By Arrangement

by Madeline Hunter

  He kissed her again, so gently and sweetly that her awareness of his love filled her to the point of weightlessness.

  His lips moved to her ear. “They took you from my chamber. Upstairs. Geva had touched nothing when I returned.”

  His quiet, beautiful voice warmed her as much as his breath and touch. A delicious peace flowed through her like a breeze. She was grateful that he knew that she had loved David the mercer long before she learned the whole truth about him. Glad that he knew that she had returned to him of her own will.

  “Do you want me, Christiana? Will you come to bed with me now?”

  “You know that I do. You know that I will.”

  He held her and let her innocent love and joy overwhelm him. Ever since he had returned to the house and seen that disheveled bed, his physical desire for her had beat a low, constant rhythm in his soul and body. Now, however, he resisted the movements that would take her to bed. Her loving embrace soothed him as no passion would.

  Noble or merchant, I will stay with you. More than he had asked for or expected. Far more than he deserved.

  She broke his long kiss and smiled up at him. “Has it been so long that you have forgotten how to do it?”

  He laughed. “Aye. Perhaps I should have kept in practice.”

  Her brows rose in surprise and he laughed again. “There has been no one else. I found sitting near you at the hearth more compelling than seducing my way into some strange bed.”

  She frowned. “It is strange, David. I sat there loving you and you sat loving me and we didn't see it. Why not? You see everything. Can thoughtless, cruel words build such walls?”

  “It is over. We do not have to—”

  “I want to. I spoke to hurt you, and you did the same. We threw the other's fears and illusions at each other and we each believed the words even though the truth stared us in the face.” She gazed intently at him. “If I had thought clearly then, as I have since, I would have known that you never thought of me as property. In fact, you behaved just the opposite. If you had bought yourself a noble whore, you certainly did not make much use of her, did you? Why?”

  She surprised him. She was growing up fast, and her sharp intelligence, freed of its isolating shelter, had already learned to see to the heart of things.

  He loved the girl. He suspected that he would worship the woman.

  “You were very innocent, darling.”

  “Not so innocent. Women speak to girls before they marry. I knew that men usually expected more than you ever asked of me. I knew there could be more to lovemaking than you ever sought.”

  “We were not together very long, Christiana.”

  She bit her lower lip thoughtfully. “I do not think it was that. You knew your blood, but I did not. I think that you worried that I would indeed feel debased and used. For all of your pride, David, you did not meet me as an equal in our bed.”

  She astonished him. He had been very careful with her. He had never gone beyond the impulsive acts of their wedding night. The restraint had come naturally to him and he had never thought about it, but now he had to admit some truth in what she said.

  A very worldly and determined expression flickered in those diamonds. “I have been jealous, you know. I do not like knowing that you did things with Alicia and others that we never did. Noble or merchant, I will stay with you, David, but not as some precious vessel that you fear to break.”

  Playfully, she pushed him back, up against the post of the bed. She leaned up into him, pressed her body along his, lowered his head with her hand, and kissed him. He accepted her erotic little assault. Lightning flashed through him and the tightness grew and spread.

  She glanced up, very pleased with herself. He grasped her hips and pulled her closer and she deliberately rubbed against him. Weeks of need and waiting responded forcefully and he lifted her into a devouring, obscuring kiss. She gave herself over to it and their passion melted them together. But then her hands smoothed over his shoulders and down to his chest and she subtly pushed away.

  “On my wedding a day, a servant gave me some very explicit lessons,” she said, looking more to his chest than his face. “She said that men like to watch women undress. Would it please my merchant husband if I undressed now?”

  She looked up at him and blushed. He thought his heart would tear his chest open. She turned and walked away, her hands plucking at the knot on her gown's laces. The simple gesture almost undid him. He leaned against the bedpost and crossed his arms over his chest.

  He had seen her undress many times, of course, but not like this. She moved so beautifully, so elegantly, that her sudden awkwardness at finding herself watched thus almost wasn't apparent. But he could tell that she immediately found it harder than she had thought. He managed not to smile at the slight flush on her face and the hot look in her eyes as she turned to him and let the gown slide to the floor. She bent to her hose.

  “Nay,” he said. “The shift first.”

  She straightened. Crossing her arms over her chest, and appearing very much the shy virgin she had so recently been, she slid the shift off her shoulders. Her hands and arms followed its descent, unfolding to reveal first her breasts and then her hips and thighs.

  The thin garment fluttered to her feet and she stepped out of it. She looked at the floor a moment before raising her eyes to his. The glint in those diamonds told him that she had discovered that this could arouse the woman as much as the man.

  Her beauty mesmerized him as always. Her frank desire to give him pleasure transformed the pleasure itself. His storm of need subdued itself into a threatening but controllable gale. He knew that he could ride its wind indefinitely.

  “Now the hose.”

  She bent and her graceful arms reached for the garter of one forward-stepping leg. He glimpsed the taper of her shoulder to her waist and the gentle flair of hips beyond. Her breasts, tight with need, hung for a moment like two perfect half globes as she rolled the hose off her leg.

  “Turn for the other.”

  She glanced over in surprise, but then did as he asked.

  The graceful curves of her hips and buttocks fell into erotic swells as she bent to untie the garter. She must have sensed her vulnerability, because her bravery deserted her and she made quick work with the hose.

  She straightened and faced him with eyes like liquid stars. He let his memory be branded with her image. Not short and not even small, but beautifully formed in her slender fullness.

  “Your hair, Christiana. Take down your hair for me.”

  Her arms rose as she sought the pins. The movement brought her breasts high and their hard tips angled upward. She unplaited her raven locks and they began spilling around her. He made no effort to hide what he felt from her gaze.

  “Come here, my girl, and kiss me the way a bride in love should.”

  She walked slowly toward him, her expression a heartstopping combination of passion and love and joy and invitation.

  More than he ever expected. Far more than he deserved.

  The morning was a lifetime away.

  She stepped up to him and placed her hands on his chest. She stretched up toward him. He lowered his head and took her kiss with more restraint than he felt. He let her lead, biting gently around his mouth. Delicately, but not so artlessly, her tongue grazed his lips and then flickered more intimately.

  He embraced her with one arm, reveling in the sensation of her skin beneath his hand. A slight sheen of sweat covered her and the warmth and moisture sent a flare through his whole body.

  He caressed her face, and broke their kiss so he could watch his hand and her body as it traced down. His embrace arched her back, and her breasts rose to him. Her tremor when he touched her taut nipple flowed right into his hips and thighs.

  Neither one of them succumbed to the waiting frenzy. They both sought to prolong the exquisite anticipation she had begun.

  Her hands still lay on his chest and now they caressed at the loose lacing down the front o
f the long robe.

  “It looks very exotic. Very handsome.”

  “Saracens know how to dress for hot weather.”

  She stroked his chest lazily. “The servant said that men like to be undressed by women, too.”

  He didn't answer, but watched as she carefully untied and pulled out the laces down to his waist.

  She caressed him through the gap. He closed his eyes to the heat of that small hand. It had been too long since he had even this small connection and affection from her.

  She pushed the garment open, almost off his shoulders, and laid her face against him. Languidly, deliciously, with a slow care that only increased the tension between them, she rubbed her cheek against his chest and watched her hand follow his muscles.

  “You were right,” she said as she turned to kiss him. “Abstinence is a powerful enhancement to passion. A part of me cannot wait and already screams for you, but another part wants to prolong this forever.”

  “You know how it will end. I have never failed you there. Let us enjoy the journey. We will never take quite the same path again.”

  She smiled sensually and nodded. Running both hands up his chest, she slid the robe off his shoulders and guided it down his back.

  His control threatened to dissolve when she extended her caresses to his hips and thighs.

  “What else did the servant tell you?” he asked, touching her as she did him, feeling tremors quake subtly through her.

  “That men like to be kissed and touched, but I have already learned that is true.” She proved it by mouthing at his chest. Rumbling shocks rocked through him with each kiss and nip. “Other things. I thought them shocking at the time. I do not find them so now.”

  The robe still hung from his hips. She gently shook off his embrace. She caressed and kissed down his body as she lowered herself.

  He watched and waited, his breath barely coming to him. An obscuring haze of passion clouded his mind and he saw both nothing and everything. Saw her hands push the robe to his feet. Felt her fluttering caress on his thighs and legs. Saw her fingers stroke his hard phallus while her lips pressed to his belly and hip. Her boldness both touched and stunned him. He wondered at the deceptive calm his body maintained, because desire began splitting him apart.

  She caressed the back of his thighs and moved her head away. Questioning eyes glanced up at him. He bent and reached down for her and drew her up to his embrace. “Only if you want to, darling. And never on your knees.”

  She nestled into his arms. “Then take me to bed, merchant, so I can show you my love and honor.”

  He lifted her into a kiss that removed her feet from the floor. He turned and laid her down and lowered himself next to her.

  The warm night air flowing through the window felt cool against the heat of their entwined bodies. He lost himself in the intimacy of her scent and swells and slick sweat.

  He would show her such a journey as she had never imagined.

  Slowly, deliberately, using all of his knowledge of her, he obliterated her shaky control. Never touching her below her hips, he drew her toward completion. Caresses on her inner arm, biting teeth on her nipples, consuming mouth on her neck—her passion rose with each knowing demand. She tried, despite her growing mindlessness, to give him pleasure in return, but he would not let her. He listened to her low sounds of abandon and felt her body climbing, shaking, toward its peak of sensation.

  She grasped his shoulders. “David, I … please …”

  He stilled his hands and mouth and held her. She twisted against him in rebellious frustration. Her eyes flew open.

  “David!” she cried accusingly.

  “Hush, darling. I said that I have never failed you.”

  “You mean to torture me to death first?” She pummeled his shoulder none too playfully.

  He laughed lightly. “It is only torture if you think only about the release. Take the pleasure of the climbs for themselves, knowing that eventually you will fly.”

  Her passion had receded and the frenzy had passed. Her arms surrounded his shoulders and he turned his head to kiss the bend of her arm while his hand stroked down her body. “Again, then,” he said.

  She clung to him and opened her legs and accepted his touch. Her folds and passage already throbbed with her arousal, and he deliberately caressed her in ways that would bring pleasure but not fulfillment. She rebelled at first, and tried to move toward more productive touches, but then she relaxed and took the streaks of pleasure with joyful gasps and low moans.

  He saw the glorious ecstasy on her face and nearly lost control himself. He touched her differently and watched her climb again, higher this time, as it would be every time. He took her to the peak and kept her there, tottering on its exquisite contracting edge, and let her taste the first tremor before he withdrew his hand.

  Her nails had dug into his arm and shoulder. He kissed her and soothed her with soft caresses.

  “That was wonderful,” she whispered. “Does it keep getting better each time?”

  “Up to a point.”

  “Do you plan to do this all night?”

  He laughed. “I seriously doubt it. Love has made me very noble and chivalrous, but I have my limits.”

  She regarded him. “I think that two can play this game of yours, David. Would that please you?”

  “Very much, if you desire it.”

  She rose up and pushed his shoulders down on the bed. She gave him a smug little smile full of unwarranted self-confidence. She kissed him fully before moving her hands and her mouth down his chest. He closed his eyes and stroked her back.

  “Nay, David. You did not let me touch you, so you cannot touch me.”

  The luxurious spots of heat she created moved lower. He sensed her pause to consider the situation. Then he felt her turn and draw up her legs and lean against his stomach.

  He had taught her to please him with her hands, and her caresses drove him close to delirium. When she paused again he opened his eyes just as she lowered her head.

  He knew no thought after that. He looked through a cloud of engulfing sensation and pleasure at the erotic lines of her back and buttocks and the two delicate feet tucked beneath her.

  He knew his limits but she did not. As he neared them he reached down and slid his fingers along the cleft of her bottom.

  She groaned and shifted and accepted his touch. He rearranged their bodies so that his mouth could reach her. Bracing himself for control, he let them share the ecstatic pleasure a while longer as he brought her as far as she had him, to the very edge. Finally it was too much for them both and she sensed it. She released him and turned toward him and as she did he lifted her body and brought her down straddling his hips.

  For an instant she seemed surprised to find herself there. Then wordlessly, instinctively, she rose up and took him into herself.

  His sigh met hers in the space between them. She closed her eyes at the sensation, then slowly rose and lowered again.

  Passion veiled her eyes when she opened them. She moved again and sighed. “This is incredible, David.”

  He reached up and caressed her breasts so she could see just how incredible it could be. He rubbed the taut nipples between his fingers. Her head fell back and she lolled sensually into a wonderful rhythm as she repeatedly drew him into her tight warmth and released him. Enhanced by abstinence and love, the pleasure moved him in ways he had never known.

  He pulled her down toward him.

  “Come up to me. Move forward a bit,” he instructed.

  She slid up but halted. “I will lose—”

  “You will not. Come up to me.”

  She lowered and he eased her forward until he could take her breast in his mouth. She hovered above him breathlessly, her body barely still joined to his. He felt her grasping to absorb more of him, driving him mad with the mutual caress they created.

  “David,” she gasped, her body shaking from the combination of tantalizing pleasures at her breast and between her
legs. He stroked her back down to its lowest curve and continued to arouse her breasts. He felt the first deep tremor and knew what it meant even if she did not.

  “David,” she cried again, frantically this time.

  He released her and she slammed down on him with a needful cry. Burying her face in his chest, she moved hard again.

  “Aye, it can happen thus, too,” he reassured her, and he held her hips firmly and took over and helped her find that different, more elusive fulfillment.

  He had never seen a woman reach such a violent and complete release. Wonder, desire, and love echoed through her cries. She kissed him ferociously and gazed into his eyes as her passion peaked and her open acceptance of the magic made the intimacy fuse their souls as it always had. Her whole being seemed to fold in on itself, taking his own essence to its burning center, before flying out in all directions. At the end she rose up in a magnificent display of sensual ecstasy as she cried her abandon. Their mutual fulfillment momentarily obliterated time and space and consciousness.

  She collapsed on him and he floated with her in their unity. Her love awed him and filled him with its innocent peace and grace. The hungry and needful response of his own soul astonished him.

  Her face lay buried near his neck.

  “Do you think anyone heard us?”

  “Us?”

  She giggled and playfully swatted his chest. “All right. Me?”

  He thought about the open window and the silent city night. The whole household and half of Caen had probably heard her. So much for pretending that they were not content together.

  It would not matter now. If the Comte thought to use her in that way, he would have already come for them both.

  “I am sure that no one heard, darling.”

  She moved and settled down next to him. He had never known such peace and contentment, and he let himself savor it, knowing it would not last long and might never come again.

  He probably should have told her everything.

  Eventually he would have to. This love would not permit long deceptions, even for her sake.

  “Have you ever been there?” she asked. “To Senlis?”

  “Twice. The first time some years ago, and then again recently.”