His mouth left her lips and traveled over her neck. Soft kisses interspersed with tiny nibbles and feather touches of his warm mouth passed across her shoulders and fragile collarbones. Lizzy sighed and trembled in pleasure. Darcy was jolted with almost excruciating waves of satisfaction. Her taste was bliss, her warmth exquisite, her soft vocalizations heavenly. Lizzy arched involuntarily, exposing her neck to his moist lips and tongue, all the while caressing solid shoulders. One would be hard pressed to say who was more deeply affected.

“Beautiful love,” he murmured against her throat, “so unbelievably beautiful. How deeply I love you my Elizabeth, my wife.” Gradually, so very tenderly, he traveled wet kisses to her breasts. Never had he imagined anything as beautiful as the feel of her flesh under his lips and tongue. It was rapturous! She moaned, pulling his head harder onto her breasts with sharp clenches in his hair.

“William, sweet love. Please do not stop.”

He spent endless stunning minutes of ecstasy teasing and tasting the perfection of her bosom, with one hand caressing lightly over her satin-clad waist. He rose, urgently needing to gaze upon her precious face. Her eyes opened, glazed and inundated with a passion never revealed before, as she looked upon him.

Darcy rolled his upper body over hers, heat seeping into her very bones, and leaned up on his elbows to caress her breasts, purposefully arousing her. “Are you well, beloved? Does this please you?”

She swallowed, nodding faintly. “William, I… I cannot describe… your touch moves me so. Oh, please, love, please kiss me!” she moaned, offering lush parted lips with obvious yearning, hands tight on his shoulders.

He reclaimed her mouth, groaning deep in his throat, delving into the depths of her mouth possessively and completely. Lizzy held his neck in a savage grip, meeting his kiss with equal passion and enthusiasm, her other hand exploring brazenly. She involuntarily curved her hips toward him, unwittingly increasing pressure to his leg and other sensitive parts.

“Elizabeth!” he gasped and released her slightly, raggedly gulping for air. He dropped his head to her chest and forced himself to stop moving, frantically seizing the frayed edges of his control.

“William, my love! I am sorry. Did I hurt you somehow?” Her voice was full of anxiety.

Darcy could not explain why it struck him as humorous, but it did. He laughed faintly, breath tickling her sensitive bosom, and shook his head. He kissed each perfect breast and then lifted up to look upon her amazing face. “No, my precious, you did not hurt me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I am frankly becoming undone by the bliss I am feeling being in your arms… touching you… kissing you. I must slow down. Ah, my beautiful wife, you have absolutely no idea how I yearn for you!”

She smiled happily and rose up to his lips. “Yes, Fitzwilliam,” she purred, “I do know. I yearn for you as well and do not wish to slow down.” She kissed him playfully as she had so longed to do, teasing his lips, tasting the skin of his jaw, exploring the cleft in his chin. Her fingers moved freely over his face and neck, toying with his ear folds as fire ignited anew over his flesh.

He passively allowed her investigation but was tremendously affected. He had managed to regain a semblance of control but he realized with certainty that he could not persevere for much longer. His arousal and ardor had reached a point bordering on pain. God, he needed to make her his! It was an uncontainable force burning through his very soul. He still refused to rush to the degree that he might hurt her or fail to bring her to total fulfillment; however, he needed to step up the pace. He felt her tremors, heard her sighs of longing, and knew what to do.

“Elizabeth,” he asked huskily, “may I please see all of you?”

Her answer was to gently push him away as she sat up in the bed. He propped himself up with his arm and avidly watched her. She flushed in embarrassment at his intense stare but daringly did as he wished, gaze averted. She wiggled her arms and the top part of her gown fell to her waist. Darcy’s eyes drank in the vision of her newly exposed skin. She was lovelier than he had imagined, absolutely stunning. She gripped the fabric at her waist and, with a quick lift of her bottom, pulled her gown past her hips.

A guttural groan escaped Darcy’s throat, startling Lizzy yet sending a massive surge of heat lancing through her body. Darcy snapped out of his entrancement, reaching over and running the back of his hand along her inner thigh as he peeled the gown off her legs, tossing it absently away. Lizzy quivered at his touch, sighed deeply, and closed her eyes.

“My God, Elizabeth! You are perfect and so stunningly beautiful.” He swallowed, eyes leaving her body with difficulty to meet her glittering gaze. With agonizing patience he reached to brush trembling fingertips over her skin, collarbone to nipples to ripe breasts to navel and then along her shapely legs. Lizzy was panting in short gasps, examining his intense expression, and discovering the rising ardency gained from his clear adoration of her form and the indescribable titillation of his touch.

Gradually her gaze left his face to move over his body, truly seeing him for the first time. Blushes crept over her cheeks, but she could not pull her eyes from the beauty of his shape. That he was powerfully built she had ascertained even through his clothing, but she had not known the raw manliness evident in the defined muscles of his torso. Black hairs, profuse over his chest but compacting into a heavy patch between his pectorals, trailed in a thick line down a hard, flat abdomen to join a much denser patch at his groin. Her eyes widened and she hastily glanced away, cheeks flushing further at the instant ache felt deep inside her belly. Never had she envisioned such virility or the raging response she felt to all she saw and all he was doing to her. With a shuddering moan, she closed her eyes.

“Lie back, my love,” he commanded tensely. She did so as he repositioned himself. Lizzy thought this was it, and she was mildly frightened but mostly elated. She was mistaken. He gently began raining warm wet kisses over her abdomen, firm hands caressing everywhere. The sensations that he educed transcended anything she had yet experienced. He was unrelenting but always tender in his stimulation, arousing her to places unimaginable, the previous fervency insignificant compared to what she now felt. Forever, so it seemed, he caressed and kissed. Not an inch of her skin was left unfazed by his devotion.

Dizziness consumed her. Time lost all meaning. Soft whispers of love flowed from his lips as he traveled about her flesh. Her body writhed and shivered uncontrollably and strange vocalizations emitted from parted lips until eventually the sensations coalesced into a nearly terrifying intensity. All she knew for certain was that she required fulfillment from him immediately or she was likely to perish from the aching need.

“William!” she shouted, “I need you! Please!”

At her cry he moved until fully on top of her. His fiery body pressed into hers as he twined one hand into her hair and around her neck, passionately claiming her mouth with a throaty groan. Simultaneously his other hand grasped the back of one knee, pulling her leg up and around his waist as he joined with her, lovingly consummating their marriage and bond.

Darcy groaned, the joy of feeling his wife surrounding him and at one with him nearly more than he could handle. It was Lizzy’s gasp of pain and instant stiffening that restored his clarity.

“Relax, my love,” he murmured, “it only hurts for a moment.” To prove the truth of his words, he stilled, caressing softly and kissing deeply until she eased. Gazing into her trusting eyes, his own glittering indigo and brimming with adoration, he waited.

“We are one, my beloved. Joined together. Hearts and bodies bound now and forever. Oh, Lord, Elizabeth! How I love you! You are mine and I am yours for all eternity. Release your tension, precious love. I will be gentle.” He spoke softly, caressing and kissing.

Lizzy smiled, gently tightening the legs wrapped over his waist and gliding her fingertips over his cheeks. “Love me, William. Complete making me your wife,” she whispered, eyes slipping shut in rapture as she lifted her mouth to his.

He closed his eyes and moaned, moving unhurriedly, suppressing his flaming yearning until fervor replaced her discomfort. Afterwards, Darcy would be amazed at himself for finding the control to set a leisurely pace. His restraint was short lived, however, due to her reawakened passion. His pace quickened with a feverish hunger, Lizzy spurring him on. It was nirvana! Pleasure and gratification as never before experienced. They surrendered themselves to the spiraling sensations of pure pleasure and cried each other’s names while clinging to each other in a desperate attempt to meld further.

Darcy collapsed onto her, too exhausted and satiated to move. Lizzy wrapped her limbs even tighter about him while tears of joy leaked from her eyes. Neither of them could have verbalized then, or ever, the riot of emotions swirling inside. Suffice to say, nothing had prepared either of them for the satisfaction, contentment, and unadulterated ecstasy of the reality.

How long they lay entwined, their wits rattled, hearts racing, and breathing erratic, they never knew. Lizzy moved first by planting kisses along Darcy’s sweat-glistened shoulder and neck, repeating I love you as a litany. With a final shuddering exhale, Darcy rose slightly so that he could see his wife. They simply looked upon each other for long moments. Darcy caressed her face and kissed gently. He started to move off her, but she tenaciously clutched him.