Author's Note: This story will be multiple chapters, many of them being M-rated but not all. More will be added as I write them... The title is from a Florence and the Machine song, which contains one of my favorite lines ever: Your heart is the only place that I call home. Thank you to GranthamGal for suggesting this oh-so-perfect title!
Late October, 1921
"Oh, Robert, everything is so beautiful!" Cora exclaimed, her eyes wide and trying to take in every detail.
Robert and Cora Crawley, Earl and Countess of Grantham, had just boarded the Orient Express to Venice in France. They had made the journey from Downton to London, and from London to France – the latter on the luxury British Pullman cars. The trip to Venice had been a birthday surprise from Robert to Cora, and, although her birthday had been in July, they had only just now found the time to take an extended trip.
Hand in hand the couple followed the steward down the train passage on the way to the cabin that would be theirs for the duration of their trip on the Orient Express. Cora had always wanted to travel on the famous train, and she was not disappointed.
"It is beautiful," Robert agreed. "We are going to enjoy this, I think."
The steward stopped in front of a first class cabin, and Robert listened while he explained where everything was and how things worked. Cora stood half listening and half staring in a very unladylike manner at everything around them, keeping her hand in her husband's. No matter how long she had been Countess of Grantham, no matter that she had been an heiress and familiar with the life accompanying that, she seemed to maintain her sense of wonder when she came across anything new and different.
Robert glimpsed her face, which seemed caught in an awestruck spell, and marveled all over again how his sophisticated, refined wife could display such child-like curiosity and appreciation for such things. It was one of the things he loved about her. He smiled, happy that he could make her happy, before turning his attention again to the steward.
After the steward's explanations, Robert attempted to tip him, whereupon the steward told him with utmost politeness that this was done at the end of the journey. So Robert thanked and dismissed him, shutting himself and his wife into the tiny space together.
"Well? What do you think? Do you like it?" he asked, knowing full well by her expression that she loved all of it.
"It's incredible, darling. I can't believe we're actually here and taking a trip on the Orient Express!" she said, excitedly.
Robert pulled his wife closer to him and kissed her cheek. "Happy birthday, my dear." Letting go of her hand, he took off his own coat and hat and then helped her with hers.
Cora sat down, leaning back against the cushions. "Aren't you going to give me any hints about what you have planned for us while we're in Venice?" She grinned at him and patted the seat beside her.
Robert sat next to her and took her hand in his, kissing it. "Not one hint, Cora. It's all a surprise." He smiled. "I've already ordered tea to be brought to us here. What do you want to do for dinner? Dine here or in the dining car?"
"Oh, good, tea. I'm ravenous, darling. As for dinner…." She thought a moment. "It's a difficult decision. On the one hand there is the fascination of seeing everyone and everything in the dining car…." Her eyes shone. "And on the other, there is the most wonderful prospect of having dinner here. And having you all to myself, away from prying eyes." Her eyes shining with a bit more mischief at this.
Chuckling at his wife's penchant for the sort of mischief she enjoyed "away from prying eyes," Robert put a gentle hand on her knee. "You decide, my dear. We have two nights on the train, and we will do whatever you wish. Since it's your birthday trip."
Cora put her hand over top of the one he had on her knee. "I think I'd like you all to myself tonight," she said in a low voice, all but waggling her eyebrows at him.
He grinned at her. "I would like that very much, Cora."
A knock came at the door, and Robert got up to open it and bring in an elaborate tea tray. Cora clasped her hands together, crying out, "Tea cakes!" Her husband looked at her curiously, but shook his head with a laugh and served her tea and cakes.
She ate almost all the tea cakes by herself.
"Careful or you won't be able to eat dinner, my dear!" Robert laughed.
Staring at the empty tray in astonishment, she wiped her mouth with her serviette. "I don't know what's come over me lately. I'm always hungry."
Robert took her hand and kissed it again. "You have just as much as you want, Cora. This trip is your gift, and I want you to be happy."
Cora put down her teacup and gave him a most tender look. "I am happy, Robert. Are you?"
By way of answering her, he pulled her closer and clasped both of her hands in his, gazed at her in open adoration, then gave her a long, lingering kiss. Then he pulled back, smiled, and said, "The only true happiness I know is when you are happy."
Tears came to Cora's eyes at this statement, and she gave him a wide smile, kissing him in return, taking his hands and pulling them around her waist. She felt quite intoxicated in being such a small space with him, the scent of his cologne, the rocking of the train, the luxuriousness of the cabin… and his words to her. How far they had come since they had been first married and she had treasured up any genuine smiles, unguarded looks, intimate glances, or loving gestures from the man she so wanted to share her life – all of it – with. "The only true happiness I know is when you are happy." She wanted to write it on her heart and seal it with… a kiss? No, much more than a kiss.
"Robert," she breathed in his ear as his lips began to travel slowly, deliberately, from her jawline to her throat.
"Mmmmm…" was his only answer, his concentration evident. He wanted her to know the truth, the feeling behind the words he had spoken. For he had not spoken them frivolously. Robert meant them with every fiber of his being, knew that nothing in his life was as important as Cora, the creature he had come to adore, even if he fell short of always appreciating her as he should. He knew it and wanted to make this trip as marvelous for her as he possibly could – to make up for all the times that he had not appreciated her as he knew she deserved.
Moving her hands over his chest, Cora parted Robert's jacket a little more in order to find his nipples through his shirt, running her thumbs across them gently. A guttural noise escaped his throat, before he lifted his head for a moment to exclaim, "Good God, Cora…."
Robert held her eyes with his, and she grinned at the look in them she knew and loved so well. Cora moved her eyes down his body and nearly giggled at the affect she'd already produced in him. He merely tugged at his jacket, throwing it on the floor of the cabin, and placed his hands on her face, kissing her with an intensified yearning. He gradually guided her to lean back upon the seat, his hands roaming over her body.
Somehow, feeling the motion of the train through the seat upon which she reclined heightened her desire, made what her husband was doing to her that much more powerful. She began to wriggle a little beneath him as he fondled her breasts through her dress and ran his hand along her inner thigh. Robert noticed her squirming and whispered a question in her ear, "What do you want, Cora?"
As he lifted his head to look at her, she blushed furiously and lowered her lashes. After all these years, he had come to recognize that look. He gave her a brief nod and a grin before putting his lips next to her ear again, "Your slightest wish is my command, my love."
With that he kissed her again, as he divested her of undergarments and threw those on top of his jacket. When he'd done that, he gazed into her eyes for a long moment before placing his lips and hands on her ankles, working leisurely, tenderly with his mouth and fingers along her calves and up to her thighs, endeavoring to venerate every centimeter of her velvety skin. As he ran tongue and hands up farther, she began fidgeting again, and Robert smiled at this. Finally he placed his hands on her bottom, and touched her with his tongue. She responded immediately, crying out involuntarily and arching herself upward. Feeling himself reacting in kind to her pleasure, he tried to put it out of his head for the moment, wanting so much for Cora to know how much her desires meant to him. He wanted to put her first.
Cora thought she might leave her body, she was feeling such extreme sensations at the attentions her husband was bestowing upon her. Her body bent without her consent, and her mind couldn't form an intelligible thought. All was craving, longing, desire – and the only person who knew how to give her what she needed was him. Emotionally, mentally, and physically, they were linked in a way she only partly understood. And at the moment didn't care to understand….
She shuddered as he began to use his fingers as well as his tongue, the combination driving her nearly insane. In a matter of moments Robert felt her twitch in a manner he knew so well, and it was all he could do not to be pushed over the edge himself. She breathed deeply and then sighed contentedly. "Robert," she said. "Robert." Then she sat up and took his face in her hands, covering it with feathery kisses, then kissing his lips in earnest.
"My darling," he whispered, running his hands down her back.
Cora stood up and drew him up with her, and with a coy smile unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it down his shoulders and onto the growing pile of discarded garments on the floor. She guided his hands to her dress, and within moments he was taking in the sight of a delightfully naked Cora in front of him. "Now…" she said, and knelt in front of him, as he put his hand on the wall for support as the train steadily rocked. She very slowly unbuttoned and removed his trousers, her eyes glazing over a bit as she saw how aroused he was.
"Goodness. I think someone might need some attention of his own." Without another word, Cora rid him of his last garment, and, making sure the door to the cabin was securely locked, she directed Robert to sit down on the seat, as she crawled between his legs. She looked into his eyes as she wrapped a hand around him.
Robert felt his eyes go up into the back of his head. He wanted to say her name, but couldn't form even that word. He leaned back against the seat as she wove her spell over him, adding mouth to hands, but soon he felt that he might not be able to wait much longer, and moaned out, "Cora, please…"
She knew that moan. She grinned and stood in front of him. "Robert?"
He looked up at her, then down her body and up again, feeling all the while like a suppliant in front of a goddess. And then the train gave a violent rock, pitching her forward, onto his lap. "Well. That's one way to do it," she laughed.
Nibbling gently on her ear, he whispered, "What would you like?"
Cora blushed again and buried her head in his neck. Then she responded, very softly, "I want to be close to you. I don't care how."
Placing a finger under her chin, he lifted her head gently and looked into her eyes. "I'm right here."
She smiled before moving herself around so that she was hovering just above him. Cora placed her lips on his as she took him into her. She slowly moved up and down, watching his face reflect his pleasure.
"Cora," he sighed, rubbing her behind as she moved against him. "My love, my all…" He closed his eyes and let her take control, as she appeared to want to do. It wasn't long before he was involuntarily driving himself up to meet her, holding her by the hips and moaning.
Using one hand to play with his nipples each in turn, Cora traced the contours of his face, his lips, with the other. Finally she could hold on no longer and slumped against him, panting. A few more strokes later, and he groaned deeply, pulling her against him and becoming motionless.
Cora held him close to her, feeling their hearts racing together. As they both calmed, Robert kept one arm wrapped around her, and with the other held her own hand. After a few moments, Cora shifted against him and took his hand in both of hers, following the lines on his palm with one of her fingers. "Your heartline," she said, indicating one of them. "It's nearly identical to mine." She put her hand next to his so he could see.
Robert wasn't sure he knew exactly what she was on about, but he liked the implication. "Does it mean we're meant to be?"
She looked up at him with a smile. "I don't know if that's what they mean, but I am certain that we are meant to be."