?”
It was time to be brave. She dropped the shawl. “I want more,” she told him. “I want you to bed me, Hal. Would you?”
Desire flamed in his eyes, and he leaned toward her, then jerked himself back. “You are to be my wife, darling. We should wait until after our wedding.”
“Why?” she demanded. “We are to be wed in three days, and it is not as if I can be ruined again. You mentioned learning the ways of pleasure, Hal. Tonight, I want you to show me.”
She could see his hesitation. “Please, Hal. The closer the time comes, the more nervous I am. Your kisses and caresses promise so much more than I ever thought I could have, but I am so afraid that when the time comes, I shall let you down. I cannot stop thinking about it.”
He lifted her to his feet and took her into his arms. “You will not let me down, Margaret. I’m afraid I will let you down. I long for you so much that I fear going off too soon, like an untried boy.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Margaret admitted. “I am almost sure that you could do nothing I disliked.”
Hal’s chuckle was wry. “It is better explained by demonstration. But if I do, and if you forgive me for making an idiot of myself, I shall make it up to you.” He scooped her up and carried her to the bed. “Are you sure, my love?”
She nodded, vigorously.Very sure. And very nervous.
“We can stop at any time,” he said. “If I do anything you do not like, or if you decide you have had enough, just tell me.”
She nodded, and then her mouth went dry as he removed the banyan he was wearing, for he wore nothing underneath. He was naked. And magnificent. He knelt on the side of the bed, looking down at her splayed on her pillows.
“You have a tattoo!” she exclaimed. It was a bird. A magnificent fantasy of a bird in red, orange, and yellow, its wings outspread across his chest, its talons outstretched toward his left nipple, its long tail sweeping down the center of his torso and across to the right, reaching almost to his waist.
“A phoenix,” she decided, touching the crown. He shuddered but stood still. She traced it, feeling him quiver as her finger glided over his skin. “It is beautiful, Hal.” She smiled into his eyes. “You are beautiful.”
“May I…” his voice was hoarse. He coughed, and started again, in a low growl that she felt to her bones. “May I remove your night rail?”
Margaret’s nervousness, forgotten in her exploration of Hal’s skin, returned, but she nodded, and knelt so he could lift the garment over her head. He did so slowly, his hands brushing against her thighs, then her hips, then up her torso to her breasts before he pulled it over her head and tossed it behind him.
She went to lie down again, but he put out a hand to stop her. “Let me look,” he begged.
The part of him that would breach her, the part she had been trying not to look at, lengthened and thickened as she watched. She would not have thought it possible.
“Youare beautiful,” he told her.
