AN: Hey! This fic is on someone's recommended list somewhere, isn't it? Because it hasn't updated since March and it still gets more hits than anything else from my back catalogue. To everyone who has recommended it and to everyone who has dropped me a comment about it. Thank you. I missed writing it. I missed these two and their banter.
Engagement Announcement
She was partially dressed when Will barged into the room. Her chemise and corset in place but her dress still hung up by the wardrobe. The maid gave him a wide eyed look like she was the one being barged in on while in a state of undress and Will stopped and took a deep breath. The girl was fussing with some piece of linen, probably a petticoat though even after four months of being married, Will still couldn't reliably identify everything a woman wore under her skirts.
Tessa did not flinch. Instead, she raised her eyebrows at him and gave him a little smile. Her cheeks coloured but she didn't ask him to leave. She sent the maid off on some errand, claiming she could finish dressing on her own. She didn't. As soon as the door closed, she just turned to face Will wearing the corset and the slip of fabric below it and nothing else. It almost distracted him from the conversation he had had with his sister.
Cecily had taken up double handed swords because, Will suspected, someone had told her it was too difficult to learn with barely a year of training. He had allowed himself to be bullied into twice weekly practice sessions before breakfast which had meant getting up while Tessa was still curled up in the blankets and going to let Cecily hack at him with practice swords for an hour. He hadn't, on the whole been enjoying it.
"Is this important?" Tessa asked once the door had closed.
"My sister plans to announce her engagement today," Will said.
"And that news couldn't wait for breakfast?" Tessa asked.
"I was quite distraught about it a moment ago," Will said.
"What changed your mind?" she asked.
"You," he said.
"Before you get that look on your face," she said crossing the room to catch his chin in her hand and turn his wandering eyes back up to meet hers, "Admit that you do actually approve of this match and are just being a melodramatic child because you hate to let anything go."
"She's the child. She is too young," Will said.
"No, she's not, or if she is then so are we. She's sixteen, I was a week past my seventeenth birthday when you and I got married," she said.
"He's too old," Will said.
"You're being melodramatic, he's not even twenty," Tessa told him as she shook her head. She was still touching his face and that was distracting too. He wanted to be distracted. He didn't want to think of his baby sister growing up.
Tessa let him go and went to gather up the petticoats Jenny had left on the bottom of the bed and started pulling them on. Her hair was still down and it fell forward as she looked down to adjust the petticoat to where it needed to be. Will had been present for the other side of this process, the one where all these pieces came off but he'd never watched her put them all on. There were things that proper gentlemen didn't watch, even when it was their wife getting dressed.
"I worry about her, is that such a problem?" Will asked.
"It is when you are throwing a fit over good decisions. They have been pretending they aren't courting for almost a year. He cut off a promising placement to Marseilles six months early to come back to London and if you think that had nothing to do with her then you are blind as a bat, Mr. Herondale," Tessa said.
He followed her over to the bed and leaned against the frame to watch what she was doing. She was adjusting where the petticoat sat at her waist and he reached out to help her. That had been his intention but once his hands were against her he spread them over the heavy fabric of the corset and turned her to look at him. She gave him a pointed look.
"I worry about her," Will repeated.
"So does Gabriel and he brings out the best in her even if you pretend you can't see it. This is a good match and you should offer them nothing but congratulations. Have they set a date?" she asked, "I suppose your parents won't be able to come but perhaps we can have a second reception at the house in York after all the official ceremonies have finished up. That might work."
"Stop planning my sister's wedding, she's going to be insufferable while planning it herself for the next however long. No, they have not set a date. But you are right. Gabriel is a decent man," Will said.
Tessa cut him off, "Gabriel is a good man. Say it with me, this is a good match."
"This is not the worst possible match," Will conceded pulling her a little closer to him, "At least Lightworm is not a true worm like his father. Though that isn't much of an endorsement."
"You're being intentionally difficult," she laughed.
"Very well, it is a good match," he made a show of fake gagging at having said the words which made Tessa laugh.
"See, that wasn't so hard," she said reaching up to touch his face. She had meant it as a patronizing gesture. She was patting his cheek like a little boy. She had been halfway making fun of him throughout the entire conversation. He turned his face and kissed her palm. Her smile changed, softening at the edges as her eyes darted down.
"Let's be late for breakfast," Will said.
"I am already halfway dressed," she said shaking her head.
"But you don't really have to take any of it off for this, we aren't going to wreck your hair. I'll do all the work," he said.
"Talking about your sister's engagement makes you think thoughts like that?" she teased.
"By the Angel, no. You half dressed with your hair everywhere makes me think thoughts like that. So many of them that they are crowding out thoughts of Cecily and whatever his name is. I am so distracted I can no longer remember the man's name. This lacy thing is very distracting," Will said tugging on the front of the petticoat so she was pulled in a little closer.
He leaned in, he wanted her to kiss him. Kissing her was nice but being kissed was somehow better. Every time it was better if she was the one who started it. She laughed again and then indulged him. She leaned up and kissed him. He had gotten taller over the last year and had to bend his head down to meet her. A few days ago, a lady in the park while they were walking together had whispered like it was a conspiracy, "The two of you are going to have very tall children, aren't you?" and in spite of all Tessa's fears of being unable to have children, she had laughed at that too.
Will kissed her harder, holding onto her waist and pulling her in as he did. She smiled through the kiss. He could feel her lips pulling up at the corners as she kissed back. He looped an arm around her waist and lifted her up onto the foot board of the bed. It was solid oak and held up by four posters taller than either of them. The canopy overhead fluttered but the bed didn't even creak as it took her weight. She perched on the edge of it, poorly balanced but he was able to hold her in place.
"Mrs. Herondale, that is really quite a lewd position," Will said.
"If you're going to complain, I shall behave like a church matron. Would you like a sermon on your wickedness?" she said trying to close her knees even though he had already stepped into the space between them. He caught one knee and pushed it wider. She spread them and looked up at him with a dangerous smile on her face.
"You couldn't manage that for two minutes before you came after me yourself," Will said. He leaned into her. She was barely balanced and her only options were to fall backwards onto the bed or grab hold of him. She grabbed on, her fingers tightening in his lapels. He was fully dressed and was going to end up rumpled. But he cared less.
She grinned at him. He matched it and said, "But rest assured, I am not complaining."
He started his hand at her knee, pushing the hem of her chemise up to her hip. She wasn't wearing anything under it yet. Her drawers much have been in the pile of white underthings still by the dresser. Will raised his eyebrows at her as though she'd done it on purpose. She gasped as his fingers reached the point between her legs.
She wasn't wet yet so he started slowly. He made a show of licking his finger before reaching down and rubbing circles against sensitive skin. She leaned in until her head fell against his shoulder. She let him hold her up while the rest of her body woke to his touch. Her body was warm and it didn't take long before there was enough wetness there for him to a push a finger into her as she pressed her knees farther apart. She was caught against him. She didn't let go and he kept his fingers moving inside her until she started to squirm.
He tightened his hold on her waist before pushing her over the edge with two fingers inside and his thumb carefully placed outside that opening. She was a miracle of tightening fingers and spasming muscles and low barely controlled gasps. He pressed his face in close to hers and made it last. She was gasping out his name before he pulled his hand away from her.
"You'd never make it as a church matron," he whispered into her ear and she shoved him in the chest with a laugh. They both almost fell as it unbalanced them. He was leaning in too far and she was held up entirely by his arm around her back. Her breathing heaved against the confines of the corset and he pressed a kiss to the swell of her bosom. Her stays were tight, Jenny had been trained in a mundane household where fashion superseded the ability to run and Tessa always complained that she laced too tight. She hadn't fixed it yet and her breathing was suffering for it.
"I want to push you over backwards and keep going," Will admitted.
"Too high here," she said.
He lifted her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he did. He held her for a moment. She wasn't a small person but he was strong enough that he could have held her like this for hours. He nuzzled her ear and she sighed, pressing her face against his neck. He dropped her down on her back on the bed. She lay back and spread her knees. If sitting on the edge of the foot board was lewd, he didn't have the vocabulary for this. She was flushed and her chemise and petticoat were still pushed up past her hips and her eyes were half shut.
He took his pants off and his jacket but left his shirt and tie on. He didn't want to have to redress completely. They were expected at breakfast and Cecily was going to make her absurd announcement. A part of him wanted to refuse. To refuse to face anything that wasn't Tessa. To just lock the door and retreat to bed for the rest of his life. That wasn't possible but he could retreat to bed for a little bit longer.
He pulled her to the edge of the bed and ran his hands over her legs. She was flat on her back and he was still nearly standing. He stopped for a moment before sliding in and waited for her to look at him, to smile, to reach out and brush her fingers along his stomach. She was warm and wet and still a little bit tight as he pushed in to her. He knew her body well enough to start slow.
Her head fell back when he pressed in and her mouth fell open. He was deep enough to make her wince, standing made it possible to slide in farther than he usually did.
"Did that hurt?" he asked. He had frozen when her eyes had fallen shut.
"No," she said.
"Are you telling me the truth?" he asked sliding out just a fraction and then pushing back and getting that same wince.
"It's good, I like it, just not too hard," she said. She pet his stomach without sitting up. Her fingers only able to reach the lower part of his body. Her hands were on his stomach and his hips and the skin there was far more sensitive than he had imagined it being. He was standing still, looking down at her with her too tight corset and her spread thighs.
In over a year of knowing Tessa Gray, in three months of spending every day with Tessa Herondale, he had managed to get over most of his fears of hurting her. He was a Shadowhunter and he was stronger than most people but he was not stronger than Tessa. She wasn't a vulnerable flower he needed to save from every danger. She was something stronger than that.
But knowing that, and looking down at her, vulnerable and wide eyed, wasn't quite the same thing. He leaned down over her and pressed a kiss to her mouth. He was still standing at the edge of the too high, too big bed but being closer helped push away that feeling that he was going to hurt her. She kissed him back. She pushed her fingers into his hair and grabbed hold tight enough to make him wince. She wasn't a shrinking violet. He kissed her and moved his hips.
Leaning over her didn't reduce the angle and she still winced a little as he pressed into her just a little farther than usual. She didn't stop him. She stroked his hair and kissed his mouth and whispered encouraging things in his ear and so he didn't stop. His slowness fell away. Her winces were swallowed by gasps and the way her back arched up into him in spite of the corset.
He came before she did, he leaned in hard and she cried out into his ear as his release ran through him. He caught himself on his elbows on either side of her and breathed hard for a few moments. He was softening inside her and her face was no longer just flushed. It was red and she was pulling in air through an open mouth. He kept his face close to hers and used his hand on the back of her neck to keep her looking at him as he used his fingers to force her to another release of her own.
"Would you like some breakfast?" he asked once they were both breathing normally.
"No," she said.
"I think it would be rude if we didn't go," he said.
"Cecily would forgive us," she said snuggling in and nuzzling his neck just above his collar.
"What Cecily will forgive you and what Cecily will forgive me are not the same things," Will said, "Come now, get dressed."
He didn't pull away. He stayed over her, he kept his fingers between her legs, stroking slow lazy circles that made her groan softly. Her hair was spread all around them. Her flush was retreating and her breathing was coming back down.
"My ribs hurt and I am going to be a mess through breakfast, thanks to you," she said.
He hadn't thought of that. She wasn't going to have time to bathe again before the breakfast bell rang, they were going to be late as it was. That meant she was going to have either skip breakfast entirely or go with the evidence of what they had just done trickling down her thighs.
"We're coming back here after breakfast," Will said, "Don't worry about being a mess."
She had to rush him out of the room and ring for Jenny to get her hair fixed up and the rest of her clothing on. She didn't look like a mess at breakfast. She wore a neat dress in pink and yellow and her hair was coiled up in a simple but elegant fashion. She sat across from him and gave him little looks that made him want to toss the entire meal out and have very different things for breakfast.
Will should have thought his suggestion through a little farther before he said anything. Breakfast was an exquisite sort of torture in which he was too kind to Gabriel, too terse with the servants, couldn't concentrate on a single thing his sister said and only just managed to catch the inappropriate things that wanted to come out of his mouth when he met Tessa's eye. He left Gabriel with the impression he was pleased to hear about the engagement which led to Gabriel being friendly and clapping him on the shoulder while Cecily beamed at everyone.
"Save me," he muttered into Tessa's ear when the meal was finally over.
"Why would I do that?" she asked.
"Because I caught you watching me while the tea was being poured, you need just as much saving as I do," he said.
They escaped the rest of their responsibilities that lurked after breakfast and retreated back to the bedroom. Tessa paused inside the door. She spun and bit her lip. Will leaned in and pulled her lip out of her teeth to hold it in his. She kissed him back before stopping him with a hand flat on his chest and a stern expression on her face.
"Don't wreck my hair, I have an errand at eleven," she said.
"How's your balance?" he asked.
Protecting her hair meant keeping her from being flat on her back and keeping her from having to move too much. They settled with her, fully dressed except for what they absolutely needed to remove to make it possible, sitting up on the foot board. She braced her arms on Will's shoulders and he slid into her again without any preamble. She shivered but her body was warm and wet and didn't need it.
He wanted to press is face into her throat but didn't want to have to risk the coil of hair at the nape of her neck. He pressed their foreheads together instead and kissed her every time she gasped. He was less gentle. This angle didn't allow him to slide in quite as far or maybe she was just too aroused to care but either way she didn't wince as he took her hard and fast. The bed frame creaked around them with each impact. He lasted longer than he had the first time and managed to pull a smothered cry out of her before he came close to his own release.
He used his hand to push her to a second one as he came close. He loved when she came in concert with him, her body shuddering along with his. When they were both done, he pulled her forward and helped her stand. Excepting the pink across her cheeks or her heavy breathing, she looked ready for an errand with a friend. She didn't look debauched though he had done a pretty thorough job of it.
He carefully straightened out her skirt and and tucked a piece of hair back into place while she held herself up with a hand on his shoulder. He put a finger on her chin and closed her mouth.
"You are perfectly respectable, I might even believe that you were a church matron," he said.
"You are incorrigible," she said.
"I am," he said kissing her gently. He was still in a state of undress and she looked him up and down.
"Get dressed, you agreed to go along with Gabriel when he went down to the Fae markets for inspections," she said.
"I didn't," Will sighed, he had, he had been thinking about Tessa when he'd done it but he had said those words, "I did. Damn it. It will take roughly three brownies being rude before I kill either him or one of them."
"If everyone survives, we can do that," she waved her hand to encompass the things they had done that morning, "Before dinner but only if everyone comes back alive."
"You cannot bribe me into good behaviour by offering your body as a reward," he said.
"Well then, as a matron of the church, I will appeal to your better nature and the teachings of the holy book but I still want to do that again before dinner," she said.
Before he could answer that, she gathered up the bits of clothing she had taken off and pressed a kiss to his cheek before disappearing off behind the changing screen. He stared after her and bit his lip hard enough that the pain should have pulled him back down to earth but it didn't. He got redressed and when she darted past him on her way to go get her things together for her errand he caught a kiss.
"I am going to be distracted all day," he said.
"As long as you don't kill your future brother-in-law, you'll manage," she said and the prospect of being Gabriel's brother-in-law made him groan but she was already headed out of the bedroom and he he was left with too vivid imaginings and memories worth being distracted by.