He rolled off of her. Those weren’t the words he wanted to hear.
Take me, Dex. I’m yours.
Those were the right words. And he could wait to consummate this marriage until he heard them.
“Is something wrong?” she asked softly.
“It’s late. You’ve had your lessons in pleasure for the evening. I’ll leave you now.”
He grabbed his clothes and boots and left her there.
His bed was cold. Ana-less.
Sleep, when it finally came, was filled with dreams of flame-licked hair, pleasure-hazed green eyes, and his name spoken on a breathy moan.
Chapter Twenty-Three
She kneeled in awe at Gaethryn’s feet, which hovered above the mossy banks and twinkled in the darkness.
“Amsonia. A name that means Blue Star. Come closer, my dear. I want to look at you.”
Though she was struck nearly dumb by the Faery Queen’s starry beauty and frightened by her protective cadre of unicorn guards, it was imperative that she receive an answer to the burning question at hand. She crept closer.
“O my queen! However does one turn a dragon to one’s bidding?”
—The Dragon and the Blue Starby Analise Crewe
Ana awoke in her bed. Alone. He’d said he’d never spend the night with her, that it was against the rules.
She’d work on that—find a way to make him stay. She’d just have to make him so exhausted that he fell asleep. Her whole body hummed with aftershocks of pleasure. They hadn’t consummated the marriage, but surely they’d done everything else. Or at least he’d done everything else to her. She hadn’t been allowed to touch him.
Why hadn’t he consummated the marriage last night? She’d gotten the impression that his experience had been less pleasurable than hers, in terms of... what had he called it? Climax. She’d had several... he’d had none.
He held himself so firmly in check. Preferring to always be in control. He was a wounded warrior, wrapped up in his codes of honor, wearing his rules like a badge, his silence like a shield. Giving orders instead of conversing, as if he were still on the battlefield. Perhaps he was, in his mind. Maybe he’d never left his position as cavalry commander.
All the rules he’d made—she couldn’t touch him, he visited her only in darkness, he would never sleep the night with her in her bed.
She had agreed to the terms of this marriage of convenience. She had agreed that it wasn’t a love match. He had pretended to be her invented fiancé to save her reputation and gain her the publishing contract she’d wanted for so long. And she’d agreed to attempt to give him an heir.
She wasn’t a sophisticated, beautiful society lady born and bred to be his duchess. She was unpolished, brash of speech, all clashing freckles and red hair. She never moderated her speech. She wasn’t the least bit diplomatic. She should be hosting balls and foreign dignitaries and being a duchess. She should be grateful that he wasn’t demanding she be someone she wasn’t. She was luckier than many.
And yet... the love matches. The true love matches. His friends the Duke and Duchess of Osborne—Dalton and Thea. The way they smiled at each other, the way they argued with such laughing familiarity.
His rules were a challenge flag thrown down. And she was not one to back down from a challenge.
“Good morning, Your Grace,” Tessie said, pulling the bed-curtains aside.
“I told you not to call me that,” Ana said with a yawn. “I’ve never been graceful in my life. You called me Ana in London, please continue to do so here.”
“I’ll try to remember, Your... Ana. I suppose it’s the castle, so grand a setting! I can hardly believe we’re here. And how are you this morning?” Her question was laced with other questions, about how she’d fared during the wedding night, about why the duke wasn’t still in her bed.
“I could use some chocolate.”
“It’s a good thing I brought a pot with me then.” She helped Ana out of bed and into a silk robe and cozy slippers.
Ana sipped the chocolate, sweetened with sugar and frothy with milk, remembering how she’d used to think that drinking chocolate must be one of the most satisfying pleasures available to a girl.
Now she knew otherwise. It was still delicious... but it paled in comparison to the secrets she’d learned last night. Some things in life were actually better than chocolate.