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Page 251
frightened her or angered her enough, she could withdraw from the marriage. He would have lost fulfillment for a simulacrum. Geoffrey bit his lips. For a little while, he had better speak softly and sweetly, more as if he were pleading for a mistress's favor than ordering a wife. Now she was still, although she had struggled fiercely under him while he moved. Very gently, he turned his head and kissed herand tasted blood. Geoffrey's eyes snapped open and he lifted himself to see.
"Beloved, beloved," he whispered, stroking the tumbled, fiery hair, "did I bite you? I am sorry, sorry, beloved. I would not hurt you on purpose for the surety of heaven. Joanna, Joanna, do not weep. I did you no hurt. You are a maid still. I swear it."
Joanna knew that all too well. The tears that were leaking out of her eyes were drawn there by frustration, not by grief. The bitten lip was no fault of Geoffrey's either. It was her own teeth that had drawn the blood. He was content, but her body still raged, deprived by Geoffrey's restraint of what it craved. It was as well he had held her still with his weight for a little time or she would have clawed him and cursed him for his care of her virtue. Now, although she still quivered and ached and throbbed, her mind was master again, and she was grateful.
Since it was obvious that Joanna intended no immediate violence, Geoffrey came off her completely. He drew her robe together tenderly, having nothing with which to wipe her thighs and hesitating to touch her so intimately just now, and retied the belt. She lay still with closed eyes, her face unreadable to him.
"Sweet love, forgive me," he pleaded. "You are as you were, and none will know of this. I will go out and bid that maid be silent in such a way that torture will not wring a hint from her."
At that, a faint, quivering smile touched Joanna's lips. She opened her eyes and shook her head. "You need not fear Edwina's indiscretion. She is close bound to me and will do or say nothing that could hurt me."

 
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