“She was right!” Dylan was still disbelieving as he said it.
“Relly? Yes, she was!” Celestine leapt into his arms and kissed him. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t let you know I was there when you came over last night, but there was no way without letting Mother and Troy know!”
“Speaking of which, m’lady,” said Agnes, who had stepped out of the carriage behind her, “We’d best get you two on board. Who knows how long they’ll be at the police station?”
“The police station?” Dylan repeated.
“I’ll explain everything on the ship,” Celestine said, taking Dylan’s hand. “She’s right, the sooner we’re settled, the better.” She looked past Agnes to see Jameson clumsily pulling her trunk out of the storage space in the undercarriage. “Hurry up, Jameson,” she ordered.
“Yes, of course,” Jameson muttered in a tone Dylan had never heard before. Though utterly mystified, he wanted to laugh for joy.
True to her promise, Lorelei had arranged for the captain to provide them with tickets and a receipt for the money she had given him. “I’ve got it locked in my quarters,” he said as he welcomed them aboard. “You’ll get it as soon as we dock in Polerma.” Dylan watched as two porters took the trunk from Jameson, who turned to walk back down the gangplank without another look at them. Down on the dock, Agnes was waving them goodbye, and they both responded in kind before being led to their cabin.
“Just what happened last night?” Dylan demanded, not unkindly, as soon as they were alone.
“I’ll tell you all I know in just a bit,” Celestine said. With a wicked grin, she added, “But there’s something else I think we ought to do first!”
When they retired to their cabin, it promptly became clear that neither of them would be in shape to do what Celestine had in mind for the moment. Even with the ship at anchor, the rocking had them feeling uneasy. Tempting as it was to return to the deck in case they were ill, they dared not go outside where they might be visible from the docks. Surely the captain wouldn’t admit any knowledge of their presence should Portia or Troy accost him on the deck — they were both sure of that, but neither dared voice their confidence of it. So Dylan joined Celestine on the narrow cot and more than willingly enfolded her in his arms, and they were silent for the final moments in their hometown. It was a loving but uneasy silence, and both wondered if the stirring in their bellies was not due only to the rocking of the boat.
They both heaved an audible sigh of relief when the ship weighed anchor, which quickly turned into a laugh and a passionate kiss, worth every moment Celestine had waited for it. But now that it was safe to do so, they both felt the need to go topside. Their seasickness was at least tempered by the wonderful sight of Candover disappearing over the horizon, a relief that even made the sailors’ subtle laughter bearable.
When they were both feeling better, Celestine settled herself on the foredeck to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine and bade Dylan snuggle up beside her. “Now, am I ever to know just what happened last night?” he asked.
“We’ve an invitation to join the captain for supper, and then I insist we seal the deal on our new life!” she said with a playful grin.
Dylan did not argue, for he did not relish kissing his beloved with the lingering taste of his seasickness still in his throat, and he rather suspected the same was true of Celestine. So they more than willingly waited out the afternoon in the dazzling sunlight in the comfort of one another’s arms, until a deckhand invited them to the captain’s table.
A merry round of wine and better-than-they-expected meat later, Celestine’s heart was pounding and her panties were drenched as she sat on the edge of the cot and watched Dylan lock their cabin door.
“There were so many days at the Green Lake I wanted so much to touch you all over the place…” Dylan said with a shy grin.
“And you’d have been more than welcome to do it!”
“If only I hadn’t been so terrified…”
“There is nothing to be terrified of now!” Celestine stood up and threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately. Even before their lips had parted, she was hard at work on unbuttoning his shirt. She was all set to order him to help her off with her clothes as well, only to realize just in time that she felt her skirt being gathered up.
Those afternoons at the Green Lake meant there was no awkwardness whatsoever as Dylan pulled her dress away or as she pushed his shirt off his shoulders. Though he did not relieve her of her brassiere right away, Celestine found his first caresses on her still-bound breasts utterly satisfying — how many times had she longed for this? His fingers were as gentle as the satin they were rubbing through, almost ticklish but not quite.
Celestine let him play with her breasts for a lovely moment, then helped herself to his belt buckle and kissed him gently as she unbuckled it. At last she felt him slide his hands around her back to unclasp her brassiere. She pulled back from his lips just long enough to let him pull it away. “Lovely,” she said. “Nothing like getting that off.”
“You like that, do you?” Dylan asked.
“I’ll expect you to do it every night when we’re home to stay,” she ordered with a smile as she welcomed his first touch on her bare breasts. “Oh, my, yes, more of that!” she added as he teased her nipples with his thumbs. The library book had said some women could orgasm from having their breasts played with alone, and Celestine had ever since wondered if she mightn’t be one of them.
Evidently not, she realized as Dylan’s caresses felt wonderful but did nothing to quench the growing hunger between her thighs. She eagerly pushed his short pants down to reveal his own hunger was just as intense, and she gave him a taste of relief with a playful squeeze. “Onhhhh,” he said, closing his eyes and pausing his caresses with her breasts still clutched gently in his hands. “So good!”
“And that’s just a taste!” She threw her arms around him and they shared their longest kiss yet, and just as she had hoped, she felt him pulling her sopping panties down. As soon as they had fallen to her ankles, she kicked them off and spread her legs, and guided his right hand into her bush.
As he slipped his finger inside her, all the clinical terms Celestine had read about her body in that book vanished from her mind. None of that mattered now; what did matter was his delightful touch on her inner flesh. The book had said a lot about indescribable sensations. That much was right! “Ohhhh, feels so good!” she squealed, returning the favour on his hardness.
“Can you come from this?” he asked.
“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” she replied breathlessly.
Presently Dylan found her clitoris with his thumb, erasing any lingering concerns Celestine may have had about him knowing his way around a woman’s body. She threw her head back and moaned with joy, which only intensified when he leaned in and kissed and nibbled her neck, still stroking away in and around her vagina. “Oh, do it, do it,” she whispered in rhythm, closing her eyes to savour the sensation completely.