Page 5 of Starting Something

"Y...you can't be serious." He doesn't pick the paper up. "You and Matilda aren't married. Matilda is not who was promised to you."

"You will find that we very much are married. She signed the document using her legal name which makes this a legal and binding contract of marriage."

"But...but...,"

I wait a pregnant moment before driving the last nail in Drayton's coffin, so to speak. "Not to mention...we've already consummated the marriage."

My bride's eyes widen at the implication of what I am saying, her mother gasps, and her father finally sits down hard in the chair. Once I am well aware that I have everyone in the room's attention I lower my hand to cover Tilly's lower stomach. "We will be parents before the summer is over."

Her mother faints and her father...lets the woman slither out of the seat she is sitting in.

"Is this some sort of condition the women in your family suffer from, my love? I ask only so that I know to keep a better eye on you from now on so I can be sure you won't harm yourself ever." He nuzzles my neck, "I wouldn't want you or the baby getting hurt."

Chapter Five

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Tilly

So much has happened over the course of the last few days that when I have an opportunity to finally sit and think over all of it, I'm a little stunned. I got married. I had to let my sweet sister go. The fact that I don't know when I'll see her again breaks my heart. She has been my constant friend, my secret confidant, the person getting me through the day and keeping me sane no matter what my father might put us through.

After my mother fainted, Shepherd left my father to take care of her while whisking me off to our room again. Back upstairs. Back to the room that isn't the room I got dressed in before...the wedding. Memories of it float through my mind.

"Are you sending me home?" I try not to freak out. What am I going to do if he sends me back with momma and my father? "Telling everyone you had your way with me but what...I could never give you the heir you wanted?"

His brows arch.

"You did tell everyone that we consummated the marriage when we really didn't. If you tell people I can't have children you could ask for a divorce." The word sticks in my throat. How can I be such a failure at marriage that it's over before it really began?

He walks further into the room and removes his jacket. Then his hands fall to his shirt.

"Wh...what are you doing?"

"Going to bed with my wife." He says it so matter of factly. Like we've done this a hundred times. He spins me around before I can say a word and starts undoing my dress so I can take it off. He pulls it up over my head leaving me in only the thin shift I was in when I first woke up. "I'll give you time to become accustomed to the fact you are mine but make no mistake...we will both be in that bed every night."

His hands land on my shoulders which are bare except for tiny straps holding the shift up. He gives me a shove that sends me backward onto the bed. "And you will be my wife in every way."

I scurry to the edge of the bed but before I can make it off he has me by the ankle and his pants off. He's...he's not wearing anything under his clothing. I squeal at the sight of his bare body in front of me. My hand goes up to cover my eyes. "People...don't do that."

They don't, men and women - husbands and wives - don't sleep in the same bed. Everyone knows that.

"You'll find I'm not most people. I prefer to do things differently."

He pulls me closer as he pulls the covers over both of us. And holds onto me all night long. Curled around me. It took me forever to finally fall asleep and when I did it felt like I had just closed my eyes before the sun came up and a new day was starting. I didn't sleep well the night before the wedding -several nights before to be exact so you would think I would have slept hard but then again I'm in bed with a stranger.

Once I got up this morning I skipped having breakfast with my mother - my father and Shepherd had already eaten - and tried to find a place in this house to hide. It was the books that drew me to this room. I stand and make my way back over to the bookcase. The books on the shelf are treasures and hopefully, I will find one of them to take my mind off last night.

I woke up this morning with my dress up around my waist and I pray it wasn't like that the entire time I was asleep. When I think about being in the same bed with him my body gets hot and twitchy. I run my fingertips over the spines until I come to one book leafed in gold. I pull it out and read the title. The Kama Sutra.

I open the book to see if it might be something I would want to read and gasp at the first page I turn to. There is a picture of a man and woman...in congress. I turn to another page and on that page is yet another couple...having sex. This one has the couple on their hands and knees...like animals.

"This is one of my personal favorites." I jump at the voice right beside my ear. I didn't hear him come into the room. I drop the book but instead of hitting the floor and closing, it just stays on the page with the couple...together. We both look down at the picture. Neither of us say anything for long moments. Then he bends down and picks the book up off the ground.

He holds the book out to me but I don't take it. He pulls me into his embrace, encaging me within his arms. All while holding the book out in front of me so I can look at the picture. "See, this one is designed to make sure we get the deepest fit, the deepest stroke."

One of his hands lower to my stomach. I'm not wearing a corset again so he can feel everything. His fingers spread out so he is holding my lower belly. "If done right, you will be able to feel me," he drops his hand lower. I gasp at how close his hand is to something that has never been touched by a man. "Right here."

His words make me quiver and a heavy feeling settles in my stomach where his hand lays. My breath is coming in hard pants and I'm shaking.

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