Page 85 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
“Know this, my darling wife. I take you to me not to make progeny, but to make you my only love.”
“Might I be that?” she asked, breathless with the possibility.
“You are, my darling. You are.”
If his love was so evident a thing, in deed and in some words, he did not declare it directly. But for now, she’d take the other words and call them her endearing prize.
*
Not until thesun sank low into the earth did they leave their marriage bed.
They made love. They slept, only to entwine once more and join, countless times.
A heavy knock upon the outer sitting room door had Kane reaching for his breeches and banyan and leaving her.
She heard conversation between Kane and the butler, she assumed. Then the servant was gone and Kane appeared at her side, a gown dangling from his fingers. That had her sitting upright.
“That is quite lovely.” She reached out for the transparent while muslin, embroidered with roses and chrysanthemums in the lightest of stitches.
“Yours. I had a few made for you.”
“Quickly, too.” She sat up, grinning. “I do like presents.”
“I will note that.” He held up the gown and dropped it over her when she stood next to him.
“This, my dear man, is so sheer it covers nothing.”
He swept an arm around her waist and held her to him, chest to knee. “It is not meant to.”
“Do I get to view you in such a garment like this?”
“If you wish.”
“I’ll have one made.” She waggled a finger at his wine-red banyan. “No more heavy satin for you, sir.”
“We both will catch our deaths of cold.”
“Never get ill.” She clutched the thick fabric of his robe. “You may not leave me for eight or nine decades.”
“May it be so.” He kissed her quickly. “And now, come see what else we have.”
*
He led herthrough to his sitting room, where Corsini had done as Kane asked and wheeled in a cart dressed in white linens, with dinner offered. Kane’s Parisian chef had outdone himself with a filet of sole in lemon sauce and a sliced beefau jus. He’d addeddauphinoisepotatoes and a green salad with olives from the south. Dessert was agateauof chocolate with candied berries.
Uncovering each new dish was a moment for his wife to exclaim over their beauty and close her eyes at first bite.
“How good of you to know we would be hungry,” she declared with dancing eyes.
“I dared to hope.” He winked at her as he dipped his finger into the richgateauand offered it to her to lick clean.
The silly little moment turned into a torrid affair as she came to sit in his lap and kiss the sugary stuff from his finger and then his lips.
He dipped to push aside the muslin from one breast, his heart pounding that she could display her desire for him so openly.
Then she told him, “I hope you have many more surprises for me, sir. I am now so trained to respond to your generosity.”
His cock, randy fellow, was ready to have her again. “Shall I kiss your other breast or show you more surprises?”
