Pleasure's Duty

This is a bonus entry in the Pleasure series.

Think of it like a bonus feature on a DVD. This short story is like a deleted scene. Good enough to have been written, but not good enough to be included in the final cut.

But there's no point in not sharing it.

It takes place in the 1880s, a time when young people, especially women, were often very uninformed about sex and especially about pleasure.

I'm going for described pleasure more than historical accuracy here, so I hope you can read it in that spirit.

All characters are over the age of eighteen.

~~

"It will hurt dear," said Mary to her daughter. "It will also feel a bit humiliating. But even in the moment as you feel used, remember that William is a good man who has pledged to take care of and protect you. You're feeling those things because it's a way to show him that you care for him."

"I think I'm ready Mother," Elizabeth said. "For all of it. Alice says she has adjusted to it and has been quite encouraging. Besides it's a part of being wife and even a mother, isn't it?"

"It is," said Mary with a proud smile. "My young girl has all grown up."

She impulsively hugged her nineteen-year-old daughter and fought back a sudden surge of tears.

It wasn't that long ago that her own mother had tried her best to prepare her for her wedding night. She'd secretly thought that her mother was foolish to be so embarrassed by the idea of a man and woman doing what nature intended, but here she was fighting the same shame.

"Although I'm not sure that you and Alice should be talking about such things," Mary said, straightening up and smoothing out her daughter's beautiful dress. "Your sister has always been too enthralled with worldly things. She's a good woman, but I worry about her."

"Alice is a good woman Mother," said Elizabeth, affectionately touching her mother's cheek. "She learned from the best after all. And she will make a fine mother just as she makes a fine wife. You'll see."

They both smiled. Elizabeth's older and already married sister Alice had not been able to attend the wedding because she was due to give birth to her firstborn any day now.

"Come!" said Mary, taking her daughter's hand. "Let us not get caught up in emotional talk. The time for crying is done. For the rest of the day let us celebrate and enjoy ourselves!"

Mary led her daughter from their simple frame house out into the yard, where friends and family were gathering and laughing merrily.

Not an hour earlier Elizabeth and William had been married, and as was their custom Mary had done her motherly duty and had a final conversation with her young daughter about what the consummation of her marriage would be like later that night.

She had been struck by the realization that while she was doing that, William's father had been doing the same thing, although she had no idea what men would tell other men about such a thing.

Not only did such discussions come more easily to men, but the consummation of a marriage was something that most men enjoyed. Elizabeth's own father had enjoyed it so much that they had done it twice that night, and then again the next morning and again that afternoon.

She smiled at the memory. While her mother had prepared her to endure the event, she had instead found it quite satisfying to be able to hold the man she loved closely while he experienced something so pleasurable with her body.

As all the assembled cousins and aunts and neighbors surrounded Elizabeth to congratulate her and talk happily of the future, Mary stood at the edge of the crowd and smiled happily.

Her husband had already indicated his intent to take her to bed after the wedding, most likely because of memories of their own wedding night triggered by today's celebration.

Her smile grew wider when she saw her husband, supervising the men and young boys who were setting up tables for the food that was being prepared, and behind him in the pasture she saw Elizabeth's new husband William, showing a group of small children how to fly one of the kite's that he so often built and sold.

She thought them both to be good men. Both she and her daughter were blessed.

Elizabeth also saw her husband playing in the pasture, and it made her proud to have a man of her very own who was so taken with simple pleasure and beauty. He was ambitious and serious of course, but he didn't worry about what others thought.

If he thought something should be fun, he pursued his enjoyment of it with abandon, the same way he threw himself into his work when he saw a task that required commitment and strength to complete.

Despite her mother's attempt to caution her, she was looking forward to not just being married, but to being in bed with William as a wife.

William had courted her properly, and her father and then mother had both approved of his family and his work ethic, and by the time he asked for her hand in marriage her parents were nearly as pleased as she was.

One night, on the front porch, sitting quietly in the moonlight, William had quietly taken her hand and pulled her close and kissed her.

Not the chaste sort of kiss that her mother would have begrudgingly approved of, but a tender and warm and even wet kiss, that sent shivers through her slim body and made her heart swell with emotion.

When he pulled away, she'd stared at him for several seconds.

"We shouldn't," she whispered. "That's not for us. Not until we have married."

"We will be married, remember?" he'd whispered back. "And what's more I don't just like you, nor do I merely love you. I want all the happiness and pleasure and excitement and ecstasy that two people can possibly share, and I want them all with you, and I can hardly force myself to wait."

In those words she remembered the time he'd confessed that as much as he enjoyed his family carpentry trade, one of his most secret desires was to move east to a big city, and write poetry and stories, and listen to music, and experience life on only the happiest of terms.

That memory coupled with the look in his eyes that night had caused her to impulsively lean forward and kiss again, this time pressing her lips against his with a hunger that surprised them both.

He met that hunger by pushing his tongue into her mouth, where she instinctively and lewdly sucked on it, feeling a heat between her legs that frightened her almost as much as it excited her.

She'd been awake for hours that night, up on the big mattress in the loft that she had shared with her sister before Alice had married and moved away. She'd fought an almost losing battle with a desire to touch herself down below.

The kiss had awakened something inside her and she wasn't sure it was at all proper. She'd worked hard to convince herself it was just anxiety over the coming wedding, and not some sort of immoral and tingling reaction to being kissed.

"What will William think of me if every kiss makes me behave wantonly and foolishly?" she wondered.

That had been a month ago, and she spent as much time convincing herself that her reaction had been a one time and fleeting feeling as she did thinking about what it would be like to have William kiss her behind a closed door where there would be no fear of being caught.

As she gazed at her husband she wondered if another such kiss would be offered and enjoyed as a part of her wedding night duties? And would she merely endure her wedding night duties as her mother had encouraged her to or would the pleasure of the kiss make even that a tolerable experience?

She felt butterflies in her belly when she thought of the duty she would perform later tonight. Two of her aunts had warned her about it, and her mother had told her all about it when she was first engaged, and then they'd discussed it again a week ago, and then once more just a few minutes earlier.

None of them knew about the kiss though.

And none of them could possibly know what Alice had told her, about closing her eyes and seeing fireworks and hearing music as her body responded to her husband's.

She'd dismissed her older sister's claims as romantic nonsense, but now that the wedding night was so close she wondered if there wouldn't be some sort of enjoyment out of performing the task with William.

The tables were set up, the music began, and with punch and wine and even some whiskey the dancing and games began, young and old alike laughing and talking and occasionally squealing with delight.

And then the food arrived, and the bride and groom ate and walked along the rows of guests, laughing, and talking and thanking them for being a part of the start of their new life together.

And then there were toasts, from each father and from several of William's brothers, and then the preacher had more words to say about love and grace and kindness, and then they danced together to soft music, with their family and friends all around.

And then William had taken her hand and led her to a carriage, and the assembled crowd had sung and cheered as they climbed aboard and headed down the road to their new home.

Their private home.

Their bed.

"What a perfect night," said Elizabeth, leaning against her new husband in the cool night air.

"I agree," William said. "My brother told me that he'll come along to the house later to collect the horses if we leave them tied up outside."

"Why would we do that?" asked Elizabeth.

"He thinks that we have much more important things to do than to put the horses up for the night," William laughed.

"Why what could be more important than tending to our own animals?" teased Elizabeth as they rode along in the long shadows of the rising moon.

"Tending thoroughly to my bride of course," said William.

Elizabeth leaned her head against his shoulder then and fell quiet, suddenly gripped by nervousness. It was one thing to imagine or even discuss her wedding night, but quite another when it was about to happen.

At last they came along to their own small home, and William helped her down from the carriage and she stood silently on the porch and watched him secure the animals and then make sure they were properly watered.

"They'll only be here another hour or so," thought Elizabeth. "But he doesn't want them to do without. I hope I feel as well taken care of with what's to come."

And then William turned to her and smiled, and in a rush his body was against hers and she put her arms around him as he pressed his lips to the flesh below her ear.

"I love you so much," he whispered.

"And I love you," she replied, stroking his hair as his lips kissed tenderly at her neck.

She closed her eyes as his body pushed her up against the front of the house, and as she moved her own body along with his she felt him through his trousers. She clutched at him even tighter as she realized what it was.

His body was already aroused and ready for intercourse.

She was both scared and thrilled about what was to come, and she pulled his face to hers and kissed his mouth, and when his tongue pushed against her lips she shuddered and touched it with her own tongue.

"Are you cold?" he asked softly, feeling her tremble.

"A little," she admitted. "But that's not why I'm shivering."

He took her hand and pulled her to him, and suddenly he had picked her up and was carrying her into the dark house and pushing the door shut behind them with his boot.

"Put me down," she laughed. "This is no time for playing!"

He put her down and suddenly a match flared as he lit a lamp.

"This is indeed the perfect time for playing," he assured her with a smile. "We shall enjoy and long remember the playing of tonight my dear Elizabeth."

She blushed, and he moved closer to her and touched her arm.

"You're still trembling," he said softly.

"I'm still nervous," she admitted. "I know I shouldn't be. I just have no idea what to expect."

"Didn't your mother talk to you?" he asked. "Or your sister?"

"They did," she said. "But I'm so nervous right now that I can hardly stand it. I wasn't nervous before. I guess because we're alone now and I'm just not sure what will be like for us to be together as husband and wife."

"Do you know how, uh, how it will all work?" he asked her softly.

"Of course I know that!" she said, suddenly laughing. "I was raised on a farm the same as you William. I know how it all works. I'm just unsure of how it all will feel when it happens. Or how it will feel afterwards."

He abruptly blew the flame out in the lamp and pulled her along with him to the back bedroom of the house. There, through the window, the moonlight shined upon the bed.

William took her to the bed and holding her close they sat down side by side.

"Here's what you can expect," he told her softly. "I love you and will never hurt you. Whatever we feel we'll feel it together. Because we are going to be together, and stay together, and live together forever. I promise."

In the dark room he kissed her, and for the first time they weren't standing up while they kissed. He pushed against her, and she wrapped her arms around him as she fell back on the bed.

This time she pushed her tongue into his mouth first, and with his hands at her hips he began to pull up dress up. She wondered if she should be helping him when suddenly she felt his soft hand against her thigh, and she moaned into his mouth.

He kept kissing her and she felt his fingers working to untie her undergarments in the dark, and she felt a sudden flush of heat wash over her.

What should be embarrassing was instead so intimate and close and loving that she felt good knowing he was fumbling with all of the ties because he was so anxious to get to her body that he was flustered.

She loved him even more in that clumsy moment, realizing that he was nervous too.

And then she heard fabric rip and she laughed out loud as he tore the layers away and threw them from the bed. He roughly grabbed her and pulled her to the middle of the mattress, his mouth moving against her with a passion that burned wildly.

She felt the cool air of the room against her exposed bottom as he pulled her dress up around her waist, and she moaned uncontrollably, shocking herself with how good it felt to be exposed in such a lewd way.

And then his hands were on her inner thighs, and she grabbed the fabric of his coat in her fists and shuddered as her body tensed up in the most delicious way.

"William," she moaned. "Oh, sweet William."

He crawled up beside her, and knelt on the bed, and threw his coat across the room and started to undo his shirt. In the moonlight she watched him start with the top button, and suddenly she was anxious to touch his bare skin with her hands.

She reached up to start undoing the buttons at the bottom of his shirt and realized that she was instead working the button on his trousers. She looked at him and he closed his eyes and shuddered, and she moved her fingers faster, undoing his pants and tugging them loose.

His shirt was off and suddenly he was against her again and they were kissing. She ran her fingers up and down his bare back and moaned again in the quiet room, and then he pulled at the front of her dress and she rolled away from him and stood up.

He sat up, fearful that he had scared or offended or hurt her, but she was pulling the entire dress over her head and kicking her shoes off, and he kicked his feet to get his boots off as he tore at his pants, throwing them to the foot of the bed as he turned to see Elizabeth standing beside the bed in the moonlight.

She was naked and beautiful, her skin smooth and pale in the dim illumination, her breasts magnificently large with dark nipples that only highlighted how naked and vulnerable she looked.

He glanced down and saw the hairy thatch between her legs, and he was at a sudden loss for words. His chest felt thick, and he had a hard time taking in enough air, as he extended a hand towards the most beautiful woman in the world.

Elizabeth dropped her dress behind her and turned back to the bed, intending to quickly join William and kiss him again, but she froze, staring at his naked body. She saw the chest hair and the muscles on each of his arms, but something else caught and kept her attention.

His erection.

It stood away from his body with a slight curve, and just looking at it made her knees weak and caused her to feel something deep inside her belly that she'd only felt one other time when she'd climbed high in a tree and he looked down at the lake water far below.

She'd understood that a man's penis would get erect in order to penetrate a woman. But in her mind that meant that the penis would remain the same shape and size, the only change being its firmness.

And standing next to the bed she realized how wrong she'd been about that. She had seen several men naked, months ago hiding with Alice and watching men swimming and bathing in the lake on a hot summer day.

Their penises had looked to be several different sizes, but they all looked the same and unremarkable at that. When she'd told Alice that she wasn't impressed her sister had simply replied that she'd thought the same thing until her own wedding night.

"In a few months you and William will be in your bed together," Alice predicted. "And trust me, you'll be impressed."

Those words echoed through her head as she watched William's cock, long and thick and hard and moving slightly as if it needed nothing more than relief.

William extended his hand and she took it, and feeling like she was moving slowly through a fog she joined him on the bed, and their mouths met again and she moaned as he pushed her onto her back while his tongue swirled around hers.

And then his mouth moved down to her neck, and she shuddered and giggled as his tongue tickled at her throat, and then he kissed down to her chest, and she realized what he was going to do, and her eyes opened wide as she grabbed a fistful of his hair.

She knew that men liked to look at breasts.

She knew that breasts provided milk during motherhood.

She was even aware of how tenderly sensitive her breasts and nipples got in cold weather, or when she would clean them with a soft cloth and warm water.

But she'd never considered her own husband suckling at her.

His mouth worked along the top of her breast, kissing and licking with his tongue as he moved lower and lower, and then his mouth closed over her nipple and he bit her gently and then sucked hard.

She twisted on the bed, her voice echoing through the house as she cried out and pulled at his hair, wrapping her legs around his body without realizing it as she pressed herself against him.

The feeling of his mouth on her was hot and wet and so intense it was almost painful, but she didn't ever want it to end. She'd never felt anything like it and she rolled her body and gasped for air as his tongue licked and his mouth sucked.

Just when she wondered how much more she could take his mouth moved to her other breast, and this time it was even better because she knew what it would feel like before his teeth and tongue made contact with her stiffened nub.

He sucked hard and then his hand was between her legs, and his fingers caused another shockwave of surprise and sensation to roll through her as he touched her right at her hairy center, pushing and probing and causing her to cry out again.

She reached down for him purely on instinct, screaming as her fingers closed around his thick cock just as he kissed her again.

He groaned into her mouth and she moved her hand, and felt a wetness against her thumb. She moved it back and forth and realized he was leaking something warm and sticky on her fingers, and she wondered if he had already finished.

"I want to do more," he groaned, his mouth near her ear. "I want to do it all with you sweet Elizabeth."