by Georgia Fox
Humboldt sneered. "Yes, that was a strange relationship I never could quite understand, although I suppose the king needed a dumb beast to do his bidding from time to time— someone without the brains, or scruples, to question. But to let him back now that King Septimus is dead, my lady, is a dangerous game. I hear he already assembles an odd crew of misfit companions— gypsies and mercenaries—bringing more unsavory characters into the palace now he has his own foot in the door again. Let one beast in, majesty, and we will soon be overrun by the farmyard. As has happened to the courts in France and—."
"Thank you for your advice. I'll bear it in mind. Good day."
Backing out with another bow, he said, "I shall await your answer to my proposal."
She nodded. "And you will receive it at the first proper occasion. When I have had time to consider."
Pacified sufficiently for now, he slid off to his own business.
* * * *
"So?" Ram demanded. "What did he want?"
Ariana thought about lying and then changed her mind. "He wants to marry me."
The warrior stared.
She walked to the window. "Apparently," she added wryly, "it would be a good thing for the country. There will be rioting in the streets if I do not."
"I knew you should not have met with him alone. Let me go now and finish him off."
"He has the entire plot planned out. An alliance for the future of Ersadonia. A joint regency. He almost makes it sound feasible. Certainly practical."
"But surely you would never consider it."
She watched a wasp on the ivy against the wall outside. "Why would I not?"
"Why would you?" he grumbled, walking over to join her at the window.
"I must think about it. I promised him I would. It could provide us with security."
There was a pause. She heard him fidgeting behind her and then he snapped, "Have you forgotten our agreement, Ariana? I have also offered you safety."
"Your offer was not a marriage proposal, was it?"
Again a short silence and then a grunt. "No."
"Once only. That is all you wanted from me, correct?"
"Yes."
He was a man who liked his freedom to come and go as he pleased. A man who liked to be "unfettered", as Humboldt had muttered so scornfully. No woman would ever keep Ram Thruster still long enough to marry. Yes, she knew all that. A man who had survived one and thirty years living by the sword, traveling to fight wherever his king sent him, was not the sort to one day stop moving, take a wife and get fat.
Now, thanks to Humboldt de Bonneville's gossip, she also understood why her ladies-in-waiting were always such a twittering mess when he came near. She used to assume his size and killer's reputation made them nervous, and that their innocence made them bashful, when, in fact, neither cause was true.
"But if you choose Bonneville," he said in a low voice, "I will not stay in Ersadonia."
Her throat was tight and dry. When she turned to face him, trying to laugh lightly, it came out too thin, and high in pitch. "Do as you will. I see no reason why I should reject Bonneville's idea out of hand. I am only twenty-seven, still of childbearing age. Why shut myself away from life? I might like another husband. It might be the best choice for Prince Gaston too, a strategic move. He will have a father again to guide him until he is ready to rule alone. He is still young enough to need someone."
"He will have you, Falconer, myself and my friends who—"
"A raggle-taggle group of gypsy warriors and mercenaries, as Bonneville pointed out."
There was a pause, and then he said, "You did not think that last night, majesty, when you called for me in your hour of need."
"Yes. But I must not close my mind to other choices. I must do what is best for Gaston. He is my duty now."
His eyes darkened. "Whatever you say, majesty." He looked down and she felt the intense urge to slap his face, so she put her hands behind her back instead.
She studied him for a moment, thinking how damnably attractive he was in his rough-edged, crude-tongued, mulish way. Humboldt could clothe himself in the most expensive cloth, and perfume his hair, but he'd still be found lacking when he stood beside Ramon Villaverde. Some men just had an inexplicable, magical quality. An aura that attracted women who should know better. There was no getting around it, no avoiding it, no excuse for it.
Ariana was one of those hapless women currently caught in his spell. It was strange, puzzling. Surely, it was also temporary. It would be the height of stupidity to allow anything more than the quick rutting he promised.
It won't take long. It'll be quick, hard, not tender, but satisfying... I will come...deep inside you with my big, rough, commoner's cock.
She cleared her throat. "When do you plan to call in my debt then? You said you'd be waiting."
Slowly his gaze lifted to her face. "But it sounds as if you haven't decided whether you needed my friends and I, after all. If you don't require our services, you don't owe me anything."
Taking a brave step closer, she said, "Even if I marry Humboldt de Bonneville, I may still require your services to protect my son, the Prince."
His eyes narrowed. "As I said, majesty, I won't stay here if you marry Bonneville."
"Is that a threat, Villaverde?"
He leaned down toward her. "Take it however it pleases you, majesty. But know it's for certain."
"You would fight for another country? For an enemy of Ersadonia?"
"I will fight for whomever pays me now. If there was nothing to hold me here any longer."
She trembled at those words and yet they gave her another boost of courage. "Then I shall pay your price to hold you here." Ariana reached up and knitted her fingers at the nape of his broad neck. His skin was hot. Oh, for the touch of a man again. She was yearning for it.
But not for just any man.
For him.
He could not be allowed to leave Ersadonia, under any circumstances.
"If you would fight for the highest bidder now, what difference does it make to you if I marry Bonneville, as long as I pay your fee?"
His lips were clamped hard together in a thin line, but he looked more frustrated than angry.
She continued, "You and I agreed upon a price last night. I suggest you take it now, Villaverde, before I decide you're being arrogant and aggressive with your Queen. Before I decide your price is too high."
His eyes twinkled down at her with surprise, bemusement and something else. He placed one hand on the small of her back. She tingled from that touch, but it was not enough. Not nearly enough.
"Unless, of course, you have other business. Something more important today," she added, nearly breathless.
His hand pulled her against his body, his groin to her belly. Dear lord she could feel his erect penis already, hard and tall. It was a long time since she'd felt an erection like that too. Actually...it was never. Not that large or quite that hard.
"Is that a pikestaff in your breeches?" She thought she'd better check, to be sure.
"No. Just your hired bodyguard's cock." He bent his head and kissed her lips. Today there was no odor of ale, only a sweet fragrance of aniseed and mint.
"It is considerable in size," she murmured, as she felt it pressed to her stomach.
"And rampant, my lady."
"Does it hurt?"
"Yes. Only you can sooth the ache." He kissed her again, deliberate and forceful, eating at her mouth, one hand cupping the back of her head, disturbing her veil and pulling the gold circlet askew. His other hand slipped down to her bottom and firmly squeezed a cheek.
She arched her back, leaning away. "We need a bed."
He was apparently startled by the idea. "Who needs a bed to fuck?"
Chapter Eight
He longed to be buried deep in her pussy. What better place could a man be? Other important business, indeed! Nothing was more important than giving his queen a good swiving today. It had been on his mind for much of the night and morning.
&n
bsp; With both hands on her waist he lifted her to the paneled wall.
"Put your legs around me, my lady."
It would be like any other noblewoman he fucked. Short, hard, fast and a satisfying release. In her case, of course, it would be slightly different, in that she had been in his thoughts for ten years, not ten minutes.
But, just like his ale, Ram was sure he could handle her. When all was said and done, she was just a woman.
"Wait," she gasped softly.
"No." He held her pinned to the wall while he quickly unlaced his breeches. "Time to pay your fee, like you said. Before you change your mercurial woman's mind."
Her eyes were half-hidden under a lowered fringe of lashes, but they were smoky with desire. He could smell her musk already, knew how hot she was. As he was.
Waiting for her to be done with Bonneville had almost caused him to punch somebody. But he quickly cast that thought aside, not wanting the image of that ass to spoil his pleasure.
Again he commanded that she wrap her legs around his waist. When she delayed, he hoisted her up, pushing his groin forward at the same time.
She gave a stifled cry, clinging to him with her limbs, trembling. His cock head quickly found the petals of her flower and plowed upward with a firm, determined thrust.
"My lady's chamber is wet and open for me already," he growled. And then he closed his eyes as the glorious sensation of being sheathed in silk overcame his ability to make words of sense.
He was inside her. His fantasy was now reality.
"Ouch," she cried. "It's too much. Wait!"
Oh, no, he could not wait. He would not. With one arm under her right knee he held her prisoner against the wall and thrust upward again.
"Ram!" she squealed and he felt her cunt tighten around the girth of his cock. Trying to keep him out? Or to hold him hard?
"Hmm?" He pushed up into her another inch and then another.
"God save me."
"No, my lady Ariana," he muttered into her breasts. "Don't trouble Him. It is I who will save you. I'm all you need."
* * * *
Searching for something to hold on to, she grabbed his hair, clinging to it, feeling the heat on his scalp. His teeth nipped at her breast through her gown. Now he had both her legs hooked over his arms and she was utterly at his mercy.
It was quite delectable, delicious. Dangerous. It was a treat she'd never before experienced; never even imagined in her wildest dreams about him.
His cock impaled her roughly at first, then slickly as she grew wetter, recovering from the shock. Her buttocks knocked into the wall and would no doubt be bruised later, but what did she care? She'd imagined how large he must be and what it would feel like, but having never been with a man other than elderly Septimus she could not possibly have comprehended the full force that was Ram Thruster.
She gasped his name, tangling her fingers in his hair, pulling on it.
He seemed to take this as a sign for him to go faster, so he did. The warrior pumped his shaft in and out, his balls slapping her loudly, his lips closed tightly around her right nipple, sucking it greedily through the cloth of her dress.
Her entire body tensed and then she felt a rush of warmth, like butterfly wings dancing through her loins. She arched her back, pushing her breast against his hungry mouth, working her hips like the whore she'd once watched servicing her brother when she hid in a cupboard in his chamber.
Bliss streaked through her, left her sobbing for breath.
When he briefly held himself still inside her, buried to the hilt, she felt his penis throbbing, the head bulging. His breathing had deepened and yet quickened.
"Don't spend inside," she panted, thinking the last thing she needed then was a child flourishing in her womb to complicate everything.
For a moment she thought he would defy her. He ground upward, moving his hips as if to tease her with the possibility. She felt the fluttering deep inside her body. Anxiety, but something else too. Her pussy was so wet, holding him fast, wanting to keep him there. How could she stop him anyway? He was overwhelming her with his strength and would do whatever he wanted.
Then, just as another wave of delight rippled wantonly through her body, he lifted her abruptly and her pussy was emptied as roughly as it was first penetrated. She thought he would set her feet down on the floor. Instead she was to be shocked again when he carried her to a chair, set her knees on the seat, bent her over the back and angled his cock head at another hole. The one between the cheeks of her bottom.
* * * *
Ram knew he had to come inside her body. Nothing else would please him now. Since the risk of pregnancy should be avoided for her sake, he decided to break through into her back tunnel and spend there.
She complained, naturally, cursing under her breath. Fortunately his phallus was well slicked with a veritable flood of sticky dew— he'd never known a woman come so violently and wetly— and his own pre-cum, so the discomfort for her would not be great. He nuzzled her hair, nipping at the nape of her neck. Meanwhile his phallus surged upward determinedly between the tight, round cheeks of her sweet arse.
How many times had he eyed the shape of her bottom under her gown as she swept elegantly by him with her head high? How many nights had he imagined plowing both the lady's furrows deeply and savagely, making her scream his name?
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, breathless. "You can't fit it there!"
He laughed huskily. "Your husband never tried, eh?"
"Certainly not," she gasped.
"Good." He wrapped an arm around her waist. "I'll be your first arse fuck."
Within a few minutes he had shown her how wrong she was about his cock not fitting. He didn't get his full length into her bottom, but enough to give her a sound, splendid rodgering.
Her fingernails clawed at the chair back, as he reached under with his free hand and stroked two fingers against the dewy folds of her cunt. "I'm about to explode, Ariana," he grunted. "Here I come."
When he could hold back no longer, Ram bent his legs, thrust one last time and shot his load with a gruff curse. He nipped the side of her slender, perspiring neck and let his seed thud into her back passage, overfilling his lady's arse with it.
He felt warm semen dripping to his thigh, warm and sticky.
Finally he let her put her feet down on the floor again, but with one hand he cupped her pussy, while she still stood with her back to him. He rubbed the pad of his index finger around her naughty pearl, teasing it until she hit another peak of ecstasy. A strange squeal came out of her, although she clearly tried to muffle it so that no one outside would hear.
While her body quaked with quick waves of joy, he pried the pink, wet folds of her oyster apart and thrust two fingers knuckle-deep inside that glorious haven.
"My lady, you're so ripe for a good fucking. Overdue for it, I'd say. I'd like to be in here again and I think that's where you want me."
"You said only once," she managed on a taut breath.
"I changed my mind. My cock is hot to have you again." He tapped the head of it against her arse cheek, slightly amazed himself to see how quickly it was raring to go again. Grunting he worked his fingers faster in and out of her hot cunt. "This time I should spend inside my lady's chamber. Fill you with my seed."
"You shall not!"
"Ram Thruster doesn't wait for permission."
"Indeed you shall await my permission!" she hissed over her shoulder. But he felt her cunt tighten on his fingers as another orgasm vibrated through her, almost, it seemed, against her will.
"Christ, you were in need of that, woman. As was I." His fingers were sticky with her essence and she was leaning back against him, as if she might fall if he wasn't there. "A full day of fucking might not be enough to leave us sated."
"Let go of me, you swine. How dare you use your manhood in that place? I should have you whipped."
"We had an agreement on the fucking, majesty. We didn't specify which hole."
&n
bsp; "I didn't think it was necessary to specify," she exclaimed in a rushed whisper.
"You'll know better next time." He laughed softly.
"There will be no next time. Let me go, you wicked, filthy bastard! You've had your fee and from now on you will do as you're told and fulfill your side of our bargain."
"I do as I please. No woman's hands have ever held my reins, but you wouldn't be the first to try."
She spun around and slapped his face for that.
But Ram merely smiled, backed her to the wall and slid downward. Pushing her gown up to her waist he studied the silken curls of ebony hair at the apex of her thighs and saw how they were shining with her own dew.
"Part your legs wider so I can drink from my lady's cup."
"No."
He looked up at her and licked his lips. "You've left me thirsty."
"Good." She was pouting, her bosom rising and falling rapidly, her face pink and perspiring. But she did not move away; instead she leaned her back to the wall. A sultry smokiness filled her gaze as she looked down at him. Ram took a great breath of her musk— the scent mingling with his seed— and then he leaned in, opened her nether lips with his thumbs and tongued her with slow, hard strokes.
Again she made that low mewling sound, her hips writhing, thighs trembling. Ram dug his tongue deeper, set his lips over her cunt and suckled the cream out of her body, making her come again. Her knees bent, apparently unable to hold her up as she shivered and quaked against the wall, so he slipped her legs over his shoulders and gave her a perch upon which to rest while he continued his sweet, rich feast, burying his face in her quim, tonguing and sucking with near violent greed.
* * * *
She felt his sperm running out now, trickling lavishly down her thighs and between her cheeks. Most uncomfortable. And yet oddly ...satisfying.
Perspiration dampened her gown and the stickiness between her legs continued to flow. What had just happened to her— that lack of self-control that had overcome her in his presence— left Ariana fraught and confused. Angry with herself and uncertain of what it all meant, she lashed out at the man who caused it all. "I suppose I should have known you'd require clear directions about where to put your penis. Simple beast that you are." Then, immediately seeing his eyes darken, his jaw tighten at the insult, she turned away and snapped, "I need a bath. Send my maid in. She waits outside."
