Silence broken only by the sound of their harsh breathing settled over the bed where they lay spent. Elena grew increasing nervous at her husband’s continued silence. They hadn’t spoken more than a few words since she and her reluctant groom first consummated their marriage the previous night. She blushed at the memories of the intimacies they shared and couldn’t help but wonder if she had pleased him in the performance of her wifely duties. Even though he had in a back-handed way assured her she had done so last night, now she wondered if perhaps she had done enough. Maybe a woman who was closer to his own age, with a mother to instruct her in her wifely duties would have done something different, been more aggressive in her attempts to please her new husband.
She was well aware Michel could have married any of the available daughters of the nobles in Calei, or even returned to his previous home to choose a woman who was more familiar with his past. Elena worried that if she was unsatisfactory in the performance of her intimate duties as his wife, Michel might seek the services of another. She was not so very young not to know that some men kept mistresses to please them in ways that their wives apparently did not, or could not. Tears stung her eyes at the thought of Michel sharing with another the precious bond they just shared. Unknowing and unwilling to ask for the reassurance she needed from her new husband, she let the silent tears spill from her eyes until they landed softly on his naked flesh.
“Elena, did I hurt you?” With the evidence of his wife’s silent tears on his chest damning him, guilt rose up within Michel at the memory of his less than gentle treatment of his innocent bride. When she merely shook her head against his chest in response to his question, he braced his weight on his elbows so he could see her face. “If I didn’t hurt you, then why are you crying?”
“Are you going to seek out a mistress?” She asked in a devastated whisper.
“What?!! What?!!” How can you ask me such a ridiculous question? Why would I seek out a mistress? Is that what you want? Elena, I’m sorry if I was rough with you. The pain you feel now will fade. It is only because you were a virgin…” Michel let his voice trail off as the enormity of what his new bride was suggesting hit home. Did she believe in her innocence he would be satisfied with a single night with her? Did she intend to return to her previous celibate state? Even if that obscene plan was floating around in her silly head he had no intention of allowing it.
“You weren’t rough with me,” she denied, blushing profusely and unable to hold his stunned glance for long.
“Then why do you wish me to seek out another woman to satisfy my manly passion?”
“I don’t wish it. I wasn’t sure…you didn’t say if you were pleased with me. No one explained. I don’t have a mother to instruct me in such matters. I know you said it was your duty to teach me, but well, you didn’t really give me any instruction last night…” Her voice trailed off at the slow grin spreading over his face.
“I see. Forgive me, bride, if I have been remiss in my husbandly duties.”
Elena could feel her face getting redder at Michel’s gentle teasing, but she summoned the courage to protest tearfully, “No, that’s not what I meant.”
Michel rolled them both over so his fiercely blushing bride now lay beneath him. He bent down and brushed his lips across hers and then slid his lips along the long, slender column of her throat, to where her soft breasts beckoned for his attention.
“Michel?”
“Yes, Elena. Pay attention, sweetheart. I’m going to instruct you now.”
“All right,” she answered breathlessly, her hands gripping the sheets, as his mouth slid lower, over her soft middle, to where the damp curls shielding her heat tugged at his will. When his mouth moved lower still to close over her slick opening, and he tasted the evidence of his own release on her, she arched up urgently against him. “God! God! Are we supposed to be doing this?”
He paused long enough to lift his head to stare down into her flushed face. Her glazed, smoky eyes clung to his, her innocent uncertainty over the rightness of the intimacies they shared casting a shadow over the pleasure he gave her. “I’m your husband, Elena. Your body belongs to me now. Everything you have inside of you is mine. Do not deny me the pleasure of instructing you and enjoying your pleasure in these precious moments between us.”
“No, I can’t. Don’t you know? Don’t you understand? It isn’t in me to deny you anything. I want to belong to you…to give you everything. I can’t be here without you anymore. I can’t bear the thought of you sharing such intimacies with another.”
Michel’s lips curved in a gentle smile as his eyes roamed over her flushed skin, the way her chest rose and fell rapidly in response to her rising passion she was unable to hide from him and then finally met her tearful glance. “Elena, love, why would I seek out another when my wife so generously shares herself with me?”
He bent his head to capture her lips in a deep kiss, sealing his vow of fidelity much as he had sealed their marriage vows to each other the previous evening. Then just as she was beginning to relax in his arms, his lips slid from hers and began their purposeful descent along her soft skin. Now understanding the object of his search, his bride tensed in anticipation and her breaths dissolved into breathless pants. She spread her legs eagerly for his attention and when his mouth closed over the most secret part of her femininity she trembled beneath him and begged him in a soft, breathless voice for more of his lovemaking. When long moments later her breathless pleas turned into an awed cry of feminine release, Michel slid along her damp flesh and buried himself deep within his wife’s welcoming body.
When he had gathered himself to the point he was able to speak again, Michel braced his weight on his arms and asked, his lips brushing against her sensitive skin, “Are you pleased with your husband’s instructions, wife? Give me your truth, for I have no intention of allowing you to seek similar instruction in another’s arms. Is there is some further lesson you would like me to focus on this morning? You have only to tell me what area of the subject matter I have been remiss in covering. I assure you, I am very eager to continue your training in this gravely important area.”
“There’s more?” His no longer quite so innocent little bride was staring up at him with a curious speculation he found incredibly arousing. Knowing after his long fast, he was far more willing to continue pursuing the subject than his young wife could possibly comprehend, he sighed reluctantly and answered her truthfully.
“There is indeed far more for you to learn of your intimate duties, Elena, and I am anxious to continue your tutoring this evening. But for now, I think it best if I rise and see what fresh crisis awaits me this morning. I would prefer you rest and gather your strength for further lessons this evening.”
Elena blushed and giggled at the absurdity of his suggestion. “Really, Michel, I cannot possibly remain in bed all day. What would people think?”
Michel grinned at her embarrassment and answered her concern with brutal honesty. “Likely they would conclude I was less than gentle with your innocence and you are unable to rise from our marriage bed.”
Her blush flamed even brighter over her fair complexion, and laughing, Michel reluctantly removed himself from between her legs and rose from the bed. He crossed the room to glance out the window on his domain. Elena wasn’t aware until Michel pushed the window covering aside and the bright sunlight streamed through the opening that the day was already well-advanced. Although she understood it was expected for a newlywed couple to linger in their chambers the morning following their wedding, until this morning she had not completely comprehended the true nature of the activities that kept a couple so intently engaged and willing to tarry away from their usual duties. The thought that everyone she encountered today when and if she finally summoned the nerve to leave her husband’s chambers would no doubt comprehend exactly what is what that delayed her, made the prospect of Michel’s suggestion she rest in his bed all day a not unappealing one. Then regrettably acknowledging that woul
d only give rise to worse gossip as to the activities they engaged in over the course of their wedding night, and would no doubt force the servants to speculate that Michel had indeed been overly brutal in his treatment of her, she knew she was just going to have to brazen through her embarrassment and resume her duties as the mistress of her husband’s home.
She glanced back at the window to see Michel grinning at the evidence of her embarrassment, as if he was privy to her thoughts. She marveled at the way he stood naked in front of the window as if unconcerned at the prospect of someone seeing him. Elena grinned at the thought of an innocent young maid wandering by and catching a glimpse of her new king in all of his true glory.
“What has you grinning, wife? Am I too bold in hoping your smile is in anticipation of your further instruction this evening in the matter of your wifely duties?”
Elena laughed at Michel’s teasing and then quickly pulled the sheets up around her naked flesh when he crossed the distance between them with a purposeful look in his eyes she was already beginning to recognize. It required little more than a swift, effective tug on his part to rid her of the barrier between them, and then he came down on top of her and with a devilish glint in his eyes told her, “Perhaps we’d better go over some additional remedial material now so you are not completely overwhelmed this evening when we return to your lessons.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Elena sighed blissfully as the door closed behind her now fully clothed husband and she collapsed back against the sheets, willing to revel in her laziness for a few moments longer before summoning Lissel to attend her. She considered herself the luckiest of women. Surely no other woman had ever had so magnificent and attentive a teacher to instruct her in her wifely duties. She sighed dreamily at the thought of the cherished moments she had shared with Michel, and knew no matter how long she remained on this earth; no other day and night would ever compare to the one she just spent. At the promise of further such instruction this evening, a trembling longing and intense anticipation filled her, causing her cheeks to heat up in fresh embarrassment. Chiding herself that the keep was not going to run itself, she forced herself to put her daydreams aside and begin her first day as a married woman.
Elena was tempted to look behind her when Lissel, responding to her summons as if she’d been waiting anxiously for it, addressed her nervously, “Yes, Your Highness, you sent for me?”
Elena supposed she was going to have to get used to the ‘Your Highnesses’ from now on as upon her marriage to the king she had not only become Michel’s wife, but his queen.
The initial weeks of her marriage flew by in the same idyllic as her wedding night. She eagerly sought the chambers she shared with her husband each evening and Michel seemed just as eager to continue her instruction in her wifely duties as he had on their wedding night. She was not so naïve she didn’t comprehend that Michel did not feel about her the way she felt about him. She wasn’t even certain it was possible for a man to feel the depth of love and the longing to be in his presence she felt for Michel, but at least he seemed to harbor no regrets about being nudged into marriage with her. She could only hope that in time his feelings for her would grow beyond the rather amused affection he seemed to regard her with presently.
Now that she was his wife, it was a relief to her to be able to offer him something of value in return for all the happiness he gave her. She knew he was grateful to her for taking on the day to day running of the keep and seeing to the numerous social niceties among the ladies of the nobility and his other subjects that seemed completely inexplicable to the male of the species. She didn’t have to guess at whether or not her efforts pleased him because he made a point to express his appreciation to her regularly. His approval only made her more diligent in her efforts to at least remove such small burdens from the grave weight of the responsibility he bore as king.
As time passed, and they settled back into the closer, more unstructured relationship they had enjoyed before Michel became king, she no longer worried over whether or not he was pleased with her in the matter of the more intimate nature of her wifely responsibilities. Michel remained a most attentive husband and appeared quite eager to broaden her knowledge of the subject at every opportunity that presented itself. Elena, eager to be a dutiful wife, was ever his avid student.
So it came as no surprise to her when barely two full months into her marriage, she suspected she was already carrying her husband’s child. She kept her suspicions to herself until she was certain. She planned to tell him in the quiet of their chambers one evening so she could share her joyous news with him privately. It was no easy task as the babe she carried within her seemed overly fond of early nights. Elena struggled valiantly to keep her eyes open after her bath, and the fresh, scented oil she worked into her skin, while she waited up for her husband to join her.
Since her marriage Elena had adopted her husband’s habit of sleeping nude, as it seemed a silly waste of time to don a gown only to have Michel remove it as soon as he joined her in the large bed. In the early weeks of their marriage there had been a few occasions when in his impatience to instruct her more completely on the contents of a particular lesson, he’d torn the gown off of her, causing her to hide the tattered remnants in the bottom of her chest the following morning, rather than risk having Lissel come across the shredded garment when she came to straighten their chambers.
Despite her intention to remain awake, Elena fell asleep soon after she slid between the fresh sheets of the bed. That was how Michel found her when he retired to his chambers later that evening. His glance roamed appreciatively over the enticing picture she presented, with one hand flung over her head drawing attention to the fullness of her breasts and the delicacy of her skin. He had already been in a semi-aroused state as he strode down the hallway leading to his chambers. His body had grown accustomed to its nightly feast and was eagerly anticipating its evening repast. Michel was sometimes astonished with the ease in which he’d fallen into the routine of married life, though he supposed he should give credit where it was due.
His new bride was so eager to please him he would have to be an ogre indeed to find fault with her. His eyes roamed over Elena’s lovely face, thinking no other had ever appealed to him as much, nor aroused his manly passions so completely. He stripped out of his clothes and in his haste left them on the floor at his feet, before sliding into bed and turning to where his wife slept on undisturbed by his arrival. He gently pushed the sheet aside and drew her naked flesh against his, closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breathe of her appealing, feminine fragrance, while letting his hands roam where they would over her soft flesh. By their eagerness to do so one might reasonably conclude it had been months rather than mere hours since they’d traversed the familiar territory.
“Michel?” His name passed her lips in a faraway whisper in a manner that suggested she was loath to wake from her own fantasies and would prefer it if he joined her in the misty dreams he disturbed. He was more than willing to do so, since he suspected by the rhythm her slender hips now set against his straining flesh; their purposes were one and the same. He drew her closer and bent to whisper his response against her ear tantalizing his drowsy wife with dark, seductive promises of the pleasure they would bring to each other.
She reached for him then, and slithered over him, covering him, all her natural shyness forgotten in sleep as her body’s urgent needs pushed aside the shy feminine defenses she was wont to raise against his driving lust. He watched with rising desire the dazed confusion in her glance as she stared down at him from her place perched above him, straddling him, as she drifted in and out of her dreams, seemingly drugged by the passion that rose between them. When his hands reached up to cup her breasts, she cried out softly and urged him to take more of her tender offerings. His lips closed over her and then he used his teeth to bring her to a fresh peak. She moaned and reached up to cup her breasts as she rose above him and took him inside her already damp heat.
&
nbsp; Seeing her womanly hands caressing her own softness set his raging passions aflame. Unable to wait any longer for the promise of satisfaction he read in her glazed eyes, Michel drove urgently into her again and again until long moments later he surrendered to the force of his body’s insistent need with a loud satisfied shout. In the silent warm moments following their coming together, Michel lay replete with his wife sprawled across his chest, unsure if she was awake or still dreaming until he heard his name on her lips in a hesitant whisper.
“Michel?”
“Yes, love. So you’re awake? I wasn’t certain.”
Elena hid her blush against his chest at his teasing then lifted her head so she could see his face. “I tried to wait up for you, but I guess I fell asleep.”
“I assure you, I am not the least bit disappointed with how things worked out.”
She smiled at his jesting but immediately her expression turned serious. “I waited up for you to tell you something important.”
“What is it?” he asked, letting his fingers trace a trail along her soft skin. He didn’t think he would ever grow tired of the feel of her against him, beneath him, above him… When he realized the direction of his thoughts, and the fresh tightening in his loins, he reluctantly drew his attention away from the consideration of what new lesson he would introduce to his eager bride tonight and forced himself to concentrate on her serious expression, curious as to its cause. “Elena?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Her soft confession shook him to the core and he sought to escape his sudden discomfort in denial. “Elena, it’s too soon. You cannot possibly be certain.”
“You’re not pleased about the baby?”
Her wide-eyed dismay forced him to gain control over a feeling previously unknown to him, but which he recognized as swiftly escalating panic. “Yes, of course I’m pleased, but it’s so soon.”
Lynn Wood - Norman Brides 03 Page 25
