Author's Note: Again, apologies for the delay. I promised this epilogue yesterday, but believe me when I say it is better for the extra time. I actual scraped my original epilogue (ask , it's better this way) and wrote a new one this morning.

Revelry: Epilogue

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."

-from Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Beltane Night, Five Years Later …

"How's that?" she asked sweetly. "Not too tight, is it?"

Cedric glowered at the silky white bows framing each of his wrists. He gave them a tug, but she'd secured him to the bed quite effectively. "How did I ever let you talk me into this?"

Sofia giggled. "Because you're a wise man and you've already seen that giving into my requests is in your best interest."

"So, I've been told," he murmured when she ran her hands down the front of his shirt, slowly slipping the buttons free. "No less than every male relative and friend of your acquaintance saw fit to threaten me with castration should I ever prove myself unworthy of your devotion. Why did no one tell me weddings were so perilous for the groom?"

"Still think we should have eloped?" She smirked, adding a devilish air to the vision she presented in her frothy white gown. An edge of a lace garter peeped out from beneath the hem where she'd hiked it up to sit on the edge of the bed.

He didn't see fit to answer, which she knew meant she was right and he refused to admit defeat. Her smirk softened to a genuine smile. "Thank you, by the way, for all this."

His raised one rakish eyebrow. "For finally letting you tie me up?"

"No," she giggled, "For our wedding day. I know all the pomp and circumstance isn't really your thing."

"Yes, well, be that as it may, I thought what with your family barely tolerating our relationship as it is, they'd never forgive me if I married you in some arcane ceremony in the woods. The king would probably set the guards on me, accusing me, again, of enchanting you with some dark spell."

She laid a trail of butterfly soft kisses across his bare chest. "Haven't you though? I'd say I've been very much under your spell since our first Beltane together."

Cedric allowed his eyes to close, absorbing the fluttering, elusive pleasure of her lips on his skin. When her tongue peeked out to flick over his nipple, he groaned. He didn't garner nearly as much enjoyment there as she did when he teased her breasts, but she knew just where to touch him for maximum anticipation. His dusky gaze opened halfway when he felt her hands working at the bindings of his pants. His fingers twitched, itching to wrap around the satin dip of her corseted waist. "Every day, you only get more beautiful. How is that possible?"

A pleasant flush pinked her cheeks. "Well, I should certainly hope that you thought so today, otherwise I'd have to tell Amber that all her hard work was for nothing. It took no less than five maids to lace me into this dress, not to mention three more to do my hair and another two for my makeup."

"Five maids?" he asked, impressed despite himself. His breath caught when she freed his stiffening member from the confines of his trousers, her fingertips teasing lightly along his length. He managed to pant, "However will we get you out of it?"

"Don't even pretend you haven't mastered a spell for getting me out of my clothes with expediency. I may have picked up that trick from you, among other things."

She bent her head, taking him into her mouth and Cedric lost track of any thoughts except the warm, wet feel of being enveloped and the buttery soft slide of her clever tongue. She teased him in long, slow strokes, putting every bit of her considerable knowledge of his body to use against him. When her tongue flickered over his weeping tip, he arched his hips upward, straining against his bonds.

"I've changed my mind," he panted. "Get these bloody things off. I want to touch you."

She eased away after a last, taunting lick, sitting back to take in her handy work of his flushed face, heaving chest and slick, glistening manhood. "Not yet, my dear, I've barely started paying you back for all those times you've had me at your mercy."

"I didn't hear you complaining then," he smirked.

She merely favored him with a cheeky smile, before slipping off the bed to pluck up his wand from atop their luggage. They'd barely spared a glance for their honeymoon suite at The Burgundy Rose, tossing their belongings aside before moving directly to the more pleasurable parts of their new status as husband and wife. Sofia twirled the wand, releasing a shower of golden sparkles. With a murmured phrase, her extravagant dress slipped open at the back, allowing her to shrug it off with considerably more ease than she'd been trussed into it hours before. Seeing her decked in a white satin corset, matching bloomers and stockings, Cedric drank the sight of his new wife, cursing every deity in creation that he was currently unable to touch such perfection. He pulled on his wrists so hard the bed rattled.

"Patience, my love," Sofia cooed, running the tip of his wand along the generous swell of her breasts over her corset top. With another whisper, the laces disappeared and the cumbersome garment fell to the floor atop the accumulating pile of her clothing. Cedric groaned, his manhood throbbing to a point near pain. As she divested herself of all accompanying regalia, she left on her shift, a gauzy veil so short and so thin she may as well have been wearing nothing at all. The angel white hue of the fabric only accentuated the dusky pink of her taut nipples and the silky umber of her nether curls. Slowly, she pulled the hairpins from her complicated coiffure, letting the heavy tendrils trickle down to tickle the tips of her breasts.

It wasn't an elegant maneuver, but Cedric managed to kick his pants the rest of the way off. "Get over here," he growled.

"Uh uh ah," she chided, climbing onto the bed on hands and knees. She lifted a leg over his lap, straddling him, but keeping a thin layer of air between the heat of their bodies. "This time, I'm the one in charge."

She slid the tip of his wand down her throat, across her clavicle and between her breasts, all the places his lips longed to be. She settled the magic instrument over her belly and began to murmur the usual incantation.

"What if we—" he interrupted, stopping her. She paused, looking down on him with a bemused quirk of her delicate brows. He felt heat rushing to his face. All in a rush, he said, "What if we didn't use the spell this time?"

Sofia blinked once, then again. "But without the spell that means I could get— I mean, we could be—"

He lowered his lashes, shielding the hope in his eyes lest it be crushed. "I know it's only our honeymoon, but it's been five years together, and I just thought, maybe, it was time that we start … trying."

"Trying," she echoed numbly, her slight inflection indicating that she understood the full weight of meaning behind that one simple word.

"Well, I mean, that is, only if you agree, obviously. Only if you feel it's something you're ready for. Because I feel I am, ready, that is." He was babbling like an idiot, he knew. Letting her tie him up and torment him sexually was nothing compared to pouring out his deepest held, most secret desire. "I've been thinking about it for some time, how I'd like nothing more than to … to see you carrying my— I mean, our child."

He shut his mouth, at once relieved that his torrent was over, but mortified by his mangled presentation. This was not how he expected to broach the subject.

Sofia said nothing. After a long beat of silence, he marshalled his paltry fortitude to look up at her. She knelt over top of him, clutching his wand as tears filled her eyes. One spilled over, sliding down her cheek to splash onto his chest.

Fuck.

"I'm sorry, my dear, I didn't mean to— It was stupid of me to bring this up now. Of course, we can wait, if you don't want—"

"Oh, do shut up," she sniffed, wiping at her streaming eyes.

He shut his mouth, keenly aware that he was perhaps the world's stupidest man in that moment.

Sofia dropped the wand, letting it roll off the side of the bed. It clattered to the floor just as she wrapped her arms around his neck, fairly sobbing into his ear. "I do. I want that very much. But, I thought if I brought it up now, that I'd be moving too fast for you." She giggled, sniffling, "I thought if I so much as said the word baby, you'd go running from the room in a panic."

He tipped his head against her neck, nuzzling the downy soft skin there. "Technically, I can't run from the room. You've got me tied up at your mercy, remember?"

She sat up, smirking again, her eyes bright but dry. "That's right, I do."

She leaned in, kissing him in a languid dance of tongues. Cedric craned his neck up, trying to get a close as possible to show her just how much he loved her, and how her impossible devotion made him feel. One of her hands snaked between their hips, grasping him lightly in preparation. He trembled against the knots, holding his breath as her velvety folds just brushed the heated tip of his head.

Sofia pulled away suddenly, making him groan in dismay. "Are you sure about this?" she asked, eyes wide with cautious hope. "Because I—"

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" he growled. With little more than a guttural word he was free, wrapping his arms about her and rolling them over so now he was on top.

Sofia gasped delightfully. "Are you telling me, you could have gotten free at any time?"

"Of course, my dear. I wouldn't be a sorcerer worth half his salt if I couldn't. And to answer your first question, yes, I am sure."

"Good," she whispered in a trembling voice as her fingertips brushed his cheek, "because it's something I've wanted for some time as well. And, I've been told it's in your best interest to keep me happy."

He matched her cheeky smile with one of his own. "Whatever you desire, my wife."

-Fin-

Author's Note: As always, I want to thank you all for reading my crazy brain ramblings. Thank you for all your kind reviews and words of encouragement. Now that Revelry is done, on to the next! :)

Reviews will always and forever be appreciated, even long after a story is completed.