She tried, by the names of the holy saints she tried, but the sound escaped her before she could stop it. When he moved both hands back to her breasts, cupping them and rubbing his thumbs across the sensitive tips, she moaned at the exquisite sensations he caused. Remaining still while he plundered her body was simply not possible; Elise moved against him even as he teased the skin on her neck with his lips and tongue and teeth.
Simon stilled, not believing the passionate response in Elise’s body to his kisses and caresses. She’d stood quietly, allowing him to touch her, until he used his hands over her breasts and even dared to stroke between her legs. Then she’d gifted him with such a moan that he nearly gained release in that moment. Realizing this was proceeding dangerously fast, he held her unmoving in his embrace until he could control his body’s urges. He took a deep breath in and then released it, letting his hands drop from her body.
“Would you like to wear this to bed?” he asked, hoping that it was the thoughtful thing to do for his virgin bride.
“I confess that I do not know what is expected, my lord,” she said in a husky voice. Dare he hope that passion caused such a response? “What is your pleasure?” she asked.
His pleasure? His pleasure would be to tear the thing off her, throw her on the bed, kiss and lick his way up and down her fair body, stopping in all the interesting curves and crevasses until she screamed out her release over and over again, and then swive her until neither of them could move. His manhood too thought that was a good idea, from its reaction to such wayward thoughts.
“Why do you not keep it on for now and climb into bed?” he asked, knowing he must cool down for at least a few moments or “his pleasure” would become the reality and surely scare her mindless of him.
She did as he asked, and he enjoyed watching the soft sway of her hips as she walked across the room, especially the view of her bottom as she climbed onto the bed. But the sight of those puckered, rose-colored nipples through the thin linen gown, her blue eyes wide in anticipation and arousal, and her auburn hair tumbling madly around her when she turned and sat nearly forced his control from him. Giles walked over and helped her get under the covers.
Turning away, he unbuckled his gold belt and lifted the jeweled chains from around his neck and placed them in the box on the table. Simon loosened the laces at his neck and tugged first the tunic and then the shirt over his head. Leaning against the side of the rope-strung bed, he slipped off his shoes and untied the crossed bands that held his hose in place. With only his braies remaining in place, he turned back to face his wife.
Her open curiosity pleased him. She had not turned away while he undressed or faced her bare-chested. Her own chest moved quickly, her breathing shallow and light, and her eyes growing wider with each step he took closer. What would her expression say when he revealed the extent of his arousal to her and her virgin gaze saw that part of him that would join his body to hers? Glancing around, he realized there was no way to darken the chamber, for the afternoon sun flooded through the three windows built into this side of the keep. He did not favor bed curtains, so there were none to mute the brightness around them.
Simon decided that it was best to continue while her body was still aroused. He turned away, untied the laces at his waist and dropped his hose and braies to the floor. He reached back and lifted the covers before climbing in next to Elise.
His skin was golden.
When Simon had removed his tunic and shirt, Elise had noticed the brown curls on his wide chest and that the golden color continued down all the way to his waist where his braies kept her from seeing more. Was he colored so by the sun all over? Heat crept into her cheeks as she considered him being naked outside where the sun’s rays would darken his skin thus. Lord Simon turned, but she could not look away as he loosened his braies and dropped them.
The muscles of his back tightened as he shifted, and he moved quickly for she nearly missed the sight of his powerfully built buttocks and thighs before he sat down. Were they as hard and strong as they appeared to be? Remembering the feel of his thigh beneath her hand at table, she swallowed deeply.
Aye.
They were.
Nothing about him was not muscular or strongly built. And from the very quick look she got of his manhood as he slid in next to her, it matched the rest of his physique. Elise knew where it would go, but could not imagine how it could, especially now that she’d seen it and felt it against her.
Lie still…allow him his way…refuse him nothing.
The words repeated in her thoughts over and over until she could think of nothing else. Even when Lord Simon reached over and slid his arm behind her, guiding her closer to him. Or when he turned and his aroused manhood lay against her hip. Or even when he took her mouth and tasted her deeply with his tongue.
Acquiesce.
Elise closed her eyes as he rolled her onto her back. His mouth never left hers. Her breasts swelled more and ached as he touched them through the linen shift. He took the tips of them between his fingers and thumbs and rolled them until they tightened into hardened nubs and she nearly screamed out.
Fearing that she would lose control and disgrace herself or her honor, she tried to allow him to do as he pleased without struggling against his touch…or his mouth…or the wondrous heat that pulsed through her as he began to kiss his way down from her mouth to her neck to her shoulders and then onto her breasts. Proud that she could remain almost still through it all, she had no idea of what the feeling of his mouth sucking and licking those tightened nipples would do to her.
When her entire body shuddered and wetness wept between her legs, Elise understood that she could not do as her mother ordered. Worse, when Lord Simon moved his hand over her belly, gathering up the length of her shift so he could rub over the hair at the juncture of her legs and slide his finger into her cleft, she shook and shivered and moaned aloud at the aching pleasure it caused.
“Easy now,” he whispered to her, and he yet continued to torment her breasts with his mouth. She felt the sound of his words against the wet linen and arched against his lips and teeth for more of it.
“Lord Simon,” she whispered.
“Simon,” he said thickly. “My name is Simon to you.”
With the immense heat that poured through her and the throbbing ache building between her legs and deep inside her core, Elise knew that something was going to happen. Pleasure curled deep in her belly and she waited.
“Open for me, wife,” he whispered even as he spread her legs with his knee.
Elise let her legs fall open and he knelt between them, spreading her wider and even rubbing that place that poured forth moisture and throbbed for more of his touch. His finger slid deep inside, then another joined the first and Simon used them to spread the wetness on the folds of skin there. The sensation shocked her so much that she finally realized her mistake.
Petra had told her how to please him and yet she’d ignored her advice, falling back on the words of her mother instead. Looking at the intense expression and the beads of sweat that covered his face as he continued to urge her body towards something—without, it seemed to her, much success—she knew what she must do.
Elise mustered all her courage and, reaching down between them, took his manhood in her hands. It pulsed like something alive in her grasp, but she did not let it go. Rubbing it up and down, she drew him closer to her cleft and moaned the words she’d heard the laundry maid say to her brother that day months ago.
“Take me, my lord,” she whimpered, trying to imitate the girl’s tone of voice. “Fill me now, my lord. Take—” she rubbed his member again “—me now.”
And he did.
Chapter Six
The touch of her hands on his hard length was pure torture. Stunned by such a caress, he thrust twice into her grasp before he could stop himself. But when she begged him in that throaty moan to take her and fill her, he lost all semblance of control and drove into her as deeply as he could go. He took
her and he filled her so full of himself that no fitted glove could have been so tight, skin against skin.
Lost in the haze of lust he’d given himself over to, Simon drew nearly out and plunged inside her again, feeling the heat of her core and letting his seed build to release. He’d wanted her so much for so long that it took but one more thrust, all the way to her womb, and his release was upon him. With a groan, he felt his cock pulse against her inner walls until he was empty.
Only then did he open his eyes and realize his mistake.
Elise lay beneath him, not moving, with an expression of pure horror and confusion on her face, and her hands pushed against his chest in an ineffective attempt to make him stop. He’d loosened his hold on his lust and let the ruffian inside him free to ravage his innocent wife. God forgive him, for he was certain Elise never would.
Simon eased out of her and climbed off her, sitting for a moment at her side. Her linen shift was pulled up to her waist and now marked with his sweat and seed and her blood. He went to the smaller chamber and brought the bowl and pitcher to the bedside.
His servants had thought of everything; he found a pot of heated water in the hearth, and the smell told him that someone had added herbs to it, hopefully those needed to soothe the hurt he had caused Elise with his fumbled claiming. Pouring the hot water in the basin first and tempering it with cool water from the pitcher, Simon brought it to the bed and offered his wife a cloth soaked in the steamy water.
“This should soothe the pain I caused,” he said quietly. He thought he should say more, but what words could ever excuse his rough treatment of his virgin bride?
At first, she didn’t move or say a word, but then she pushed herself up to sit and accepted the cloth from him. Without speaking, they passed the cloth back and forth, wetting it over and over, until Elise cleaned herself of the remnants of their joining. Only when her gaze focused on his groin did he realize that he was marked as well by her blood. Standing, he wiped himself clean and put the basin away. Pulling on his braies, he knew he must say something to her to explain, but what and how?
“May I get a clean gown, my lord?” she asked in a soft voice from her place in the bed.
“Please do not call me that, especially after all that has happened here. I would have you call me Simon.” He walked over to her trunk, searched for a clean linen gown and brought it to her. “Here now, let me help you.”
He reached over and took her hand, assisting her to the edge of the bed, where he could take the soiled shift off and let her put the clean one on. Once she was covered, as it was, she looked confused once more. Simon took her hand again and led her to an alcove near the windows that had two large, carved wooden chairs, each one cushioned and covered in velvet. He allowed her to sit and then, after tugging his own shirt back on, he stood at the window, staring out and trying to come up with the correct words to explain his terrible mistake in their marriage bed. Turning back to face her disappointment and fear, he nearly fell over her.
“Elise, what are you doing on the floor?” he asked, trying to pull her to her feet from the place where she knelt at his.
“I humbly beg for your forgiveness, my lord. I swear I will do whatever pleases you. If you do not forswear our marriage, I promise to allow you anything you ask,” she cried out, grasping the edge of his shirt and touching it to her mouth. “I did not know,” she said, shaking her head. “I did not know.”
Shocked at such behavior, Simon realized that she thought herself to blame for things going badly between them and she was terrified by the thought he would repudiate her as his wife. Taking her by the shoulders and lifting her to her feet, he pulled her onto his lap where he could speak softly and calm her.
“I am the one who needs to beg your forgiveness, Elise. I was trying to be gentle with you, but when you touched me like that, I lost control of myself. I did not want you to see the barbarian I am and fear me. I wanted to be something different for you.”
Though shaken to her very core by what had happened between them, his words now shocked her even more. Lord Simon, Simon, worried about her reaction to him? It was too much to accept, for it was her shortcomings and fears that caused things to go awry when he bedded her.
“I thought it would please you,” she said, sitting up and meeting his gaze then. The dark green of his eyes softened and she found compassion and caring gleaming forth from them. “I only wanted to please you.”
“Did your mother say such things to you? Did she tell you to…” His words drifted off. Would Lady Bertrade say such things to her innocent daughter?
“Oh, nay,” Elise said, shaking her head. “Lady Alianor told—” Realizing her error by the way his gaze changed, she shook her head. “Not Lady Alianor, my lord. I meant to say—”
He lifted his hand and touched a finger to her lips to stop her. She watched as his brow furrowed and he shook his head now. Tilting his face, he scrutinized hers for a moment before speaking. When he leaned so, his hair drifted over his brow and she clenched her hands to keep from reaching up and pushing it aside for him.
“What did Lady Alianor say to you, Elise? Tell me the truth.” Though his words were calm, she just wondered if he was as well.
Taking a breath and releasing it, she began. “Lord…Simon, I sought advice on how to please you in all things, but mostly in our marriage bed. Everyone knows that Lady Alianor pleases you—”
“Pleased me,” he interrupted.
“Pleased you?” she asked back.
“I have not shared Lady Alianor’s bed since our betrothal three months past, Elise.”
“You have not?” Then she remembered her place, and she could not meet his gaze. “Forgive me. ’Twas not my place to ask such a thing of you.”
He shifted beneath her then, turning them so that they faced one another. Taking her hand in his, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed it. “I have not taken any woman to my bed since our betrothal, Elise. I have only wanted you.”
Her heart skipped a beat then, for his words were completely unexpected and his actions even more so. Before she could say anything, he repeated his question.
“What did Lady Alianor tell you?”
“I confess that I had neither the time nor the courage to ask her directly, my…Simon. But Petronilla is her sister-by-marriage and she related some of the things that Lady Alianor told her…to me.” She stopped then, aware of what she would have to tell him if she continued.
“And Petronilla told you…what?” By the stern expression growing in his eyes, she knew she must tell him, and hopefully make him understand about her own shortcomings.
“That you liked women who were lusty and noisy and who…who…” She hesitated just as Petra had, finding it impossible to utter such words. Then, she just let them burst out. “You like lovers who use their hands and their mouths on your privy parts.”
From the movement she detected beneath her, Elise knew his body had reacted to her words. From the guilty look there in his eyes and from the way they shifted to a deeper green, she also knew that he did, in truth, like such things.
“And so you used your hands on my…privy parts to try to please me?”
“I know that this was my first time in such an endeavor, Simon, but you did not look pleased by it. Indeed, you looked as though you were struggling to get through the ordeal.”
He choked then and she jumped from his lap to get him some wine. Bringing it to him and thumping his back to help him clear himself of the coughing fit, his laughter surprised Elise.
“I was struggling, my innocent wife, to keep from ravaging you during our first endeavor as you called it.” Simon pulled her back onto his lap then. ”I was almost able to move slowly when you grasped my privy parts and caressed them. It destroyed any remnants of control I had and I just plunged in to take you. “’Twas never my intention for it to end with such haste and without you receiving a full measure of satisfaction.”
His words touched her then, and even her body, so
recently used, began to respond to talk of privy parts, caressing, plunging and satisfying. She had been enjoying his affections until that moment when he broke through her maidenhead and brought pleasuring to a halt. Even the act of joining did not cause the pain she had been warned about, only a tightness and slight burning when he entered her so quickly.
“So, you were trying to please me by being bold and I was trying to please you by being gentle?” He laughed and the sound of it delighted her. “Mayhap the next time, you can simply ask me and not your friend or my last mistress for advice?”
“Your last mistress, Simon? What do you mean?”
“With a wife so willing to please me in my bed, what need have I of another woman?” Her husband leaned over and kissed her then. Between his words and his touching affection, she did not know which surprised or pleased her more.
“Mayhap you should wait to see if I am truly able to please you before you make such a vow? The first time did not proceed very well.”
Simon stood then, holding her in his arms and carrying her towards the bed. Sitting on the edge, he lifted her to the center and then stood, looking down on her as she lay in only her linen gown. Instead of fear, waves of anticipation raced through her, heating the blood in her veins and making her heart pound.
“I think that instead of trying to be other than we are to please each other, let us try to simply enjoy the things that please us together.”
He tugged his shirt off in one move and his braies fell with another tug. This time he did not hide his body or his erect manhood from her sight. Simon simply stood there at the side of the bed and let her look her fill—as he did just moments later after easing her gown from her. Her body warmed, and that place between her legs grew moist and ready to accept him. Climbing to her knees on the bed in front of him, Elise reached out and ran her hands down from his shoulders over his broad, muscled chest, through the curls there and down as they made a path below his waist to his cock.
A Night for Her Pleasure Page 4
