Harry rose up from the saddle, gripping Obsidian with his thighs, urging the horse into a trot and then he rode out of the stable yard. Leaving the barracks and the army behind.
The inn’s groom took Obsidian as he had every other day, only today there was no Ash and Harry did not immediately leave the inn but walked inside to ensure there was a room available. He had not checked yesterday. There was.
He walked along the street, his heart pulsing faster than it normally would. She was not waiting for him on the corner. Yet it was better that he awaited her rather than her being left to loiter. It would have been awkward for her. As she had made him aware yesterday, she was not a street prostitute.
She appeared after about five minutes, walking quickly towards him. She lifted her hand and waved when she saw him. He lifted his hand and acknowledged her. His heart began to pulse harder, it had never raced at the thought of bedding a woman before. Or perhaps it had happened the first time, but that had been a long time ago.
‘Hello,’ she spoke first and smiled in a shy way.
Another undefinable emotion twisted around in his chest, aching not clasping. ‘Hello. Shall we?’ He lifted his arm, as he would have to a woman he’d asked to dance at a ball. She wrapped her fingers about it, gently holding his coat sleeve.
They walked the short distance to the inn in silence. He had no idea what to say.
When he opened the door of the inn for her, her hand let go of his arm and she walked in ahead of him. He did not stop to speak to the clerk, but directed her up to the room through the press of his palm against the curve of her lower back above where the skirt of her dress flared out.
He pushed open the door of the room. She walked in, then stopped about eight feet away from him. He locked the door, then faced her. ‘So…’ Where did he begin with this woman? With every other woman he’d lain with there had been no hesitation. They had agreed a payment or the price was already set by the club or the brothel and they had come to a room and begun.
‘I feel so awkward,’ she said, then laughed in a self-conscious way. But her laughter broke the ice that had settled over the moment.
A sound of humour escaped his throat too. He laughed at himself. ‘I do too. Isn’t that silly?’
‘Yes.’
‘I should have ordered food, or something to drink, chocolate for you…’ Why? They were here for one thing. This was being truly ridiculous.
She shook her head slightly. ‘I am neither hungry nor thirsty.’
God. He was both, but not for food or water. ‘Let us begin by removing our hats and gloves, shall we?’
He took his hat off and set it on a chest near the door, then stripped his gloves off and left them there too. When he looked back at Charlotte she was untying the bow of her bonnet. Her pale hands shook.
He had not even seen her hands naked before.
What a strange thought.
She slid her bonnet off.
He walked across and took her bonnet and gloves from her. Then carried them over to the chest to set them down beside his hat. She was watching him when he turned back. He smiled. ‘Will you take the pins out of your hair? It is a very pretty colour. I would like to see it down.’
She began pulling the pins out at once, her hand still trembling. He walked over there and helped, looking only at her hair, searching out the silver and pearl heads of the pins.
Her hair was such a vibrant copper colour and a mass of tight curls that tumbled on to her shoulders as the pins came free. He collected the pins in the palm of one hand. Then walked over and put them beside their other items.
Bedding a whore had never been like this. Charlotte engendered a need to be solicitous.
Yet he still wanted to be in the bed with her.
He turned and walked back, his hands lifting. He wanted to touch her hair. He held the curls and rubbed the strands between his fingers. The colour glistened in the sunlight from the window, changing as amber did when the sun shone through it. His gaze turned to her face and then his fingers clasped, closing about her hair, at her shoulders, as he leant to kiss her.
Her mouth opened as his did and her tongue reached forward to play with his while her hands came to the back of his head.
He pulled away and looked down at the buttons on the front of her dress, then began undoing them.
She started working the brass buttons on his coat free. Her hands were still trembling but they worked with the haste that he felt in his blood as he hurried too.
This was more like the encounters he was used to.
When she had undone his coat her fingers slipped beneath it and ran over his cotton shirt. The sensation was abrasive on his skin in a way that was arousing. It was the first time a woman had touched him like that while his clothes were on.
He undid her buttons to below her waist, then pushed her dress off her shoulders. ‘Help me take it off.’
She smiled in that shy way she had on occasion as she pulled her arms free from the sleeves, then he helped her get the dress over her petticoats.
‘Turn,’ he requested.
She did so, and then he undid the tapes holding her petticoats in place and once she was free of those and they were set aside he began unlacing her corset. She breathed heavily as he worked, sounding anxious as well as awkward. Yet she had kissed him just as any whore would kiss and unbuttoned his coat with a haste any whore might have.
When her corset was put aside he took off his coat and his shirt. She stripped off her stockings.
‘Take off your underwear and jump into the bed,’ he said as he sat down on the end of the bed to remove his boots.
A nervous sound escaped her throat that seemed to pretend laughter as she slid down her drawers and pulled her chemise off quickly, before lifting the sheet and blanket and slipping beneath them. Her body was pink with what he guessed was embarrassment. So odd for a whore.
She smiled at him with that essence of shyness as she held the covers up to her neck, no matter that it was a warm day.
He smiled too and continued smiling as he pulled off his boots, hoping to ease any anxiety she had. Then he stripped off his trousers, underwear and stockings all in one, so that he was naked too, before turning to find his sheath out of his coat. He slid it on, then smiled even more broadly as he climbed beneath the covers with her. The feeling in his chest was warm and full. It was no longer tight or painful. It was ready to know freedom and pleasure—with this woman.
He had never cared about it being with any particular woman before. But there was a sense of excitement that the woman would be Charlotte.
Her hand lifted to the back of his head and braced his skull through his hair as his hand reached to the place between her legs. He stroked her there as they kissed. He had never been selfish with women; he’d always ensured they had pleasure too. The experience was better for them both if that was the case.
~
Harry had dressed himself in something, but he had not immediately turned her on to her back and invaded her, neither with his body nor his fingers. He was just touching her, stroking.
His mouth lifted from hers then his head lowered and he kissed the edge of her breast.
‘What did you put on?’
He looked up. ‘A sheath.’
‘Oh. Why?’
His smile said she was being foolish and that she ought to understand. ‘To protect you from the risk of a child and us both from disease.’
She wanted to ask what disease, but he had thought her naïve for asking about the sheath and now was not the moment as his