I was barely conscious of his big body lying heavily atop mine. He moved to kiss my face and my hair, smoothing his hand along the long strands. It might have been several minutes later, I wasn’t sure, when I felt the weight of him removed. Time was wistful and vague.
The sound of fabric and the clang of his weapons brought me back to a soft-edged awareness.
He was up and getting dressed.
I rolled to one side, to watch him. “Where are you going?”
“A walk. A swim. I’ll be back later.”
A small stab of panic jabbed against my heart. “Nay,” I said immediately. “Kade. Don’t go. Come back to bed.”
“Sleep now, Stella.” He had slung one of his weapons holsters across his chest, and his trews were on but yet unfastened, low on his hips. His arousal was so strainedand enlarged that I could see the broad tip of it protruding from the linen of his underclothing. The sight of him did strange things to me. My pulse was a gentle throb in my chest, and elsewhere, exciting a primitive yearning to get closer to him, to his magnificence and his war-scarred beauty. I wanted so much totouchhim. “I said I’ll be back. Get your rest.”
I sat up, my feet dangling off the side of the bed. My shift was bunched around my neck, falling to my back, so my body was entirely exposed to him. This thought barely registered, except perhaps as a necessary detail of what I was already planning to do. Somewhat irritated by it, I slipped the garment over my head, letting it fall. I didn’t want him to leave me. Especially not in frustration. I knew what the consequences of enticing him, of asking him—or begging him—to stay would be. And I was willing.
“Ibegof you,” I said.I’ll not force you, nor will I do anything at all that you don’t beg me to do.“Come to me.”
He looked at me warily, as thoughIwere the threat. To his honor and his law.
“You won’t be breaking your word to me, husband,” I assured him. “I want you to. Please don’t leave. Please come to me.”
It was the vulnerable edge to this final soft-spoken entreaty that seemed to break down his defenses.
He walked over to me, still barefoot, shirtless, clad only in a leather strap dripping with knives and his unfastened trews, which revealed more to me, as he drewcloser, than I might ever have imagined. His expression bordered on sulky, guarded. Yet he came to me, standing several feet from the edge of the bed.
I rose, bridging the divide. I looked up at him, feeling small yet perhaps bolder than I ever had felt. I reached to unfasten the buckle of the holster draped across his bare chest. He allowed this, and I lifted the weapons from his body, bending to place them on the stone floor. I was entirely unworldly. I had no idea how to go about any play at seduction, yet I could sense from the look in his light, penetrating eyes that my nakedness, my movement and the fumbling insistence of my hands were working in whatever way I might have intended. I slid Kade’s bone-handled knife from its scabbard at his hip. It was heavy and solid in my hands. I took a step back, half sitting against the bed, laying the knife on the furs.
“I have but one weapon left to me,” he said, his voice gravel-edged with passion.
“Come closer,” I whispered, easing myself back up onto to the bed.
He obeyed my request, standing silently at the edge of the bed. I opened my legs so he could move closer, not touching me, yet close enough for me to reach out to him. Tentatively, I pushed at the fabric of his underclothing and his trews, drawing them down lower on his hips to reveal him to me.
I had felt him brush up against me in past nights under the heavy covers and in the total darkness. Now, with the fire casting its gentle light, I could for the first time marvel, aghast, at the full extent of hismanhood. I had, of course, never seen anything like this and not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such...impressiveness.Even in my innocence it was clear that he was gloriously made. The sight of his body, fully revealed to me, imbued me with a sudden pang of longing, like hunger or thirst.
Carefully, I took him in my hands, marveling at the feel of him. Like hot silk over rigid stone. He cursed and closed his eyes as my cool fingers explored his full length. I was fascinated by the surprising textures of him, the softness of his skin, the heat, the generous solidity. The touch of my curious fingers seemed to have a profound effect on him. His eyes opened to watch my beguiled study, and their blue light was fiery yet tinted with something deeper: awe perhaps. Reverence. For the first time, I felt entirely in control. He was mine, completely. I’ll admit it pleased me, this small power. It was the first time my femininity felt to me like a strength. This formidable warrior was wholly at my mercy, just from the light caress of my fingers. I wanted to work this power, to see where it might take me. To see what it mightdotohim. Would he find that sublime, overwhelmingrush,as I had? I had no knowledge of such things, and I wanted to find out. I increased the pressure of my grasp, sliding my hand along his length, getting a feel for his reaction. His eyes were heavy-lidded, glazed with lust. His broad chest rose and fell in uneven rasps. And I was intrigued to find that a bead of moisture had gathered at the tip of his shaft, which was soengorged, it did look, to be certain, as if it might burst at any moment.
Using my hands, I guided him closer, so that the broad end of his jutting manhood was level with my mouth. Would he allow this? He had used his mouth on me, so perhaps he would, I reasoned. He made no objection, only growling a loud, exhaling oath as I eased my lips around the tip of him. The taste of him was so compelling to me, so hypnotically absolute, I could only draw more of him into my mouth, seeking more, licking him with soft, devoted strokes of my tongue. I waited for him to draw away. But instead of withdrawing, he weaved his fingers around the base of my skull, under my hair, pushing himself farther into my mouth.
Encouraged, I took as much of him as I could, increasing the light suction, easing him in and out of my mouth, tasting the salty essence of him as my hands continued to stroke and explore.
“Stella,”he rasped. “Hellfire and damnation, I can’t hold on to this. ’Tis too much.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. But I was soon to find out. As I took him deeper once again, suckling him in a gentle rhythm, he groaned as though he were being burned by the hellfire he spoke of. Hot liquid filled my mouth in jetting, milky pulses. His rush had overcome him, and here it was. As he had done to me, prolonging my ecstasy with his mouth, so I did to him. I took his essence, swallowing his bliss, licking and kissing and playing him with my lips and my tongue until he was completely spent.
After a time, he pulled himself away, tilting my head up with his hands. In his eyes I saw amazement, and tender revelation. He rid himself of his low-strung trews, kicking them away. He took the knife from where it lay on the bed and placed it on the bedside table. Then he gathered me into his arms, against his skin, laying me back and covering us with the furs. He wrapped his long limbs around me, settling me close to him in a comforting, all-encompassing embrace. My head was tucked against his chest, so I could hear the steady beat of his heart. I could feel his soft kisses against my hair. I was more content than I had ever been, and my eyes closed.
* * *
IWASAWAKENEDby the silky touch of Kade’s thick hair brushing along my thigh, his wandering fingers playing. I was positioned on my side, my knees bent, with one leg propped up and slung across his brawny shoulder. His head rested on one of my splayed thighs as the soft, nuzzling wetness of his tongue stroked me open, infusing me with restless, awakening rapture.
I tugged on his hair, and my husband chuckled, even as his tongue slid deeper into my body, possessing me as he gripped me with his ironlike hands, pulling me closer to his mouth, feeding on my pleasure. His unholy tongue stroked me open, lapping against my secret petals, parting me to his hungry persistence. He licked a small circle around the sensitive bud, flicking and teasing before his mouth fixed upon it, sucking strongly in cyclical pulls. With each tug, a rising bolt of sweetness rose from within me.“Kade,”I moaned,my hands on his head, in his hair.“Please.”I was sobbing. ’Twas too much. I couldn’t contain the overloading tide, which spilled from my core in rushing, clenching bursts that seemed endless in their intensity. I rode the undulating wave, rolling my hips to quell the excesses. Still he wouldn’t relent. He pushed his tongue deep inside me, delving along to the rhythm of my body, igniting fresh, torturous ecstasy. My inner muscles clamped voluptuously around his wicked tongue. He kissed my swollen, sated flesh, licking me, whispering against my body.
“Nectar,” he murmured. “Heaven on earth.”
After many minutes of this attentive, unhurried appreciation, my husband crawled up my body to lie next to me, propping himself up on one crooked elbow. He regarded me with a smug, lazy grin and narrowed eyes. I felt the connectivity of our locked gaze in my heart as a small ache that I could not name.
But then he disengaged, rolling away and rising from the bed. His manhood was no less pronounced that it had been the night before, but he made no move to cover himself. I wondered what it must be like to walk around like that all day. Was it painful? Distracting? He seemed to take little notice of it as he retrieved something from an open trunk. He’d yet to unpack all his belongings. It was just one of the many jobs to do.
