Griff and Alyssa barely managed to don their clothing before the coach pulled up to the front door of Abernathy Manor. But they were entirely presentable, if a little flushed and wrinkled, by the time the coachman opened the door and pulled down the steps of the coach.
It was half past ten in the evening, and it continued to rain. The rain had subsided from a steady downpour to a persistent drizzle, but even so, the staff of Abernathy Manor, each with umbrellas, had lined up to greet the master and his bride.
“Welcome home, my lord.” The butler, Keswick, was the first to greet them as they descended from the coach. “May I be the first to offer felicitations on your wedding?”
“But, of course. Thank you, Keswick.” Griffin moved back half a step to allow Alyssa to step forward. “Allow me to present my bride, Alyssa, Lady Abernathy. Alyssa, this is Keswick, the butler here at Abernathy Manor.”
Keswick bowed.
“A privilege, Keswick.” She looked up at the staff, dressed in their best livery and uniforms, lining the way to the entrance. “Thank you all for coming out on such a dreary night. I am deeply honored.” Alyssa knew that tradition dictated that the butler, housekeeper, head footman, and groom turn out at each arrival or departure of the lord of the manor and that the entire manor staff turn out in full livery to welcome a new member of the family.
Griffin had explained the tradition while she was buttoning his waistcoat and he was tying the ribbons of her bonnet.
She knew that they were expected to greet each member of the staff and bestow wedding tokens. At Abernathy Manor, the lord of the manor generally bestowed coin, having learned that the staff preferred it to more personal gifts.
It was a miracle they hadn’t been set upon by highwaymen, for Griff had traveled from London to Abernathy Manor with a purse full of gentleman’s coin. And as he led Alyssa down the long line, introducing her to each member of the staff and allowing each of the servants to bow or curtsy, Griff distributed the coin, pressing a gold sovereign into each one’s hand. The coin was given as reward for the service Griff had received while he was a bachelor and for the service he and his new bride would receive in the future.
Now that he had brought home a bride, the staff no longer answered solely to him. Abernathy Manor had a mistress to serve and to obey.
Griff and Alyssa understood there were traditions that must be observed before they could resume the game of seduction they’d begun in the coach. But enduring them was agony.
Every smoldering glance, every tantalizing brush of the fingers, every moment spent standing politely side by side instead of in each other’s arms was pure torture.
Alyssa’s body ached with anticipation of what was to come next. And it had been aching ever since she’d watched Griffin pleasure himself.
She was amazed at the trust and the confidence he’d exhibited in allowing her to share his intimate act. She couldn’t get the memory of it out of her mind. She couldn’t forget the expression on his face as he sought satisfaction, couldn’t forget the way his strong male body strained for release, the way that same powerful body had trembled uncontrollably as he found it, and the slight flush of embarrassment when he’d opened his eyes and discovered that she hadn’t just witnessed his private moment, but relished it.
She had handed him a handkerchief on which to catch the stream of liquid pulsing from the tip of his member. Griffin had made use of the square of linen and then carefully folded it and laid it aside. Alyssa had it now, tucked in the top of her bodice in the valley between her breasts, where the musky scent of him mingled with the scent of her rosewater and lavender fragrance.
Alyssa literally trembled with need. Her breasts were swollen to the point of aching, the peaks hard and puckered, the place between her thighs pooled with moisture, her knees were weak, and she shivered involuntarily as Griffin placed his hand at the small of her back and ushered her forward.
Theirs was a game of seduction run amok, where the current need for clothing inflamed their passions rather than cooled them. Alyssa craved to touch him and to feel him touch her. Her brain burned with hitherto forbidden images, and she desperately wanted to practice what she’d observed. And what’s more, Griffin knew it.
“Steady, my lady,” he whispered, as they neared the end of the long line of servants. “Almost done.”
Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief and shivered once more.
Griff thanked the last footman and maid, pressed the gold sovereigns in their hands, then turned, bent at the knees, and swung Alyssa up into his arms.
“I can walk,” she murmured.
“I’ve no doubt that you can do anything you are in mind to do, my lady.” Griffin smiled down at her. “But I believe it’s customary for the groom to carry the bride over the threshold, is it not?”
“I’d forgotten,” she admitted.
“I didn’t,” he replied.
“Then, please, get on with it,” she whispered. “I’m on fire for you and the lessons you’ve yet to teach me.”
“I understand completely,” he whispered back. “As I have a condition that requires your attention.”
“Is Lady Abernathy all right, sir?” Keswick asked.
“Tired,” Griffin answered the butler. “Lady Abernathy is tired. It’s been a long journey, Keswick, and it’s time we retired.”
The butler nodded. “The master suite is ready, sir. The beds have been turned down, and there are fires in the grates of both Your Lordship’s and Your Ladyship’s chambers. Your man and Lady Abernathy’s maid are already upstairs.”
“Thank you.”
The staff cheered as Griff ascended the front steps and entered the house. “Huzzah! Huzzah!”
“Will you be wanting a supper tray, sir?” Griff halted on the master staircase, turning to face Mrs. Jernigan, the cook.
Griff looked down at Alyssa. They hadn’t eaten since the wedding breakfast, and the light fare they’d nibbled there had long since disappeared.
She nodded.
Griff agreed. He needed sustenance for the hours ahead of him.
“I made a nice beef and potato stew, and we’ve fresh bread and cheese and butter and jam. Oh, and I also made your favorite spice cake—as a wedding cake of sorts—to welcome you and your bride home. We’ve waited to cut it until you arrived.”
Griffin’s stomach rumbled.
“That sounds wonderful,” Alyssa said. “And I would be honored if you would cut the cake on my behalf and share it with the staff.”
“Break out the wine and the ale,” Griff added. “For the staff. And send a bottle of whisky and a nice sherry for my wife and me up with the supper tray as soon as possible.” Griffin turned and continued his climb up the stairs. “We’ll ring if we require anything else.”
“Yes, sir.” Mrs. Jernigan bobbed a curtsy and hurried back to the kitchen.
Griffin continued up the stairs. He didn’t set Alyssa on her feet until they reached the privacy of the master’s chambers. Griffin paused at the massive double doors, then leaned down. Alyssa opened the door, and he carried her over the final threshold, across the sitting room that connected the master bedchamber with the mistress’s bedchamber, to the rug in front of the fireplace where he set her on her feet.
“Alone, at last,” Griffin teased, untying the ribbons of her bonnet, the same ribbons he’d hastily tied three-quarters of an hour earlier. Tugging the bonnet off, he tossed it to the floor.
Someone gasped.
“Not quite,” Alyssa replied, peeling off her gloves.
Griffin followed her gaze and discovered Alyssa’s lady’s maid sitting quietly in a wing chair before the fire. Blister it! Would they never have any privacy? How many more gauntlets would they have to run before they could consummate their first game of seduction?
Alyssa took charge. “My lord, you remember Winifred Durham, my maid?”
“Yes indeed, Miss Durham,” Griffin acknowledged.
“Winifred, my husband, Lord Abernathy.”
“
M’lord.” Durham bobbed a curtsy to Griffin, hurried to retrieve Alyssa’s discarded bonnet, then turned to face her mistress.
“I had them bring hot water for your bath.” She set the bonnet on a table and nodded toward the metal buckets lined up in front of the hearth. “And I unpacked your things and left your night rail on the foot of your bed while you were meeting the rest of the staff, miss”—Durham glanced up at Griffin—“I mean, my lady.”
“Thank you, Durham, you may retire to your own bed now,” Alyssa told her.
Durham looked confused. “But, miss…I mean, my lady, I always assist you in your preparations for bed.”
“And I thank you for that,” Alyssa answered more firmly. “But I don’t require any assistance tonight.”
Durham’s eyes grew as round as saucers. “But who’s going to help you out of your dress and into your night rail? Who’s going to unpin and brush your hair for you? Who’s—”
“I am.” Griffin placed his hands on Alyssa’s shoulders.
“Go to bed, Durham,” Alyssa said.
“But, Lady Alyssa—”
“What my wife is politely trying to tell you, Miss Durham, is that I will provide whatever assistance she requires tonight and every other night and morning I am in residence. I will see to her dressing and undressing and tend to her most personal needs.”
Durham opened her mouth, but Griffin forestalled further comments by holding up his hand. “Didn’t my valet explain this to you on the journey?”
“Yes, sir,” Durham said.
Griffin was momentarily at a loss for words. He had given Eastman his instructions before the wedding and had asked that his valet apprise Lady Abernathy’s maid as to the situation. It had never occurred to Griffin that the lady’s maid might choose not to listen or do as instructed. “And what did Eastman tell you?”
“He said that as you and Lady Alyssa—I mean—”
“We know what you mean,” Griff interrupted. Durham continued. “Well, your man said that as you and my lady were on your honeymoon, our assistance wouldn’t be necessary—except for the packing and unpacking. He said you had instructed him that there were to be no interruptions. He was to bring hot water for shaving and bathing and coffee and a pot of hot chocolate to the door of the master’s bedchamber every morning and leave it. He said you would see to the choosing of your own clothes and that I should follow his example and wait until I was called and to never enter the master’s suite or my lady’s chamber without knocking.”
Griffin nodded in confirmation. “Those were my instructions.” He leaned down to whisper in Alyssa’s ear. “Tell me, my lady, is she slow or simply disobedient?” He wasn’t being unkind; he simply wanted to learn the correct way to approach Alyssa’s lady’s maid in order to get results.
Alyssa frowned. Durham had always been an efficient lady’s maid. She had never appeared to be slow or given to disobedience, but she was young and away from home for the first time and, like Lady Tressingham, she had had her heart set on having Alyssa marry the Duke of Sussex. There was more cachet to being a duchess’s lady’s maid than a viscountess’s. “Why didn’t you follow his advice?”
Durham’s expression was mutinous. “Because I’m a lady’s maid,” she answered. “I was trained to be lady’s maid to a duchess. I don’t take my orders from a viscount’s valet. I take my orders from Lady Tressingham or you, and no one else.”
Griffin and Alyssa exchanged glances.
“I take it—” he began.
Alyssa nodded. “My mother hired and trained her.”
“That explains it.” Griffin bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling as Alyssa continued to look at him, silently asking for advice. He shrugged his shoulders. “She doesn’t take orders from me, sweet. She only takes orders from you or your mother.”
Alyssa took a deep breath. “Listen, Winifred, and listen closely..
Durham leaned closer.
“My mother isn’t here. Your instructions come from me now and from Lord Abernathy. This is our home. And if you want to be a part of the staff here, you’ll obey the instructions Lord Abernathy and I give.
“So, go to bed. Get out of here. Leave us alone. I appreciate all you’ve done, and I promise to call you if I need you, but in the meantime, Lord Abernathy and I are going to begin our honeymoon.” When Winifred didn’t budge, Alyssa looked her in the eye and elaborated. “That means that Lord Abernathy is going to take off all my clothes and I am going to remove all of his and then we are going to fall into bed together, make mad, passionate love to one another, and do every naughty and pleasurable thing you’ve ever heard whispered about.”
“And a great many things you haven’t heard about,” Griff added. “So, unless Lady Abernathy decides to invite you in to watch or to join us in our fun and games, I suggest you find some other way to occupy your time.”
He hadn’t thought it possible for the little lady’s maid’s eyes to grow wider, but it was.
Durham turned and scurried for the door, slamming it behind her in her haste to escape with her virtue intact.
“That should keep her away for the next two days,” Griff said.
“Or keep her away forever.” Alyssa grinned mischievously. “I may be needing a new lady’s maid.”
“Yes, well…” His blue eyes smoldered with passion when he looked at his wife. “I may be needing more than that. You certainly have a way with words, my Lady Cyprian.” He unfastened the buttons on her short jacket.
Alyssa quickly shrugged out of it in order to give Griffin access to the row of tiny buttons at the back of her dress.
“I am well read, my lord.” She shoved his coat off his shoulders at the same moment he unfastened the last button on her dress.
Griff cocked an eyebrow. “Is that so?” he teased.
She shimmied out of her dress.
“There’s much to admire in the written word.” Griff’s mouth went dry at the silhouette she made standing in front of the fire in her transparent chemise, her dress pooled at her feet. “And more to admire here.” He bowed to her. “You also have a way with disrobing, my lady.”
“I excel at everything I do.” She dropped to her knees beside the wing chair Durham had vacated, then crooked her finger and beckoned him forward.
“Do you now?” Griffin stepped closer.
Alyssa patted the seat of the chair.
Griffin sat.
She slipped between his thighs. “It’s simple really.” Alyssa looked up at him from beneath a veil of thick, dark eyelashes, and Griffin knew he had never seen anyone as beautiful.
“A little scientific observation.” She reached up and unbuttoned his breeches.
His erection sprang forward.
“A little practice.” She grinned like the cat that ate the cream, then slid her tongue up the length of him.
Griffin nearly jumped out of his boots.
She cupped him, weighing the twin sack at the base of his male member before wrapping her hand around his shaft and beginning the motion in the rhythm she had watched him use. “A little experimentation.”
He closed his eyes, relaxed his facial muscles, and licked his lower lip.
Alyssa mimicked his gestures, closing her eyes, leaning forward, and tasting him again with the tip of her tongue as she continued to pump him with her hand.
Griffin moaned.
Alyssa lifted her head. “And suddenly I’m a master at whatever I try.”
There was, Griff decided, no doubt about that. She was definitely a master at whatever she attempted. And he thanked his lucky stars that she was doing her damnedest to seduce him.
Moving to the edge of his seat in order to accommodate her, Griff exploded in a rush of hot passion. He bucked and writhed beneath her talented hand and her clever little mouth and tongue until he could stand no more.
“Ride me.” He groaned the order, pulling Alyssa from the floor and onto his lap with a speed that surprised them both. In a near frenzy of pass
ion and need, Griffin positioned her on his lap, lifted the hem of her chemise, and penetrated her through the convenience slit of her lacy drawers.
There was a moment of searing pain.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Alyssa blinked them away, but not before Griffin saw them. Not before he felt the membrane tear. Not before he realized what he had done.
Alyssa recognized the look of profound remorse and opened her mouth to speak, to tell him that the pain had already subsided when he covered her mouth with his own.
He kissed her gently, tenderly, and softly, telling her with his tongue and mouth what he could not say with words. Griffin held her close, surrounding himself with her as he waited until she began to move against him. Wanting, needing more.
He resumed the rhythm, slowly at first, then faster. Deeper and harder until he felt the first tremors, then a wave of tremors, grip her. She broke the kiss, crying out her pleasure, holding onto his neck, kissing his hair, pressing his face to her breasts, shedding tears of wonder, of gratitude, and of joyous release as she achieved perfection. For nothing could be more perfect than finding her destiny, discovering where and to whom she belonged.
Seconds after Alyssa achieved her bliss, Griffin joined her. He called out her name and held her tightly as he filled her with the seeds of their future.