Rituals of Passion (Brides of Caralon, Book One)

by Alexander, Lacey

  She met his gaze briefly then did as he’d instructed, although she seemed to take great care in making sure their fingers didn’t touch as she passed it.

  He began drying off without bothering to cover himself. “Tonight you will feel far more than merely my hand, bride,” he said, letting a hint of a grin leak out.

  She didn’t answer, and he went about finishing his task, finally stepping out of the tub onto a fur rug. Dropping the cloth there, he turned and padded to the bed, taking a seat on the end of it, well aware his cock still stretched prominently past his navel. “Only a few more hours until we’re wed, Maven,” he said, “and my bride has not yet even given me a kiss.”

  He saw her pull in her breath—nervous, perhaps anxious.

  “Come here and kiss me,” he said, much more of a demand than a request. He held his gaze hard on hers to make sure she understood that she was not being given a choice. She was his now and it was time she began to accept that. “Don’t tempt my anger, little bride,” he said softly, eyes still pinning her in place.

  As if realizing she had no other options, she pushed slowly to her feet, but hesitated before she started across the stone floor toward him. He could almost see her fighting with herself—everything in the headstrong girl told her not to want him, but she did. He knew she did, could feel the desire emanating from her.

  When finally she stood directly in front of him, he reached up to gently cup her face in his hands, pulling her down, down, closer. “Kiss me here,” he murmured, and then their lips met. He made the kiss firm and full, but fleeting, then slowly urged her down farther until she dropped to her knees beside him.

  “And here.” He guided her head toward his cock until the shaft was only a fraction of an inch from her lips. “Do it,” he whispered, barely audible.

  She kissed the side of his cock the same as she had his mouth—nervous and unskilled. It still sent a shockwave of pleasure jolting through him, enough to make a lesser man explode right then and there. The girl clearly needed some training in the area of kissing, but her mouth had felt exquisite just the same.

  Seeming to suddenly realize what she’d done, she shot to her feet, looked with surprised horror into his eyes, then cast her gaze downward toward her toes.

  Reaching up once more, he lifted her chin with bent fingers and let her see the heat that surely shone in his eyes. “You may go now, Maven. Go and prepare for our wedding. You will find maids in your chamber to help you. And the next time we see each other, we will be bound together…for life.”

  Chapter Eight

  Maven practically dashed from his room, horrified over what she’d done. She couldn’t believe she’d kissed his cock that way—worse, that she’d wanted to!

  But, dear Ares, she could no longer deny it to herself—his body was…magnificent. His cock was monstrous and yet she was inexorably drawn to it. The muscles of his arms, chest, legs, made her want to touch. She’d vowed never to want him, but it was clearly beyond her control.

  Well, of course, she’d also vowed never to beg him, and that part she could still achieve—would still achieve.

  But if he took her tonight, without trying to coerce her into asking him to—oh Ares, please let him have mercy upon me!—she knew now that she would welcome it. She would welcome his touch. She would welcome his tremendous shaft inside her.

  She still didn’t see how the thing was going to fit in there, but if other women could accommodate it, surely she could as well.

  As she slowed her pace, her heartbeat coming back to normal—well, as close to normal as possible under the circumstances—she found herself thinking she should probably be thrilled at this turn of events. She should be thrilled to discover she wanted him and wasn’t afraid of his cock. But there still remained one horrible issue standing between them. That of his owning her. That of his controlling her and wishing her to follow his every command.

  It might be the way of the world she’d been born into, but she still couldn’t accept that. In fact, it almost made her hate herself for wanting him now. How could she want a man who was willing to treat her like an object? He’d even agreed she was a stepping stone to the throne.

  Ares above, what had happened to her life? A week ago, she’d been her normal, happy self, playing curiously at her Maran tiles and anticipating marriage. She’d never have dreamed she’d be thrust into this foreign world where she was expected to become one more worshipper of a man who already seemed worshiped by all those around him—and feared by everyone else in Caralon.

  By the time she reached her room, she’d nearly forgotten Dane had told her maids would be awaiting her. Three lovely young girls, perhaps her age or a bit older, lounged about on the fur rug in front of the bathing tub that had been carried in. Two were blonde, the other a brunette with sparkling green eyes. All were slender and striking.

  They rose to their feet upon her entry and she couldn’t help noticing they all wore matching frocks, distinctive because they were far more extravagant than anything she’d ever seen donned by a maid, including Dane’s. The thin gowns of white silk draped their bodies only to mid-thigh, with leather cording crisscrossing between their breasts and around their waists.

  “We are to assist you in preparing for your wedding,” one of the blondes said cheerfully, her straight hair falling nearly to her waist—as Maven’s did when unbound.

  Maven nodded. “Yes. Dane told me.”

  “We’ve filled the bathing tub,” the brunette indicated, motioning behind her. Her wavy hair was not quite as long as the other girl’s, but shiny and lustrous.

  “And after we bathe you, we shall help you dress,” the last girl imparted, her shoulder-length curls held back from her face with a pair of combs.

  For some reason, Maven felt quite taken with the beauteous figures the girls cut, their unbound hair falling around their pretty faces and smooth shoulders. She could scarcely recall the last time she’d seen a grown woman with her hair bound—and it struck her with sudden force that all three of these young women had already been fucked, and knew the secrets she would learn later tonight.

  Together, the girls converged on her, one of them reaching to remove her tunic, another working the fastener at the waist of her skirt until the garment could be pushed to her ankles, the fur gliding softly across her skin. The last unbraided her hair with nimble fingers.

  When she stood naked before them, she realized they were all staring with envy at her bared cunt. Given its new lack of hair, she felt even more on display, and finally said, “Is something wrong?”

  The brunette shook her head. “Oh—don’t mind us. We’re just envious. Your pussy looks so beautiful like that, so smooth and feminine.”

  Only then did she remember that Lavonia had said only the very wealthy could afford the ointment.

  “May I…touch it?” asked the girl with curls.

  Maven was surprised to find these maids so audacious, but then she thought of Lavonia, who had never had qualms about bossing her around or whispering scandalous secrets of the staff in her ear, and of her mother’s lifelong maid, Relah, the only person in Caralon who got away with giving Jalal orders. Maven barely knew what to say, even as a strange new curiosity tickled through her nether region. “Um, all right,” she finally answered, not seeing any harm in it.

  The girl knelt before her, running her fingertips gently over the outside of Maven’s mound. She sighed. “So soft. I daresay the softest skin I’ve ever touched.” She looked up at the girl with straight hair. “Anya, you must feel it.”

  Anya didn’t kneel, but simply reached out to cup Maven’s cunt in her hand, grazing her fingers tenderly over the skin to leave her tingling even worse than when she’d left Dane’s room. Anya looked at her friend. “Oh yes, very smooth.” Then she shifted her eyes to Maven. “Dane will be pleased, I’m certain.”

  Again, Maven was stumped for a reply. “I…hope so.” Did she? Oh Ares—it was true, she did!

  The two girls looked to the
raven-haired one. “Do you wish to feel her pussy, Kaelen?” the first girl asked.

  Kaelen made eye contact with her. “Forgive my friends, Maven. They should not be so forward.”

  Suddenly Maven felt stuck between them all, and as she always strived to have amiable relationships with her maids, she—once again—was left not knowing how to respond. “It’s…all right,” she said, even adding, “You may touch me if you like.”

  Kaelen’s gaze dropped to the slit between Maven’s legs—she felt the young woman’s gaze there more than the other two. Maven thought she looked intrigued. “If you’re sure you don’t mind,” the dark-haired girl said.

  Maven nodded, slightly nervous, slightly aroused, hoping none of it showed.

  Biting her lip slightly, Kaelen touched her as Anya had, by cupping her. Although her touch lingered longer, warmer, on Maven’s cunt. The warmth spread all through her until she wondered if she was getting Kaelen’s hand wet. When the maid finally withdrew her palm, she quirked a soft, quick half-smile that made Maven think perhaps she had left the pretty girl’s fingers moist.

  Kaelen and Anya each took one of Maven’s hands and led her into the bathing tub, which she couldn’t help noticing was much larger than any she’d ever seen. And to her surprise, both girls stepped in along with her, the remaining girl—who then introduced herself as Tally—following suit, so that all four of them stood in the deep, wide tub.

  “I can’t help but notice your frocks,” Maven commented.

  It was outgoing Tally who replied. “Our master sent them and instructed us to wear them while we bathe you.”

  She barely knew which part of the reply to address first. “Your master?”

  Tally nodded eagerly. “Dane, of course.”

  “Of course,” she murmured, stunned. Apparently, the people in Dane’s employ worshipped him even more than she’d realized.

  Anya added, “Because you’re his bride, he wanted it to be a very special bath.”

  Did he now? Special was one way to describe it. The maids’ frocks were as nice as any she owned. And despite years of being catered to by Lavonia and other maids, certainly no one had ever entered the bathing tub with her. Still and all, it seemed the marriage ceremony was full of traditions—some she knew and some she did not—so perhaps this was simply another one.

  “You should relax and let us do all the work,” Tally said.

  Maven knelt in the tub and the maids all joined her. The scent of roses wafted from the water, leading her to notice the sprinkled pink petals, now floating around them on the water’s surface. The maids all reached for sponges and fresh new squares of soap from a wooden tray on a table within their reach.

  Maven watched as they lathered the sea sponges then reached out, beginning to wash her. Anya held Maven’s hair up on top of her head while she gently washed her back with her free hand. Tally ran her sponge slowly down one arm as Kaelen leisurely washed the other. The unhurried motions of the sponges on her skin was at once relaxing and scintillating, reminding her to follow Tally’s advice—relax and enjoy the bath.

  “We should wash her hair so it will have time to dry,” Anya said, leading the other two girls to drop their sponges in the petal-laden water that rose to their waists. It was then that Maven glanced down to see that the girls’ white dresses clung to them wherever they became wet. Above the water’s surface, the curves of breasts and slender stomachs were revealed in small bits beneath cloth that went sheer when dampened. Below the water, their short skirts clung to hips, thighs and the crux in between, revealing the darkness of pubic hair and the outline of their mounds as the girls moved around her.

  Together, they leaned her back in the water, Kaelen and Tally supporting her back as Anya poured pitchers of water slowly over her locks. Soon Anya’s fingertips sensually massaged her scalp with soap until Maven’s eyes fell shut at the simple pleasure. Fluttering them open a few moments later, she saw the clear outline of Kaelen’s nipple—a warm, dusky brown—through the transparent fabric of her dress. Her full breasts, as well as Tally’s smaller ones, were pressed against Maven’s arms where they held her over the water. Her pussy contracted slightly. She’d never been this close to other women before.

  Anya proceeded, rinsing Maven’s hair with more pitchers of water, and they all resumed bathing her. Anya washed her shoulders while Kaelen and Tally ran their sponges over her stomach, and then her breasts, their motions sensual and swallowing, caresses she was sinking into so deeply that she almost didn’t want them to end.

  “Rise up on your knees,” Kaelen gently instructed, and they then washed her thighs and hips, Anya bathing her buttocks as well as the valley in between. Kaelen ran her soapy sponge over Maven’s pussy, being sure to wash it thoroughly—because it would be the center of Dane’s attention tonight, Maven supposed. She bit her lip as the cleansing of her cunt continued, trying to hold in a small sigh of delight as the sponge passed over her clit.

  “Oh yes,” Tally murmured, “Dane will be very pleased indeed when he sees this lovely pussy. You’re a lucky woman.”

  Maven didn’t answer, not particularly wanting to think of Dane just now—she simply let the lull of the sensuous bath transport her to a place where everything was soft and pleasurable, where no problems existed.

  When finally her cunt seemed suitably clean and the girls stopped washing it, Maven let herself sink back down in the water, pleasantly aware that all three maids continued to caress her skin with their soft sponges.

  Letting her head fall to one side, she again caught sight of Kaelen’s chest—both of her breasts were keenly visible through the white fabric that clung to their curves, the dark peaks rasing the sheer material. Lazily raising her gaze, she caught sight of Kaelen’s lips—the color of ripe berries, she thought, and ever so lush. When her eyes rose higher, connecting with Kaelen’s sparkling green ones, the other girl leaned in and softly kissed her lips.

  She should have been stunned and confused, but instead she simply found herself returning the gentle kiss, softly puckering her lips beneath Kaelen’s mouth.

  Only then did the shock of it strike her, making her stop and pull back.

  “It’s all right,” Kaelen said warmly, a pretty smile gracing her face. “Dane wishes it.”

  Maven blinked. “What? Why?”

  Kaelen’s expression softened, going from sensual to friendly. “Our master sent word that I should train you to kiss.”

  “Oh.” Maven blinked once more, trying to grasp Kaelen’s unexpected explanation.

  “For tonight,” Kaelen went on. “He wishes me to show you how.”

  “Well then, yes, I guess it is all right.”

  Tilting her head, Kaelen leaned in for another soft kiss and Maven tried not to think, only to accept and return the gentle affection, and she thought she was probably doing well—until Kaelen shocked her by pushing her tongue into her mouth.

  Maven pulled back once more, suspecting she looked even more surprised than after the first kiss. But Kaelen only laughed—a soft, trilling sound. “Sometimes you use your tongue,” she explained. “When I ease my tongue between your lips, touch it with your own.”

  With that, Kaelen placed her hand at Maven’s nape to pull her closer, then resumed their kisses—short, tender meetings of lips that built Maven’s confidence and made her hunger for something deeper. Feeling bold, she lengthened the next kiss, moving her mouth sensually over Kaelen’s until finally she felt the other girl’s tongue again. This time, she did as she’d been instructed, pressing her own against the maid’s, licking at it, letting their tongues circle each other.

  When next she pulled back, it was to catch her breath. Her pussy hummed with delight beneath the water and she found herself thinking her life would probably be much easier if she had only to kiss Kaelen and not Dane. Of course, as soon as she allowed herself that thought, her cunt seemed to lurch at the very idea of the big brute. And that, in turn, made her want to kiss Kaelen some more.

&n
bsp; This time it was she who reached out, taking Kaelen’s soft face in her palms and sharing with her a barrage of short, sweet, sensuous kisses that nearly turned her inside out with mounting desire.

  Finally, it was Kaelen who stopped. She flashed Maven another lovely smile and said, “I agree with Anya—Dane is a lucky man. You’ve mastered the art of kissing quite quickly.”

  “Well, then,” Tally said cheerfully, taking Maven’s hand and running a final rinsing sponge over the length of her arm, “now that we have you well bathed and well kissed, we’d best dress you for your wedding.”

  After Maven stepped out of the tub onto the fur rug, the three girls carefully dried her with the large cloths they’d brought for that purpose. Then they took turns drying each other off, too—as well as they could given their clingy frocks—since they’d come from the tub as wet as Maven herself.

  Taking Maven’s hand, Anya led her to the bed where they’d lain out a silk dress of pale gold. “Selected by our master,” she said before lifting the delicate-looking frock over Maven’s head. The fabric fell nearly to the floor, although two large slits ran from ankle to upper thigh on each side. Next, Tally and Kaelen wrapped her waist with a shimmery gold silken sash, binding her from just beneath her breasts to her hips. Anya rebraided her hair, running a gold silk ribbon through it.

  When they were done, they all wished her well and, before parting, each girl gave her a light kiss on the lips, leaving Maven stunned over what a pleasant and even sensuous experience a mere bath had become.

  What a day! What a crazy, mixed-up, confusing day. First she’d had the strange, lust-inspiring encounter with Dane, where—Ares forbid—she’d kissed his cock! And then the bath with the pretty maids and their clingy costumes and warm kisses. And now—now she was to get married!

  By the time she was set to meet Dane and the priest who would perform the marriage rites, she felt entirely out of sorts. Logic told her she should feel some of the same emotions she’d experienced up to this point in time—fear of what was to come tonight, anger and loathing over being seen as Dane’s property.