London, England – 1816

The wooden floor outside the door creaked and John looked up. A moment later the door to his study opened and Anna stood there. Her breath came in huffs and John raised an eyebrow as she approached the desk after closing and locking the study doors behind her.

"Are you alright?"

"How could I be?" Anna reached the other side of John's desk. "How could I possibly be alright after what you did?"

"I don't-" She put a piece of paper on the desk between them and John's face immediately turned into a smile.

"You found my note."

"I did." Anna's fingers flexed against the surface of the desk. "It was buried, rather deftly, amongst other papers I needed to address this morning."

"I do hope you find it an acceptable reward for hard work."

"No, I don't."

John's eyes widened. "You don't-"

"Because nothing's been done, only intimated." Anna left the note and crossed around the desk to stand in the space John left as he pushed himself back as if to stand. She put her hand on his chest and pressed just enough to put him back in his seat. "And that's dangerous."

"Is it?"

"Very." Anna dragged a finger under John's chin as she leaned over him on the chair. "You said, when we were at Bleakbriar, that it was dangerous to give you ideas. Do you remember?"

"I do."

"And yet, here you are, writing salacious notes to give me ideas."

"Foolish me."

"Very foolish." Anna ran her finger down John's neck and over the buttons of his waistcoat. "It means you've forgotten."

"Have I?"

"Yes."

"And what, Your Grace," John licked his lips and noted the dilation of Anna's pupils. "Did I forget."

"Why you told me I shouldn't give you ideas."

"Do you remember why I said that?"

"I remember when."

"When?" John barely breathed as Anna bent her head to kiss under John's jaw.

"I believe it was when I said, 'I'm at your command'." Anna purred against his skin and John shivered at the sensation. "At least I think that's what gave you the idea but my memory may be faulty."

"Your memory's perfect."

"Excellent." Anna drew back and her eyes met his. "Does it give you ideas?"

"Yes." John studied her, "Does it give you ideas?"

"Maybe." Anna reached back for the note as John reclined his neck back, his fingers digging into the arms of his chair to stop himself touching her or rushing the tension of the moment between them.

"Just 'maybe'?"

"Perhaps a bit more now that I know I'm on your mind." She held the note up between them before leaving it back on the desk.

"You're always on my mind." John's hands flexed against the arms of the chair. "But yes, I was thinking about what I could do if I truly had you at my command."

"And what, Your Grace, would that be?" Anna leaned back against the desk.

"Now that you're here?" John pushed himself to stand and leaned over Anna, taking note and encouragement from the hitch in her breathing. "I'd take you on this desk in as many ways as I could think to manage it."

"John…" Anna's hands moved to John's jaw and brought his lips to hers as she rocked him into her.

John pulled from the kiss first, leaving her lips to trace his over her exposed throat as her fingers flexed against the back of his neck. "Would you want me to?"

"Yes." Anna breathed, keening as John's hands slid her skirts higher to touch the skin of her legs. "Please do."

"Then," John left a kiss on the skin that just showed the valley between her breasts. "Don't make a sound."

"John?"

"You said you wanted to be at my command," John trekked his kisses back up to Anna's lips. "And my command is that you can't make a sound."

Anna's fingers flexed against the back of John's skull and pulled his lips to hers, sucking at his lower lip as his hands pushed her skirts to her waist. A tug brought her to the edge of the desk and her knees to his hips. Leaning into Anna, John managed to sculpt one hand down her thigh and cup her ass to anchor her in place as his other hand ventured further.

It broke the kiss for a moment, the realization that his first hand had not somehow snuck underneath her knickers without warning when the fingers of his other hand found the crux between Anna's legs bare of material. John met Anna's eyes and she offered him only a coyly seductive raise of her eyebrows but no words. Keeping his eyes on hers, as if daring her to try and strain against the command she encouraged, John's fingers circled and swirled slowly between her legs to stroke and run along her folds.

Her nails dug into the back of his head but John did not quicken his pace. Even the press of Anna's breasts to his chest with each of her strained inhales did not force John's hand as he used the callouses of his palm to rub against her clit while one of his fingers entered her slowly. Instead he bit the end of his tongue to stop himself groaning when Anna threw her head back and whimpered as he added another finger to the delicate stroke of the skin inside her.

There might have been a stalemate between them if Anna had not leveraged herself against John's hand, gyrating her hips to force his fingers deeper and grind determinedly against his palm. John did not move his hand, almost entranced as he watched Anna control her motions and the struggle for her own pleasure, but did dot kisses over the column of her throat. The resultant scrape of her nails against his, clutching desperately at his collar and shirt to ground herself in the moment but only succeeding in wrinkling the material. Not that it mattered when Anna's body tightened around him, her knees clutching to his sides almost as desperately as her vaginal walls clung to his fingers, and then released the energy of her climax.

John could only watch her, transfixed, as Anna's breathing slowed and her muscles relaxed to loosen his hips and his fingers. He withdrew slowly, enjoying the final quivers of her muscles before taking his two fingers into his mouth. Without breaking eye contact, John noted the dilation to Anna's pupils and enjoyed the fervor of the kiss she pressed to his lips the moment his fingers fell away.

Her fingers flew, hurried but hindered in their goal as the layers of clothing between them almost stopped her. But John helped, as much as he could once Anna's hand found its way inside his trousers and her palm took a turn rubbing determinedly against him. The bite at his lower lip, matched with the curl of her hand around him, led John to groan into Anna's kiss while his hands tried to help her efforts at freeing him.

In a moment he sighed, his trousers opened and Anna's hand having established a rhythm on his almost uncovered arousal. And when it was, his pants pushed out of the way with less finesse than he would want to claim, John had to bury a moan in the crook between Anna's neck and shoulder. She only offered a little laugh in return as her other hand clutched at the tails of his shirt to drag him closer and hold him stead while her first hand worked.

Worked toward an end John was tempted to see to completion but when Anna's thumb rubbed over his head, her hand flexing to squeeze him, John's hips bucked toward her. With a learned reaction, Anna's legs spread and she dragged John hard enough into the desk to potential bruise his thighs while her ass almost dangled off the edge. But John met her attempt before disaster could strike. An adjustment of angle, and a hold on her ass to match the nails she now raked into his hip to establish her grip, John thrust into her.

Anna's other hand, freed from its previous occupation, gripped his shoulder like a clawed talon. His shirt, already rumpled and dragged into a sea of wrinkles that spoke to a fierce battle fought against the constraints of his waistcoat, bunched in her grip. But she only wrapped more of the material as John withdrew to thrust in again, striking as deeply as he could in their position. Her knees tightened at his hips and John used his grip on her ass to tilt her hips so he could slide deeper with the next thrust.

That earned John a set of marks that dug deep into the skin of his side. He responded with desperate kisses against her neck, his other hand working between them to stroke and rub at her clit to bring Anna's breath in puffs against his ear. A rising pitch in her whimpers and keens, matched with the increase of speed in the way her breasts pressed against his chest, had John's fingers working almost as fast as his thrusts to bring Anna over the edge again.

He fell first, grunting into Anna's shoulder as he came. Finishing thrusts, the final efforts of his hips to slow at the dregs of his climax, matched the delicate work of his fingers on Anna's clit to have her quivering about him. The last of his thrusts, delivered with a change in angle, left her crying out into John's ear before they both slumped onto the desk.

John's hands slipped on the papers, dampness soaking into the papers as he tried to stack those not trapped under Anna to clear a space. In the process his fingers caught the edge of the note Anna brought with her into the study. Reading it again, John gave a little laugh.

"If I'd known this would bring you down here, I would've written it to you ages ago."

"Would you?" Anna's hands, no longer digging claw marks into his skin, brushed faintly over him before pushing softly as John's shoulder to lean back so their eyes could meet. "Would've you have written about how much you wanted to taste me?"

"Perhaps not so baldly but yes, I would've." John glanced at the note before turning back to Anna. "But now, I don't have to simply write it to you."

"No?"

"No," John's hands moved to Anna's knees and spread them wide before he leaned back to drag his chair closer. Sitting on it, his half-covered ass immediately advising against the chill of the wood on his skin, John settled his hands back on Anna's knees and stroked up her exposed legs. "Now I can demonstrate what I think about when I write that I want to taste you."

With his hands on Anna's thighs, maneuvering her legs over his shoulders, John dipped his head and began. Almost immediately, one of Anna's hands clamped down on the back of his skull as her fingers carded through his hair. Whether she needed purchase for herself or she hoped to guide his movements proved irrelevant. All that mattered was John's tongue and lips moving over Anna's soaked folds while the noises Anna made at his actions spurred him onward. Even her climax, helped along by the addition of John's fingers as he sucked her clit, only encouraged John's desire to continue her pleasure until Anna almost slumped back onto the desk.

Laying a final kiss just above her hip, his hands smoothing over her legs as he pried them from where Anna clamped her knees around his ears, John pushed back on his chair to stand. Anna's hand fell from his hair, catching a moment on his shoulder before he caught it to press a kiss to the back of it. He smiled at the lazy way she blinked at him before he leaned over and kissed her lips.

She gave a small moan, her tongue darting out to taste herself on him and Anna surged into the kiss to take more of it. The motion had John's thighs knocking against his desk again and reminded him of the steadily falling state of his trousers as gravity could finally have a say now that he no longer sat in his chair. But John ignored that to focus on the way Anna's fingers flexed in his hair again and her tongue swept the inside of his mouth.

When she pulled back, John almost gasping for air after the way she managed their kiss, Anna took a few deep breaths before speaking "What would you do next?"

"What?"

"Next." Ana repeated and her other hand flailed on the top of the desk, forcing her body to twist and contort around the shape of John's hips between her legs, before finally holding up the note again. "What else would you do?"

"You mean," John plucked the note from her fingers and leaned over to tuck it into the top drawer of his desk. "How else would I have you here?"

"Yes."

"Well…" John traced his teeth with his tongue before he bent his head to whisper in Anna's ear. "Do you remember how you took me, that night after our Winter's Ball?"

"Yes." Her voice, barely a whisper, huffed against his ear as her fingers tightened in her grip on his hair.

"Do you remember when you had your way with me the second time… With your back to me?" John ran his lips down Anna's jaw to her throat, his kisses tracing a non-existent necklace before he returned to where he could see her face. "Do you remember how that felt?"

"Yes."

"Did you like it?"

"Yes." Anna's knees tightened at John's hips and her hand pulled him closer, mashing their lips together in a messy kiss that, nonetheless, proved capable at performing its desired function. John's hips bucked instinctively against Anna and he groaned into the kiss when his thickening arousal ran against Anna's still-wet folds. He moaned even louder into her mouth when Anna's hips rocked into his motions in response.

She broke the kiss, her chest pressing against his as she hauled in deep breaths. "How do we do that here?"

"Differently." John's hands moved to Anna's thighs and he stepped back as he urged her off the edge of the desk. With his hands at her hips the skirt of Anna's dress stayed up at her waist, despite her now standing on her feet, and kept its position as John turned Anna in his grasp. She almost twirled with the motion, giving keen when John's shifting hand brushed over her clit.

"Now," John risked one hand away from Anna's hip as he smoothed over her arm until he covered her hand. Pressing a kiss to it, John moved Anna's hand to hold the edge of the desk and then replicated the motion with her other hand so her elbows pointed back toward him and her palms would provide the leverage she needed in her grip. His other hand stayed at her hip and held her in place as he stepped behind and until his erection rested at the crease of her ass. "If you don't want this, tell me."

"Why wouldn't I want this?"

"It might be odd," John bent his head, kissing around the back of Anna's neck as his free hand shifted her hair over one shoulder. She tilted into his kisses, sighing and almost instinctually rubbing herself back on his as his hips thrust toward her. "If you don't like it…"

"Don't stop." Anna's fingers flexed on the edge of the desk and then her knuckles whitened when John's free hand slid down her body to return between her legs. When she spread them without a word it offered John the opportunity to run the length of his arousal over her soaked folds while his fingers slowly thrust into her. And, when Anna risked her grip on the desk to put a hand back to clasp on John's neck, John withdrew his fingers to thrust forward.

He held there, shifting with shallow thrusts until he seated himself fully inside her. With his chin on her shoulder, John turned to press a kiss under Anna's jaw. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No." Anna's nails scraped over John's skin. "Keep going."

"Keep moving?"

"Yes." Anna bit at her lip and John withdrew to thrust again, bringing a whimper from Anna. "Keep talking."

"To tell you how you feel?" John's hand on Anna's hip helped him manage the angle so he could find the spot inside that unraveled her. "To tell you how often I imagined this moment before I even dared intimate it in a note to you?"

"Yes." Anna's nails stopped their rake over his skin to dig half-moon crescents instead. "Tell me how you imagined me."

"Like this." John ran his hand from Anna's hip to her clit, pressing and rubbing there as the flex and ripple of her vaginal muscles threatened to squeeze his finish from him earlier than she would release hers.

"Just like this?" Anna huffed for breath, her hand fluttering against John's neck as she sought for purchase again.

"Just like this." John affirmed, kissing desperately at Anna's neck as a way to distract the building urge to release in time with the increase tempo of his thrusts as the strike of skin against skin wound him tighter and tighter.

"Not different?"

"The only difference," John used his palm on Anna's pubic bone to press her back into him while using his fingers to stroke her clit, "Would be that sometimes you were naked. Or it was dark. Or we had to be quiet so as to not disturb guests waiting in the hall."

"Never…" Anna panted, her hand not grasping at his shirt to hold herself close to him. "Never anyone else?"

"There's only been you for me." John brought his cheek next to Anna's, inhaling the scent of her as he finally found the combination of angle and finger position to strike the spot inside Anna that would free her orgasm. "Only you."

Rationally, in what little section of his brain that still responded to that function, John knew it was probably not his words that brought Anna over the edge. But when she cried out almost immediately after he said them, the romantic part of John's brain could not help but believe that was the reason. And he reveled in that as Anna climaxed in his embrace and he allowed himself to match her pleasure. The thrust of his hips lost their focus as the haze of his orgasm overcame him but he managed to keep them both upright enough not to fall to the floor as they finished in a symphony of panting breaths.

Pressing a final kiss to the back of Anna's neck, John withdrew and reached back for his jacket to recover the handkerchiefs there. One he wiped over himself and the other he slowly wiped over Anna. She shivered in his hold and pliantly responded when John helped her back onto the desk. Shivering again as John took the handkerchief to her a second time, Anna's fingers ran through John's hair and brought his attention to her face.

He rose to his feet and kissed her soundly. Unlike the kisses before, more lust and sexual fervor than seduction, this one was practically the essence of exhausted satisfaction. Even the soft glide of Anna's fingers over his cheeks after they parted could not distract John from the glow that practically engulfed Anna.

"You look gorgeous."

"Are you saying that because you've thoroughly-"

"Absolutely not." John feigned an offended pout and snuck another kiss. "But it does help."

"Does it?" Anna watched as John bawled both used handkerchiefs together and tucked them into the pocket of his still open trousers.

"Of course." John grinned at her, "It's an eternal comfort to me that I can please my wife."

"To me as well." Anna's tongue slowly traced her lips and John, despite having spent himself not a minute before, noted the twitch in his reaction to the motion. "But…"

"But?" John frowned and then his eyes widened when Anna's hand on his chest pushed him back to sit heavily on his chair.

"But," Anna grinned at him as her fingers deftly unknotted his cravat and unbuttoned his waistcoat, "You're not the only one with an imagination."

"I'd hope not." John almost sat up but Anna's hand firmed on his chest, her fingers splaying to increase her hold, and she shook her head.

"Don't move."

"I thought you wanted to be at my command…" John swallowed, "Your Grace."

"I did and I was and I enjoyed it." Anna, using her hand on his chest to steady herself, "But I'd greatly like to turn the tables."

She paused, her breath catching a moment. "If you don't mind."

"How could I possibly mind my wife taking charge." John shifted to make himself more comfortable in the chair. "What are you next orders, Your Grace?"

Anna grinned, her hand slipping down his shirt to land on his trousers. "Sit very still and don't make a sound."

John shivered and bit the edge of his tongue as Anna's hand stopped where it could wrap around his still-exposed member. At the touch of her hand, despite their earlier forays, John reacted and clamped his hands over the arms of his chair to stop himself moving. The barest buck of his hips escaped his control and, for a moment, John thought that might be it.

But his body proved a great traitor to his intention to keep himself under control. As Anna's hand continued, gliding the tips of her fingers along him as if simply brushing him unintentionally before squeezing him with a determination that had John whimpering through his clamped lips, John's knuckles whitened on the arms of his chair. And it was only when he surrendered to the need to speak, despite her commands, that John managed a hoarse whisper.

"I… I'm close…"

"How close?" Anna's hand paused and John risked lowering his eyes to meet hers, having made the ceiling his only focus during her efforts lest he fail at distracting himself.

"Close enough."

"Close enough that if I do this," Anna went to her knees and John could not stop his moan when her lips wrapped around him. She sucked for a moment before pulling back, her elbows extending to rest on his quivering knees, and smiled up at him. "You'll come in a moment?"

"Almost."

"Almost that close?"

"Yes."

"Then I have a little time." Anna, her hand shifting to handle and fondle the weight that hung between John's legs while her mouth moved just above his arousal so her words blew over his delicate head, smiled. "I'd like to taste you again."

John whimpered again and shut his eyes. The vain hope that not seeing Anna work her mouth on him, her tongue tracing delicate but unintelligible patterns over him as she sucked, would keep him from the edge only taunted John. Instead it took his flailing hand in a trembling motion at her shoulder to save him.

Pulling away with a final lick, Anna made a show of wiping her lips as John tried to breathe normally despite the need to climax practically radiating from the base of his spine. The way he gripped the arms of his chair had long since turned his hands into a claw-like shape and he guessed that prying them loose would only reveal the permanent indentations there from the work of the wood. But it proved an effective way to distract himself long enough to not make a fool of himself the moment Anna mounted him. And even provided the strength to perform the herculean effort to keep himself still as Anna sheathed him.

The confines of the chair proved difficult but minor bruising proved a sufficient exchange for the pleasure they sought. John's fingers almost failed to pry loose from the arms of the chair. But he forced himself, almost cracking his fingers in the process, to move his hands to Anna's hips as her hands scrabbled for purchase. The grip she previously held on his shirt proved insufficient now that his waistcoat lay open on his chest. Instead her hands took over the position John previously occupied on the arms of the chair and used the leverage she gained from the position to effectively ride John.

Perhaps to his chagrin, but not to Anna's disappointment, John's climax struck first. The prelude to it had John seizing control of their rhythm, increasing it beyond the slow ride Anna initiated from her constrained position. Part of John railed against such a decision, stealing away the Anna's intentions to control the engagement of their interaction. But the moment Anna's hand clamped around the back of John's neck and she kissed him with all the desperation her breath could provide he surrendered to it. Surrendered to the almost savage need only slaked through finishing.

In the final moments of his orgasm, his fingers splayed at Anna's back as a bookend to her hand in a similar position on his chest, John's other hand moved between them. Navigating the folds of Anna's dress, the tucks of his loose trousers, and the sweat slicked skin between them proved no hinderance at all as John's fingers worked over the now familiar nerves that brought Anna to the edge. She shuddered around him, her muscles squeezing the last of him until they both begged for breath with gasps.

Anna's fingers at the back of his neck loosened and John withdrew his hand from between them. The sight of Anna, absolutely wrecked from their actions, had John smiling to himself as he brushed a strand of hair from Anna's face. "I believe I should write you notes far more often."

"They are very effective."

"A good deal more effective than I imagined, that is certain." John leaned forward and kissed Anna gently. "Unfortunately, it's caused a problem for us."

"Has it?"

"Yes." John tried to sober his expression and instill a sense of solemnity to his tone as he continued. "A very large problem."

"And what problem, is that?" Anna looped her arms around John's shoulders to hold her hands together behind his neck.

"We now have to find a way to sneak upstairs and try to salvage what remains of our dignity." John plucked gently at the sleeve of Anna's not thoroughly rumpled dress. "We do look a picture of indiscretion."

"I'm sure our household would love to report to all the gossips living in every kitchen from here to Bleakbriar that we take pleasure in and from one another." Anna dipped her head to nip under John's jaw. "And perhaps, just a little, envy the exhausting way you seem to pleasure me."

"Exhausting?"

"Yes, exhausting." Anna kissed John's cheek and slowly stood up from his lap, retrieving the handkerchief he earlier discarded to the side. "But of a variation I long for every minute."

"Excellent." John took the handkerchief Anna extended to him. "Then I'll be sure to walk proudly up those stairs and take a turn at trying to exhaust you again."

"If you can manage it."

John's eyes flicked down, matching Anna's gaze, and he let the tiniest hint of a smirk overtake his smile. "I don't think that will be a problem, Your Grace."