Yet none of this mattered now, the past was long gone and Stephen’s hand had crept under the water to stroke her flat stomach. She shivered with pleasure as he cupped her sex, then gently eased his fingers inside her. The wonderful sensations, combined with the feel of the warm water caressing her flesh, made her body melt with bliss. Grabbing hold of his shoulders, she boldly pulled him close, her mouth seeking his. The kiss they shared was long and passionate and his tongue pushed its way into her mouth and played tantalising games with hers, while his fingers worked their magic inside her.
‘Join me,’ she said a little breathlessly. ‘The tub is big enough for two.’
‘Barely,’ he responded as he pulled away from her.
‘We will manage no doubt.’ Teasingly she splashed water onto his bare chest and the sparkling droplets rolled temptingly downwards. ‘I’ve made you wet.’ She peeked over the rim of the tub and saw the thin trickle of water running down over his flat stomach to disappear in the dark hair clustered around his already erect manhood. ‘Hurry,’ she begged, so wanting to feel the entire glorious length of it inside her.
‘As my lady wishes.’ He sprung to his feet and strode towards the bed.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked as he picked up the coverlet and carried it back to the tub.
His cock bobbed enticingly as he moved, while the heavy sac of his balls brushed against his muscular thighs. The mere sight of his sexual parts made her weak with need for him again. Unconsciously, she opened her legs, feeling the smooth sensuality of the warm water lap against her open sex.
‘I know not what lies beneath this room,’ he explained as he draped the coverlet round the base of the tub. ‘For all I know it could be the king’s bedchamber. When I join you the water is bound to spill over the sides.’
Edwina giggled at the thought of King Richard awakening from a deep sleep to find water dripping from the ceiling onto his bed. ‘A wise move,’ she agreed with a warm smile.
‘Richard may be my friend but he has a foul temper at times and such thoughtlessness would not be excused,’ Stephen said as he planted one foot in the tub.
Edwina eased herself back and pulled her knees up to her chest to give him enough room to sit down. Stephen sank down, now happily able to ignore the thin trickle of water that began to spill over the sides of the tub. He sat facing her, knees also drawn up to his chest. ‘This will not do,’ he said, grinning wickedly. ‘Lift your legs and open them a little.’
As she did as he asked, Stephen leant forwards, grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her towards him. He angled his back against the sides of the tub, which gave her just enough room to squat rather awkwardly astride his hips. She smiled: Stephen was way too tall for this tub and had to bend his long legs as he braced his feet against the wooden sides. Suddenly, he pulled her down hard onto his groin and she felt the wonderful pressure as the side of his engorged shaft rubbed sensuously against the entire length of her open sex. He leant forwards and fastened his lips around one of her nipples and, as he pulled the teat deeper into his mouth, she gave a soft sigh of bliss.
He sucked on her nipple, pausing to graze it teasingly with his teeth now and then, while at the same time he slid an arm around her and cupped her buttocks in the palm of his hand. Gently he kneaded the firm cheeks, while he continued to suck on her aching teat. She became more and more aroused as all the time his engorged shaft continued to press tantalisingly against the open valley of her sex.
Desire made Edwina become bolder. She reached down into the water and curved her fingers around his cock. ‘Careful,’ he gasped. ‘My endurance wanes. I want you so much.’
‘Then you must endure a while longer,’ she purred softly as she lifted herself so that she could more easily guide his penis inside her. Sighing with pleasure, Edwina pushed her body downwards and felt the entire length of his shaft slide smoothly into her vagina. For one precious moment she remained motionless, just enjoying the glorious sensation of her body being speared completely by his.
‘Edwina,’ he groaned, his fingers digging into her buttock cheeks, while she fought the slight buoyancy of the water as she ground herself against his firm groin. ‘How I’ve longed for this moment,’ he said, his voice husky with need.
‘As have I.’ She kissed him with passionate intensity, pressing her breasts against his powerful chest. Then, bracing her feet against the floor of the tub, she began to move her hips. The gentle swirling of the water lapping around her body and against her open pussy, coupled with the feel of his hard flesh buried deep inside her, was intoxicating. Grabbing onto his shoulders, she began to move faster, pumping her body up and down on his cock, the intense friction and fullness driving her wild beyond belief.
Her vigorous movements made water slop even faster over the side of the tub but they no longer cared as they were captivated by the sensual delights of the moment. Edwina worked her hips harder, savouring every erotic sensation as the pleasure overwhelmed her completely. Meanwhile, Stephen was digging his fingers deeper into her buttock cheeks, urging her to move even more vigorously, while his other hand dipped into the water and slid between their smoothly pounding flesh.
His searching fingers found her clitoris and he rubbed it briskly, adding to the erotic sensations rising up inside her. As she bounced up and down on his cock, her breath coming in small urgent gasps, she felt the pleasure envelop her in a tidal wave of amazing proportions. It rose to a swelling crescendo, which swept her up to the heights and beyond. As her extended orgasm reached its climax, she vaguely heard Stephen’s accompanying grunt of pleasure as he too came, spilling his seed inside her.
‘Are you sure this is the right place?’ Edwina turned to look questioningly at the page, who had sought her out a short time ago and asked her to come to the stables as one of her horses was unwell. However, to her consternation, the boy had disappeared completely. She really didn’t have time for this. Edwina looked around the large royal stableblock, not even certain if her late husband’s horses had been housed in this place.
‘Hello?’ she called, but there was no reply. The building seemed to be empty apart from the horses.
She heard a noise but it was only a stallion snorting, while a couple of other mounts stamped their feet restlessly. The rest of the horses were contentedly chewing their feed. It was a mistake, the message couldn’t have been for her, she decided, thinking that she should leave and return to the princess as soon as possible.
Yet she so wanted to linger a while as just the smell of this place brought back so many happy memories. The pleasant earthy odours of horses and fresh straw reminded her of her home in Angoulême. It was early and still a little chilly outside but the stables had been warmed by the heat of the animals’ bodies and she was tempted to just sit down on a bale of straw and relax for a moment. She felt a little weary as today she had been obliged to rise at dawn in order to accompany Princess Berengaria to the chapel to pray for the king. Now that she was one of the princess’s ladies-in-waiting she found her life almost as restrictive as it had been with Hugh. Berengaria was a sweet but overly pious lady and Edwina often spent just as much time on her knees now as she had during the years she was married.
Edwina heard a faint noise. ‘What?’ she gasped as a strong arm coiled around her waist and she was pulled into an empty stall. ‘Stephen!’
Stephen’s lips covered hers as he kissed her passionately, and Edwina melted into his embrace, twining her arms around his neck. Since they had been reunited, she could think of nothing else but her desire for him and the more she was with him, the more she wanted to be with him every time of the day or night, even though that was far from possible at present.
As he at last drew his lips from hers, she drew in a ragged breath. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘I sent word, did you not receive my message?’ he said softly, as he plucked off her veil, tossed it aside and kissed her ear lobe.
The feel of his lips on that sensitive sp
ot made her shudder with pleasure. ‘I received a message that one of my horses was unwell,’ she said as he pulled the pins from her hair. Within seconds her carefully arranged hairstyle was destroyed and her golden locks fell around her shoulders and tumbled in disarray down her back.
‘Quite so.’ He grinned cheekily at her. ‘You were with the princess and such a message seemed more circumspect. After all,’ he said as his lips caressed her neck. ‘I could not say that I have to fuck you because my cock is so swollen it feels as if it might explode.’
‘Stephen.’ She giggled. ‘You are so wicked.’
‘Is it wicked to tell the truth?’ His green eyes were dark with desire as he pulled her further into the stall.
‘It is a conundrum, is it not, my lord?’ she teased as he began to pull up the sides of her skirt so that he could slide his hand between her trembling, eager thighs.
‘Wool is way too heavy to wear in this climate,’ he said frustratedly, letting go of her skirt and reaching for the back lacing of her gown. ‘I’ll buy you silk, it is so much cooler and lighter to wear when in the Holy Land.’
‘Now that I am in control of my own purse, I can buy it myself,’ she murmured, her heart beating faster as, in his haste to unfasten the gown, he snapped the laces.
‘I shall choose them all because you need to have a number of Eastern-style garments such as the Saracen ladies wear. The noblewomen at the court of Jerusalem often wore such clothing and it is far more attractive and comfortable in this warmth.’
‘The princess is very modest and strait-laced. No doubt she would not approve.’ She paused. ‘Yet I should like to enjoy the sensual feel of silk next to my skin,’ she added as she ran her hands over the hard lines of his back, enjoying the feel of his strong muscles tensing slightly beneath her fingertips.
Edwina was fascinated by the stories Stephen had told her about the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was a world so different from her own: elaborate palaces, opulently furnished houses with their own bathing facilities, the strange and varied customs of the inhabitants of different creeds and races. However, what fascinated her most of all were his stories of the Saracen harems where women lived in secluded luxury, existing only to please their Arab masters.
‘Then the princess would consider such comfortable garments sinful?’
‘No doubt. She is a very religious lady who confers often with her priests.’
‘Even so, they were not thought sinful in the Holy City,’ he said as he eased her dress down her body until it fell in a heavy pool at her feet. ‘So why should they be sinful here? I agree with Richard, priests speak foolish nonsense at times.’
‘Hush.’ She lifted a finger to his lips. ‘The king may be able to speak such heresy but you should beware.’
‘And you concern yourself too much.’ He lifted her off her feet and placed her gently on a soft brightly coloured blanket that had been laid over a pile of straw. ‘And before you worry about anything else, I should tell you that my squire is on guard outside, We shall not be disturbed.’
‘Even so you should hurry.’ She felt excited, longing to couple with him again as she lay there, just clad in her shift, watching him disrobe. ‘Princess Berengaria worries even more than I do. If I am too long she will send one of the maidservants to look for me.’
‘My squire can easily cope with one curious maidservant,’ he said as he threw his plain tunic on the ground and kicked off his loose leather slippers. ‘Anyway, Berengaria expects far too much of you.’
She smiled as he undid the cord at his waist and let his loose breeches drop to display a very delicious-looking cock that was already partially aroused. ‘lust as King Richard expects too much from you, Stephen. In the last couple of days I’ve barely seen you at all.’
Grinning, he flung himself down beside her and pulled her into his arms. ‘But we still have the nights.’
‘You creep into my bed when I am half asleep and leave before I’m awake.’
‘Only because convention demands it. I have no wish to sully your reputation, my lady.’
‘I care not for my reputation.’ She sighed as he pulled off her shift, not appearing to care whether he ripped it a little in the process. ‘If I could, I would make you stay in my bed morning, noon and night. I’ve never truly known how intoxicating sex can be. But you, no doubt, have had many other women in the past.’
‘Too numerous to mention,’ he said teasingly. He pulled her closer to him so that their bodies were pressed sensuously together, flesh to flesh. He kissed her passionately until she was gasping for breath, while all the time his hands gently caressed her back and buttocks.
Edwina felt the familiar need for him grow even stronger inside her until it became a tearing pain of desire. Her body felt weak and her sex grew moist and ready for him. She could feel the swelling length of his shaft digging into her upper thighs and she was now desperate to feel it inside her. Yet she was also tempted by the thought of something that Hugh had forced her to do often in the past. Would Stephen like it as well, she wondered, unsure whether she should be so forward in this early stage of their newly burgeoning relationship. Or should she even consider it at all? She knew that Stephen was no prude, however. He had lived in the East where, according to the tales he had told her, women did all they could to pleasure a man and never even thought to consider if what they did was even remotely sinful.
‘Wait.’ She wriggled from his embrace and slid down the blanket.
She had become quite expert at pleasuring Hugh with her hands and mouth, and she had made every effort to improve these skills, because then she could bring him to fulfilment as soon as possible. Thankfully, most times after he had climaxed he would leave her alone. That was not what she wanted this time, however, as she knew the experience with Stephen would be very different. After all his engorged penis looked deliciously tempting and she was eager to experience the feel of its pulsing strength in her mouth.
She moved until she was crouching astride her lover’s legs. Then she leant forward until the tips of her nipples all but touched his upper thighs, and gently took hold of his shaft. Tenderly she curved her fingers around its meaty bulk, sensuously caressing the taut organ just as she had learnt to do with Hugh in the past.
‘Edwina, please desist,’ he groaned. ‘I want to come inside you.’
‘After I have pleasured you as much as you have pleasured me,’ she murmured and she guided the tip into her mouth. Stephen swore softly, his entire body tensing as her lips closed around the bulging helmet. Then she ran the tip of her tongue teasingly over the tightly stretched skin on its domed peak.
He did not protest again as he lifted his hips, forcing more of his shaft into her mouth. She accepted it eagerly, swallowing as much of his rigid flesh as she could while her hand reached between his legs to tenderly stroke his balls.
She began to gently suck on the organ, sliding her lips tantalisingly up and down its length, and she was delighted when she heard Stephen give a throaty gasp of pleasure. He meshed his hands in her long blonde hair as she pulled his cock deeper into her mouth. She caressed the rigid shaft with her tongue, while her fingers continued to play sensually with the soft sac of his scrotum.
Remembering all she had learnt, Edwina moved her mouth, sliding it up and down his burgeoning shaft, amazed to find how much she was enjoying an act that she had always found so distasteful before. There was something sexually invigorating about feeling the power and strength of his manhood quivering between her lips. Unconsciously, she sucked harder, teasing the sensitive flesh with her tongue, milking him rhythmically with her lips.
‘Dear Lord,’ he gasped as her fingertips moved to the extra-sensitive strip of skin between his cock and balls. All the while the warm wetness of aching desire kept growing deep inside her. ‘Edwina!’
Before she could act to stop him, Stephen jerked his cock from her mouth, grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her body upwards until she was poised above his engorged penis. S
he caught a brief sight of its glistening strength, the surface still covered with the moisture of her mouth before, with one smooth movement, he pulled her downwards. She felt his hard cock slide inside her only partway, then he held her there with his strong arms, letting her open sex swallow him up a mere finger’s breadth at a time. He was teasing her, moving far too slowly and, filled with a desperate need, she struggled to force her body downwards. Determinedly, she thrust her hips down hard and, with one smooth movement, he was inside her, filling her completely, almost driving the very breath of life from her lungs.
Then he rolled over until he was atop her, his knees between her open thighs. Edwina grabbed hold of his muscular shoulders, pressing her fingers into the hard unresilient flesh as he began to thrust, pounding his cock in and out of her sex until she thought she might faint just from the exquisite intensity of the sensations he was arousing inside her.
Stephen was not feeling at all happy this evening. They were due to depart for the Holy Land tomorrow and he would be travelling with the king on the royal war galley, while Edwina was obliged to accompany Princess Berengaria in one of the slower, sturdier and much larger vessels. No doubt they would not see each other again for two or three weeks, so instead of being in this brothel in Messina, he would have far preferred to be in Edwina’s bed.
Idly, he looked around the large high-ceilinged room with its marble floor and walls decorated with brightly coloured silk hangings; it had an opulence and luxury that Stephen had only seen before in the homes of the richest Frankish knights in the Holy Land. A group of blind musicians, sitting in the far corner, were playing haunting Eastern music, while very scantily clad young women served Stephen and his two companions food and drink.
Templar Prize Page 5
