Oh ya'll! These two have kept me up at night! So…I really debated about the "smut" part. It almost didn't seem RIGHT to go so graphic so I didn't! PLEASE let me know how you feel about that..Cause I'm not afraid to go GRAPHIC! ;)

Wedding Night Cont'd

Charles gently patted Elsie's thigh to encourage her to move off of him. He felt confident enough to take the lead at this point and wanted to make sure she was ready. He knew that while love making would not define their relationship, it would certainly deepen it and he was aware that actual intercourse may not be pleasant for her, initially, he wanted to do everything he could to pleasure her right now.

One evening, late, in his room, after a heated session of kissing and fondling each other, they talked openly about their pasts. He had admitted he was not a virgin but it had been more than 35 years since he had been with a woman. He told her of his relationship with Alice and she was secretly glad he had never been with her, in that way. He admitted his shame in having sex with a few women he hardly knew during his theatre days.

"I'm not proud of those days, Elsie." he had hung his head and she kissed him and told him she didn't care and it didn't define the man he was now.

"You are the noblest, most proper man I know and I'm proud of you." she had encouraged him.

"What about you, love? Have you ever..." Charles paused, his heart racing, hoping she wouldn't think him rude to ask her something so intimate. "You don't have to answer that...I'm sorry to be so forward," he blurted out.

Elsie gave him a warm smile and patted his hand. "Do you plan on taking me as your wife?"

"Of course I do." he answered the confusing question with total confidence.

"Then I want you to know me, my past, my dreams, what makes me who I am, what I want...need." Her voice was low and seductive.

Charles felt his loins stir and he swallowed hard. "Uh...okay..." he mumbled almost incoherently and licked his lips.

"To answer your question, have I ever...been with a man..." she took in a deep breath and lowered her head and ran her fingertips over the ring she had been wearing for 2 days...his ring. "I have..." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Charles was shocked but he didn't react.

She finally looked at him. "But not willingly. It was a very long time ago and I've come to terms with it."

His heart fell, his eyes dropped, he gave her a loving yet sad smile. "Oh my love. I'm so...sorry." Charles was suddenly taken by her strength and how she lived with such resolve and dignity; his love for her swelled to a great tide at that moment. "How...who...?" he questioned, now with anger brewing inside.

She patted his knee. "It's okay. It was so long ago, Charles. I was a young girl and a boy from the next village, where we lived, had his eye on me. I didn't want him and it angered him. So...he..."

"How young were you?"

"17."

Charles balled his fists and tightened his jaw, angry tears building in his eyes. "What happened to the bastard? I mean...when you told..."

"Who said I ever told?" Elsie said blankly.

Charles' mouth hung open for a long while before he gathered her to him in a fierce embrace. "Elsie...everything you do touches the very heart of soul of me."

She laughed softly in the hollow of his neck and shoulder. "Ohhh...I"m nothing special!"

He pulled her back. "You are to me. You're everything to me." He took her face in his hands; her arms wrapped tightly around his waist and caressed her with a passionate kiss.

"Elsie? Are you sure?" his breath was staggered and his eyes darkened with desire.

"Yes my love. I'm sure." she purred, reaching to nip at his lips.

"Okay." he sat up on his knees and leaned back on his heels then reached to unbutton his trousers. She leaned up to take over the task of relieving him of his encumbering garment. His stomach was taut and well defined. A small patch of hair trailed a line from his belly button until it disappeared into the hem of his undershorts and Elsie closed her eyes and tried to settle her nerves, her breath catching as they went further.

"Are you cold darling?" Charles inquired.

"No…" she answered, closing her eyes and willing herself to relax and let this moment happen, naturally.

"Are you nervous?" He begins to rub his hands down the length of both of her arms, to try and calm her.

She rolls her head back and sighs heavily. "I feel like….a school girl."

"Elsie we don't have to…."

"NO! I want to. I want you more than anything Charles." She opens her eyes and almost pleads with him. "I'm just a nervous. I've dreamed of this moment for so long and it's here and I want it to be perfect. I want to please you darling."

"There is no judgment here my love, no expectations. It's just you…and…me and our love for each other. There is nothing that you can do to mess this up. I'm so fully in love with you…every part of you, everything about you. You, my sweet Elsie, can do wrong in my eyes."

She blushed and smiled through tears that had rushed to their boundaries. "Make love to me." She whispers.

Charles removed his trousers and joined her again on the bed. He lay parallel to her, the soft hair at his chest, tickling the skin beside him. He had no inhibitions about pressing himself against her bare bottom. His shorts were thin and she could feel how well-endowed he was. He explored every inch of her stomach and breasts. He took her fully into his mouth and suckled then his fingers caressed over it. He stopped and stared at her breast, smoothing his finger gently over the lump just under her left nipple. Emotion rose inside him and he looked to her. Elsie stared back at him with knowing eyes. They spoke no words. He again focused his attention on the lump; he pressed his lips there and she could feel his wet tears against her skin. She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed the tears pooling at the corners of her eyes and wrapped her arms tightly around him.

The exhaustion and fear this last week had brought finally catches up with Charles. He had managed to stave off the sickening fear of losing her…until now. He was powerless to control it and he buried his face in her chest and sobbed like a baby. He let her in to a place no one had ever been; to the very center of his emotions and opened the gates to what scares him the most. He silently prayed, begged God, to heal her, make her whole again. "I'm sorry Elsie…" he choked out. "I'm sorry to act like this…right now…"

"Shhh….it's okay, let it out my darling…" Elsie kissed his tousled hair and cried with him. "It's okay…I'm here and if I have anything to say about it, I'll be here for a good long while!"

The raw emotions, the pent up sexual tension and desire soon over took them again. They explored each other, without hesitation or shame. Elsie's new book had given her ideas and confidence that she may have never embraced without reading it and agreeing that all women have the right to feel sexually alive and pleasured. She believed it was her right, as a woman, to feel the same kind of satisfaction that typically was only acceptable for men. And so she allowed him complete and total permission. She urged him to push further, even though it was uncomfortable; she knew the temporary pain would soon lead to immense pleasure for both of them.

Elsie squeezed her thighs around his hips when she felt him nearing his end. He buried his face in the pillow beside her head to stifle his groans of desire as he climaxed inside her. His body jerked erratically and she wrapped her legs a little tighter. "Stay inside me" she whispered. Charles obeyed.

The air was different; their lives were different just now. Elsie lay quietly listening to her husband's respirations. Evening shadows began to dance across the room and she didn't care if they ever left. She could stay here, tangled with him, in the after-glow of their lovemaking for the rest of her life, she thought. She breathed a prayer of gratitude and hope to God and then made a promise to the man who lay across her swollen breasts, her naked body. "I'll never leave you, my sweet Charles. I'll….never…leave." she whispered with the greatest sense of resolve she had ever had.

TBC….