Page 3 of Starting Something

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Tilly

My eyes spring open and I look around. I'm laying on a bed made of the softest material I've ever slept on. I can tell immediately that I don't have the damned corset on any longer. In fact...it feels like I might not be in the wedding gown any longer either. This isn't the room I got dressed in. It’s much bigger and has a...warmer feeling to it. From the light flickering on the ceiling, I can tell there is a fire in the hearth which leads me to believe it must be later in the night.

I turn and see someone sitting in a big armchair by the bed. When I squint my eyes and come fully awake I can see exactly who it is. The man I took as my husband is sitting in the same room as me. He seems to be...reading. I sit up fast and make the room spin around me. His last words hit me hard. He...he told me he could do awful things and no one would stop him, no one would help me. His head turns towards me and I start scooting away from him. What am I going to do now that the two of us are all alone with one another?

It doesn't take long before I realize I'm not just without the stupid corset, I'm in hardly anything at all. All I have on is my slip. Where the hell are my clothes? I keep backing away until there's nothing there to support me. I lose my balance and end up falling off the side of the bed on my back still staring up at the ceiling.

The floorboards creak as he stands and places his book on the chair. He comes around the bed to look down at me. The fall knocked the air out of me - that bed is fucking tall - so it takes me a few minutes to gather myself and try to work my dress down. His dark eyes land on my bare thighs before I can get the hem down.

"Do you need a hand?"

His voice is velvety and tempting. This must be what the preacher keeps going on about when he talks about sin and temptation. Damn, I wish I would have listened a little better every Sunday.

I shake my head, "No." My answer is fast and quick leaving no room for doubt.

He cocks his brow at me and lowers his eyes to linger on my bare legs before he turns around and goes back to his chair. His eyes are turned towards me as I peek over the bed at him. "So tell me...Matilida," Oh shit, he knows my name! "what were you and your sister planning? Were you to be the little virgin sacrifice while your sister ran off to marry...John, was it?"

He knows everything. "Um, we didn't really think about...things like that."

My words have surprise hitting his face for just seconds. Then he narrows his eyes, "You mean you didn't think about what it would be like to have my seed take root inside your fertile little body?"

My mouth drops and I go numb. I think I might be in absolute shock. He just sits in his chair nailing me down with his eyes. No wonder everyone whispers about him and how intimidating he is. "Um...no."

It's barely a whisper itself because I can't get my voice to come out any louder.

"Tell me Matilda,"

I interrupt him before he can go any further. "Tilly. I go by Tilly. Everyone calls me Tilly."

He cocks his eyebrow at me again.

"Tilly." The way he says it causes shivers to run up and down my body. This is not supposed to be happening. None of this is going the way I thought it would. "Hmm, tell me, what do you know of men and what a man and woman do on their wedding night?"

Is he...? The preposterous question has me standing up straight, not caring that I’m only in my shift. "Are you asking me if I know about carnal relations?" His eyebrow goes up. "Yes! I'm well aware of how all of this works - I...my family owns a farm after all."

My face bursts into a furious blush that burns my cheeks and drives my temperature high. Especially when he stands and moves closer to me. His eyes once more rake over me.

"Just the animals then?"

I tilt my head wondering what in the world he is asking. My brows crinkle.

"I was just wondering if maybe," he steps closer to me, "the Drayton family didn't meet all the stipulations of our agreement."

I'm still confused, and he must be able to tell because he steps even closer before commenting again. "Are you a virgin?" My hand snaps out before I can even think about it. It's instinctual. "Still a virgin."

I raise my hand again but this time he catches me by the wrist and yanks me closer. He spins me around so my back meets his chest without letting my hand go free. I gasp at the contact. This is the closest I have ever been to a man, any man. Ever.

"I really don't care if it's your sister or you who warms my bed, sweetheart, as long as you do it with your legs open and your mouth shut...well, to a certain extent." He lowers his head and his voice. I shiver all over. "I won't mind at all if you want to scream my name."

"You, sir, are a bastard!"

Instead of being shocked by my language he just laughs at me, "Such a filthy mouth my little wife has. I wonder if it will be just as filthy when it is full of my cock."

I struggle to get away from him. He's just being vulgar for the sake of being vulgar to me. Maybe he hopes that I will run away and ask for an annulment myself. I raise my chin and accept the challenge he’s throwing at me. I will not be the first one to ask for an annulment. If anyone ends this marriage it will be the man who caused it.

"Since you're so knowledgeable in the art of lovemaking between people, why don't you tell me," He releases me and I have to put my hands out quick to catch myself on the edge of the bed. "Do you like it from the front, or would you rather I mount you like a common beast of the field?"

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