"I shall not need you again tonight, Nancy," she said as she lay down to rest. "When the duchess was once again aware of herself, the sky outside of her bedchamber window was dark. She heard the door connecting her room with the duke's open, and she turned over to see him in the light from the fireplace.
"Do not get up," he said quietly. "I have come to join you, Caro."
The duchess swallowed hard. Of course, this husband would want to claim his connubial rights as soon as possible, and it was their wedding night. "You will have to lead me, sir. As I have previously told you, my experience is nil." She saw in the firelight that he was wearing a red paisley silk robe, but she suspected that beneath was naught.
"Under the circumstances of your first marriage I would not expect you to have had any experience, my dear. I know you are a virgin. My uncle assured me of it before he died." He slid beneath the coverlet next to her. "There are many men in my position who would take from you what they believed was their due without so much as a by-your-leave. But I have found a woman who enjoys the act of copulation is a far better partner in bed sport." He pressed her gently back among the pillows and touched her lips with his. "Tonight I will make love to you slowly and with great care, Caro. And tomorrow night I will begin to teach you how to respond in kind." He kissed her gently again, his tongue tracing the outline of her mouth.
"Oh!" the duchess murmured softly.
He raised himself up, balancing upon an elbow, and carefully undid the ribbons at the neckline of her negligee. The garments opened to reveal her snowy-white bosom. The duke's dark head bent, and he began to kiss the flawless flesh. His free hand pushed the fabric aside further, his mouth closing over a perfect little pink nipple. His tongue licked. His teeth carefully worried the sensitive nipple.
She could sense it all, Emily realized, delighted. She felt everything her duchess was supposed to be feeling: a tiny, almost imperceptible tingle between her legs, a longing she had not understood before. Her arms wrapped about the duke. "Oh, Trahern," she murmured in his ear. "What is this magic you are making with me?"
In answer he ripped the delicate silk of her negligee open so he might have total access to her lovely body. A hand cupped her breast. He nuzzled it, and kissed the sharply pointed nipple. "I adore you, Caro!" he murmured against her ear. "I only want to give you pleasure, and more pleasure."
She found her hands fumbling with the tie about his robe. "Take it off, Trahern," she begged him. "I find your kisses and caresses have made me curious for more. For everything! Hurry, milord!"
He untangled himself from her briefly in order to shrug the robe from his muscular body. And while he did Caro pulled the shreds of her negligee from her own body and threw them carelessly on the floor. Then, gathering her into his arms, he began to kiss her until her head was spinning. "Do you know what I am going to do to you, my adorable bride?" he asked her low.
"You are going to fuck me," she whispered back. "And I want you to, Trahern! Oh, how very much I want you to fuck me!"
But he was true to his intent. He began to kiss every inch of her body available to him. He turned her this way and the next, his lips caressing, his tongue licking her flesh until she was afire. She gasped when his finger invaded her body, a tiny bit of fear touching her nerves, but he sensed her anxiety, and soothed her even as a second finger joined the first, and he began to move them back and forth.
She was burning with a desire she had never known existed. "Oh!" she cried. "Oh!" as the fingers slipped from her, and the tip of one of them touched the rosebud hidden between the folds of her nether lips. The fingertip worried the sensitive little nub until she was almost weeping with the burning hunger she felt.
He mounted her naked body, his big hands first pushing her milky thighs open, then guiding his lover's lance into her body. Her virginity quickly gave way, and he rode her fiercely. His big cock flashed back and forth within her, and her low moans grew in intensity until she was almost screaming with the pleasure he was giving her. Then, just as the world exploded around her, the duke bent low and whispered in her ear, "I promised you, Emily, that we would begin a grand adventure, and we now assuredly have, my darling."
Her orgasm came in hard, hot bursts even as her eyes flew open and widened at his words. "Trahern!" she cried, and then fell into unconsciousness as his own lust spurted forth in the great jets of his love juices. And when she opened her eyes again she was in her own bed. The dawn was beginning to break outside of her windows, and the screen of the television was blank with snow.
Emily Shanski lay quietly on her back. Her sleep shirt was up to her waist, and she was sticky and wet between her thighs. My God! What had happened to her? She had slipped into the duchess Caro's skin, or so she thought. But the duke had known that she was there. And in that moment of perfect pleasure he had told her so by addressing her by name. Briefly she was frightened. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to interact with her characters. But she had to admit that she felt more relaxed now than she had when she had turned on the Channel eight hours previously. Her sexual tension had completely vanished.
Emily climbed out of her bed and, barefooted, hurried out into the hall and up the stairs into her office. She had to get the scene she had just played out with the duke down on paper before it faded. With luck she could have the story line right up to that scene before Devlin arrived Friday night. Would he be pleased with her? God, she hoped so! Her career was the one thing in the world now that meant everything to her. If she had to write explicitly sexy love scenes to save it, then she was going to learn how to do it. And now, Emily realized, she had two lovers to learn her craft from.
She turned on her PC, and sat down. Two lovers. Of course, Devlin was going to take full credit for her metamorphosis, she chuckled to herself. Well, let him. The Channel was something special that belonged only to women. Men didn't have to know about it. At least, that was what Rina had told her when she had introduced Emily to it. It was a delicious and dirty little secret, and while Emily had enjoyed being an observer as she imagined her novels in order to make certain they were believable, she had to admit that being an active part of the fantasy was even more fun. And for the first time in her life Emily decided that she wanted to have fun. She began to write, and it wasn't until four hours later that she came down from her aerie.
The day was as clear and warm as the previous had been rainy and chill. She was hungry, and decided to fix herself a Sunday style breakfast even if it was Monday. Rina and Sam were coming by to take her to the Memorial Day parade, and then they were all going out to the club for lunch. French toast! That was what she wanted. French toast with lots of butter and syrup and sausages. She had begun to pull the ingredients together when the phone rang. Answering it, Emily heard Devlin's voice, and her heart beat just a little faster.
"I took the red-eye home. London was lonely. I think I needed you with me," he told her. "How about if I take Friday off and come out Thursday night, angel face?"
"Only if you'll eat lamb chops and asparagus in bed with me," she said with a happy smile. "And local strawberries. I dip them in dark chocolate laced with Grand Marnier. And we'll have a bowl of whipped cream."
"I won't promise to confine the whipped cream to the strawberries," he told her.
"Where do you want to put it?" she asked. She could almost hear his grin.
"All over you, and then I'll slowly lick it off," he said.
"Come early," she told him.
"I will." He chuckled, and then he rang off.