He was proving rather good at alleviating her worries. She would not have expected this of him, after the coatroom incident – he had caused more misery for her that night – but since then he had also been very persuasive in making her feel better about things. There was – just something about him, the way he said things. It felt natural to trust him. He was easy to believe.
And he was right. This was entirely between them now, and she was charmed by his conspiratorial tone. “Yes,” Jemima echoed with a laugh, somewhat distracted from what she was saying by appreciatively drinking in the sight of him without his shirt. (Also encouraging.) She followed Ford to the bed with a new spark of enthusiasm, and folded her hands into the sides of her nightdress as she clambered on to sit with him, trying to decide whether she ought to take it off now, to undress fully as he had. “Yes, I suppose we...”
She had known what to expect of him shirtless – there were countless tasteful depictions of that, bare-chested heroes in statues and paintings and the like – and she had known that men looked different to women between their legs, but she hadn’t quite been prepared for that. Jemima’s gaze had drifted over his chest again and downwards, but had accidentally gotten caught there on that very foreign – um, appendage. She did her best not to seem as though she was looking; instead she tried hastily to drag her gaze back up to his face and look placid, excited, entirely unperturbed – but she felt a flush at the back of her neck again, and suddenly hot. This all felt very illicit again. There were odd knots in her stomach. It looked a little like a flobberworm. “... we do.”
She shifted a fraction on the bed, restless, her heart beating harder still. She wished she had asked Delilah what to do tonight; her mother had not been helpful at all. (Her parents had genuinely presumed she had already been this audacious in a coatroom at a ball? Jemima couldn’t fathom it.) All that about her husband planting his seed in her and why one couldn’t do that before they married did not translate very well to this. Where was he going to put that? She hoped rather fervently that he knew.
And if not – there was always practice. This was fine.
And he was right. This was entirely between them now, and she was charmed by his conspiratorial tone. “Yes,” Jemima echoed with a laugh, somewhat distracted from what she was saying by appreciatively drinking in the sight of him without his shirt. (Also encouraging.) She followed Ford to the bed with a new spark of enthusiasm, and folded her hands into the sides of her nightdress as she clambered on to sit with him, trying to decide whether she ought to take it off now, to undress fully as he had. “Yes, I suppose we...”
She had known what to expect of him shirtless – there were countless tasteful depictions of that, bare-chested heroes in statues and paintings and the like – and she had known that men looked different to women between their legs, but she hadn’t quite been prepared for that. Jemima’s gaze had drifted over his chest again and downwards, but had accidentally gotten caught there on that very foreign – um, appendage. She did her best not to seem as though she was looking; instead she tried hastily to drag her gaze back up to his face and look placid, excited, entirely unperturbed – but she felt a flush at the back of her neck again, and suddenly hot. This all felt very illicit again. There were odd knots in her stomach. It looked a little like a flobberworm. “... we do.”
She shifted a fraction on the bed, restless, her heart beating harder still. She wished she had asked Delilah what to do tonight; her mother had not been helpful at all. (Her parents had genuinely presumed she had already been this audacious in a coatroom at a ball? Jemima couldn’t fathom it.) All that about her husband planting his seed in her and why one couldn’t do that before they married did not translate very well to this. Where was he going to put that? She hoped rather fervently that he knew.
And if not – there was always practice. This was fine.
