She lifted the covers carefully and then slid across the sheets quietly so as not to wake him. Sore muscles reminded her of last night's lovemaking. She blushed remembering how she'd responded to him, how thrilling it felt to be joined with him. How on earth did married people manage to look so dour faced and serious all the time? She felt like laughing out loud.
She changed into her favorite work dress, a light gray cotton she'd made herself. Tepid water that had once been warm sat in a pitcher on the corner commode. She washed her face, careful to keep the splashing to a minimum, but Jonah did not rouse. He lay still, his magnificent chest rising and falling with each breath.
She brushed out her hair quickly. She'd been a regular slug-a-bed this morning. Look, the sun was already rising. A rooster crowed somewhere, intent on announcing the arrival of the new day. Why, she had a house full of men to cook for. Between somber Thomas and terrified Andy, she wondered what they would think of her waltzing downstairs so late.
"Trying to escape me?" His voice came raw and husky from sleep. He smiled, low and lazy, and the warmth of it wrapped around her like a hug.
"Aye, I'm late already. I must check on your father and see to the chores."
"We have a servant for the outside work."
"Then I have breakfast to prepare. I can't believe your brothers would think well of me if I let them starve."
"My brothers know how to fend for themselves." Jonah sat up in bed, the sheets gliding down his body to rest dangerously low at his hips. Dark hair gathered there and drew her gaze. "Are you remembering last night? Remembering how you liked it?"
"You are a devil, you are. I was right about you all along." Heat stained her face at the remembered images hardly decent in the light of day, or even in the first scattering of daylight
A brow quirked. "I'm too big to push into a mud puddle, as you did when we were children and I pulled your braid."
"Aye, but not so big that I can't shove you out of that bed."
" 'Tis because you want to see me naked and aroused. I can oblige." He rolled back the covers, revealing bronzed skin and powerfully built man and a jutting hardness that he seemed so proud of. "Forget the chores. Forget breakfast. I want you, Tessa."
"Goodness. 'Tis after six o'clock in the morning. 'Tis not decent."
"And was it decent last night?" He unfolded his big body full length. "You were more than eager in the dark. Let us see how wild you can be in the daylight."
"Go ahead and tempt me. 'Twill not work." In truth, her blood nearly boiled in her veins at the sight of him. Why did it have to be him? She had always prayed to find a nice man, a quiet one, maybe bookish, decent, and kind. But not one of those words could be used to describe this man towering before her, brash and bold and naked.
So very naked. She could hardly ignore that thick stiff length of him, staring right at her. Her knees felt shaky. And her entire body melted.
"Admit it, Tessa. You want me." His bare feet padded on the wood floor. How close he was. She took a step backward. " 'Tis there in your eyes, as dark as desire. You enjoyed making love last night"
" 'Twas not too terrible," she admitted. And lied boldly. Terrible? 'Twas indescribably heavenly. "But already the day has begun and we can't lie about when there's work to be done."
"There will be time enough for work." A slow grin stretched his mouth at one corner as he wrapped both hands around her wrists, holding her captive. "Come, back to bed with me. I'll let you be on top."
"On top?" Humor and a devil's light sparkled in his eyes, so deep and rich she could lose herself in them. "You're naught but a rogue, a wicked man through and through."
"Guilty as charged." A dimple etched into his cheek. He was enjoying this too much.
"See? You admit it. You were entirely responsible for my behavior last night"
"Me?" He crooked one brow, "I was responsible?"
"Aye, you. A proper wife lies there dutifully, but you, you made me-"
"A proper wife? Oh, that's a stretch of the truth. From our first kiss you were a wicked enchantress with that fiery mouth of yours, and in the forest, offering me your breasts the way you did-"
"Offering you? You did as you pleased."
"And you moaned the entire time. Just like last night." His lips grazed her knuckles, and his tongue flicked out to lave the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. "Come, let me make you moan again."
"A decent husband would not know how to make a woman moan like that."
Dark eyes snapped, crackling like fire in a hearth, intense, dangerous. "I never said I was a decent man. Or husband. I know how much you liked it, Tessa. And how much you are tempted now. Your eyes are naught but black, your breath comes fast and light in your chest, and your pulse skips beneath my touch. Admit it"
"I can plainly see how tempted you are." She tried to joke, but there was nothing humorous in his rock-hard shaft, or in the desire plain and naked in his eyes, and all for her. "But your brothers will think-"
" 'Tis none of their business what I do with my wife."
His mouth claimed hers in a storm of heat and fire. Like a flame, she felt burned by him. Burned by a fast crackling want that snapped through her veins and sizzled in her very bones.
He backed her up against the wall until there was no space between them. She could feel the hard wall of his chest against her breasts, the steely bunch of his thighs fitted between hers, and his rock-hard shaft slanted against the curve of her stomach.
"You're not responding like a proper wife." He broke their kiss only to tug at her buttons.
" 'Tis hard to be proper with a man as wicked as you." Her breath came fast and light. Her whole body felt aflame, ready to be engulfed by this sharp pounding need for him.
"So you blame me again?" he chuckled, rich and liquid warm as he dipped his head to draw her bared breast into his mouth.
"Aye. 'Tis all your fault." Such thrilling pleasure. Tessa tipped her head back to rest against the wall, her eyes drifting shut. The sweet pressure of his mouth on her nipple drew taut a band of sensation low in her abdomen. Tingly and heavy and incredible, she was ready to surrender to him even in the light of day and let him strip off her clothes and make love to her until this heady need for him was sated.
A knock tapped at the closed door. "Jonah?"
"Not now, Andy," Jonah growled out, lifting his head from her breasts. "I'm busy."
"But 'tis Father."
Jonah squeezed his eyes shut, the muscles standing out in his strong jaw and the column of his neck.
"I must go." She pressed a kiss to Jonah's stubbled jaw, rough and so wondrously male. "You can be wicked later, mayhap at nighttime when it's much more decent"
"Decency be damned." His gaze clamped on her, intense and intimate, sparkling with a knowledge of what was to come.
Her heart skipped three beats, for she wanted to be held in his arms, pinned beneath him, and feel that spiraling pleasure only he could give her.
She hadn't known married life would be so wondrous. Mother had spoken of the pleasure of the marriage bed but only indirectly.
Tessa fastened her buttons, and Jonah stepped away. Still naked, still aroused, still wanting her, but sadness now snapped in his eyes and tightened the muscles of his jaw.
"Go to him. I'll get dressed and come help you."
" 'Twill be interesting to see how your breeches fit," she could not help teasing.
Imagine, her, Tessa Bradford, teasing. Never in her life had she felt this happy. And it was only one day, less than twenty-four hours of being Jonah's bride.
'Twas a very fine thing to be.
Jonah pushed open the door to Father's chamber. New candles burned on the stand by the bed, where the weak old man coughed fitfully. The hacking painful sound filled the room and the empty chambers of his cold dark heart.