pursed. Lizzy chuckled, earning a tiny pinch to her bottom. “Concentrate, Mrs. Darcy.”
She closed her eyes and relaxed, Darcy's arms under her back and upper legs. She had floated proficiently in her youth, even self taught a few basic swim strokes, but it had been years since her last rebellious foray to the Longbourn pond. The Pemberley grotto pond was far too shallow and small to attempt swimming, and the floating done in Darcy's embrace never lasted very long before preferable activities interrupted. This was vastly different. The gentle waves lapped around her, causing her body to bob and sway; the salty water was buoyant, the feeling of lightness delightful.
She sighed, a small smile of contentment on her lips. “For the first time in weeks I do not feel weighted down and off center. This is marvelous.”
Silence fell, Darcy enamored. She was radiant in her happiness and, as suspected, the wet clinging shift left nothing to the imagination. His wife's incredible body with perky breasts and hard nipples, lissome legs, dainty feet and toes, precious swollen abdomen, delicate shoulders and collarbone all lay before his ravenous eyes. His arousal, well on the way since disrobing in the machine, was now complete. He cleared his throat, dragging his thoughts harshly away from the vision of hungrily loving her on the warm sand.
“Is it so burdensome carrying our child?”
She opened her eyes, gazing with overpowering love into the depths of his blue orbs. “Not in the least burdensome. The changes are odd, wearying at times, and I do feel awkward, but it is never a burden. Can I tell you something? I never imagined, since loving you so wholeheartedly, that I could possibly love someone as greatly, until now. He is not here yet, I do not know what he shall look like, or what his personality shall be, but I already love him with all my soul. It is rather strange, but so wonderful. How could I then deem his presence inside me a burden?”
Darcy had told her once that on occasion she said or did something that was so amazing to him that the emotions surging through his soul were nigh on unbearable in their intensity. This was such a time. As inadequate as it was, all he could manage was a brilliant smile, his eyes misting and larynx constricting.
Lizzy rolled out of his arms, turning about and clasping onto his forearms. “What next, teacher?” she asked teasingly, pulling herself into his chest with hands sliding down his back to derriere while wrapping her legs about his thighs. “Back stroke? Breast stroke?” Squeezing his rump firmly, she snared his lower lip and sucked, easy to accomplish as his mouth had parted open in avid yearning.
Darcy groaned, regulation and propriety forgotten. He cupped her face, applying fervid pressure to her mouth. Lizzy responded blissfully for a moment, startling him when she abruptly launched backward, using his body like a wall. Performing a number of perfectly executed backstrokes, she smoothly traversed the distance to the bathing machine steps. Her laughter floated on the air as he stood rooted to the spot. She settled onto the lower steps, body mostly submerged, observing his surprise with a naughty grin.
“As you can see, Fitzwilliam, I already know the backstroke. Perhaps you can show me the breast stroke?” She unbuttoned the top of her shift as she spoke, peering at him through lowered lashes.
Darcy grinned lasciviously, crossing the short space with a cleanly performed breaststroke, grasping onto the rails and pulling himself up until hovering over, muscles rippling and hairs black. He leaned in, lips brushing her upturned mouth, whispering huskily, “I love you, Elizabeth. God, how I love you! Please tell me I can make love to you here in this inappropriate place as I desperately burn for you and cannot return to the hotel in my current state!”
Lizzy reached to fondle him, Darcy moaning loudly, her legs drawing him closer. “I confessed I wished to seduce you, did I not? Love me, Fitzwilliam, please.” Nodding curtly, he claimed her mouth, devouring in his thirst for her. Releasing the rails for a far preferable grip to her breasts and bottom, Darcy united with his wife in one rawly penetrating motion.
On Christmas Eve they had first discovered the joy of making love in the tub, a blissfully rapturous interlude that they had repeated numerous times since. The sublime combined sensations of warm water surrounding their bodies while passion raged internally created a liaison of exquisite proportions. This assignation was both similar and yet superbly variant. Their bodies flamed, heat rising immeasurably until skin flushed; small bumps spreading over flesh fiery from within while chilled from the cold water and balmy air without, the fusion heightening the tactility of every touch and caress.
It was heavenly! For not the first time in their marriage they each wondered how it was possible for passion to soar to a higher pinnacle than yet attained. Darcy could not control himself, moving harshly within her in a frenzied voracity. Fleetingly he worried that he may be too rough, never wishing to harm her in any way, but she met his pace equally and propelled him on. The chill water swirled over their flaming flesh, surrounding and surging their most intimate regions as they loved. The racing sensations were inexplicably powerful.
Their culmination, when it finally arrived, swept through them in a torrent, shouts released in unrestrained ecstasy, only later thankfully recalling their isolation.
“Have fun, beloved, but be careful. I do not want to hear of my husband being caught in an undertow or snared in kelp.”
“I shall be cautious. See you in a couple hours.” He kissed her cheek and squeezed her hands before striding briskly toward the pier. Lizzy watched his tall, elegant figure until he disappeared from view, and turned toward the lodge with a sigh. She was not overly worried about him swimming in the open ocean, although the possible dangers were real. Mainly she recognized that she would miss him, but knowing how greatly he adored vigorous athletic pursuits, and swimming being one infrequently partaken, she could not deny him the activity.
The men bathed on the far side of the pier; the pier itself closed down for the afternoon to prevent any peeking, not that there was a woman alive who would admit to such voyeurism. Darcy had told her that most resorts scheduled male swimming in this manner. He said that most men preferred to swim in the nude; Darcy did, although some wore breeches or bathing outfits that were basically a type of long underwear of light wool. The vision of a company of nude men splashing about the waves was far too humorous to resist imagining, despite her embarrassment.
She sighed again. In truth, she would give anything to see her virile spouse with muscles contracting and tensing as he cut cleanly through the water. Granted the brief view of his strokes while with her that morning and well familiar with his manly physique, the picture was readily conjured and she shivered involuntarily. Stifling a highly unseemly moan, she entered the common room.
Those women left alone while their husbands or fathers bathed milled about conversing and sipping tea. Lizzy was greeted enthusiastically, her natural gregariousness rising to the fore. In no time at all she had formed numerous casual friendships and received a dozen invitations to dine at group tables. The array of women revealed a diversity of situations. Three young women were newly married like herself, one on her honeymoon and another pregnant with her first child as well. There were several unmarried maidens touring with families. The bulk of the women were older, enjoying holidays with husbands of many years or even decades. A final group consisted of the spinster sisters traveling with a brother; a widow and her companion; and Lady Eloise Underwood, a woman in her mid-thirties boldly traveling alone with servants only.
Lizzy had a delightful afternoon, tremendously entertained with titillating discourse, delicious snacks, and several games of whist. She returned to their chambers well after Darcy, who was already bathed and dressing for dinner. Not surprisingly, he had communicated sparingly with his fellow swimmers, learned only four names that he could effortlessly recall, and received no invitations to dine. He shrugged his shoulders, utterly apathetic to the lack of society, but more than willing to join a group table if it pleased his wife.
For their second night Darcy relented and they dined with a group of fellow visitors. He quashed with some difficulty the surge of possessiveness that reared, recognizing his wife's natural gregariousness that allowed her to make friends so easily and thrill in casual socializing. They dined in one of the larger dining chambers, elegantly furnished and softly illuminated by flickering candle chandeliers. Wide windows offered a view of the northern wood illuminated faintly by the moon. They were joined by Lady Eloise Underwood; the widowed Mrs. Alcastor and her companion Miss Stein; the Henner family, consisting of a husband and wife and two teenaged daughters; and Lord and Lady Stewart, a middle-aged couple with three children who were safely at home in Kent. Darcy was by far the most taciturn member of the assembly, although Lord Stewart was nearly as silent. The two men eventually discovered an equal passion for horses, a topic that would carry them through the evening.
The after-dinner recreation, aside from the usual games of cards, chess, and backgammon, was a silhouette party. Lizzy had read of the art form but never beheld the process. The fad of tracing silhouettes, or shades, began
