'Not now. I need your nipples.'

'You always need my nipples.'

'True, and it's something to seriously consider.'

Light filtering through the curtains signifying a beginning and an end.

She caught her breath as he rubbed his thumb back and forth across her distended nipple. 'Jeremy…'

'Shhh…'

Now, she had to say it now-but she could barely speak because of those familiar skeining sensations unfurling inside her and causing instant fuck me now feelings…

Don't stop, don't stop…

He had to stop.

'Jeremy…!'

THUMP THUMP THUMP…

'Regina!'

'Oh, God-Father!' She made to cover her breast, but Jeremy would not let her go.

'Shhh…'

'Regina, are you there? Wake up! I have news… the most incredible news…'

'Jeremy!' She pulled away from him. 'I have to answer him.'

'Answer me first.'

'What?' She swung her legs off the bed and grabbed the first thing to hand and wrapped it around herself. 'Answer you what?'

And then words didn't come so hard after all.

'Marry me.'

'What?'

'REGINA! Hurry…'

'What? Jeremy-'

'Just say yes.'

'Oh, my God. Just a minute, Father! Are you crazy?'

He pointed his penis at her. 'Yes. Say yes.'

'REGINA! I'm coming in.'

'I'm coming.'

'And I'll keep you coming,' Jeremy whispered, 'over and over and over…'

'Yes, Father, yes, yes, yes… I'm coming, I'm coming…' Oh, God, I'm coming….

She pulled open the door shakily, shielding Jeremy from view. 'Such noise, Father. What's to do? It has to be well before nine o'clock.'

'Ha! This. Look at this.' Reginald thrust an envelope in her hand which had a notation written on it. For Regina… from Ancilla. I've gone and married Mr. Raulton. See note.

'Oh, my God.' Regina ripped open the envelope and pulled out Ancilla's note, scanned it, and then read it out loud.

Dear Regina, I hope you can forgive me; this made the most sense. I am in want of a husband; he is in need of a wife whose interests coincide with his own, but who is willing in the course of events to let him. lead his private life. My nature is such that I will be content to manage his estate and to be called his wife. We will be married by special license by the time you read this, and he is vastly relieved to both be finished with the marriage mart and to reap his reward at the expense of the betting Books. As am I.

Your friend, Ancilla.

She was appalled.

'I'm speechless,' she said finally.

'It's over,' Reginald crowed jubilantly. 'Ancilla has made London safe for all womanhood. We owe her a debt of gratitude. You're not angry?'

'I?' Shocked was more like it. And feeling not a little like the carpet had been pulled out from under her after she had gone through such soul-searching to gird herself to accept him.

But now she had accepted Jeremy-or had she? What had just happened in there?

'No. I'm happy for her. She will run him like a top, despite what she says in her letter, and it will be a better bargain for her than for him. And maybe she will bring him to heel in the process. So, Father…' She handed him the letter and made to close the door.

'Oh. Oh, of course.' He turned to go, and then turned back. 'By the way, is that Jeremy in there with you?'

'WHAT?'

'My dear girl, I'm no greengull. Jeremy-you must marry her now.'

'And so I will,' Jeremy called back, with no compunction, no sense of her feelings.

'Excellent. It's what I had planned from the start. Everything has worked out right and tight.'

Regina sagged against the door. 'What you-planned?'

'My dear girl-a knight to rescue you, orchestrated from the moment I overheard your abominable desire to engage Mr. Raulton. Of course, I had thought Jeremy was a man to practice courtly love… but-ah, one can't expect everything, can one? Post the banns as soon as ever you can. I can't countenance what has been going on in my very own house for much longer. Congratulations, my dear. Jeremy is everything I could want for you in a husband.'

Husband? Husband? Oh, God. Husband!

She slammed the door and whirled around to find Jeremy sitting upright, all of him upright. 'I am top over tails here. What is going on?'

'Ancilla has run off with Mr. Raulton. I have asked you to marry me, and your father planned the whole from the start. It's perfectly clear. You were always destined to be mine. You are mine. Be mine…'

'You don't…'

'I do.'

'You don't have to. Not here, not now. You don't have to marry me.' She had to say it, and she held her breath. He couldn't want marriage now, not after everything she had given him. He didn't need to marry her. But she needed desperately to marry him.

'I do. You do. You know you do.'

She was on the thin line, the sharpest edge. Everything would end here, and begin, did she say yes.

He didn't move; he didn't importune. This was the most delicate balance, between her need and her desire. His desire and his need. And there was nothing to stand between them now.

She wanted, oh, how she wanted. This was Jeremy. Well-known, utterly adored Jeremy. She should have no hesitation. And yet she did, because how did she cross the line from mistress to wife?

But he had asked her to marry him; he had no qualms whatsoever.

And he was waiting. Jeremy was waiting.

'Say you do.'

'Do I?'

He smiled. 'You can do nothing less. Say you do.'

It was all right then. She smiled back, and she dropped her wrapper and climbed into the bed next to him. 'Only if you do'-she grasped his penis and tugged it and pulled him between her legs-'this…'

He did this, driving into her meaningfully, passionately, and she took him, she rode him, and she sighed. 'I do…'

A Man and a Woman by Robin Schone

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