His thumb found her hidden nub, and he teased it.
Sensation smashed through her.
She’d never experienced anything so delicious, so heady. She bucked her hips against his hand as she gripped his broad shoulders. By the gods, she thought she was going to come apart at the seams. She wanted more, needed it.
Matthias slid a second digit into her, stretching her.
Sapphire winced, and he eased back, holding her close as he stroked the softness deep inside her.
Each touch sent shards of heat radiating through her, igniting her, building an unrelenting need deep in her core. She wanted him. Wanted him to fill her, to take her, to quench the all-encompassing desire he was creating within her.
The pain didn’t matter.
She tried to tell him, but her words twisted into moans as her breath came faster and her head fell back against the pillow. Desire roared through her, building, climbing, her entire body drenched in pleasure.
But she wanted more. Needed it. Was reaching for something, but she didn’t quite know what.
“Matthias,” she whispered, his name escaping her lips over and over in an almost prayer-like incantation as she rode the wave of building need.
His lips caught hers, drinking in her words as his tongue plunged into her mouth and mimicked the motion of his hand.
Desire burned hot and bright, rushing forward. Pushing her higher and higher. She reached, grasped, and finally the pleasure exploded forth in the brilliance of satisfied need.
Sapphire clung to her husband as wave after wave crashed through her. Then her body softened with the exquisite glow of satiated desire, and she sank back into the soft mattress.
Lying beside her, Matthias gathered her to him.
Sapphire awoke with Matthias warm and strong beside her and one of his arms draped protectively over her. She snuggled closer to him as thoughts of the previous night teased her.
She understood enough of such things to know they hadn’t yet consummated the marriage. That had to happen so her grandfather couldn’t annul it.
More than that, a growing part of her wanted to experience all parts of marriage, including the parts her mother had warned her were so unpleasant.
She touched the pendant she still wore and thought of her father. How alive he’d been. How his presence had filled a room.
And how one day he’d simply been gone.
Just like Sapphire’s mother.
She still blamed her grandfather, and if he’d kill his own daughter, Sapphire figured the only reason she was alive was because her death meant charity would get her father’s fortune.
Lord Henry Carsons wanted that fortune, and now Sir Matthias stood between him and it. While Sapphire didn’t think her grandfather would kill a Knight of Valor, there was a chance Lord Carsons would try to annul her marriage to Sir Matthias if he could.
She doubted the Dragon Church would permit such a thing unless the two people married requested it, but maintaining her purity wasn’t worth the risk. The sooner she divested herself of it to her husband, the better.
While she was still a virgin, she wasn’t as innocent as she’d been.
Yet she didn’t feel dirty or polluted, as her mother had warned. And while there had been a bit of pain for a moment, the pleasure had more than made up for it.
Maybe that just meant Rashalee had more of a hold on her than Sapphire had thought.
Sapphire stared at the wall as her mother’s words played through her thoughts. Maybe she was as much her father and grandfather’s flesh and blood as her mother had feared.
While Captain Gregory Darrington had left a madam in his will, Sapphire had never learned what her grandfather had done that terrified her mother so much. Most likely because Julianna Darrington feared retribution for divulging such a secret.
What if Sapphire did take after the darker sides of her family? Would she disgust Sir Matthias? Make him regret having married such a creature?
Her mother had warned her that she would repulse any respectable gentleman unless she suppressed all such sinful desires. But Sapphire wasn’t sure her mother was correct when it came to Sir Matthias. Especially not after the previous night. Maybe things were different with farmers’ sons than nobles.
Sapphire pulled her husband’s arm tighter around herself. She didn’t want to lose him. Not now, not ever.
And she wouldn’t. Not without a fight.
Much to her grandfather’s chagrin, she didn’t give up easily.
She hadn’t when her father had died. When her mother had died. Or when her grandfather had tried to convince her she was losing her mind.
She was not about to give up on something she wanted this much now. If being righteous and pure meant being like her mother or her grandfather, then to the seven hells with purity. Sir Matthias deserved what Thomas and Celena had, what his parents had.
But he deserved it with someone who wasn’t as polluted and corrupted by Rashalee as Sapphire was.
Sir Matthias’s eyes opened, and he touched his lips to hers. A soft kiss, but already the first embers of desire stirred within her.
“You’re up early.” His breath whispered over her bare shoulders.
“I have a hard time sleeping in beds that aren’t mine.”
He tickled his fingers over the length of her bare arm and kissed the back of her neck. “I should get up and help with the morning chores.”
“I should help, too.”
Sir Matthias brushed his lips over her shoulders. “You should rest. It’s going to be a busy day. All of my brothers and their families will stop over, as will anyone in town who might need healing.”
“Sounds busier than Duchess Valerian’s ballroom.”
“An apt comparison.” Sir Matthias kissed the column of her neck, then slid out of bed. He dressed hurriedly in the dim light, brushed his lips over her temple, then slipped out of the room.
Nestling deeper into the blankets, Sapphire watched him leave. She pulled the covers up to her chin, and while the blankets still held his heat and scent, cold tickled along her spine.
Of course he was happy to be home. Happy to see his family. His abrupt departure had nothing to do with her.
She hoped.
She sank back into the pillow and sighed. She was mucking this up, but she had no idea how to show him what she felt, how to explain to him that she would try to resist Rashalee’s pull while still being a good wife to him.
And she’d already asked so much of him already.
Feeling sorry for herself would accomplish nothing. Sapphire whispered a prayer to the Twin Goddesses to help her find her path, then kicked off the blankets and padded over to the trunk she’d brought with her. Pulling out her simplest frock, she dressed herself as well as she could and headed downstairs.
Leanne was already bustling about in the kitchen with Celena helping her. Both women appeared surprised when they saw Sapphire, but they buried it under warm smiles.
“Gotta be famished,” Leanne said as she set a plate of biscuits and sausage gravy in front of Sapphire.
The rich smell made Sapphire’s stomach rumble, and she closed her eyes as she savored the flaky biscuit. After her third bite, Sapphire glanced at the door. “Did Sir Matthias leave?”
“Went out with Thomas this morning to help mend fences along the south pasture.”
Sapphire said nothing as she focused on the biscuit.
Leanne plucked up a plain linen scarf and tied it over her head. “Going to have Lilly help me gather eggs.”