"I see." Augusta slanted him a searching glance. "The earls of Graystone have certainly had rather poor luck with women, have they not?"
Harry shrugged. "The various countesses of Graystone have been notorious for their lack of virtue. My grandmother had more affairs than anyone could count."
"Well, it is the fashion in Society, Harry. So many marriages are made for reasons of money and status rather than love that such things are no doubt bound to happen. People instinctively seek love, I believe. And when they do not find it in marriage, many go outside it."
"Do not even think of going outside our marriage for whatever you may feel you are missing in our alliance, Augusta."
She tossed her dark hair back over one shoulder and glowered at him. "Tell me honestly, my lord, were the various earls of Graystone any more virtuous than their countesses?"
"Probably not," Harry admitted, remembering his grandfather's string of passionate liaisons and his father's endless parade of expensive mistresses. "But one tends to notice a lack of virtue more in a woman than in a man, don't you think?"
Augusta was instantly outraged, just as he had guessed she would be. Harry watched the passionate light of battle leap into her eyes as she drew herself up for the skirmish. She held the taper in front of her as though it were a sword. The glow of the flame danced on her face, enhancing her high cheekbones and giving her an exotic allure.
She looked like a small Greek goddess, Harry thought. A young Athena garbed for war, perhaps. The thought made him smile with anticipation and the smoldering fire in his groin that had been plaguing him all evening suddenly burned hotter.
"What a perfectly odious thing to say," Augusta raged. "That is the sort of statement only an extremely arrogant, extremely obnoxious man would make. You should be ashamed of yourself, Graystone. I expected more even-handed logic and reason from you. You are supposed to be a classical scholar, after all. You will apologize for that silly, inane, totally unfair remark."
"Will I?"
"Most certainly."
"Perhaps I will do so. Later."
"Now," she retorted. "You will apologize now."
"I doubt if I will have sufficient breath left to say anything at all, let alone apologize, after I have carried you back to your bedchamber, madam."
He unfolded his arms and came away from the wall in a smooth, swift motion.
"Carried me back to my—Harry, what on earth do you think you are doing? Put me down at once."
She struggled briefly as he picked her up in his arms. But by the time he had carried her down the hall to her bedchamber and deposited her beneath the canopy, she was no longer putting up even a token resistance.
"Oh, Harry," she whispered in an aching voice. She put her arms around his neck as he came down beside her on the bed. "Are you going to make love to me?"
"Yes, my dear, I most certainly am. And this time," he told her softly, "I shall try to do a better job of it. I am going to turn you from Athena, the beautiful warrior, into Aphrodite, the goddess of passion."
10
Harry. Dear God, Harry. Please, I cannot bear it. This is beyond anything."
Harry lifted his head to watch Augusta as she approached her first delicious, shuddering climax in his arms. Her whole body was arched, tense as a drawn bow. Her hair was fanned out against the pillow in a dark cloud. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she twisted her hands in the white sheets.
Harry was sprawled on his stomach between Augusta's raised thighs. The hot scent of her was filling his head and the indescribable taste of her was still on his tongue.
"Yes, darling. That is how I want you." He eased his finger inside her again and slowly withdrew it. He felt the tiny muscles at the entrance of her tight passage clench gently. He slid his finger back into the clinging heat while he teased the small, exquisitely sensitive little nubbin above with his thumb.
"Harry."
"So beautiful," he breathed. "So sweet and hot. Let it happen, darling. Give yourself up to it." Slowly, deliberately he withdrew his finger and felt everything inside her clench desperately. "Yes, darling. Squeeze a little harder once more. You're almost there. Tighten yourself, my love."
He flicked his thumb over the small nub one more time as he entered her again with his finger. And then bent his head and kissed the swollen female flesh.
"Good Lord, Harry. Harry."
Augusta 's hands became fists in his hair and her hips lifted up off the bed, straining fiercely against his invading finger and his teasing tongue. Her thighs shivered, her feet flexed.
Harry lifted his head. In the soft glow of the candlelight he could see that Augusta's parted lips and the slick petals that guarded her feminine secrets were both rosy pink and glistening with moisture.
Augusta shuddered and gave a high, keening cry that could surely be heard out in the hall. She convulsed in Harry's arms as ripple after ripple of reaction raced through her.
Harry felt, heard, and inhaled it all; every nuance of her response communicated itself to him. As he watched Augusta surrender to her first climax, he realized he had never seen anything so magnificently feminine, so passionate and sensual in his entire life.
Her reaction was fuel on the fires that were already burning within him. Harry knew he could not wait another second. He surged up along the length of her shuddering body and plunged himself into her tight channel before the last of the ripples had even faded.
"I do not think I shall ever tire of our midnight rendezvous, sweet wife," Harry whispered hoarsely.
His own release was upon him in an instant, a shattering explosion of sensation that whirled him away into nothingness. His hoarse, triumphant shout still echoed in the bedchamber as he collapsed against Augusta's soft, damp body.
A long time later Harry stirred amid the rumpled sheets and reached out for Augusta. When his groping hand encountered nothing but more bedding, he reluctantly opened his eyes.
"Augusta? Where the devil have you got to now?"
"I am over here."
He turned his head and saw her standing near the open window. She had put her nightdress back on, he noticed. The gauzy white muslin floated around her slender form, the ribbons rippling in the soft night air. Once more she looked ethereal and ghostlike. Almost untouchable. Harry had a sudden, terrible premonition that she would suddenly drift out through the window and away from him forever.
He levered himself upright to a sitting position and tossed aside the covers as an inexplicable sense of urgency overwhelmed him. He had to catch her and hold her safe. He was already starting to reach out for Augusta when he realized he was being foolish.
Augusta was no ghost. He had just touched her most intimately. He forced himself to sit calmly back against the pillows instead of lunging across the room. She was very real and very much his. She had given herself to him completely.
She was his. It had been much more than a physical thing, that moment when she had trembled and convulsed in his arms. She had bestowed the gift of herself, given him some part of her to keep safe.
He would hold her fast, Harry vowed. He would protect her, even though she did not always desire that protection. And he would make love to her as frequently as possible, strengthening and cementing the physical bond between them.
He did not need to be told that, for Augusta, the sexual act was a commitment as deep and binding as any ancient oath of fealty.
"Come back to bed, Augusta."
"In a moment. I have been thinking about our marriage, my lord." She gazed out into the darkness, her arms wrapped tightly beneath her breasts.