London, England – 1815

Following Anna into the room, John walked almost timidly. A part of him whispered that she might change her mind and ask him to leave. He would, the second she said a word, but he prayed she would not. His heart beat two separate rhythms as one desperately craved the opportunity to seduce her with the passion that enflamed him. The other side warned of the penny dropping and the chance that he could lose it all with one wrong step.

One such step, he saw as if that future played before him, would leave him frozen in the doorway. He would stand stock still, the internal battle playing over his face in almost comical relief, and leave Anna confused. Fumbling his words he would leave them both tripping over one another to try and explain. The work they already put in would crumbled under the weight of their deception and their expectations. John, head hung, would slink off to his room and spend who knew how many hours and days trying to repair the damage.

Or, perhaps, she would understand. Perhaps she would ask him not to leave and he could save the moment. It would be softer, more timid, but he might leave her satisfied. But then the mouse-like nature of the encounter would lend to the frustration Anna expressed in microcosm earlier about John's lack of initiative. A lack that, despite his words to the contrary, would seem to say he felt less than he claimed to when it came to Anna.

Either way, John's mind worked out in a second, the results would bungle the golden opportunity on whose ledge he now stood. The cusp of the rest of their relationship. A Rubicon that he could not afford to cross the wrong way.

With a square of his shoulders, and a deep breath to tramp down on any inhibitions that might whisper against him, John closed the doors behind him. The snap of them half twisted Anna to assess the source of the noise but John was there, a hand at the back of her neck to hold her steady while the other held her waist, and his mouth was on hers. It took a second for Anna to catch up but the second she did her fingers pressed into his hair and her fingers curled at the back of his scalp to keep herself steady at the sensation of John's tongue slipping between her lips.

They stood in the middle of the room, wrapping a bit closer as the kiss continued, until the need for air finally forced them apart. Anna's fingers grazed the back of John's head as she kept herself close to him and John could not stop himself bringing his hand from her hip to her face to stroke the skin there. A smile spread over Anna's face and she gave a breathy laugh.

"And here I thought I'd have to drag you into my rooms."

"I'll never refuse a request from you."

"Never?"

"Not if I can help it."

Anna's other hand slid up the material of John's coat, rasping slightly as her fingers traced the embroidery there. "Then I'll not misuse that power."

"Thank you." John's thumb ran over Anna's cheekbone. "I'd be weak before you. All you'd have to do is ask and I'd move the earth to make it happen."

"Just the earth?"

"Heaven too if I could manage it."

"And what could I have ever done to deserve that level of devotion?"

"You are…" John's breath caught. "Because you're here."

"That's all it took?"

"That's all it'll ever take."

"Then I've a request," Anna's fingers curled into John's coat to pull herself closer to him. "Kiss me again and then show me how to have more."

John's hand slid from the back of Anna's neck to form around her jaw so his two hands cupped her face. The gentleness of his hold belied the passion of the kiss. So much so that Anna moaned into his mouth and contorted to hold herself closer to John. One of his hands fell from her jaw to hold at Anna's hip. But even then the grip proved insufficient and John's hand went to Anna's leg, holding under her thigh as she lifted it instinctually against his leg.

Putting her knee at his hip, Anna wrapped around him and John could not stop himself as his hips bucked toward her. Anna broke their kiss at that. For a second John feared, his grip flexing as if he would need to release her in a moment at the first sign of her hesitation.

"I…"

"If you want to stop…"

"No. I…" Anna swallowed and her hand at the back of John's neck moved down to hold at the lapel of his jacket. "I want to keep going. I just… I need…"

"I won't hurt you."

"I know." Anna met his eyes and her fingers, still in their blue gloves, firmed their grip on his lapels. "I just need you to show me."

John pivoted them. With his lips meeting Anna's again, to distract her from the edge of her fear back to something she knew. Back to somewhere she could lead them, John put Anna back against the doors to her room. She gasped out at the impact but immediately returned to the kiss John pressed on her, the silk of her gloves now sliding over John's jaw as his hand at her leg drew the satin material of her silver dress up her leg to expose it.

There he paused, distracted by the sight of her skin, and their chests pressed together as the harshness of their breathing filled the space. John leaned his head to Anna's shoulder for a second before raising it to meet her eyes. "Do you want to continue? Is this what you want?"

"I…" Anna closed her eyes a second. "I think…"

"Because if you don't, I won't go further." John's fingers loosened ever-so-slightly on her leg. "Say it and that'll be all."

"If that's what I want?" Anna's eyes met his.

"Yes." John swallowed, "Because I want, desperately, to show you more. To give you more. But I want you to be sure."

"I'm not…" Anna shook her head, her fingers curling into his lapels again and tugging on them slightly before she looked back at John. "I want this. I may not understand it but I know I want this. I want what I know you'll give to me."

"Then I'll give you all I can." John kissed her, dotting them in a trail over her jaw and neck as his hand slid over her thigh. "I'll do everything in my power to give you anything. Ask it and it's yours. Whisper for it and I'll do it. Whatever you even dream about I'll grant you if I can."

"Kiss me again."

Anna's hands fluttered at John's jaw and he returned to meet her lips as his fingers grazed higher toward her undergarments. Those he managed, fumbling slightly and almost braking their kiss, but he continued. With his fingers skimming over the skin of Anna's abdomen. John tried to split his focus between the kiss that Anna controlled with her teeth dragging over his lips and the progress of his fingers. He finally surrendered to Anna's work on their kiss when his fingers met the beginnings of Anna's dewed reaction to the intensity of their kisses.

The brush of his fingers there pulled Anna back. She gasped out and John fought himself from freezing. He beat back the part of himself eager to proclaim Anna's reaction as fear and rejection and focused instead on the confusion, the interest, and the trepidation of one curious but fearful of failure.

"Do you want me to stop?" John's voice, barely a whisper, almost deafened him to the thud of his heart in his chest or the rush of blood running through his ears. His fingers skimmed her skin again and Anna arched instinctively into the motion as her leg tightened at his hip.

"No." Anna breathed out, her hands finding their places on his lapels again the way a rider finds the reins of a horse. "I don't… Tell me what this is."

"It's your body readying itself."

"But we're not-"

"Not this time." John assured her and noted the slightly relaxation of Anna's shoulders at the words. "But your body doesn't know that. It doesn't know yet that if I do this…"

John's fingers ran through her folds, an adjustment of angle sliding her undergarments down her legs to allow him access. Anna shivered in his hold at that and then whimpered when John brought his slicked fingers up to Anna's nerves to rub gently there. "When I do this, it tells your brain to experience pleasure."

"I want…" Anna's fingers curled to the point they shook as they held to John. His hand between her legs moved and he sucked on his fingers as Anna's eyes fluttered open. Her pupils dilated and John brought his other hand to replace the first so he could repeat the motion.

Her leg at his hip tightened and his first hand returned to her thigh, offering a modicum of support there before slipping back to hold at her ass. With his fingers gliding slowly between her folds, Anna's eyes fluttered shut and her hips twisted against him a moment. John smiled to himself and leaned forward, putting his mouth to Anna's ear as he continued the work of his fingers.

"What do you want Anna?"

"More. I want… More." She keened when he kissed down the column of her neck and slid one finger inside her. For a moment she tightened, her entire body rigid, but then her hands clawed at his back. The sliding rasp of silk over the velvet of his coat ended in Anna almost ripping the coat forward on his shoulders when John added another finger while his thumb pressed gently at her clit.

With his two fingers inside her and his thumb rubbing at her clit, John used his other fingers in irregular stroking motions along the outside of her folds. The formless gyration of Anna's hips against his hand, the body's instinct to move and react fighting against Anna's inexperience, left John wishing his own hips could join hers. But he fought back against the urge to react as he whispered again at Anna's ear between kisses.

"Your body knows what to do. Let it move."

"But I… I don't know… I want…" Anna's growl of frustration preluded another gasping moan. "What's going on?"

"You're reach the rise. Your body's ready to release pleasure." John worked his fingers deeper and moved his thumb against Anna as his other hand flexed against her ass. "Let go."

Anna cried out her finish, her body trembling and her muscles quivering as she leaned against John. Her head leaned back against the door, John taking advantage of her exposed throat to kiss over it as she fought for breath and he slowly withdrew his fingers from the clenching cling of her clutching vaginal muscles. The slow massage allowed him the opportunity to bring Anna back from the edge as her eyelids fluttered and her breathing returned to normal.

At least until John pulled his fingers into his mouth again. He grinned at the taste of her on his tongue again, noting the way Anna's pupils dilated again. Withdrawing his fingers, John released his hold on Anna's ass and stepped back.

"Did I satisfy, Your Grace?"

"Yes." Anna barely breathed and her breath hitched again when John crowded close to her again, giving in to the temptation to press close to her so she could feel the evidence of his arousal. "What… What are you-"

"There's more…" He looked up at her, "If you'd like."

"I don't think I'm ready for…"

"Not that, not yet." John removed his coat and tossed it to land on a chair before looking back at Anna. "Only if you want."

"I want more."

John reached down and took one of Anna's hands. Gripping just the tip, John carefully drew the glove off Anna's arm. He repeated the motion with her other arm and dangled the gloves from between his fingers to drop them on the vanity next to the door. Anna did not speak as John removed his complicated tie and cufflinks before rolling back the sleeves of his shirt.

The intake of breath from her had John moving slowly as he unclipped the blue cape from Anna's shoulders and slowly turning her to ensure he did not catch it on anything as he drew the fabric away from her body. He snorted to himself as he draped it over the same chair with his coat.

"Shame?"

"What?" Anna's dazed voice brought John back to his task and he returned to her, carefully slipping the delicate buttons free from the back of her gown.

"It's a shame we don't know one another better." John's hands slowly slid the material of the dress from Anna's arms and left the top half of the dress bunched at Anna's hips before he lowered to his knees to pull it down to the floor.

"Why's that?" The breathiness of Anna's response had John biting the edge of his tongue to distract from the tightening of his trousers at the sound.

"Because if we knew one another better, I'd offer…" John stopped himself.

"Offer what?"

"I'd offer to show you everything tonight if you only wore that cape about yourself." John reached up and unbuttoned Anna's slip and then tugged it and her undergarments down her legs before offering Anna his hand so she could step free. "But there's time for that later."

"Is there?" Anna's gaze flicked between herself, wearing only her chemist and corset while John stood mostly clothed.

"Of course." John paused. "Do you wish to continue?"

"Yes. I…" Anna looked over John. "I want it to be a bit more fair."

"I can manage that." John stepped back and quickly unbuttoned his waist coat and shirt, stripping them off and leaving them to the side. His boots went next and even the inelegance of removing his socks did not deter Anna. He returned to her and, using only tactile sensation, managed to free her of her bodice so only the wisp of her chemise remained.

Her hands stopped his when he went to remove it. They quivered over his and John twisted his grip to hold them. He kissed the backs of her hands and met her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"You're not…" Anna swallowed. "If you remove this then I'll be naked and you'll see me and you're not…"

"Still not fair?" Anna nodded and John smiled. "I promise I'll remove my trousers but I… I can't remove my undergarments yet."

"Why not?"

"Because, for the moment, I'm showing you more."

"Would you naked not be more to show me?"

John forced himself to swallow as a way to distract his brain from immediately kissing Anna senseless and possibly pushing further than she wanted to go. Another swallow and a deep breath finally overpowered the primal desire to take advantage of the part of Anna goading John to focus on the part of her still unsure of their relative positions. With a final breath, John kissed the backs of Anna's hands… A bit harder than he intended but it was enough to focus him.

"I promise I will… After I've shown you more for yourself. Once I show you more of me…" John coughed, "It'll be different."

"It's already different."

"Different in another way." John brought Anna closer to him. "If I show you all of me, it's a portent of what happens when we're fully together. I don't want to rush you and I don't want to frighten you. I want you to be ready for that."

Anna met his eyes and nodded. "I trust you."

"Then I'll go first." John released her hands and removed his trousers. He noted the slight gasp as Anna inevitably caught the outline of his erection straining against the material of his undergarments and nodded. "That's why."

"Does it hurt?"

"Only if I let it." John stepped closer to Anna and held the edges of her chemise. "May I?"

Anna nodded and he lifted it over her head. It caught for a moment on the pins and once John left the fabric on the floor, he distracted himself from the sight of Anna to remove the pins holding her hair in place. With it loose about her shoulders, some of it still curling to follow the form it held for so many hours, John ran his fingers through it and tried to distract himself from the soft sighs of pleasure Anna gave at the sensations he evoked. Sensations that radiated in him when he caught sight of her bare ass, her hip, and then her breasts in full view as he came around to face her again.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." Anna pulled herself closer to John, shivering when the pads of his fingers touched her bare skin, and sighing as he stroked at her hips, her sides, and her back. "What happens next?"

"This." John dropped and scooped Anna up, carrying her as they laughed together for the steps it took to reach her bed, and carefully positioned her atop it. "I didn't get the chance when we married."

"It's better now." Anna moved as if to cover herself but John caught her hand, kissing down her arm as he pressed and urged her back toward the pillows.

"Much better now." John agreed and kissed over her shoulders as he knelt above Anna.

He took his time. Despite the thought that they had scheduled an early morning. Despite the obligations on their time. Despite everything that advised anything but Anna's pleasure. None of it mattered as John's hands and mouth moved over Anna's body to learn it as he lavished her in affection.

Stroking massages, adoring kisses, and even the occasional nip at ticklish skin left Anna almost boneless with relaxation above John. He brought her to the point of speechlessness when he spent considerable time at her breasts. Her fingers dug into his hair, changed the natural lay of the strands, and then left marks on his scalp when his fingers returned to her folds to glide there while his tongue continued tasting at her nipples.

But eventually John trekked lower. He let his lips smooth and soothe over the skin of Anna's abdomen, placed matching kisses on both hips, and left glistening streaks on the insides of her thighs from his kisses and the occasional dart of his tongue. Glistening skin that had no competition until John put his lips around Anna's clit and traced it with his tongue.

She cried out, her hips jerking, and John adjusted his position. With her legs over his shoulder and his hand elbows holding around her thighs, John used his hands on Anna's hips to stop her arching too far off the bed. Confirmed in the position, John commenced with his mouth at her folds.

If Anna's body responded to the work of John's fingers and his kisses, then it practically begged for release under the efforts of his tongue. Eventually he added his fingers, trying to reach deeper inside Anna as a way to help her find her pleasure faster. But when his fingers slid across a patch of skin inside her, Anna almost shrieked with pleasure.

John focused his energies there. He kept his tongue languid in its stroking over her folds while his fingers drew out her pleasure, urging her toward a climax that promised higher and stronger rewards than the one before. And when Anna did come, almost sobbing with relief as her entire body shivered and quivered with release, John licked and sucked her through it.

"You… I…" Anna scrunched her eyes closed as John lifted his head.

The slow withdraw of his fingers from her, matched with occasional kisses to her skin or a suck at her clit, had Anna's breath hitching while her chest caved for deep breaths. John slid back, rolling his neck to try and ease the trapped tension there, and sucked his fingers clean while Anna watched. She did not move, did not speak, and did nothing but flick her gaze to John's undergarments. It was only a moment but John twitched at the unspoken command.

A twitch Anna noted.

Working his way off the bed, John dropped his drawers and stood before Anna a moment. Part of his was glad her own orgasms left her speechless. The inevitable whisper of inadequacy rose like a leviathan at the back of his mind. But he forced his hands to remain at his sides. She had stood before him, divested of all the protections clothing offered, and he would be damned if he did not do the same.

Anna's breathing hitched and John stepped forward to get back on the bed. He leaned back, sitting on his knees, and waited for Anna to make the next move. Despite the tight pain of his arousal, and the desire to take himself in hand and release, John stayed still as Anna pushed herself to sit upright on her bed.

"Does it… Is it always like that?"

"No. This is because…" John swallowed, "This is how my body tells me I'm ready for what comes next."

"But shouldn't your body know?"

"No."

"Is it painful?"

"Only if I don't do anything about it."

Anna's tongue darted out, "How… How do you do something about it?"

"Similar to how I did something about yours."

"You can… But it's…" Anna shook her head. "I don't understand."

"Do you want me to show you?" Anna nodded and John crawled to her side. Taking one of her hands, John used his other to bend Anna's legs enough so they opened as if she were about to sit with them folded in front of her.

"The same way you can do something about your own." John guided Anna's hand between her legs. "Simply do what I did."

"I… I can't." Anna held John's gaze, "They're not your hands."

"Or my tongue." John leaned forward to whisper in Anna's ear as his other hand found hers and brought it to rest on his erection. "But my hands aren't yours either and sometimes you've no choice but to make do."

"You've never felt my hands." Anna gasped out slightly as John's hands over hers guided her in two places. One at her folds, sliding through the slick wetness left over there, and the other caressing and learning the details of his arousal.

"No. But I've imagined they were yours for far longer than I should've." John kissed where Anna's jaw met her neck. "And it doesn't compare to how your hand feels now. Nothing ever will."

Anna turned her face to meet John's and kissed him as his fingers guided hers deeper into herself. Her hips bucked, triggering a similar reaction in John's when the instinct had her hand wrapping around him. He bucked again when she squeezed and their kiss broke as Anna's hand moved away from him.

"I didn't… I'm sorry."

"It's alright." John backed away, leaving Anna's hand between her legs but shifting so she could watch him. "Let me show you."

He watched her watching him as he leaned forward and slid his fingers over hers between her legs. Massaging with her a moment, John noted the flutter of Anna's eyelids before they settled when he left her completely to her own devices at managing her pleasure. Then he stopped himself grinning at how her eyes widened when he used his glistening hand to rub and run over himself before commencing a rhythm to ease his arousal.

Almost on instinct, John noted Anna's hand moving between her legs again. She did not reach out to him but his hand completely captivated her gaze. When he sped his motions her own hand increased speed, when he rubbed his thumb over his slit to spread the dampness there, her fingers found her nerves and learned to press and rub them. And as John's arousal thickened and hardened in time with the speed and strength of his strokes, Anna's breath huffed in time to the rise of her climax.

She came first. John almost bit through his tongue just to watch it happen but he stalled himself to the point of pain to watch Anna succumb to pleasure at her own hand. And, using the image of her face when she climaxed, John finished himself. The mess of his finish necessitated an explanation but once he managed to clean up the both of them- he taking his time to wash over Anna and even impart a fourth, less intense, climax with his mouth- the chimes of the clock finally reached his ears.

"We've… We need to be on the road in a few hours." John gathered his things, and tried to straighten Anna's as she still lay prone on the bed. "But if you need… We can delay a day if you'd like."

"I can sleep in the carriage if I need to." Anna smiled at him, still leaning back against her headboard as John approached her, his clothes over an arm while his boots dangled trapped between his fingers. "That was…"

"Wonderful?"

"Magnificent." Anna looked over John and he almost flushed at her scrutiny. "You were magnificent."

"An artist is only ever as good as his canvas." John went to leave but Anna's voice stopped him.

"Stay."

"What?"

"Stay." She shifted, "We've not really… We'll be sharing beds in public houses and we've not practiced."

"I guess we haven't." John flailed a moment, looking for where to leave his things before abandoning them on the same chair with Anna's clothes. "But I'm naked and you're…"

"I think it would help our image. And I…" Anna allowed herself a smile. "I find I don't mind the possible gossip the servants might spread at the sight of us naked together in my bed."

"Then I should… I should warn you." John swallowed and pointed at his now slack self. "Sometimes, especially in the morning, I'll be aroused."

"For no reason at all?"

"Sometimes." John shrugged, "It could be a dream or the morning or simply a reaction to something else I don't know."

"Is that a problem?"

"I don't want it to worry you or upset you." John swallowed, "It won't mean I expect us to move forward from this point. I still respect your conditions and if you're not ready then it won't-"

"I didn't think you'd press me." Anna moved under the covers of the bed and left them open for John. "And while it may surprise me it's also an opportunity."

"Opportunity?"

"To see if I could pleasure you like you did me." Anna's smile only turned more devious when John's arousal immediately perked. "It wouldn't be hard to try."

"It'll be hard." John let out a breath and climbed into the bed near her. "But I'll await your interests, Your Grace."

"I'm very interested, Your Grace." Anna responded and leaned forward. "Do I still get my kiss goodnight?"

"I can manage that."

With his hand along Anna's jaw, his other hand pressing into the mattress on Anna's bed, John brought their swollen lips together.