Chapter Text
The next morning, Colin enjoys his daily newspaper at the breakfast table. He has already told his butler Dunwoody that the door locks must be changed as soon as possible, and Marina should only be allowed into the house when he's at home. He has also informed him of the identity of the young woman who is now living in one of the rooms. Dunwoody excused himself because the workmen can only begin to work the next morning to rebuild her intended room and to change the door locks of the whole house. So, while Dunwoody fixes everything else in the house before heading back to Colin's brother Benedict's house, Colin enjoys his black coffee and the daily newspaper.
‘Good morning, Mr Bridgerton.’ Penelope enters the kitchen quietly a little while later. She is dressed in Colin's short black kimono, which he purchased in Japan some years ago while traveling and which hung in her room when she was asleep earlier this morning. He doesn't use it anyway and when he takes a look at her, it suits her far better than it does him. A faint smile crosses his face as he folds up his daily newspaper and puts it down next to him.
‘Hello, Penelope. Have you had a restful night?’, he turns to her, noting in his mind that she will also need slippers and some suitable morning attire.
‘I did.’ She blushes and looks down into her lap. ‘Sorry for my sentimental tantrum last evening, I -', but he interrupts her immediately.
‘Yesterday has been emotionally distressing for you. That's perfectly understandable.' He smiles gently at her across the table. ‘Sit down, my butler has prepared breakfast for us.’
Penelope takes the seat opposite him at the dining table at the place prepared for her and immediately starts eating the fruit he prepared earlier for her (She doesn't know this, but he is satisfied with his efforts). A few berries, mainly strawberries and raspberries, a few kiwis, some yoghurt and muesli are placed in front of her as she reaches for the berries and then licks her fingertips one by one, each time popping one of the berries into her little mouth. Colin keeps an eye on this process without being able to take his eyes off her. Does she realise what she is doing to him?
'We didn't know what you would like to eat. I thought there was no way fruit could be wrong. You can put everything you don't eat or your favourite foods on a piece of paper later. Dunwoody will then make sure that everything will be available in the future. He's the butler for my brother Benedict and me; he's over here in the morning and the rest of the day he's in Soho with Benedict and his new wife Sophie.’ He explains to her finding his thoughts again.
‘So ... people know ... about this. About me.’ She gestures vaguely back and forth between herself and Colin, looking quite uncomfortable.
'Dunwoody never asks any questions. He's a very trusted employee of my family. And Benedict and I are more alike than you might realise. His current wife was his long-time paramour - and our mother's housekeeper.' He winces at the mention of his mother.
He has very little contact with her now. She never made the effort to hide publicly that she disapproved of his choice of wife, which kept disappointing him over and over again as a young man in his 20s. He only has frequent contact with Benedict and occasionally with Anthony after silence for years. It's surprising how little he complained about his choice of partner with Marina – only when it came to money did his brother intervene. His sister Daphne lives in the country with her husband and CEO Simon Basset. He is due to visit her when the filming is finished. Since she started having kids, they've been in touch a bit less, but she's always been there for him. Eloise is having an on-and-off thing with her former professor-turned-colleague Phillip Crane, with whom he once attended university and is still a good friend of his. He’s going to vacation with them later in the autumn. Francesca is living in Scotland with her wife of many years, Michaela Stirling - he sporadically visits them there with his best friend and Michaela's cousin who funnily enough goes by the same name, Michael Stirling. Michaela is the sister of Michael's cousin John, who died suddenly a few years ago and was Franny’s first boyfriend then. And Gregory and Hyacinth are studying something somewhere in England, or was it in Paris? He should contact them both again and ask them which of his houses in Europe they would like to spend their half-term holidays in.
'Mr Bridgerton?' Penelope pulls him out of his whirlwind of thoughts.
'Yeah? Sorry, I was in thought for a minute.' He offers her a forced smile and then reaches for the fried bacon. Eating is always a good idea to distract him from something painful.
'What ... what do you want me to do today?' she asks him coyly.
‘Whatever you want.’ He eats a forkful of beans. Still chewing, he continues: 'I'm sure you have something to do for your university degree. Education is essential, isn’t it?’
'I finished university a fortnight ago. I'm only attending one more lecture out of curiosity. I like the professor, she’s amazing', she murmurs quietly. As if she's ashamed.
‘Oh?’ Colin's gaze falls on her face. 'So, then we're putting you off your first career? What's your dream, what do you want to work as - after being with me? ' It's not a question to overcome an awkward silence. On the contrary, he has already learnt last night that they can remain silent together. He is genuinely interested in her as a person. He is keen to know what she wants to do when her agreed part in this is done. Secretly, however, he hopes that she decides to stay with him, maybe even for a long time. Maybe forever?
'I always intended to be a writer.' She answers him in a low voice. She struggles to avert her gaze from Colin.
'Books?' he asks her as he takes another bite of his sausage. She nods.
'Novels or short stories – biographies may be. I have different ideas.' She smiles broadly to herself. 'I love writing. But no one would want to actually read any of them.’
'I would.' Replies his inner subconscious faster than he could keep his mouth shut.
'You'd be interested?' she asks him, almost stunned. For the first time, her hopeful, sparkling eyes look directly into his. What beautiful eyes she has, a wonderful bright blue.
‘Sure, have you finished anything yet?’ His gaze rests calmly on her. He places the cutlery next to his still half-full plate to avoid losing track of what she is revealing about herself. He wants to hear, absorb and remember everything. Perhaps he should write it all down, so it stays with him.
‘I've actually written a short story.’ Her eyes rest on his. She appears unsure as to whether she should tell him more about it or not. ‘A Romance, actually.’
'Just leave it in my office later, if you like. I'll be happy to give you feedback, I've also studied literature some years ago, you know. Maybe I know someone who would be interested in publishing something of yours someday.' He could ask Eloise or Phillip, who both are professors for literature (her modern English Literature, him European Literature, mainly german and russian).
Her eyes widen and begin to sparkle at the prospect that he might actually agree to help her publish something in the future. Colin can barely hide the fact that her natural joy at his interest in her is already making him half hard again. The slightly see-through kimono, under which he can see plain black underwear, doesn't help much too. He reminds himself once again that his orders from the night before will be arriving later today. Tilly will have to accept them so that Penelope doesn't see them all at once.
'I'm sorry, Penelope. I have to go to the set now. Enjoy your breakfast and settle down in the library. It's yours, I'm rarely in there. I mostly use my study. Some orders will arrive today; I've ordered a few things for you. Tilly, my manager, will hand one package directly to you. Let me know if you like it or if you have any other requests.' With that, Colin stands up, smoothes his light-coloured suit trousers and tucks his dark sunglasses into the neckline of his beige pullover, from which a little chest hair peeks out.
‘See you later, Mr Bridgerton.’ Penelope has also stood up, unsure of how to behave the next moment, which is why she suddenly stands rooted to the spot in front of him. Colin giggles inwardly. She really is adorable. So, he takes a big step in her direction, presses a firm kiss to her cheek and whispers, ‘Your training starts tonight, sweety, so don't push yourself too hard today.’
A few minutes later, Colin is sitting in the car that is taking him to today's filming location. A black BMW with tinted windows. Normally, he enjoys the ride, sometimes closing his eyes for a few minutes of sleep before the hectic day of filming on set begins. But today, he has to learn his lines during the hour-long drive. Yesterday, h'd been too distracted by Penelope and her arrival and the prospect of spending a lot of time with her. And now that he's thinking about her again, his's cock is responding and getting even harder. He'll have to do something about it soon. But he can't do that in this car; it's not his private driver John, but one from the production company.
Now that his lines for today are set, luckily, it's more of a sex scene they're going to shoot rather than a long scene with lots of dialogue, his thoughts fall back to Penelope. He had Dunwoody put a new iPhone in her room. He received instructions from Colin to bring three gift boxes to her room as soon as she sat down at the breakfast table. The smallest one holds the green iPhone with a note saying that the only saved number is his. The largest one contains two outfits for her. Nothing special, really. After noticing that she didn't like the three dresses that Marina and her mother had left her, he sent his manager, Tilly Arnold, out last night to get two outfits for Penelope. She’ll buy more for her later today.
Tilly owed him a favour; she is Benedict's ex-girlfriend and one of his few confidants (and one of the women he would never get involved with – nor would she with him. The feeling is very mutual). The first outfit is a light, cream-coloured slip dress with a delicate floral pattern. It is paired with a loose-fitting beige cardigan – after all, his library can be a bit draughty, even in summer. Plus, classic Converse trainers, which she used to wear with everything when he and Marina spent more time together with her family years ago. She completed this look with a gold bracelet, a leather strap watch and a delicate gold chain with a butterfly pendant. The second outfit is more feminine than the first playful outfit. It is a black, figure-hugging mini dress with ruffles on the side. A burgundy leather blazer makes the outfit look edgy rather than posh. Black tights with a subtle striped pattern. Knee-high expensive black leather boots with block heels and a small black designer handbag.
Sweetheart: Thank you, Mr. Bridgerton. I love both Outfits!
Colin: What are you wearing today?
Sweetheart: The second outfit, with the black silk lingerie from the third package underneath.
After what feels like an eternity, Colin finally arrives on set and is called straight into the make-up trailer instead of his own. He tries to hide his hard cock as best he can from his colleagues walking around with his briefcase containing today's script. It didn't help at all to know that Penelope was wearing the silk underwear he had bought her. When he enters the trailer, he immediately notices that Sadie is apparently all alone today. Maybe he'll get rid of his problem faster than he had thought.
‘Colin! We've been waiting for you. Were you stuck in traffic? Or in another fling?’ she asks him bluntly. He just nods once in response and looks her up and down. Not as curvy as Penelope, but she'll do to get him out of his current predicament.
‘Sadie, I need you in the back,’ he instructs her and starts walking.
‘Okay, but we have to make this really quick.’ Colin has hooked up with Sadie, the make-up artist, a few times the years before. Each time was a quickie in the make-up trailer, once in his, but they were almost caught there. He never really wanted to get involved with anyone at work, but then the opportunity arose one early morning and Sadie knew what she was getting into with him – and apparently had the same interest in simply starting the day satisfied.
Sadie pushes her body past him and leads him further into the back of the trailer, where the bed is. It's actually for Sadie and her colleagues to relax during filming, but he knows that Michael sometimes spends his breaks here with Sadie and her colleague.
‘Bend over.’ He commands already breathless after they have arrived.
‘Eager, are you.’ She asks him with a laugh as she hikes up her black leather skirt and pushes her panties aside. ‘Didn't get any last night? Your wife was just spotted in London.’
‘No comment on that.’ He puts a rubber on his dick and pushes quickly into her ass. He plans to come there. Definitely no pregnancies possible this way. Their pants and moans melt into each other. His hips ride against her butt roughly. The only women he wants to get pregnant would be Penelope. She’s so kind, she would be a great mother for their children one day. Penelopes breasts are perfect. So full and big. And she’s so beautiful.
‘Yes, yeees – oh god. Colin!’ Sadie moans. He thrusts deeper and deeper until he comes inside of her ass thinking about his curvy redheaded plaything back at home.
‘Jesus, that was good.’ Sadie pulled her panties back up and her short skirt back down, while Colin shoved his limp cock back into his trousers, threw the condom into the bin and zipped up his trousers. Finally freed from his awkward position.
‘That was the last time today,’ he explains coolly. ‘Sure, honey.’ Sadie doesn't believe him, running her long fingernails over his chest, but he simply plans to bring Penelope to the set in the future. Who else would he need besides her? He obviously needs her here for the few days of filming he has left.
No one knows yet that his character will die at the end of this season. He'll have to come up with something about who Penelope even is. But he'll worry about that later.
Sadie styles his hair and shaves his beard with cold water, then applies his make-up and sends him to the costume trailer, where he will put on today's outfit.
„Bonjour, Colin!“, He is greeted joyfully by his co-star Justine Baldot. She is considered the most attractive actress in France. The yellow press has been speculating about an affair between the two for years, and although they have slept together several times, neither of them has ever shown much interest in a lasting affair.
‘Good morning, Justine,’ he greets her, looking in her direction for the first time. She is already in her costume: a brown, knee-length coat and, underneath, apparently a white dress of the same length. She is already wearing black sunglasses and a white scarf tied around her blonde curls in a style typical of the 1950s. ‘You're late. Another fight with Marina?’ his colleague asks him.
‘Nah,’ he replies before going into his dressing room to put on his costume. Today he is wearing grey suit trousers, a white shirt, blue tie, black slipover, a checked jacket and a light brown trench coat. His role is (now) a wealthy businessman who, as a young man, married a woman who did not love him and is now involved with his secretary instead. Of course, he is no stranger to his character's emotions.
When he arrives on set, everyone greets him cheerfully. He is always polite to everyone on set, no matter how important or unimportant their tasks may seem. Today's set is his office. Typical 1950s business executive decor with enough space for the secretary under the desk. Today they will shoot the final sex scene, in which his fictional secretary satisfies him under the desk. Everything has already been rehearsed; it is not the first scene of this kind for the two of them.
A few months ago, he and Tilly decided to focus more on theatre for the time being. But as soon as he has finished this series, he will mainly be on holiday until the beginning of next year, with only a few appearances at premieres, charity events and other occasions.
A few hours later, while the director and his staff are reviewing the footage, Colin is lying on the soft bed in his trailer, his trench coat and jacket thrown over a chair, his eyes closed.
He daydreams of long, curly red hair, porcelain skin and a curvy female figure nestling against him until he is awakened by a hand rubbing his cock through his trousers. His co-star is kneeling in front of him.
‚Bonjour, beau monsieur‘, Justine greets him grinning brightly. Too brightly.
‘Stop it.’ Colin slides away from her as she stands up in surprise. ‘Since when do you reject sex, Colin? And who is Penelope? Your wife isn't called that, that's for sure.’ She asks him amusedly, reapplying her red lipstick with the help of a small hand mirror.
‘None of your business,’ he replies angrily.
‘You moaned her name. Does your wife know about her?’ Justine continues to provoke him. He knows she gets nasty when she doesn’t get what she wants.
‘Does your husband know that you sleep with your co-stars and directors?’, he counters her attack.
‘He has his little affairs with his young models too.’ She responds with a shrug and taps furiously on her mobile phone.
‘We're done for today’, her voice rings out shortly afterwards. ‘Rick is happy with our last sex scene. Take care, Colin.’ With that, his long-time french co-star leaves the trailer. He only has a few more days of filming with Michael Stirling, who plays his fictional wife's lover.
Colin also gets changed again after receiving the director's message that he is not needed for the rest of the day. He sits back down in the limousine provided after devoting himself to his penis, which is half-erect from his dream about Penelope. The driver takes him straight to the gentlemen's club, where his mate Will and his brother Benedict are waiting for him.
‘Colin! You're still alive, brother,’ the latter greets him joyfully. The two brothers embrace each other for a moment. In recent years, Anthony, but especially Benedict, have made an effort to get back in touch with him. Today they are meeting to celebrate Colin's departure from his series, which no one else knows about yet. But the three men have plans that bring them together today.
‘Good to see you, lad', Will greets him too. Will and his wife Alice want to expand their gym franchise, and Colin and Benedict want to invest in it. Not only because the two are long-time loyal friends, but because the business idea is so great that Anthony would also like to invest in it in the future.
‘How's it going with your new wife, Benedict?’ Will asks his brother after they have settled down on one of the seating areas. The club was Will's first venture, but he has long since handed over the day-to-day running of the business to a manager.
After discussing all business and wife matters, Benedict and Will immediately excuse themselves to return to their loved ones.
At times, Colin is envious of them. They have found the woman who makes their lives more worthwhile. He firmly believes that another sibling will marry sooner rather than later. Anthony and his wife Kate already have three children, and his sister Daphne has four children with her husband, CEO Simon Basset. The more he thinks about it, the clearer it becomes to him that he should file for divorce from Marina in the next few months so that he still has a chance to meet someone who would marry him – ideally without being interested in his name or his money, but in him as a person.
As he sips his cocktail, one of the club's dancers approaches him. With long, brown hair and wearing a forest green lace bodysuit, she slinks over to his lap. He doesn't really pay any attention to her until she starts to press herself against his lap. He lets it happen until she starts to unbutton his white shirt. That's when he pushes her away, gets up, pays and leaves. He didn’t get aroused by her body without ass and tits. Just nothing down there.
As he waits at the exit of the gentlemen's club for the valet to bring him his car, which he left in the underground car park a few days ago when he met Anthony here, he thinks of Penelope waiting for him at home. Why did he stay after Will and Ben left? He has someone to come home to. Penelope.
When the valet finally arrives in his car, he thanks the young man and drives off in his sports car to his house. He hurries, as he had promised Penelope that he would start her training tonight.
As he runs up the stairs to her room some minutes later, taking two steps at a time, he suddenly encounters Marina, who is standing in the hallway in front of him with a broad grin on her face. She is peering through a crack in the door into Penelope's room. She hasn't noticed him yet, so he quietly approaches, curious to see what has caught her interest.
‘I bought our plaything a sex mount.’ Marina turns to him with a grin and her arms crossed. ‘Look at her.’ She points her chin towards the room with the slightly open door.
‘What are you doing here?’ he whispers angry towards Marina after seeing Penelope riding the sex mount through the crack in the door. He hears the vibrator humming quietly, which Marina has apparently exchanged for the dildo that was originally installed there.
‘Training our plaything,’ Marina replies with a cool grin, without taking her eyes off her younger stepcousin.
‘Marina.’ Colin breathes faster, aroused by the sight of Penelope. She is completely naked and does not notice the couple watching her through the crack in the door. ‘We agreed that she belongs to me until she loses her virginity.’
‘And when will that be?’ she asks him, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. ‘I don’t want to wait for long to finally fuck her.’
‘A few days, I want to get her ready,’ Colin explains without taking his eyes off Penelope riding back and forth.
‘See you around, husband.’ With that, Marina leaves the house again, presumably grinning broadly at the fact that her husband no longer demands anything from her, but only has eyes for the younger woman in her room. Supposedly, she has achieved her own goal: marriage saved, plus more threesomes with a younger woman.
When he couldn’t take it anymore, he slowly opened the door, revealing a gracious vision. Penelope had her back to the entrance of the room, her red curls fall loosely down her back, riding the mount, already lost in a world of bliss. Her moans were audible as she tried to get herself off with the vibrator.
On the way from the door to the bed, he loses himself in a trance, never taking his eyes off her, removing his suit trousers and shirt. Now sitting directly behind her in just his underwear, his hands immediately support her hip movements. Penelope leans back against his muscular torso, without further acknowledging his presence behind her. Her own hands play with her breasts. He licks his lips at the newfound knowledge that Penelope obviously likes this. She is right here. While he supports her hip movements with his hips and hands, he remembers the text she was supposed to hand him. He will read it another time.
And in the next moment, he notices which room of his house they are in. The one with the mirrored wall directly in front of him. He observes that one of Penelope's hands has already moved from her breasts to her pussy. Two of her fingers are moving in and out of her wet cunt, her thumb circling and rubbing her sensitive clit. Anyone could tell she's really close to cumming. Her whimpering didn't lie, and she was getting more desperate, needy as her orgasm approached with every passing second.
‘Penelope, come for me.’ He whispers directly into her ear. Seconds later Penelope cries out loudly. Her mouth wide open, head thrown back onto his broad shoulder, as he can view in the mirror. Riding out the waves of pleasure. Then her body crashes into his. Exhausted from her orgasm, Penelope collapses into his arms, and he uses his hips to lift her up so he can pull the mount out from under them. He then gently lays Penelope down on her bed.
“You good, honey?” He asks her gently.
‘How long...’ She doesn't have quite enough air for more words yet. She glances at him. Colin chuckles. She's the cutest woman he's ever had. But he hasn't had her yet.
‘How long was I right behind you? Only towards the end.’ He kisses her forehead almost lovingly. ‘You were so hot, sweetheart. Marina and I both thought so watching you.’ He lies down next to her naked body and kisses her collarbone gently.
‘I am sorry, Mr. Bridgerton.’ She suddenly says eyes wide open.
‘Why would you be sorry, Penelope?’, He replies softly, whispering, his left hand moving up and down her body, barely touching her.
‘I wasn’t supposed to... but Marina...’ she stammered, searching for his eyes.
‘That was incredibly arousing to watch, Penelope. But you’re right. Your day isn’t over yet.’ He slid closer to her, watching her face closely. ‘What’s our safeword again?’
‘Red.’ She breathes. ‘Good girl’, he assures her.
His strong, large hand gripping her hips, pulling her down on her bed. He knees in front of the bed, spreading her legs open and then wrapping them around his head. His fingers start to trace up and down her thighs while his mouth starts to work on her clit, licking and sucking. Loud moans falling from her mouth again, almost screaming from the action at her sensitive cunny. The sounds leaving her mouth are making him harder. He’s licking her carefully. He inserts one of his fingers cautiously into her, she starts moaning louder, grinding her pussy against his nose.
He looks up between her legs to reassure himself that she is okay with this. Her gaze meets his. With an eager nod, she indicates that she is.
‘I want everything with you. But it will have to be sexual, because I think it’s my favourite thing to do with you.’ He silently adds ‘for now’.
She didn’t have a chance to look down at him before his face was back between her legs eliciting noises from her, she’d surely never made before. All she could see were his dark eyes watching her as his tongue and fingers fucked her pussy.
Her glistening pussy was all he ever needed, so he buried himself into her scent and taste. She writhed underneath him, whimpering. She certainly had never known such pleasure before. He quickly found his rhythm, thumb drawing circles around her clit and now two fingers moving up and down inside her.
‘Come for me Penelope, come again for daddy.’ He calls breathlessly. Her moans getting louder and louder the longer he talks sweet to her. When he felt her pussy squeeze down hard on his fingers, he quickly pulled them out when she orgasmed.
Once they regain their breaths, he settles her back on the bed and kisses her, sweet like the gentleman he is. He watches Penelope drift off into the land of dreams. The smile on her lips indicates to him that it was as satisfying for her as it was for him.
After initially remaining seated on the edge of the bed, Colin now stands up. He looks around the room and picks up first his clothes, then hers. While he slips back into his trousers and slips his shirt over his shoulders, he tosses her clothes into the laundry bag in the bathroom. Then he heads to his bedroom, where Tilly was supposed to drop off his orders – except for the clothes, which she was supposed to hand directly to Penelope. He first glances at the box of sex toys – and shoves it straight into his wardrobe. The box with the lingerie for Penelope, on the other hand, he spreads out in one of the empty drawers. Colin pushes the silk and lace underwear further back for now and first devotes himself to selecting a negligee. He has bought several for her to choose from. He plans to leave them for her little by little, as small gifts.
In the end, he decides on two silk nightgowns, one white and one dusky pink. When he returns to her room a little later, he first checks to see if she is still asleep. Then he turns away to place the two gowns on her bedside table. He also adds a deluxe edition of Pride and Prejudice, which used to be her favourite book, as she once told him shortly before she left to go to university.
Suddenly, Penelope begins to move in bed. Colin turns around and sits up on the edge of the bed. He pulls the covers back over her and gently strokes her cheek as her tired eyes suddenly open. He smiles at her, and she smiles right back at him.
‘You liked that, didn’t you, sweetheart? Us watching, me licking your sweet virgin pussy?’, he asks her sweetly.
‘You can kiss me, you know’, she retorts, as his thumb slides over the edge of her lips. Colin leans down, gently brushes a lock of hair from her face and kisses her full lips almost lovingly.
After the kiss, he gently rests his forehead against hers and smiles at her again.
‘Sleep well, love,’ he whispers to her.
After one last kiss on her cheek, she closes her eyes again and he goes back to his own bedroom. He changes into his own black silk pyjamas and lies down in his bed. His thoughts wander back to Penelope, but also to the other women, to Sadie and Justine. He is almost ashamed of his actions that morning. Sure, it wasn't the first time he'd had a quickie with Sadie or Justine, but since he'd met Penelope, it was the first time. And he'd fucked Sadie because he was hard from thinking about his Penelope, not because of Sadie. He can't let that happen again, letting his needs guide him. He now has someone to take care of his pleasure. No woman turns him on more than Penelope. Even if he can't fully enjoy her yet, satisfying her also satisfies him. But it's not just their sexual encounters that satisfy and attract him. Every conversation with her, every one of her beautiful smiles directed at him, they make him feel warm inside. With these fond thoughts of Penelope, Colin falls asleep.