Laudanum

She roused briefly for the doctor's visit, and squealed when he pressed on the lump on the side of her head. He looked into her eyes, made her count fingers, and left a bottle of laudanum for her to help with the pain. He gave her a spoonful, and forced her to swallow the nasty bitter stuff.

She slept for a while, then had to ring for help to get out of bed to use the commode and to wash at the basin. The housekeeper muttered disapprovingly all through her ablutions, and gave her a large dose of laudanum afterwards.

This time she didn't go back to sleep. The pain had receded and she floated gently above the bed, able to examine the pattern of the wallpaper and admire the mathematical genius that was hidden in the pattern. She could not believe that she had previously considered it hideous.

The door opened and a lion walked in. "How do you do?" she asked, before wondering if lions spoke English.

This one did, because it came up to her bed and roared something sociable at her. It sounded like "How are you?" She smiled at it and the lion smiled back. When its mouth was open, she could see all its teeth. She stared at them, enthralled. The mouth of a perfect carnivore. All the secrets of the universe were revealed by those teeth.

The lion came closer and she was able to rub it. Its fur was not as silky as she had imagined, more like wool than fur. Disappointed, she closed her eyes and turned away. When she turned back, the lion was gone.

Her eye was caught by the cursive script on the bottle of laudanum, and she wanted to weep with the beauty of it. Her head thumped, and she roused herself enough to take a slug of the medicine. This time, it didn't taste as revolting as before.

Next time she opened her eyes, the room was almost dark and Jack was there, leaning over her, anxiety in his dark eyes. She put her up hand, pushed it into his hair. Soft, natural. His face was shadowed by a slight beard, and he smelled only of man and leather. "Oh, it's you," she murmured.

It was Jack, not his evil twin. "Yes. Are you hurt?"

What a strange thing to ask. She was fascinated by the way his eyelashes shadowed his marvellous eyes. She realised her hand was still in his hair, and she pulled him down to her mouth.

She didn't give him time to protest. She slanted her mouth across his, and kissed him eagerly. She licked into his mouth, curling her tongue against his lips, and then inside when he parted them. Excited, she pulled herself more firmly against him, wanting to feel skin against skin.

He kissed her back, nudging her mouth wider so he could plunge inside, tasting her and urging her on. He slid his arm under her, lifting her up to his. She joined in eagerly, twisting to get better access to his delicious mouth.

With an effort, he pulled himself back from her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She refused to unwind her arms from around his neck. She frowned at him. "You're wearing clothes. That's what's wrong." She moved one hand to his shirt and started to untie his neck-cloth. "It's against the rules."

He moved back enough to stare at her. "What?"

She ignored him. "You have to be naked in my bed." This was her fantasy, and in her fantasy, Jack never wore clothes. How silly of him to put them on today. Still, she could fix that.

Maria finished unknotting the neck-cloth and pulled it off him. She threw it away and started on his shirt, dragging it out from his breeches. Moments later, she had her hands under it, flat against his supple skin.

She moaned with pleasure. He was so much hotter today than usual. This was better, definitely. She slid her hands up, tangling her fingers in the springy hair on his chest. Under her right palm, she could feel the solid thump of his heart.

God bless laudanum, her fantasies were usually not this detailed, or this thrilling. "More," she insisted. "Take all the clothes off."

"What about you?" he asked, voice hoarse, but he moved to shuck his coat.

Oh, that was right, she was still dressed. How strange, she wasn't cold in the least. She tugged at her nightdress, realised she was lying on it. Silly. She scrambled out from under the covers, got to her knees, and pulled the nightdress over her head in one motion. The linen made a white pool on the floor of the bedroom.

She didn't care where it landed, all her attention was on Jack. He looked from her nightdress to her naked body and his eyes bulged.

"Hurry up, I need you naked," she told him. She didn't want to risk waking up before this ended. There had been far too many nights when she woke up just a fraction of a second too soon. Not this time, please, not this time.

She didn't have to remind him. Jack shucked his clothes almost faster than she could follow, then he was there, taking her into his arms, his body hot against her cooler one.

She closed her eyes in ecstasy. This, a hot male body against her, was what she had missed even more than the actual pleasure of the marriage bed. She had even a name for it: skin hunger. Her skin hunger was so deep that she doubted it would ever be sated. She rubbed herself against him, trying to imprint his masculinity on every inch of herself.

He growled with lust and pleasure and leaned down to kiss her. She lost herself in his mouth, and tried to climb up his body to keep as much contact as possible. His brawny arms tightened around her, almost painfully, but this was Jack. She didn't fear him, but gloried in his embrace. She had to strain to reach him.

What was she doing? They were on her bed. She yanked at him. "Lie down," she whispered against her mouth.

Still holding the kiss, he did, pulling her down beside him, and running his huge hands up and down her body. He was like a child in a pasty shop, not sure what to do first. She guided one of his hands to her breast and arched up into his grasp.

Ah, that was better, he caressed and stroked it, and rolled the nipple between his fingers. She moaned with pleasure and urged him to repeat the sweet torture on the other one. His kisses moved from her mouth along her jaw line to her ear, then down her neck to her breast. Finally, when she thought she would go mad for wanting it, he took one of her nipples in his mouth and sucked.

"Ahh!" She almost came off the bed, the sensation was so intense. Not since her daughter was a baby has anyone done this, and it has never felt like this.

With throaty moans, she urged him on, and ran her hands along his back and down to his buttocks and thighs. The power of those muscles thrilled her, and fed her starving senses. She was torn between wanting Jack to make use of them, and to continue what he was doing.

He solved the problem for her by continuing to pay homage to her breasts while sliding one massive thigh between her own and urging her to ride it. Streaks of sensation raced through her, jerking her closer to him. She yanked his head up and kissed him, writhing against him and his wonderful body. The hair on his chest abraded her nipples so pleasurably she had to dig her nails into his back to release the tension that built up inside her. His own groans were music to her senses.

She tore her mouth away from his for a second to demand, "More!"

He obliged. Without breaking the kiss, he flipped her onto her back, and found a space for himself between her eager thighs. There was a moment of awkwardness, of fumbling, and then he found the right place.

He slid inside her like a key into a lock. It was a perfect fit, and she wanted to howl with pleasure. Instead, she kissed him so fiercely, she worried she would hurt him. But there was no time to worry about that, he was moving, and every stoke of his powerful body brought another escalating spike of rapture. Only his mouth on hers kept her from screaming her pleasure to the world.

She wanted to make this last, but her hunger had built up over years and she could not wait. She wrapped her legs around him, and dug her heels into his buttocks, urging him on harder and faster. As her crisis approached, she tightened her thighs against his and gasped for air.

With a final thrust of his powerful hips, Jack surged into her one and triggered a flood of ecstasy so sharp, she had to bite his shoulder to avoid screaming.

Jack silenced his own roar against her neck, then collapsed on top of her.

She hugged him tightly, loving the feel of his hair-roughed skin against her. "That was wonderful," she purred. "The best one yet."

Then she yawned and went to sleep.