The Slow Dance Ch 03

Authors note: Thank you ever so much to everyone who has read and enjoyed the story so far. This is my first stab at erotic writing and it's been overwhelming to hear such kind feedback. I'm delighted that the story has been enjoyable to read.

Please do continue to vote and comment - it's lovely to hear every kind of feedback as it lets me know how I'm doing, how I can improve and what is working well!

I hope you enjoy this new chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing it!

Love to you all x

*

"She needs to marry!" the Queen said, all but stamping her feet at her husband, growing increasingly impatient at his immoveable mood.

"She will, when she chooses someone suitable," he reassured her, "which I'm sure she will soon. There are some fine men in the kingdom; we just need to present her with the right one."

"It isn't that simple, darling," she whined, moving closer to him.

They were seated on the sofa in their private lounge, breakfast finished. They always spent some time together just after they'd eaten their morning meal, before the day's proceedings ripped them from each other's side. The King, to politics, the Queen to the running of the house and the calculated care of her daughter's future.

"You see, it's not just that we haven't found the right man. It's that she doesn't want a husband at all. She barely understands what it would mean. She's scared, just like I was. But until we force her hand, she'll never make the choice herself and she'll never know what she's missing out on," the Queen said, clasping his hand on her lap, trying to make him see.

"But it's not like she's scared of men, Cara," the King contradicted, "I mean she's been nearly inseparable from Luke since he joined the staff."

"Yes, well, that's a whole other issue..." the Queen said.

"Stop that. I won't hear it again," the King commanded. He adored Luke as if he were a son and trusted him entirely with Ivy, knowing he wanted the best for her.

"I know, I know," the Queen sighed. She'd lost that battle enough times to know not to waste her time pushing it anymore, "But still, darling, having a friend and having a husband are hardly the same thing."

She reached up and stroked his worn face with her delicate finger tips, leaning forward to place a soft kiss upon his lips and giggling at the tickle of his greying moustache on her skin.

"That's true -- you don't get to do that, for one," the King laughed, slipping his arms around the Queens waist. "Where is Ivy, anyway? Isn't she usually down by now?"

The Queen cocked her head and looked up at the clock above the magnificent mantelpiece in the centre of the room.

"You're right, it is quite late for her," the Queen said.

The King stood up from the sofa reluctantly and went to the servant's bell in the corner of the room. He rang it and within moments one of the maids appeared at the door, curtseying to them both.

"Is Ivy coming down soon, do you know?" the Queen asked.

"No miss," the maid replied, "Charlotte said she's feeling ill, miss."

Charlotte was Ivy's maid-servant, a foreboding woman who quite-frankly terrified the Queen, but Ivy was fond of her so the King had requested that they had kept her on.

"Charlotte said that? Well, must be serious then, for Charlotte to agree," the King said, with a wink and a grin to his wife.

"Mmm," the Queen agreed, pursing her lips. "Could you inform her that I'll be up to visit her soon, please?" she asked the maid, who nodded and scuttled away. "I hope she's not doing this just to get out of seeing Lord Finch today."

"Oh, come on now," the King chided, "when has our little Ivy ever been that devious? I'll send a message to him letting him know that she's a bit under the weather and to postpone the meeting until she's feeling better."

"Fine, but we shouldn't postpone it too long. He's not a patient man," the Queen said.

"Well he'll just have to learn to be, especially if he's going to prove himself good enough for Ivy."

The Queen scoffed. "He owns half the kingdom, dear. He's good enough."

"You've already made your mind up about him, haven't you? That's why you're considering forcing Ivy's hand."

"Not forcing, just exerting our parental right. We've been exceptionally soft on her up until this point, and now we have a wonderful young Lord in front of us. Rich, handsome, very well connected. It's the perfect match for her and I, for one, am willing to push her a little harder than usual to ensure that she makes the correct decision."

"It sounds to me like you want to take away that decision entirely."

"Well, maybe we should. This has gone on for far too long, now."

"...I know," the King sighed. "I do know, I just... I don't want to remove her choice entirely."

"She's had choice," the Queen soothed, "and she hasn't taken it. It would be the kindest thing for us to do now, to nudge her in the right direction."

"Alright, alright. As long as it isn't a forceful nudge. She still gets a say in this," the King warned.

"Of course, dear," the Queen said, before planting a quick kiss on his cheek and sweeping out of the room to go and check on their daughter.

The King slumped back into the sofa and dropped his head into his hands. He knew his wife well, and with that came the knowledge that once she had set her mind on something there was no force on this earth that could sway her from the path. He just hoped that Ivy wouldn't become swept up and hurt in the inevitable oncoming storm.

*****

Ivy was curled up tightly in one of the grand armchairs in front of her fire place. It had taken her hours to get out of bed that morning, partly due to the late night but mostly due to the twisting feelings she had in her stomach and the tremors she was still experiencing in her limbs.

Her mother had been the one to pull her out of bed eventually, send her on a walk around the castle gardens. It had only served to strengthen the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, the hollowness in her legs, the fluttering of her heart. She had returned to her room gratefully and saw that it had been tidied in her absence and all the books returned to their shelves.

The books hadn't helped.

She was steeling herself for when the sun began to set and Luke would be up to light the fire. She was desperate to talk to him, desperate that he would have some answers. She had tried to explain to the others, her mother, Charlotte, the maids fawning over her, that she was unwell, flustered in some way by something.

Although she had tried to press her symptoms, her mother had dismissed it with a wave of her elegant hand and advised her to take air, to rest, not to read; books being unnecessary excitements, prone to causing excitable fits in young women such as herself. Ivy had tried to explain that this feeling had never come from reading, but the Queen assured her that, following her advice, she would be feeling well soon enough.

But Luke had seen it, seen her body act in strange ways. He would believe her and hopefully he could explain.

As the light began to fade and a chill wind seeped through the windows into her room, she turned her attention to the door. Her heart was thudding fast, waiting for it to open. She just needed to see him, just for a little while, just to talk.

A clock on the mantelpiece ticked away the minutes of her solitude with an aching monotony. With each passing moment the tension built within her, like a loose spring inside her mind tightening and tightening, coiling in on itself until the strain became unbearable.

Ivy sprang from her seat and tossed the blanket that had been around her shoulders onto the floor by her chair. She rang the bell and waited by the door, shuffling from foot to foot, her arm clasped around her waist and her teeth nibbling on her bottom lip furiously.

When the door creaked open Ivy involuntarily took a step back, another lash of adrenaline surging through her at the noise. But instead of Luke, as she had expected, a maid entered.

"Yes, miss?" she asked. Ivy stared at her, mouth slightly agape.

"I was just... erm... it's getting cold. I was wondering when Luke would be up to light the fire," she gestured unnecessarily to the dark, empty grate.

"Oh, of course miss. I think he thought someone else was doing it, but I'll go and fetch him now for you," she said, before curtseying and flitting from the room in search of Luke.

Ivy began to pace, no longer able to even feign stillness. Why would he think someone else would light the fire? Had he organised for it to be someone else's job? She stomped to the window overlooking the hills and wrapped both of her arms around herself, swaying slightly in time with the wind whistling through the window frame.

She had become so entranced in the rocking comfort of her movements to the gentle guidance of the winds melody that she didn't hear the door as it opened and then shut quietly behind her.

"Ivy?" Luke said, a curt tone in his voice -- a formal edge that was not usually there.

Ivy spun on the spot with a start. She would have moved to him but was held still by the look that was blazing from his dark eyes. Something dangerous seemed to be lurking there. It reminded her of a look she had seen once before: it had come from a bull that her father had shot on a hunt, a wounded indignity, but no, more than that, a terrifying will to fight.

Ivy swallowed, trying to think of something to say. She had run through all of this in her head but now she wasn't so sure. Luke was making her tense and all the carefully collected thoughts that she had assembled for the conversation seemed to scatter in an instant. Eventually, she gathered the courage to speak.

"The fire..." Ivy whispered.

"Yes?"

"... it, it hasn't been lit."

"Well, who lit it last night?"

"I'm sorry?" Ivy asked, confused.

"Who lit it last night? I can go and find them and ask them to light it again."

"No... no one lit it last night. I mean, yes, someone did, I did. I lit it," Ivy was stumbling over her words, unsure of herself.

Luke raised an eyebrow very slightly. It was barely noticeable, but Ivy picked up on it.

"You... you thought I asked someone else to light the fire?" she asked. Emboldened slightly, she took a hesitant step forwards, towards him.

His hands were behind his back and he was standing straight and tall until the realisation washed over him that he had been entirely wrong. He nodded silently to her and then cast his eyes to the floor. He brought his hand up and ran his long fingers through his hair, tussling it as he did so.

"I'll do it now," he muttered. He moved to the fire place and quickly began stacking the coal, logs and kindling, running on auto-pilot as his thoughts rushed around his head in a torrent.

Once he was finished she passed him the box of matches that she had used last night. As she placed them into his hands, their fingers brushed gently and he swallowed hard. He took time lighting the kindling, watching the flames envelop the wood, used the poker to more evenly distribute the coal.

"You did this yourself, last night?" he asked.

"Yes, although not so well as you. And you'd already made up the wood and things, I just had to light it."

He nodded, his mind lost in thought.

"Ivy, could we sit down?"

"Of course," she said, looking a little relieved. She moved warily over to the armchair closest to her, lowering herself into it and bringing her knees up to her chest, her skirt cascading like water down around her. She wrapped her arms around her knees and watched him intently as he moved to take the seat across from her.

He moved with agile purpose, as if sure of where he was going, not just in a room but in the world. His lean limbs reminded her of some sort of graceful swan, she mused. But darker; a black swan, maybe.

Once seated, he leaned forward so that his elbows were on his knees, his fingers steepled with his chin resting upon them. His intense gaze was fixed directly upon her and it flared up that now-familiar tingling sensation, starting in her stomach before sweeping down between her legs.

"You look like you have something you'd like to say, Ivy," he whispered. She nodded.

Ivy took a deep breath and Luke mimicked it without realising, his chest rising and falling in time with her own.

"I'm just so confused, Luke. You see, I think I'm ill."

Luke cocked his head to the side, a worried frown clear upon his face.

"I know you noticed it too. My body, it's acting strangely. Last night. My heart, my legs... they shook. They're still shaking. It's like adrenaline. I've been reading up on it, but it doesn't seem to make sense," it all flowed out in a whisper, a stuttering monologue that Luke had to strain to hear.

Luke sat up slowly, his hands moving to rest on the arms of the chair. The implications of what she was saying were becoming clearer to him. But he had to be sure.

"Since last night?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Since I chased you?"

"Whilst you chased me. Kind of. Once you caught me, I guess."

Luke took a sharp intake of breath, startled by what she was saying, not quite sure if he could believe it. Her words, she made it sound like she didn't know how she had felt, or why she felt it. She made it sound like she didn't know arousal.

He took a moment to consider his words carefully, watching closely for her reaction as he said them, studying her face.

"And when I pushed you against the wall...?" he asked. And there it was. The reminder of that moment caused her cheeks to flare up a beautiful shade of red, her breath came out as a gasp, and a faint whimper escaped her lips.

"Yes, then too. I think I'm ill," she repeated.

Luke swore to himself. She didn't know. How could she not know? She was sheltered, sure, but he had no idea that it was to this extent.

"You know something, don't you?" she said, looking at him intently. He stayed silent, looking back at her, searching her eyes.

"You know something!" Ivy said again, raising her voice.

"Yes, but..."

"What? What do you know!"

"Alright!" he hissed, silencing her. "Alright," he said, softer this time, composing himself. She was just a girl, he realised. For all her learning, for all her intelligence, she was just a girl who had now experienced her first feelings of passion and she didn't even know what it meant.

And if she was just a girl, then he was just a man, and he could teach her.

He scolded himself internally, annoyed at the excitement that had been caused by that thought. But he couldn't deny it, he wanted this. He wanted to be the one to guide her body, show her what it could do, bring her to a point of ecstasy at his hands. And she wanted it too, or rather, her body did. Her mind just hadn't had a chance to catch up. And if it was going to be anyone who would teach her, he wanted it to be him. He knew he would do it properly, gently, in a way that would make her feel safe.

Luke got up slowly from his seat and took a step towards her, keeping his eyes on her face, gauging her reactions. He lowered himself gracefully to his knees in front of her chair.

"Will you let me show you something, Ivy?" he asked, looking up at her, the flames causing shadows to dance around them. She nodded, very softly. He took that as full permission.

Luke reached up to where her feet were, up on the seat of the chair, her knees pressed against her chest. He took hold of her ankles, keeping his grip tender but firm, and used it to lift her feet off the chair and down to rest on the floor in front of his knees.

"How do you feel, Ivy?" he whispered, his eyes still on hers.

"Shaky," she said, and she sounded it. Little puffs of breath were escaping her mouth and she had started to tremble again.

Luke rose up on his knees, placed his hands onto the arms of her chair, his face now above hers slightly, so that she had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact with him.

"You'll be ok," he told her, reaching out with his right hand to grasp at her trembling fingers. He took her hand in his and turned it over so that it was palm up. Placing it back against the arm of the chair, he trailed his fingers up her own before reaching the soft skin on her wrist.

He rested his finger there for a moment, marvelling at the feeling of her quickening pulse against his finger tip, the feel of her blood coursing through her veins, so fast. He inwardly groaned at the thought of the warmth, the heat of the place where her blood was rushing to.

As slowly as he could he began to trace delicate circles around the pulse on her wrist, knowing that it would shoot her mind back to when he had done the same just the night before, when she had been pressed against the wall by him. Right on cue she let out a low moan and closed her eyes, her tongue flicking out to lick her dry lips.

"Talk to me, Ivy," he whispered.

"I just feel... tingly, again. Hot. My stomach, it's fluttering."

"Anything else?" he murmured, as reassuringly as possible, hoping to comfort her, make her feel safe enough to let go of her inhibitions.

Ivy blushed, bit her lip and shook her head. So she did know that there was something going on, he mused. If she wasn't willing to mention the heat, the wetness that he knew was spreading between her legs, then some part of her sub-conscious knew.

He could feel himself growing hard, had been trying to battle it but at the look on her face, the beautiful blush on her neck and breasts, it was becoming too much. He took a deep breath to steady himself.

Luke dipped his hand under the hem of her skirt and placed it back on her ankle, keeping his other hand still lightly pressed against her pulse, stopping the swirling of his fingers, wanting to feel each fluttering beat of her heart. Her eyes darted open again and she gazed down at him with heavy lids.

"Just keep breathing," he told her, focusing on keeping his voice low, seductive. "This will feel intense."

"You still haven't told me what's wrong with me," she whispered, the tremor in her voice obvious.

"Oh, Ivy, sweetheart, there is nothing wrong with you."

With that, he ran his hand up her smooth leg, trailing his touch along the sensitive flesh and leaving goose bumps in its wake.

She gasped, her back suddenly arching and her hands clenching tight. He felt her pulse jump and his own heart did the same. She was so sensitive, so responsive, like she'd never been touched. But of course, he realised, she hadn't. Not ever.

He stopped at her knee and wrapped his hand protectively around it, his fingers softly resting against the delicate skin on the back of her thigh.

Ivy let out a low moan and Luke couldn't stop himself from doing the same. He squeezed his eyes shut and bent his head down for a second, giving himself a chance to compose himself. At that one gorgeous sound, it had felt as if his whole world had dropped out of the pit of his stomach. Nothing could compare.

When he could bear it, he gazed back up at her and saw that she was once again looking frightened. This time, he didn't let it dissuade him, knowing that she was only fearing the unknown -- scared of her body's reactions, scared of the intense feelings that had suddenly invaded her previously monotonous life.

"Ivy, look at me," he commanded. She did, instantly, and his heart fluttered.

"I want you to do something, Ivy. I want you to focus on these feelings and embrace them. They are not bad, they are not dangerous. They are good." He thought for a second, remembering her need for facts, for science.

He began to trail his finger back and forth along the skin of her thigh, causing her eyelashes to flutter.

"This is your body's way of telling you something. It's telling you that you want something. Like hunger or thirst."

She nodded, looking at him in earnest now.