Becoming Countess Dumont (11 page)

“I’m sorry, children. Edith, please join me for breakfast on the back porch in the morning. Invite your sister and we’ll enjoy the sunrise together. The view there is magnificent,” Mother chirps in her usual tone.

Since her demeanor is back to normal, I release the breath I was holding as I stand. “Goodnight, Mother. Edith, come, darling.”

Father leaves the room with my mother, and Edith stares after them, still sitting on the floor. When she finally looks up at me, her face is stained with tears.

“Will she be okay?” she questions with a wobble in her voice.

I reach down with both hands, and she accepts them with her own.

“She’ll be just fine. My mother is a fighter through and through. Where do you think I got my winning personality from?” I tease as I pull her to her feet. “Certainly not my father.”

A small giggle escapes her as I sling an arm over her shoulder and tug her against me. It feels right to have her close to me.

“She’s a lovely lady. I’m so worried about her,” she murmurs as we walk.

The fact that she speaks so fondly of my mother unlocks something inside me. I want her to love my mother and my mother to love her. It’s upon this moment that I realize I am truly delighted to have Edith as a part of my family.

Our stroll back to our wing is quiet, and with each step toward our bedroom, I find myself growing with desire to make love to her.

Not fucking like earlier.

Lovemaking.

It’s out of character for me, but I want to kiss her decadent lips as I thrust into her tight body. I want our bodies to remain connected as our souls bond.

The moment we enter our room, my thoughts are interrupted by sniffling.

“What is it, Edith?”

She lifts her head to gaze at me with tears in her eyes. “She reminds me of my own mother. When she fainted, I thought about how my mother became ill with cholera and was taken so quickly from us. I’m horrified that maybe God is punishing me for what a wretched woman I’ve been and taking out the people I love as retribution for my actions.”

I tug her to me and shake my head. “Dear, you aren’t being punished. Besides, I have it on good authority that you’re far from the wretched woman you claim to be. I think you’re quite unique and you’re all mine.”

Her lips turn up into the smallest of smiles. “You can be rather sweet when you want to be.”

Leaning forward, I graze my lips across hers. “If sweet is rewarded with your smiles, then I shall be nothing but sugar and candy while in your presence.”

A sigh momentarily rushes from her before I seize her lips. I taste her, and she tastes every bit as delicious as the candy of which I spoke. Then her mouth parts and she meets my kiss with fervor of her own.

My cock thickens between us with each whimper that escapes her throat. When she jerks away with haste, I groan in frustration and have the urge to attack her lips again.

“Alexander,” she says softly. Then her cheeks redden as if she’s embarrassed to say whatever is on her mind.

“Speak, woman. I have many events planned for us this evening. Events where my mouth is the appreciative audience and your body is the deserving star.”

Her eyes slam shut as she considers my words, but they fly back open when she resolves to say what’s on the tip of her tongue. “You hurt my feelings earlier today,” she rushes out in a whisper.

That bottom lip of hers, which I so crave, quivers uncontrollably. Dipping down, I still it with a soft kiss to it. After I kiss her, I pull away to look into her eyes.

“How did I hurt your feelings, lovely?”

Now, she chews on her lip before speaking her words. “You fucked me as if I were your toy. And then you left me. I felt alone and unwanted. My heart broke, Alexander. You broke it.”

I stare at her, incredulous. “Did you not enjoy our lovemaking?”

She frowns, “There was no love being made. Yes, you pleasured me. But did I enjoy it? No.”

My brow furrows at her words. Not once has any lover of mine not enjoyed what I gave to them. Why is it that Edith claims she did not?

“But you came from my fingers and then again with me inside you. How is it that you didn’t enjoy yourself?” I ask in astonishment. I’m completely dumbfounded by her words.

“You’re missing the point. We didn’t connect. It was purely physical. I desire more from you, Alexander. I absolutely need to feel wanted and loved by you,” she admits.

I stare at her as her face morphs into a resolved expression. It took a minute for her mind and body to stand behind the words of her heart. After lifting a hand to her cheek, I stroke her gently.

“I’m not sure that I know how to make this connection of which you speak,” I confess.

This time, her lips quirk up on one side, and I’m reminded of the feisty woman with whom I began this journey. Edith is so multifaceted, like that of a perfect jewel. I do believe I’ve uncovered one in a million.

“Well, I had hoped we could figure it out together,” she says seductively as she hooks her hands into the collar of my waistcoat and pushes it off my shoulders.

It falls to the floor in a crumple, and I cock an eyebrow at her. “What if I’m not exactly a master at this lovemaking?”

“The mere fact that you’re willing to try is enough, husband.”

HE NARROWS HIS GAZE AND
scrutinizes me as if my words hold another meaning than that which I’ve said. Finally, he relaxes his features and presses a kiss to my forehead. When he pulls away, his normally hardened features seem soft.

“I’m sorry if I treated you in an ill manner this afternoon. I assure you that wasn’t my intention, love. You’re special to me. Precious, even. I don’t understand it because it is out of my normal character. As you well know, I’m a man who can hardly be tethered to one woman. Yet, with you, I feel as if I’m drawn to you like a fly to honey. Your magnetism allures me in a way that confuses me. But I crave it nonetheless.”

His words thread themselves inside me and latch themselves on. For once, I have hope for something more—something authentic for myself. That tiny sliver may as well be as thick as a sailor’s rope, because I desperately hold on to it as if it will save me from drowning in my own misery.

“You’re beautiful, Edith,” he murmurs as he drags his fingers along the front of my breasts, over my dress, and down my sides to my hips. “You have a natural, simple beauty about you, but when you dress like this, you’re absolutely exquisite.”

I let his praise wash over me and reward him with a smile. The man can be quite a romantic when he wants to be. I’m starting to understand why he was the ladies’ man prior to our coming to Havering.

He’s now a one-lady man.

My man.

“I didn’t think you noticed,” I admit with a small smile. “Alcott noticed at dinner, but it seemed that you looked right through me instead of looking at me.”

He growls at the mention of his brother. “He’ll do best to not notice you ever again. You’re mine, Edith. Mine.”

My skin flushes at the possessive way he claims me with his words. I lift my hands to the buttons of his dress shirt and begin undoing them. His hands simultaneously tug at the ribbon on both sides of my dress. As soon as he unties them, the material loosens and sags away from my body. Then I drop my arms to my sides and the dress falls to a heap on the floor.

“This corset will be the death of me,” he grumbles almost angrily.

But I know he isn’t angry. Far from it. He’s turned on by the sight of me in it, and that turns me on. I feel my arousal dampen my knickers and wish to rid my body of them.

“Sounds like such a simple death,” I muse.

He chuckles as his lips find my neck. “There is nothing simple about this corset and you in it.”

I gasp when his hands find my arse and he squeezes gently. My knickers are ruined by the way he suckles on my neck—it causes my body to drip with need. When he pulls away and begins working the ribbons on the corset, I watch his face. Determination furrows his dark eyebrows together as he sets to further undressing me. The moment the corset falls away, his eyes widen and his lips curve into a half smile.

“Your breasts are absolute perfection, Edith.”

I smile and tease him. “Perhaps, if you hadn’t been in such a rush earlier, you could have properly enjoyed them.”

“I’m an ignorant man, dear. Please allow me to make up for my foolish ways. I want to mark your pale flesh. I want your breasts to be bruised and tender from the delicate assault I plan on inflicting with my mouth.”

As if to prove his words, he kneels before me and wriggles out of his shirt. Once he’s tossed it to the floor and awarded me the view of his sculpted chest, he grabs hold of my hips and hauls me to him.

Pulses of desire course though me at having him in such a position that he seems to be worshipping my body. The moment his lips connect with the skin of my belly, I whimper. As he sprinkles soft kisses along my abdomen, his hands find my breasts and he cups them reverently. When his thumbs skim over my hardened nipples, I cry out.

“Are you wet for me, dear Edith? Do you want me to pleasure every inch of your body?”

I thrust my breasts into his face and thread my fingers into his thick, brown hair. “Yes. Do it. I need you to love my body with your mouth.”

His tongue flicks out and he tastes one of my nipples. The sensation is almost too much to bear.

“I cannot pleasure you the way I want from the floor, wife. Remove your knickers and shoes. I need you bare and open to me. I’m simply holding on by a thread from ravishing you completely,” he murmurs, his hot breath tickling me.

When I don’t move, he grabs my knickers and yanks them down.

“Oh!”

“Oh is right,” he growls. “Now, get naked and onto the bed.”

I kick out of my shoes and then flash him a saucy grin as I sashay over to the bed, giving him an irresistible view of my arse, which is wiggling just for him.

“Goddammit,” he curses. “Could your body be any more perfect?”

I smile at his praise and crawl onto the bed. Lying down on my back, I steal a glance at my husband. He’s pushing his trousers down, and his erect cock bobs heavily out. My pelvic area physically aches with need as I know that, soon, he’ll fill me to the hilt with his sheer size.

When he reaches the end of the bed and hoists himself onto it, I nearly melt from the anticipation of him touching me. This man, my husband, is the most exquisite man I’ve had the pleasure of being with. His body is simply a piece of artwork with its chiseled lines. I could easily view it for hours and be wildly entertained.

He smirks. “Something funny?”

I give in to the giggles of imagining him on display for my own personal viewing. “N-n-no.”

His eyebrows pinch together as if he’s angry, but his lips draw up into a breathtaking smile. “Woman, you lie. You’re laughing at me. What is it? You haven’t seen a cock as impressive as mine before?”

His words only serve as fuel to the fire of my laughter, and tears roll down my cheeks.

“You’re in trouble now,” he growls playfully as his body pins mine.

His strong hands grip my wrists, and he holds me firmly against the bed. I can feel said impressive cock pressed against me, and I can’t help but wriggle against him, hoping it will push its way inside me.

When his lips capture mine, the laughter melts away. The kiss is powerful and possessive. I relish in the way he tangles his tongue with mine as if they were always meant to dance this way. All jokes are tossed aside as we lose ourselves in each other.

“Make love to me,” I gasp between kisses.

He’s heavily pressed against me, so the moment he lifts some of his weight, I slip my legs out and wrap them around his hips. My husband isn’t one to waste a moment, and within seconds, he pushes his massive cock with one hard thrust into me.

“Alexander!” I scream at the joyous sensation of being stretched fully by his thickness.

“My God, your body fits like a glove,” he hums against my lips.

I love the way he crushes me with his strength. It would be my desire to stay connected with him this way all day without another care in the world.

One of his hands cradles my cheek as he pounds slowly into me. “Dearest Edith, I like this—this lovemaking of which you speak. I feel my soul tethering itself to yours. The very idea of being tied down used to terrify me, but right now, in this moment, there’s not another soul on the planet I would choose other than you.”