Chapter Text
“So, are we going for our midnight swim this year?” Colin asked idly as he leaned back in his chair, a freshly baked biscuit in his hand.
Looking over at him, Daphne could not help but roll her eyes a little. Her brother was nothing if not… well, Colin . “I do not see why we would skip it. It is tradition.”
“I only ask because we do have other guests,” Colin responded around a mouthful of biscuit as crumbs started to rain down on his coat and waistcoat.
With a grunt, Benedict rose from his seat and reached to sweep the errant crumbs off, only succeeding in sprinkling them into the chair that Colin currently occupied. “I do not understand how mother has never chastised you for your terrible manners,” Benedict groused before falling back into his own chair, sketchbook in hand.
“He is her favourite,” Francesca gently supplied from where she sat at the pianoforte, her hands resting on the closed keyboard lid. Daphne could tell that she so dearly wished to play that afternoon, but did not dare for fear of drawing attention to their little meeting. Specifically the attention of those that were either too young for such outings, or too easily scandalised.
“I suppose Anthony should also be here,” Daphne added, looking at her other siblings with pursed lips. “And Eloise, though last time she decided she would rather read than swim.”
“You know Anthony would say it is high time we stopped this little tradition,” Colin responded, wiping his hands off over their mother’s expensive Aubusson rug, to which Daphne sighed and looked away.
“And he perhaps needs it more than the rest of us,” Benedict cut in from where he lounged, one leg propped up on the armrest of his chair. Daphne had half a mind to walk over to him and shove it off. Ben thought Colin’s behaviour was appalling? She looked toward Francesca, who was still sitting quietly as their mother had taught them.
“It was peculiar, how he and Miss Sharma behaved in each other’s company during pall mall yesterday,” Colin remarked, his brows low now as he thought. “It made me think of Lady Danbury’s soirée back in London.”
Sitting up in her chair, Daphne eyed her brother. “How so?”
“Well, he kept looking at Miss Sharma, and not just a passing glance, mind you.” Colin rubbed a finger under his nose in contemplation.
“Was he looking at Miss Edwina?” Francesca prompted, turning on the piano bench to face him.
“Barely, and honestly, almost begrudgingly,” Colin admitted, looking toward Francesca to address her.
“What exactly are you getting at?” Daphne asked, trying to figure out how this tied into their plans for their annual secret midnight swim.
“Well, forgive me for my inelegance, but perhaps it is also high time we pranked Anthony?” Colin suggested, his eyes serious as he looked at Daphne.
“Are you suggesting we invite Miss Sharma along?” Daphne asked, her jaw-dropping at the genuine risk of scandal he was proposing.
“And have you seriously considered the fact that Anthony, our maladjusted brother, will likely propose to Miss Edwina this week? Though we all know he is much better suited for Miss Sharma?” Colin bit back, steely eyes boring into Daphne.
She rather thought that her brother was much more intelligent than he normally let on.
“It is an interesting plan,” Benedict mused, sitting up straight in his seat as he appeared to think it through. “And the prank being that we leave them there together? En déshabillé?”
“Benedict!” Francesca cut in, her hand pressed to her heart.
“While it may be true that Anthony has been asking for it, I am not sure Miss Sharma has.” Daphne shifted in her seat, already regretting that she had allowed this conversation to go this far.
“Well, she won’t be in any real danger—not from Anthony,” Colin responded, resting his chin on his closed fist. “Plus, we can bribe the staff, ensure that none of this gets out. And ply the mamas with extra sherry this evening, so they will be abed when we abscond.”
“And what of Miss Edwina?” Francesca asked, her eyes darting between her siblings. Daphne mused how her second youngest sister had only ever participated in this ritual once, having been welcomed into the fold the day she turned 16, and after Anthony and she had taught her how to swim.
“Does she like sherry, too?” Benedict inquired, brows raised.
—
“A midnight swim?” Kate asked as she walked, turning to look at the duchess at her side, the summer breeze making its lazy way through the curls at the sides of her head.
“Yes, it is a tradition that Anthony actually started, after our father died,” Daphne explained, stopping to smell a rose from one of the bushes that lined their path. “You do know how to swim, yes?”
“Of course,” Kate responded with a smile, thinking of the bright sunny summers of her childhood when she’d escape to the Mula-Mutha river back home when her father was still alive, and how he’d throw her into the depths from the shore line. She used to swim back as fast as she could so he would toss her again.
“Shall I inform Edwina?” Kate asked as they continued walking.
“Oh we thought it would be rather gauche, if she were to come, seeing as she is courting Anthony,” Daphne explained with a slightly strained laugh. “Francesca and I swim in our shifts, the boys in their shirts.”
Kate wondered why she was invited then, considering how gauche it would be for her to be in a shift near mostly-naked men not of her relation.
“Oh, we change on separate sides of the lake!” Daphne cut in, having a similar trail of thoughts. “And I know it sounds rather scandalous, but once we’re in the water, it’s quite dark and murky, and you can barely see faces, let alone bodies.”
Feeling a little dizzy at the idea, particularly of being en déshabillé near Lord Bridgerton, Kate tried to brush her insecurities away with a shake of her head. She had never been one to be invited to events by other young women and had always struggled with acceptance, even before her father had passed. A not small part of her wanted to be a part of the group, and to experience some small measure of adventure in England, so she let out a breath through pursed lips and nodded.
“Alright, I accept.”
—
“We are running a little late,” Daphne whispered, as she grabbed Kate’s arm and led her quietly down the guest wing of the house. “The boys have our towels and will meet us in the water.”
At the foot of the central staircase, Kate and Daphne came upon Francesca waiting for them. “Eloise declined again,” Franny supplied, as she walked in step with them toward the back entrance of the house.
“And your older brothers are there?” Kate asked, feeling a little thrill in her gut at the idea of the three of them almost entirely naked.
“Yes,” Daphne confirmed, reaching to hold the door open for the two of them. “Hyacinth and Gregory are too young and have not yet learned to swim.”
“This is my second year,” Franny explained with a laugh as they danced down the stairs.
“I suppose I do not have to wonder why Mr Colin was plying our mamas and Lady Danbury with so much sherry this evening,” Kate mused the moment her slipper touched the soft grass at the bottom of the back stairway.
“It is tiring to be so in your cups,” Daphne said with a laugh, looping her arms through Kate and Francesca’s and beginning to skip toward the lake.
“And what does the duke think of this tradition?” Kate asked as she skipped, unable to prevent a happy laugh from escaping from between her lips.
“He thinks we are children,” Daphne explained with a giggle. “But he does not have siblings, so how could he possibly understand?”
Thinking of the strange traditions Kate had made up with Edwina while they still resided in India, she couldn’t help but agree.
—
It was an easy twenty-minute walk to the lake, and when their party of three arrived, they could already hear laughing and splashing in the water. The sound made Kate wish to rip her dress off immediately so she could wade in and join. After enduring the day's humidity, which had seemed to sit on the earth as a heavy damp blanket, she longed to enjoy the cool depths of the lake.
Undoing Daphne’s dress, Kate felt a slight chill at the realisation that she was in fact undressing a duchess. However, as Daphne turned to assist Kate, she felt they were more akin to equals, especially considering what they were able to do. Besides, she was beginning to feel a strong kinship with the woman and hoped that if Anthony and Edwina did wed one day, she would earn another few sisters in the process, though as an uncomfortable knot formed in her belly, she banished the thought immediately.
Once Kate, Daphne, and Francesca were stripped down to their plain cotton shifts, a bubble of anticipation rose in Kate’s stomach. She wondered if she was really about to do this—something so scandalous that if it were to get back to London, she would become a pariah in society.
Letting out a nervous breath, Kate decided she truly did not care for the consequences and as the sound of the men playing in the water echoed across the lake, she felt beckoned forward and took her first tentative step onto the rocky shore.
The water was cold but inviting in a pleasant way cutting through the humidity that still sat heavily in the air. Daphne let out a little whoop as she ran into the water and Francesca confidently stepped ahead of Kate with a laugh.
Nothing for it, Kate thought, as she shook her head, and once she had waded in far enough she dove in head first. When she resurfaced a few seconds later, she let out a mirthful laugh, finally feeling a sense of freedom and ease after the trials of the London season.
And then she looked up.
There was nary a cloud in the night sky, and the moon was hidden somewhere along the horizon, so the exquisite and clear band of the Milky Way was visible as a brightly dotted band through the centre of the night sky.
Floating on her back, Kate realised she had not seen the sky so clearly since stepping off of the sloop that had taken her and her family to London from Bombay. The night sky had been her bosom companion for many a night after her father’s passing, and seeing it so clear and bright in the country sent a kaleidoscope of butterflies careening through her belly.
Floating there in that moment, mother nature’s greatest masterpiece before her, Kate felt that she had never been more content in her life.
—
Anthony had not wanted to do this tonight. It was an old ridiculous tradition, something he had made up years ago to get Daphne, Colin, and Ben out of the house after the younger children had gone to the nursery for the night. There was too much going on to allow for these childish antics and games.
However, once he had stepped a foot into the water, he knew he would not regret this evening. The lake at Aubrey Hall had a way of shaking him from his rigid mindset, of helping him let loose his inhibitions of the day, and to remember what it was like to be a child.
Making a note to do this more often, even by himself when things became too difficult, Anthony stepped forward and allowed his shirt to grow fully submerged in the lake water. When he crouched low on the rocky shoreline, letting his knees almost bend fully so his shoulders were submerged, his shirt had a tendency to ride up along his shoulders. It was a strangely freeing feeling, to feel his cock and arse completely bare under the water.
He did not have more time to think about it before he felt a hard pressure on his shoulders, and was dragged down into the murky depths by a warm body. Pushing away, Anthony laughed as he surfaced again, turning to see that it had been Benedict, the fool grinning with triumph, the white of his teeth almost glowing in the darkness.
With a feigned curse, Anthony jumped for his brother and pulled him down in revenge. However, his efforts were thwarted when Colin jumped in and joined Benedict in this war of brothers, helping him shove Anthony below once more.
“Enough!” Anthony shouted at them with a laugh after feeling that telltale burn of water at the back of his throat from inhaling it by accident.
When they finally settled, the three sat back and looked up toward the sky momentarily.
“I am glad I came,” Anthony said to them, feeling it easier to admit these things in the dark.
“You always say that,” Benedict shot back, splashing him a little with the palm of his hand.
There was another round of raucous splashing form behind them, all three turning toward the noise.
“That’ll be Daphne and Fran,” Anthony remarked, squinting his eyes towards the girls in the distance, who all appeared as white spectres in the evening light. However, he counted three from his position—he distinctly remembered Eloise telling them they could rot when they’d asked her along. “Is that…” he began, trailing off, as the woman’s shape started to coalesce.
“I believe that is Miss Sharma,” Colin remarked from where he floated, pulling his shirt down to cover his chest and lower half.
“What did you—,“ Anthony began but bit his tongue the moment Daphne and Francesca waded over to join their group. He noticed Miss Sharma stayed closer to where the girls had changed, floating on her back in the distance.
“Benedict!” Daphne called to her brother. When Anthony turned, he realised Ben had been diving to the bottom of the lake every now and then, and pulling up handfuls of silt to lob at Colin. Colin, to his credit, did not seem to care as the silt pile on his belly grew bigger and bigger.
“Yes, sister?” Benedict responded, holding a handful of the stuff toward Daphne.
“Don’t you dare!” Francesca shouted, coming to stand with her sister, her own handful of muck at the ready.
With a roll of his eyes, Anthony decided to leave them to it and swam over to Miss Sharma where she had already floated toward the centre of the lake. By the time he reached her, the rest of his siblings were specks by the shoreline.
When he could see her outline distinctly against the water, he wondered if this was a dream. Her shift was soaked and transparent, and Anthony could see the distinct outline of supple breasts and hard nipples. His mouth watered at the sight and he was suddenly desperate to drag one of those pert peaks into his mouth through the wet cotton. The thought sent a jolt of desire to his cock, surprising him at how much his body seemed to desire this woman.
“You are being quiet,” he said, his voice a near whisper so as to not disturb her.
His intentions went for nought, as she seemed to jump an inch out of the water before going vertical, and waving her arms with a violent splash. Anthony wiped his eyes and bit back a laugh.
“Did my sisters invite you?” he asked, trying to keep a respectful distance where he trod water, but his eyes locked on her dark outline, the image of her nipples still vivid in his mind. He couldn’t help himself from sneaking a hand under the water and squeezing his half-hard cock for a moment. Just to relieve the pressure, nothing more.
“Daphne did,” Kate responded, slightly breathless. “She said we would… that we’d be…”
“They did not tell me, though I suspect they were all in on it,” he responded, looking toward the shore where the group had moved closer to land.
With a nervous sigh, Anthony felt the last of his frenzied energy dissipate, and more than a little vexed over his sibling’s scheming and how it involved an innocent party. “You were looking at the sky?” he asked, finally tearing his eyes from her and toward the sky once more.
“I have not seen it so clear since our voyage from India,” Kate responded with a sigh. Though Anthony was not looking at her, he could hear her splash in his direction.
Never having much body fat, Anthony was not an adept floater but tried his best to shift his weight to his back and pull his legs up to the surface. All he could seem to manage was a half-float half-tread.
“It is beautiful tonight,” Anthony said the moment he was situated, his eyes drifting from the band of the Milky Way to Kate’s profile, closer now from where she floated.
“It is,” Kate responded softly, barely needing to splash as she floated nearer still. “My father taught me the constellations, the Hindu ones and the Greek ones.”
“I hadn’t even considered.” Anthony’s voice was low and reverent as he responded, his eyes on the sky above as his legs and arms kept him afloat. “There’s Orion,” he said, pointing up, his shirtsleeve dragged back by the water as his bare hand pointed at the heavens. With the tip of his finger, he traced the three stars in Orion’s Belt.
“In some Indian mythologies, Orion is a hunter, and in others, it is a deer head,” Kate explained from where she floated. Anthony wondered if she traced it with her eyes as he did.
“It has always been my favourite,” Anthony remarked, thinking about how his father had first traced it out for him. They used to have stargazing nights at Aubrey Hall, where he and his siblings would lay out on the back lawn with their father, and hear tales of all of the constellations. Anthony would often imagine himself as the great hunter Orion.
“Because it is the easiest to find?” Kate teased with a soft chuckle.
Shaking his head at her, Anthony could not help but laugh for a moment before sobering. “Mostly because I liked the stories my father would tell about him.”
—
She had not expected the evening to progress like this. In truth, she had not expected to even speak to Lord Bridgerton—to Anthony—let alone swim beside him. But there was something so calming about his presence at her side, and somehow the darkness made it easier for her to speak openly with him.
However, she was still very much aware of her near nudity as she floated next to him, but was appreciative that he seemed to be averting his eyes. Turning to appraise him, Kate smiled at how he couldn’t seem to float on his back and kept gently paddling his arms in the water. She also could not ignore the way his shirt had floated up to the surface of the water and it suddenly dawned on her that he too was essentially naked beside her.
The thought sent a warm liquid pulse through her body. After all, Kate was not made of stone, she had noticed the man over the last few weeks. How his body was composed of hard and soft lines, how his lean neck disappeared enticingly into his collar, and the way the veins on his hands hinted at more of the same below his shirt.
Unwittingly, Kate bumped into his shoulder. The warmth of his skin startled her out of her floating position, sending her upright once more. Gentleman that he was, Anthony reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her.
A vivid vision swam in Kate’s mind, of Anthony pulling her hard against his chest so that his bare skin pressed into the length of hers. The thought sent something hot pulsing between her legs, and Kate tried to dance away but her arm was still held firmly in his warm hand.
His dark eyes were locked on her face, though she could not fully make them out. Her hand, seemingly with a mind of its own, reached to grab his shoulder where he treaded water before her and she heard his sharp intake of breath the moment her hand made contact with the wet cotton.
“Shall we,” Anthony began to say before stopping to clear his throat. “Float toward the shore? So we have solid ground beneath us?”
“Yes,” Kate whispered in response, still holding onto him.
When Anthony pulled back, breaking the contact between them, Kate felt a sudden rush of cold over take her making her shiver in the water. It was a ridiculous response, they had barely been touching, and yet his hand on her arm, and hers on his shoulder had felt like the only things warming her from within.
“Hold onto my shoulder,” he ordered as he turned in the water, facing the shore.
Doing as she was told, Kate grabbed one muscled shoulder with both hands, and then was surprised when he started to kick with his legs and efficiently brought them toward the rocky bank. Once it appeared that they were close enough, Anthony stopped, and turned once more to face Kate.
“Put your feet down,” he instructed in a gentle tone as he took one of her arms back into his grip.
Feeling a little bit like a naive debutante, Kate allowed herself to float deeper into the water, until her toes touched the silty soil below.
That’s when she realised it—the other Bridgertons were gone.
—
As Anthony took Kate’s arm once more in hand, the moon peeked over the horizon, bathing the pair of them in silvery light. He could see the crescent shape reflected on the water, its form disturbed by the ripples.
When he looked up from the water, Anthony was struck by the vision of Kate before him. In the moonlight, her skin took on an iridescent, soft, blue glow and he swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. His eyes trailed along her body, greedily drinking in her image. Her features silhouetted and silvery before him, her white shift appeared ghostlike as it floated under the surface of the water, her long dark hair stuck to her back and shoulders in waves he longed to trace with his hands. She looked like a Grecian goddess come to earth to claim his very soul.
“I’d kiss you if we weren’t…” Anthony whispered, his voice trailing off, as he slowly turned his head to look around them.
“Where did they go?” Kate asked, her eyes wide and frantic. Her grip on his shirt tightened before she pushed back enough to dance around him in the water, kicking up the soil beneath her toes as she slowly approached the shore.
The moment her breast crested the water, encased in cotton, silhouetted by the moonlight, Anthony knew he could not watch her ascend to the shore and hope to maintain any control of his basest desires. Without thinking he pulled her flush to his chest and let out an involuntary groan when her bare arse came in direct content with his cock.
Holding her there a moment, Anthony shivered against her body, the exquisite feeling of hot and cold mixed together with the way her body seemed to pulse against his.
When Anthony realised that Kate would not pull away, he buried his lips in her hair and breathed deeply. How that smell that seemed to surround her— lilies —was still ever present after bathing in the lake, he did not understand, but he took some solace in the familiarity of it.
“You would kiss me if we were not… what?” she asked, turning her head so her temple brushed against Anthony’s lips.
Eyes sliding closed, Anthony was both grateful and resentful of the privacy his siblings had given them.
“Surrounded by my annoying brothers and sisters,” Anthony responded, his voice rough and guttural, his eyes scanning the bank. That is when he noticed the tiny shadows retreating back to the house, their arms laden with linens. “I believe they may have taken our clothing.”
“Why would they have…” Kate asked, her voice trailing off, as Anthony could feel a shiver travel through her body. He shifted his hands on her hips, allowing his fingers to trail the wet cotton under the water along her hip bones.
“I have done the same to them,” Anthony admitted begrudgingly against her temple, to the pranks they had once played upon each other. To be fair, he had never stolen any of the girls’ clothing on their midnight sojourns, but Colin and Benedict’s he had taken on more than one occasion.
“Perhaps they have left mine,” Kate remarked, still not moving from where she was pressed into Anthony, her warm arse pressing on his half-mast cock. He shifted his hands again, allowing them to settle indecently low on her belly, his fingers mere inches away from where he wanted them most and he waited. Then he felt her hips cant slightly backward as she dragged in a ragged inhale of breath and he felt his last thread of control snap.
“Nothing for it then,” Anthony whispered, his voice almost a rasp, his lips making a trail across her skin as he began to spin her in the water. Kate did not protest, in fact, she spun her arms in the water to speed up the process.
When she was finally facing him, Anthony hauled her against his body again, acutely aware that his nakedness was pressed almost fully to hers now, his arousal hot and heavy where it pressed into her abdomen. He also did not fail to notice that her peaked nipples were hard and pressed to his chest.
It would be so easy for him to take her there in the water, he would just have to lift her up a small amount, wrap her legs around his hips, and press into her. The scariest part was that he did not think she would try to stop him.
However, it would mean taking something from her, regardless of the eventual outcome. These things, Anthony knew, needed to be given rather than taken.
—
Pressed into his warm length, Kate thought his desire for her was more than apparent, and though a woman was better at hiding it, she knew her desire was equal to his.
Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Kate moved to her tiptoes and pulled him hard against her, trapping his arousal tightly between them. This elicited a groan from Anthony, which sent another hot liquid pulse between her legs.
Everything became so clear in that moment, with him pressed to her like that. Even if he ruined her, she would welcome him. Anthony Bridgerton could ruin her a thousand times and she would welcome him each and every time.
She also realised that if anything were to happen, she would have to be the one to initiate it. And she desperately wanted something to happen, consequences be damned.
“Do you want me?” Anthony asked, breaking the silence anew, his voice deep and rough from arousal, one of his hands pressing into her lower back sending a hot pulse between her legs.
“Yes,” Kate hissed, her arms still around him, her lips dancing across his.
With a sharp nod, he moved an infinitesimal amount back and grabbed Kate’s shift where it floated around her armpits. Immediately understanding, Kate lifted her arms, ducked from the spray of water, and then watched as it sailed toward the bank and landed with a wet thwop on the rocky shore.
Catching on, Kate reached for his shirt and hauled it over his head and then easily surrendered it to Anthony so he could also lob it toward the bank to join her shift.
They had already been ostensibly naked before, but something about losing the security of cotton shift and shirt made Kate take a nervous step back for a moment.
“Are you sure about this?” Anthony whispered, his arm stretched so he could hold her while still allowing her to step away. From where he stood, his shoulders were above the water, and against the moonlight, Kate could see his nipples pebbling in the cooler night air, the tufts of hair on his chest damp and slick against his skin.
His hair, normally perfectly styled and combed back, was entirely awry, his curls standing on end on top of his end, and one naughty lock hanging in a boyish loop over his forehead. Kate wanted to take that curl in hand and twirl it around her finger. Something about him naked in the moonlight, hair in a natural level of disorder, made him look years younger.
Not only that, Kate found she wanted to possess him, in a way that felt ingrained in her very soul. She wanted to leap into his arms, take his arousal inside of her body, and never leave. She wanted to make him belong to her, in every way possible. The thought frightened her and in the bright light of day she’d likely run in fear from it, but under the moon, with the shadows as gentle allies, Kate let go of the fear coursing through her and jumped into his arms, wrapping her thighs tightly around his waist.
“Will you please shut up?” Kate whispered against his lips, taking his face in her hands, before finally pulling him into a kiss. A kiss she had fantasised about sharing with Anthony on more than one occasion, but her lust-fuelled dreams had not done justice to the reality of him. His lips were soft and pillowy, his hands moving to hold her by her arse as his tongue probed at her bottom lip.
His cock pressed against her core, and Kate wantonly ground against him, shooting sparks through her blood as it came in contact with her sensitive bud.
Eyes locked with his, Kate lifted herself up and reached out to place him at her entrance and as one they bore down until they met in the middle. Once he was fully inside of her, Kate let out a moan from deep in her throat, wrapping her arms around his shoulders so she could bury her face in his hair.
“Christ, you are exquisite,” Anthony groaned, pressing his lips to her shoulder, and beginning to move his hips an infinitesimal amount.
When alone in bed with her hand, Kate could easily bring herself to climax in a few minutes, knowing exactly where to touch and how quickly to circle her sensitive bud. However, just being joined with him, Kate felt herself approaching the peak of her own pleasure, and was already teetering on the edge of it. As Anthony languidly thrust into her, she knew it would be a matter of seconds before she crumbled around him.
“It’s okay,” he whispered out softly against her ear, “I have you, you can let go.”
Unsure what he meant exactly, whether to release him physically or to let her pleasure overtake her. However, she decided it did not matter as she let go of his shoulders and floated backwards in the water.
“Fuck,” Anthony ground out, still holding her hips in a vice-like grip as he pressed into her with more ferver. Kate floated just along the surface, feeling the night air graze against her breasts where they broke through the surface of the lake.
As he began to thrust into her anew, Kate finally let herself fall over the edge, giving up the reins of control as her climax overtook her. Looking up at the stars, sparks of light flew in her vision as fire and ice seemed to travel up and down her body just under her skin. She was not sure if what she saw was a meteor shower or Anthony’s passion as the dregs of her climax reached a crescendo and then petered out.
Hauling her up suddenly from the water, Anthony panted against Kate’s shoulder and started to walk toward the shore.
“You are…” he grunted, his cock still thick inside of her as he pressed her into it with one hand on her lower back. “A vixen. A goddess.”
Not feeling her weight shift as she was lifted out of the water, she let Anthony carry her to land, and bending forward, he set her down in the soft grass at the water’s edge. He held himself still above her for a moment as he caught his breath.
Wrapping her thighs around him, Kate coaxed his hips closer to her centre. “Don’t stop,” she said softly, caressing his face, realising as that cheeky curl hung over his forehead that she could finally twirl it around her finger.
With a deep moan, Anthony thrust into her once more, starting to build up a new wave of heat in Kate’s body. However, soon, he was crying out her name as his passions overtook him. Kate held him trembling against her after, petting his hair, and running her fingers down his muscled back and biceps, enjoying the way his slick skin pebbled under her touch.
Heaving for breath, Anthony pulled himself off of Kate and rolled to his side, so they were both facing the night sky as they recovered.
“You were getting close again,” Anthony said between gasps, turning on his side to face her. “I tried to…”
“It’s okay,” Kate whispered, smiling and petting his face, enjoying the way she seemed to have utterly destroyed him.
“It is not,” Anthony responded, rising on his arms and crawling down her body.
“Did you not just—,” Kate began, but was cut off when Anthony pressed his hot mouth to her centre, to the place where her arousal and his release mixed. With a moan, he thrust his tongue inside of her and caressed her little bud with his hand.
Unable to stand the feeling of being overstimulated and yet aroused and ready for him again, Kate looked up toward the sky and tried to find Orion. When her eyes connected with the three stars that made up the belt, Anthony pulled her clitoris with his mouth and laved on it.
Reaching to grab the grass at either side of her, Kate ripped it out as another orgasm wracked her body.
—
With the grass as their bed, Anthony laid beside Kate as their skin slowly dried in the humid summer air, both of them focused on the night sky above. The taste of her, and his own seed, was still in his mouth, and when he licked his lips, the flavour was so strong his vision went blurry for a moment.
“Am I allowed to speak now?” he asked through a contented smile, feeling like his very bones had been replaced with liquid, as if he could so easily sink into the damp earth beneath his body.
Stretching languidly beside him, Kate let out a moan, the profile of her breasts rising as her back arched, and though he thought his cock felt very much spent, it twitched where it sat nestled between his legs.
Rolling to her side, as if she was settling into a real bed, Kate placed a hand on his chest. “Of course, you may.”
“We shall wed,” Anthony said, squeezing his eyes shut at how unfeeling those words sounded.
Sighing, Kate pressed her nose to his shoulder. “And what of your promise to my sister?”
Letting out a shocked huff of air, Anthony raised himself on his elbows and looked down at her, feeling entirely incensed. “After what we just shared?!”
When her reaction was to laugh, burying her face in her arms, Anthony fell back with another huff and rubbed his face. She had said that purposely to rile him up. “Vexing woman,” he ground out, looking to the sky but seeing nothing.
“Say my name,” Kate said next, rolling to her stomach, and raising herself up on her arms to peer over Anthony’s shoulder.
“What do you mean?” he asked, unable to keep his eyes from her when she sat like that, her breasts hanging so alluringly in his eye line.
“You have had my body,” she explained, holding her hand up and pulling one finger down in a count. “With your cock and your mouth.” The vulgarities coming from her mouth sent another wave of desire through his body, though he also pursed his lips at her in disdain.
“And you have proposed, well, sort of,” Kate frowned playfully as she continued, ticking a third finger down, “but have you ever said my name aloud? And our arrival at Aubrey Hall the other day does not count.”
“Kate,” he said with a sigh, feeling like it was almost a forbidden word, and uttering it here was almost as salacious as the act they had initiated in the water. The sound also sent a shiver through her body that Anthony felt against his skin.
“Kathani.” Kate placed a hand over his heart. “It is my true name.”
“Kathani,” Anthony repeated, enjoying the way it felt on his tongue. If ‘Kate’ was salacious, then ‘Kathani’ was secret, and something about the secret being shared sent a wave of gooseflesh pebbling down Anthony’s bare skin.
“Say my name, please,” Anthony requested after a moment, gently coaxing Kate to lay upon his chest.
When she was situated, her cheek resting directly above his heart, she finally spoke, “Anthony.” It sent another wave of desire through his flesh and Anthony wondered how long they could stay out there enjoying each other’s bodies. Though he was content to lay with her skin against his for now, with her wrapped tightly in his arms.
“Am I permitted to propose now?” he said after a while, breaking the silence.
“As long as it is not an order,” Kate responded, her voice vibrating through his chest.
“Kathani Bridgerton—“ he began, chuckling as he realised his gaff, shaking Kate on his chest.
“You are truly hopeless,” Kate told him with a laugh as she stood. “Please try again, and on your knees.”
Groaning, Anthony pulled himself up, and almost lost his resolve as he saw her standing there, her hair drying and flying up in wisps around her. In the moonlight, those strands positively glowed, and he thought that there was something otherworldly and ethereal about this woman.
“Kathani Sharma,” he said, his voice thick all of a sudden, reaching to take her hand in his. “Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
Laughing silently to herself, Kate’s grip tightened in his. “I do not know how we have arrived here and I feel quite dim-witted for this, but yes .”
Groaning, Anthony rose to his feet, hearing a few pops in his knees and his spine as he straightened. “Then you are in good company,” he told her as he pulled her into his arms, feeling like this entire evening had been written in the stars. “I have felt like a bumbling bird-wit since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
They stood like that for some time, arms around each other like steel, their skin growing slick again from humidity in the air and the sweat still cool on their skin. Anthony thought he would be content to stand there all night, knowing full well once he took her back to the house that they would have to sleep in separate chambers. The idea felt entirely backward.
And he prayed, with every fibre of his being, that Kate would not change her mind come the morning light.
“Will you—,” he began to say but was cut off by something wet and warm on his shoulder, something that was decidedly not Kate.
Jumping back from him with a laugh, Kate bade him turn around.
“Jack!” Anthony called, suddenly face to face with his beloved horse—the moonlight glinting off of his shiny coat—realising that the beast had indeed been licking his bare skin.
Both feeling a bit underdressed in the horse’s presence now, Anthony went in search of their clothing. As expected, his trousers, stockings, and boots were missing. When he went to see if he could find Kate’s clothing, not a stitch was left on the girl’s bank. In addition to that, his cheeky siblings had not even left them a towel.
Coming back to Kate and Jack, Anthony only had his shirt and her shift in hand, but at least they were mostly dry.
“We will be quite the party as we make our way back to the house,” Kate remarked with a laugh as she pulled the garment over her head. She eyed Anthony’s bare legs below his shirttails before continuing, “And I quite like you in nothing but your shirt.”
He too enjoyed the look of her only in her shift, but he didn’t have to voice it as her eyes heated when she saw his expression. If it wasn’t for the bloody horse, he’d pull her back into the grass that very moment.
As they continued on, Kate’s hand clasped in his, Jack plodding along behind them, Anthony winced as he stepped barefooted onto another rock hidden amongst the grass. He rather thought that his siblings would pay for his, even though their evil plan had indeed worked out.
As he began to plot his revenge, Anthony realised he would not have to do it alone any longer. “We must get back at them, in a way most foul,” Anthony said evenly as the lit braziers of Aubrey Hall came into view, feeling some relief that they had thought to pay off the staff in advance.
“Yes, we will hatch a most devious plan,” Kate responded almost immediately.