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He’s grown so accustomed to feigning confidence that he hopes the footmen carrying his belongings into the room were none the wiser as to his activities with his betrothed mere minutes prior to their arrival. His smile most likely gave him away as there is no replacing it with any other expression for a good while to come. The woman on the other side of the wall between them has changed his entire outlook on the possibilities of his life and his ever expanding understanding of what it means to be in love.
“Sir, would you like us to unpack your…”
“No,” he hears himself practically shout. Taking a calming breath, he quickly composes himself to continue. “Thank you, Mason, we will return tomorrow to get things sorted. Please, you and the others, take some extra time on your way home. It will be a very busy time for all of us between now and the wedding.”
Colin watches as Mason smiles, nodding slightly in appreciation before making a suspiciously hasty exit to the hallway. He waits only a few mere moments before crossing to the door leading back into the sitting room from the bedroom, his heart picking up speed beneath his waistcoat with each step leading him back to Pen.
The sight before him upon opening the door is one he shall remember until his last hair has gone gray. His beloved, his Pen, is standing before the mirror, disheveled curls the color of fire dancing across the peaches and cream skin of her back peeking through the still loosened corset, skirted undergarments twisted about her waist and her eyes, wide and impossibly blue meeting his over her still bare shoulder. His gaze falls to the silhouette of her breast visible from where the corset hangs open and he longs to take it in his hand, feel the weight of it, drink in the sounds she would make as he teases her sensitive skin.
She’s so beautiful. And he is an idiot, for not seeing her sooner. He must have been half blind.
“I…I…,” she stammers softly, “fear I may need your help.”
He darts his eyes from her breast to the ribbons of her corset, his fingertips still storing the memory of the slide of them across his skin as she was first revealed to him less than an hour ago. He’d had some experience in the removal before, but the tightening, this is as foreign a territory as his tutor attempting to teach him some ancient history lesson when he was still wearing short pants.
“Colin?”
Clearing his throat, he straightens his spine and strides towards her, conjuring some of the bravado he’d stored over the summer to stop his voice from shaking before speaking.
“Of course,” he replies, “however I cannot guarantee I’ll be as proficient as your maid.”
“I should hope not.”
Colin find’s Penelope in the mirror, her teasing smile a welcome surprise at such an intimate interlude. How lucky he is to have found his greatest love within his greatest friend.
Grasping the end of the ribbon, he leans down and gives it a playful tug.
“Be careful what you say,” he whispers behind her ear, “I have the power to quite literally steal your breath.”
“I believe that was already well accomplished, Mr. Bridgerton.”
Colin’s breath is most definitely stolen at her words and he looks up at her again in the mirror, finding her looking down, her cheeks flushed pink and avoiding his gaze. She’d found the strength to speak the flirtation, but the newness of his closeness, it seems to be more than she knows how to handle. Reaching up, he runs the knuckle of his index finger along her jaw, watching as her eyelashes flutter at the intimacy of his touch. With a slight nudge, he tips her chin up slightly, waiting until her eyes eventually meet his to speak.
“I believe it was my breath, Ms. Featherington, that was well and truly stolen…my heart right along with it.”
He can barely make out her whispered, “Colin”, through the drumbeat of his heart pounding in his ears, but god, it feels too good to speak his feelings for her aloud. Using his fingers still on her chin, he nudges her to turn to face him, guiding her at the waist with his other hand until he has the whole of her solidly in his arms.
The distance he has to lean down to find her lips is far too long, but when he finds them, soft and open, he knows he would go to his knees if that’s what it would take to have them on his forever. He kisses her slow, urgency and passion not the goal, not this time. He wants her to feel cherished, confident that he will always want this, want her in this way. This isn’t a fleeting fancy for him, for them, it is forever.
He loses his rhythm as her fingertips slide across his cheek, his breath coming out unbidden against her lips in quick huff. Heat rushes up along the sides of his neck at the memory of him asking for her touch, branding him with her ownership as her fingertips trailed across the bare skin of his belly. It takes all of the energy he can muster to quell the desire pooling low in his stomach, knowing that they’ve tempted the fates today already and cannot risk going another round. Leaning back in, he takes her lips again for another soft press, taking a moment to nudge her nose with his as he reluctantly puts space between them once again.
“Perhaps we should call it a draw,” he whispers, their joint ragged breathing a reminder of what they’d been speaking of before all of the kissing.
“Perhaps,” Penelope agrees, her hand coming to rest over his heart as her sweet smile beams up at him with unmistakable happiness.
Knowing that he has been the one to make her feel this, it’s a greater feeling than seeing the most stunning Grecian sunset or Parisian sky.
Oh god, he’s so fanciful. Time to find his damn wits so they can get out of this room sometime today.
“Turn back ‘round, let’s see if I can figure this thing out.”
She does as instructed, moving her hands to her hips as he makes an attempt at tightening the ribbons as he would his old riding boots. He is unsure of how tight to make things and the last thing he wants to do is cause her pain.
Reading his thoughts exactly, her words quell his worries almost immediately.
“Don’t worry, I’m not a fragile doll, it must be quite tight.”
“I must admit, the few times I’ve stumbled in error upon my sisters being laced up, I never imagined I’d find myself in the role of ladies maid. It’s an education, to be sure.”
“I imagine we will have many things to teach each other as our life together unfolds.”
Colin can’t stop himself from tugging her backwards at that, pressing himself firmly against her back, his larger hands covering hers on her waist and as he gives her a gentle squeeze.
“A journey I am eager to begin with you, Pen.”
“As am I, Colin.”
He somehow manages to focus himself enough to get the corset fully laced, averting his eyes more than once from the mirror as her bosom swelled each time he tightened the garment further. She really does have the most miraculous breasts he’s ever seen, or ever imagined really. The lifetime he will spend lavishing them with praise and attention is one he looks forward to immensely.
After she’s fully dressed, they lose themselves in laughter together as they search the floor for the pin he’d pulled from her hair, Colin celebrating after finding it tangled in the tassels of the throw pillow from the settee. How wondrous it is to laugh with something with whom one feels such fondness. It is an unexpected side of love he is quickly cataloging as a favorite.
“I’d offer my assistance with righting your hair, but I fear that is beyond all my comprehension.”
Penelope just chuckles under her breath as she works some sort of wizardry with her shiny curls, twisting with deft fingers until everything is re-pinned and she’s once again put back together. There’s a pang of longing behind his ribs for the sight of her disheveled and flushed in his arms, but he knows they will find themselves there again, many times if he has any say in the matter.
“Do I look alright?”
Catching Penelope’s gaze in the mirror, he sees that she’s caught his faraway expression and he smiles quickly, stepping forward with hands outstretched. She turns and steps towards him, taking his hands and returning his smile as she waits for his reply.
“You look perfect.”
He’d chosen the word to mirror the same she’s whispered from beneath him on the settee while he’d been still buried deep inside of her and he revels as her eyes widen at the realization. God, he will never tire of setting her off kilter. He will never tire of being buried inside her either, but that thought must be pushed farther back at this current moment.
“Colin…”
Throwing his head back in laughter, he drops her hands so he can offer her his arm to usher her from the room and down the stairs.
“Oh how I will love teasing you, Pen.”
“Oh how I will love everything with you” , he thinks to himself as they walk out into the sunlight towards his waiting carriage, arm in arm and heart in heart.