Page 76 of Let Me Be Your Hero
But, based on the pulse his cock gave inside of her, it roused him exquisitely to hear it on her lips.
She decided a little torture was in order. “I love fucking you. I love the fact that you can’t resist me. I love teasing you until you get a cock-stand, and then I love how embarrassed you are about it. I love opening up your trousers while you’re trying to apologize and making you feel good. I loved fucking you on your desk, with all your workers on the other side of the door. Do you think they all knew what we’d just done by the look on our faces? Because you walked out of there with the loose-jointed stride of a man who’s just reached his pleasure? Do you think they all elbowed each other and grinned as soon as we were gone, because they knew I’d just made you come?”
Her little speech was having the predicted effect. Archibald had seized her hips and was doing most of the work for her, sliding her up and down his cock with quick, rhythmic strokes. He was so lost to the pleasure he looked almost drunk.
Izzie continued, enjoying herself. “I want to fuck you in the carriage. I want to fuck you on that same garden bench where we had our second kiss. I want you to pin me down and toss up my skirts and take me in the moonlight. I want to fuck you in the dark walks at Vauxhall. We can pretend it was the first night we met, that we bumped into each other unexpectedly. And you aroused me so much with your kiss, I justhadto have your cock.”
He was pumping into her desperately now. His entire body had hardened to stone. Izzie knew he was getting close.
She leaned forward and brought her lips to his ear. “I want to suck your cock at a crowded party behind nothing but a pottedpalm. I know you would try to decline that one, but we both know I could tease you until you got hard, that I could drive you so far out of your mind that you would be begging me for sweet, sweet relief. I hope someone would come along and catch us, would see the look of pure bliss on your face, and notice me kneeling at your feet. It wouldn’t bethatscandalous. We are husband and wife, after all. But they would titter, and the gossip on everyone’s lips that night would be what a lucky fellow you are.”
His big body was trembling beneath her. “Izzie… Izzie! Oh, my God, I… I…”
His hips bucked up out of the tub as he came. She clung to his shoulders as he pounded into her, making sounds of pleasure that were more animal than human.
Slowly, his strokes slowed until he collapsed, boneless, against the back of the tub, cradling her against him. She laid her head on his chest and enjoyed listening to the pounding of his heart as it gradually slowed back to its normal tempo.
After a few minutes, he shook himself, then rose from the tub in one smooth motion, lifting her up with him.
“Archibald?” she asked as he gently set her down and dried them both with a towel. “What are you doing?”
As soon as they were dry, he scooped her up in his arms and strode toward the bed. “Taking my revenge.”
“Your revenge?” she asked as he lay her down upon the counterpane. “That sounds… intriguing. What do you mean your…”
He pressed her thighs open.
“Your…” she added weakly as she felt his warm breath between her legs. “Your…”
As his tongue found that little pearl between her legs, her head fell backward, her question forgotten. And, indeed, Archibald had his revenge.
Three times.
CHAPTER 35
And so Izzie settled into a routine inside the house. After Archibald left for Nettlethorpe Iron, she would slip into John Nettlethorpe’s sick room. He spent most of the day asleep, so it was a quiet place where she could write. Izzie wouldn’t have said as much to Archibald, but the respite from his parents was a welcome one. Her new in-laws were not unkind, but they were extremely gregarious, and the notion that she occasionally needed some solitude in which to work was one they seemed to have trouble grasping.
When John Nettlethorpe did awaken, they would talk. He mostly didn’t feel well enough for long stretches of conversation, although she enjoyed the stories he told her about Archibald’s childhood, including the one about him disassembling and reassembling the pendulum clock in the corner.
They found themselves at an impasse regarding what he would call her. She invited him to call her Izzie, and he had muttered thatLady Isabellawas more befitting. After some bickering, they landed onLady Izzie, which suited them both well enough.
By now, she had read him her entire novel,The Castle of Brynberian, which he pronounced, “Daft, but a good sort of daft.”
“Why, thank you,” she replied. “That was precisely my aim.”
Now when he awoke, she would read him passages of her current work and ask what he thought should happen next. He often made suggestions that never would have occurred to her, several of which she adopted. There was nothing like a plot twist, after all.
In the afternoons, her family was good about making sure she had visitors. Usually, they included Lucy and Diana, accompanied by either Izzie’s mother or Lady Griselda. Her other siblings put in appearances, too, as did the Duke and Duchess of Trevissick, much to Mr. and Mrs. Nettlethorpe-Ogilvy’s delight.
Then, in the evenings, Archibald would be home, so she didn’t lack for company, and she would not have described herself as lonely. But even if her days were enjoyable, there was a sameness to them, and Izzie couldn’t help but wonder how long she could keep this up before she grew restless in her confinement.
Five days after her attempt to visit Nettlethorpe Iron, her sisters Anne and Caro came to call. Lucy and Diana were there, too, along with Lady Griselda, who settled into a plush chair to doze in the corner.
Anne waited until Lucy and Diana were across the room poring over one of Izzie’s new Gothic novels, leaving the three married sisters alone around the tea table. She leaned forward, dropping her voice low. “Are the more intimate aspects of your marriage going well?”
“If you have any questions, you can ask us,” Caro added.
Izzie swallowed. “Things are going well. Archibald is… considerate.”
