by K. E. Saxon
“Nay, nay. Worry not,” she replied a bit breathlessly.
In spite of her assurance, Daniel continued his inspection a moment longer. When he was confident that she was unharmed from the fall, he helped her to her feet. Still shaken, he mounted his stallion before leaning down and bringing Maryn up to settle in front of him.
He rested his arm under her soft bosom then as he repositioned her on his lap. She felt so good in his arms: As if an integral part of him had been missing, but was now returned.
She squirmed in an attempt to resettle herself into a more comfortable position. “The pommel is poking into my bottom.”
Daniel bit back a laugh. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed a groan of pure ecstasy as she squirmed on his rigid manhood. The sweet torture was almost more than he could bear, and the thought of having her soft and willing under him was a dream he desperately wanted to realize. God’s truth, he hoped that it would be soon. For he seemed to be perpetually ready to mate with her. And now, his mind was filled once more with images of her coming apart in his arms as he planted his seed so deep inside her that she would grow round with his babe.
A sheen of sweat broke out on his brow. Frustrated and a bit angry with himself for his inability to better control his responses to her, he roughly swiped at the moisture and forcefully turned his mind to more mundane thoughts, such as the number of links in his chain mail. He mentally began to count them.
But the erotic images returned in a galvanic surge when the wind whipped a silken tendril of her bronze tresses across his face and a whisper of honeysuckle drifted around him. Daniel caught the soft strands and smoothed them back under the hood of her cloak, envisioning a time when her floral-scented locks would drift over his chest, his stomach, and, oh God, yes, his thighs. Then, with a hand that trembled ever so slightly, he trailed his thumb over her plump lower lip.
She tensed and looked up at him. In a soft voice, she asked, “Why did you come for me, Daniel?”
He touched his fingers to her cheek. “I came for you because you are my bride and you belong to me. What is mine, I keep,” he said softly, simply.
Her eyes snapped with fire. “So, I am merely a possession to you, just as your horse or your sword is a possession?”
Daniel shrugged. He knew the words she was wanting from him, but he could not get them past his throat.
“What of the annulment?”
He gave her a piercing look. “We will not be getting one.”
“What say you to my belief that a wife is not merely a possession, but she is more: She is a dear and cherished partner?”
Relishing the rush of color that suffused his bride’s cheeks, Daniel could not resist teasing her a bit. “I say you must have finally lost your senses.”
She whirled around to face him more fully. “You believe I have lost my senses because I think a wife should have more worth to her husband than his earthly possessions? I suppose you believe she should be as biddable and wordless as those objects as well?”
It was difficult, but he managed to keep a straight face. “Well, now that you mention it….”
She growled in outrage.
Daniel roared with laughter. God, she was adorable when she was riled. He bent down and stole a kiss from her pouting lips.
She relaxed into his embrace, clearly enjoying their first kiss in too many days. When she opened her mouth and timidly rubbed her tongue against his, he moaned and deepened the the embrace, holding the back of her head in his hand to support her as he delved deeper still. Dragging open the top of her cloak, he palmed her breast. Stop! Before you end up on the ground between her thighs! He broke away from her and pulled her cloak closed with shaking hands. With a surge of male satisfaction, he realized her breath was coming as harshly as his. “That is why I came for you, Maryn,” he said hoarsely. “Do you understand now?”
Her dazed nod was all the reply he needed. He kissed the tip of her nose before kneeing his stallion into a slightly faster gait. After a moment, he began whistling a bawdy tune. Aye, life was definitely good.
Maryn’s heart filled with the love she’d been hopelessly trying to deny these past days. Her mind and heart were finally clear. Daniel had come for her. He had kissed her. He had admitted that he cared for her. And he’d not kissed Jesslyn—Jesslyn had kissed him. It was just as he’d told her that day in the stables.
She would not hesitate or question any longer. She wanted to be Daniel’s wife in truth and would do whatever was needed for that aim to be realized. Hopefully, by the light of morn, their marriage vows will have been finally and irrefutably consummated. She still knew not why he had chosen to sleep in another bedchamber their last nights together, but now she would put away her pride and openly offer herself to him.
They did not speak more than a few words to each other the next hour of the journey, content to spend the time enjoying the other’s nearness.
Nervous, but happy about the decision she’d made, Maryn turned to her husband and said, “We’re close to the Maclean property now, I can see the top of the keep from here. Do you think we’ll be home before sunset, Daniel?”
“Aye, it should not take us more than a half hour’s time to arrive at the gates. Do not burden your mind with worries of a long discussion this eve. If you agree that we will remain wed, we can postpone the conversation until the morrow. Do you agree, Maryn?”
Her heart lightened of its heavy burdens, it tapped a joyous beat against her breast. “Aye, Daniel. I do agree. We’ll not get an annulment.” Feeling a bit timid now, she gazed down at her gown and twisted a loose thread around her finger. “I wish to speak with you privily on another matter this eve after we arrive. Will you meet me in our bedchamber after supper?”
He cocked a questioning brow at her, but nodded. “Aye.”
*
Two hours later, as the remains of their meal was being cleared away, Maryn whispered to Daniel, “I believe I shall retire to our bedchamber now. Will you join me?”
“I cannot leave my grandmother just yet,” he murmured. “She desires to speak to me about some business to do with the keep. I’ll join you as soon as I am able.”
It took Daniel another two hours to extricate himself from his grandmother, but he at last managed it and bounded up the stairs in pursuit of his bride. Maryn would be asleep by now, but he would wake her. He was curious to know what she had wanted to discuss with him. He hoped she would not speak of Jesslyn, as he thought that problem would be better dealt with the next day, after they’d both had some rest.
Instead of finding her in bed however, he found her standing drying her hair by the fire and wearing the whisper-thin chemise she’d worn the night of their wedding. Thirstily, his love-parched eyes drank her in, first pausing for long moments on the rosy crests of her sweetly rounded breasts that strained seductively against the fine material, before travelling down the line of her body to settle on the dark hair at the apex of her legs, where the jewel of his long-desired berth was cloaked. Painfully aroused now, he wanted only to touch her, taste her.
Could this mean that she was at last willing to consummate their vows? His heart pounded a joyful tattoo in his chest at the possibility.
The firelight made his bride’s burnished locks gleam as they curled around her shoulders and flowed down her back. Daniel craved to twist his hands in them, to draw her to him.
He cracked the door open once again, and shut it with a snap.
She jerked around with a start. “Daniel!” she said, and snatched the robe from the back of the chair next to her and scrambled into it.
They both spoke at once.
“—I did not expect you so soon.”
“—I thought I would have to wake you.”
“Nay, I decided to bathe first.” She bowed her head and fussed with the sleeve of her robe, clearly having trouble meeting his eye. “If you still desire to bed me,” she mumbled, “I give no further objection.” A hot blush suffused her skin.
Surpr
ised and enchanted by her frank declaration, an avalanche of tender emotions swept through him as he crossed the room, lifted her in his arms and strode to the bed in one fluid motion. With care, he laid her down and settled on top of her, heedful of not crushing her small form. Spreading her legs with his thigh, he wedged himself snugly between them. “Aye,” he murmured, answering her at last, “I still desire it.” He lowered his head and gave her a soft kiss on the mouth before nibbling the tender flesh and parting her lips with his tongue to sample her sweetness. ‘Twas not long before he craved a deeper taste of her, and plundered her mouth, moving in and out with his tongue in an imitation of the much more intimate contact they’d be engaging in quite soon.
She gave a soft moan and wrapped her arms around him tighter, stroking her tongue over his bottom lip. Daniel gasped in reaction and suckled her tongue into his mouth. Their tongues mated a moment before he turned his attention to her lower lip, suckling it and giving it a slight nibble. She shuddered beneath him.
He growled, wanting her with a passion he had never experienced before. And the sexy little whimpers she made as he ravenously drank of the heady nectar of her mouth were rapidly driving him past his own control. But it was much too soon to take her. So, slowly, deliberately, he cooled the intensity of their kiss until it was only a soft caress before rolling to his side and bringing her with him. “Let’s get you out of these,” he said gruffly.
The thin fabric of her robe and chemise were easy to be rid of and he lifted each over her head before tossing them on the floor beside the bed. He would have ripped them to shreds, so ardent was he to have her naked in his arms, but the chemise had played a much-too integral role in his fantasies these past days for him to ever destroy it. Pressing her onto her back, his gaze moved along her slim, curving frame and rested for a moment on her breasts and nipples.
Her cheeks fired red and her arms flew up to cover herself, but he stayed her hands. “Nay, let me see you, love,” he murmured. His eyes skimmed her waist, hips, and limbs before at last settling on the dark bronze hair at her feminine portal. “You are even more beautiful than my bedeviled mind has imagined,” he said.
He felt the shiver run through her as she held his gaze, the dark centers of her eyes nearly eclipsing the amber hue. Needing to feel her naked flesh against his own, Daniel rose from the bed and discarded his clothing.
Her eyes goggled at his swollen manhood, and his mouth quirked in an amused smile.
“‘Twas not your dirk I felt against me all those nights!” she exclaimed.
Daniel chuckled. “Nay, but ‘twill glide into you with just as much ease, I trow—tho’ you surely shall receive greater pleasure from it.”
When she only gaped at him, her chest swelling with rapid breath, he settled on top of her once more, stroking his turgid arousal against the junction of her thighs, exulting in the slick heat of her. He caressed her arms and legs as he continued to kiss her, trailing his lips down her cheek, before suckling her earlobe. “I adore the scent of you,” he whispered, his voice rough with desire. “I want you so much.” He proceeded to trail more kisses down her neck and between her breasts as he moved his hand to her inner thighs, stroking and teasing them further apart until he at last slid his fingers up to slowly manipulate the outer lips of her sex, softly pinching and stroking, before gradually sending two fingers shallowly into her wetness.
She flinched, then gasped. In the next instant her hips began to move in an answering rhythm to his hand.
“I love playing with your body,” he said. “You are so tight…so hot. So wet.”
She moaned and tossed her head.
As Daniel continued to caress the soft, clasping inner walls of her humid canal, a rosy blush spread over the milky mounds of her breasts and his mouth watered. He kissed the undersides of each one before beginning a slow circle around the first with his tongue until he at last reached the tautened peak.
“Oh, God. Mmm…so gooood,” she murmured.
“Aye, love, it is” He filled his mouth with first one and then the other of her breasts, sucking and nibbling the warm, soft skin on the sides of each. He reveled in the taste and feel of them against his tongue. After a time, he took one of their pink crests into his mouth and softly suckled, flicking it with the tip of his tongue at the same time.
She gasped and writhed, nearly coming off the bed.
Daniel trembled with the effort not to take her right then and there, so rabid was his need for her in that moment. But he was determined to prolong this first loving, give her as much pleasure as he was able before she experienced the inevitable pain of his initial entry.
First he wanted to taste the hidden, feminine treasure of her womanhood, as he’d been imagining since the first time he’d seen her in the gossamer chemise. He wanted to learn her flavor; wanted to feel her come against his mouth, around his tongue. Avid for it now, Daniel trailed open-mouthed kisses down her body, shoving her knees up and out as he dropped his head between her thighs and feasted on her.
“Ohmygod!” she gasped, her voice hoarse with need, but horrified as well.
But she didn’t stop him and Daniel smiled.
Lifting his eyes, he watched her reaction to his ministrations as he softly licked and nibbled the outer folds of her labia, tickling and teasing the sensitive flesh, making her hips strain toward his mouth.
One moan followed another as she twisted her hands in the linen covering on the bed. Her eyes flew open. “What is happening to me?” she ground out.
He lifted his head and looked more closely at his flushed bride. He had caught the note of fear in her voice and saw the confusion now reflected in her passion-glazed eyes. “Shhh, love, just relax and enjoy it. I promise that you’ll like this,” he coaxed.
After only a slight hesitation, she nodded. “Al—All right.”
He eagerly continued his exploration. She tasted like sex, and Maryn, and pure woman. Daniel could not get enough of her. He stroked her breasts as he teased more juices from her with his teeth and tongue.
Next, he turned his attention to her inner lips, licking them with light, long sweeps, then stroking and tormenting the hidden gem of her femininity a moment before sending his rigid tongue into her moist canal. “Mmm,” he moaned against her heated, love-dewed flesh, “I grow drunk on the taste of you.” He brought his hands down to caress and pinch the outer folds of her sex, opening her further to his ministrations. As he worked her faster, gently leading her down the path to ecstasy, she groaned and spread her legs further apart for him. Her body shuddered and quaked. He was enthralled by her responses to him; they were so open, so full of passion.
He decided to keep her on the edge, just a bit longer, and slowed the motion of his tongue.
“Oh God, do not stop,” she keened, throwing her arms over her head and lifting her hips high in the air.
Daniel followed, leisurely continuing his sweet assault on her.
“Daniel!” she pleaded.
He laved her with slightly faster strokes, building her need ever higher.
Her body tense and straining, her thighs aquiver, she panted “Please.”
Her pleading, combined with his own need to give her her first orgasm, overcame the pleasure Daniel received in tantalizing her. He moved his hands to her breasts and lightly pinched her nipples as he brushed his tongue over the tender, scalloped flesh of her inner lips and then circled the hooded peak of them several times with the stiffened tip of his tongue.
“OH, GOD, OH, GOD! Aaaahhh,” she sobbed, bucking against him.
He began to suckle her, softly drawing on the ultra-sensitive crown of her femininity with his mouth and made rapid flicking motions with his tongue at the same time.
A guttural cry burst from her throat and she went rigid, her belly and thighs quaking and quivering. “Ohhhhhaaaaaahhhhmmmm—mmm—mmm.” With one last straining arch of her back, she fell limp to the mattress, her breath coming in harsh blasts. Daniel thrust his tongue into her still-convu
lsing canal and relished the feel of those tight muscles clenching his tongue. “Mmmm,” he groaned, craving to experience them grasping his sex just as tenaciously.
He slid up her pliant body and settled between her thighs, pressing the tip of his shaft slightly inside of her. He rubbed his chest against her naked breasts, teasing her nipples into more tautly wound nubs with his crisp hair, as he wrapped her long, bronze locks in his fists, held her head still, and devoured her mouth.
After a long moment, he lifted his head and gazed into her languor-filled eyes, his lungs blowing. ‘Twas clear she was still dazed from her first release, and he hoped that would work in his favor. “I need to be inside of you now, sweetheart, I can wait no longer. Pray, forgive me, my love, for I fear I may not be as gentle with you as you need—my desire for you is too great.” He bent his head and thrust his tongue in her mouth as he plunged inside her, once, twice, three times, in rapid succession, until he had at last torn through her maidenhead and sheathed himself completely. “Aaahhh!”
“Owww!”
He stilled. The inner walls of her canal squeezed the entire length of his erection. “Blood of Christ!” he gasped in pleasure. Eyes firmly shut, his breath labored and his muscles stretched, a cold sweat broke out on his forehead from the effort to keep his burgeoning climax in check and give his bride a moment to adjust to his invasion.
*
Maryn bit down hard on her lip. The burn of a thousand bee stings ignited the place where she and Daniel were joined. And after the near heart-stopping rapture of the moment before, she was shocked by the intensity of the pain now. She did not know if she could do this. Ever again. Would he expect her to let him ram himself inside her every night? If so, she hoped it did not take too long a time for him to finish, for she might be able to stand it for a minute or two, but certainly not more.
She lifted her eyes to her husband’s taut countenance. In the last seconds since her outburst, he’d gone still. Mayhap he was done? She truly hoped that he was. “Daniel, move off of me, it hurts.”
His lids fluttered, then lifted meeting her gaze. With a look of contrition, he said, “Sweetheart, I know I hurt you, but the pain will not last long once I begin again. I swear it.”
