Now he sounded frustrated, almost uncertain.
Mortification swallowed her, to be conversing while his fingers were in her most private of places. "Is that bad?"
A soft grunt came from him, and his touch disappeared, leaving her empty.
“I’m not a small man,” he said, sounding frustrated. “And you are small and tight. I need to prepare you more.”
She had no answer for she did not know what he meant. Had she displeased him with her reaction? Oh, why hadn’t she questioned Darcy more?
He shifted in the dark and pushed her legs wider. Her entire body burned with embarrassment and Fanny was so grateful he had cocooned them in the darkness of the curtained four-poster bed.
A breath of heat wafted across her mound, and then Sebastian’s mouth settled between her legs. Fanny gasped, her entire body flushing with heat. He licked along the wet folds of her sex, and the pleasure that pierced low in her stomach pulled a guttural groan from deep within her. Her eyes widened in the dark. Dear God, what he must think of her. He licked along her sex again, and a wanton wail echoed in the chamber. “Please, stop,” she sobbed, gripping his hair and yanking.
He froze. “Fanny, are you well?”
She scrambled back, pushing the nightgown down her legs. It was all too wicked.
“What you just did…it cannot be decent.”
Darcy hadn’t mentioned anything this scandalous, and Fanny was certain it was…wrong. But it had felt so wonderful. A hot rush of mortification flamed through her.
“I’ve offended your sensibilities again.”
“I…I…n-no.” She closed her eyes, feeling on the verge of tears.
How could she explain to him that it all felt too intimate? Such intimacy in the marriage bed she hadn't ever imagined, and she had always hoped that she would feel some level of comfort with her husband. There was none of that between them. His presence filled her with heat and hunger and such need that bordered on painful. There was nothing comfortable in how he made her ache, and she hardly knew what to do with these feelings.
She cleared her throat. “I think perhaps you were correct earlier. Might…might we get to know each other a l
ittle bit first before…before we are this intimate?”
The silence was awful. I am foolish. “Sebastian?”
"We will wait," he murmured, shifting up to lay beside her. "There is no rush. We have a lifetime before us."
The furious pounding of her heart eased, and she did not tense when he slipped his hand around her waist and tugged her into the solid wall of his body, halting the need to flee to her chamber. He was still naked, but she didn’t let it fluster her much. Clearly, no one told him lords and ladies slept in separate chambers. Could she expect any gentleman-like conduct from him?
“Sebastian, I am very sorry I—”
“There is nothing to apologize for Fanny. You are a very sheltered young lady, and I am certain I shocked you fiercely.”
There was something deep and unfathomable in his tone. She turned it over in her thoughts trying to understand. “I’ve disappointed you.”
“I am only frustrated, but it is not something to worry about. It will ease soon.”
She snuggled deeper into his embrace. “There is an ache…in me…and I feel so unfulfilled I want to scream. Is that the same frustration you feel?”
She felt the smile against her hair.
“Something of the sort.”
Oh. She shifted, settling atop his chest even more comfortably, distantly amazed at how secure she felt in this moment, though she was acutely conscious her husband was indeed naked.
“Perhaps—”
He squeezed her gently. “We will—”
She turned in his arms and pressed her lips to his, ending his protest. “I know my duty as your wife.” His heart pounded against her fingertip resting against his chest.