Author's Note: I've done something unprecedented for me. I wrote this entire story before I posted. Yup, the entire thing is finished, complete, ready for regular updates. :) I'll be updating every other day, taking just a day in between for final editing purposes. There is this prologue, six chapters, and an epilogue.
Just an idea I had. This one has been sitting in a notebook for over a year now. What if Cedric and Sofia didn't instantly fall into blissful, sexual heaven on the first try? What if they're bad at it?
Stock disclaimer: I own nothing. And, as always, Sofia is a grown woman, at least 18+ and all that.
Love and Marriage: Prologue
So, that had been ...
Um ...
Bad.
Sofia stared at the blank canopy stretched over the bed, searching for another, kinder word, but finding none. Okay, bad. There really was no other word for it. The whole affair had been painful and messy and the only positive thing she could think was that it had been mercifully brief. Although she suspected that it wasn't supposed to be quite so brief.
With the sheets clutched tight against her naked chest, she chewed on her bottom lip. If she held herself very still, then she could barely even feel the burning ache between her legs. Not the pleasant I-want-you-so-bad-I-must-have-you-now sexyburn of desire. More an ow-ow-sonofabitch-ow burn of pain. At least she hadn't cried. Although she felt like doing so now.
The heavy silence hanging over the room almost made her forget that she wasn't alone in her misery. Carefully, she dared to peek over at the man lying by her side. My husband, she mentally corrected, their new status as husband and wife not but a few hours old. In the waning light she could just make out his profile, the long elegant line of his nose, the lighter color of his bangs. Cedric lay on his back, his eyes closed. She hoped, somewhat desperately, that he was blissfully unaware of her distress. Perhaps he'd fallen asleep, utterly pleased with the results of their first attempt at making love.
She hoped, but ...
The muscle in his jaw jumped as it clenched and his eyes squeezed shut far too tightly for the serene repose of sleep. So, he did know. She recognized what was surely an internal spiral of self-loathing and doubt circling his calculating mind.
Yeah, it had been bad. Terrible. Awful. Disastrous. Perhaps there were some other words for it after all.
She should say something. The silence had gone on too long. It was awkward, right? The not talking. She had to say something. Anything. Frantically, she searched her mind for some appropriate response. But, what could she say? Her normal sunny platitudes didn't seem appropriate.
She cringed as a foreign feeling of inadequacy descended. What was she suppose to say to her husband after something like this? She'd never been married before, let alone been intimate with another, so she didn't know. Her mother had given her a cursory education in what to expect, but not how to react afterwards. It seemed she shouldn't have to be told; she should possess some kind of intuitive sense about these things, but she was coming up distressingly blank. What kind of wife was she? She couldn't even reassure her own husband. Oh god, she didn't know what to say.
She opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. "I'm pretty tired," she said, hardly knowing why, except that it was true, "I think I'll go to sleep."
He made a noncommittal, half strangled sound. Something like, "Uggh."
She hesitated a moment, then rolled over, facing the far wall. He hadn't moved. Barely acknowledged that she'd spoken. She felt so awkward, so out of depth that she couldn't work up the courage to lean over and kiss him good night.
Her own husband.
This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
Author's Note: I know this is a new story to you guys and I should be working on other things, but for me this story is well over a year old. I've been meaning to write it forever. It's light and pithy, no chance it will be turned into another never-ending sequel spawning epic. Since this was just a little teaser, chapter one will be out tomorrow.