AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Thirty-One
It had been days since the battle, and Nimue busied herself helping the healer and the maids with the injured. She spent every day taking care of the men, and though it was hard work, it kept her mind off everything that had happened.
There had been so many dead on that battlefield. So many lives lost, so many men that would not return home. Nimue couldn’t help but think about their families and the people who loved them. Did they have wives? Did they have Mothers who would weep for them for the rest of their days? Did they have sisters who ached as she did for Tristan? The battle had already caused so much pain, and she could only imagine what would happen once the war began.
As Nimue rebandaged the leg of one of the soldiers with a piece of clean cloth, she wondered how different things might have been if she had managed to convince her father sooner that the Earl was a bad man before, before Chrisdean had even taken her from her home. She put some of the blame on herself for that, and she knew that she would never stop regretting her failure.
Once they had tended to all the wounded, Nimue made her way back to the main part of the castle. Once there, the sight that greeted her only served to sadden her even more. Everyone seemed to be torn between joy for the victory over the English and grief for the men they had lost. Nimue wondered if there was anything that she could do to take their pain away. Surely, she told herself, a feast would help everyone focus on the positive, but she knew that nothing but time could make it better.
All she wanted to do at that moment was to find Chrisdean and hold him tightly. She wanted to kiss him, to touch him, to reassure herself that he was still alive and well and that he was going nowhere. So, she made her way to his chambers—their chambers, she corrected herself—seeking him out.
She found him there, lying in bed, and at first, she thought that he was asleep, exhausted after a day of planning. When he turned his head to look at her, though, she realized that he was wide awake, and she smiled at him as she took the few steps that separated them, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
He was bare-chested, she noticed, and he had scrubbed the grime of the day off him. His hair was tied at the back of his neck, and his scent enveloped her, making her mouth water.
A bath would do her plenty of good, too, she thought.
“I canna sleep,” Chrisdean said as he took Nimue’s hand in his, holding it tenderly. “I think I am still too excited from the battle. It always happens after a fight; I become restless.”
Nimue had a thing or two in mind that she could do to make him spend all that energy, and she smiled coyly at him as she leaned down to kiss his lips. It was a chaste kiss, and when she pulled back, Chrisdean followed her, seemingly not wanting it to end, but Nimue stopped him with a hand on his chest, pushing him back down onto the mattress.
“Dinna be impatient,” she told him, standing and walking to the door. “I willna be long.”
“Where are ye goin’?”
Nimue replied with only another smile before she left the room, heading to her own chambers. She wanted to tease Chrisdean a little, to make him wait for her, to make him desire her even more.
Once in her chambers, Nimue quickly bathed—with the help of a few maids—and dressed in fresh clothes before making her way back to Chrisdean’s chambers, hoping that he hadn’t fallen asleep while waiting for her.
The moment she stepped inside the room, Chrisdean sat up on the bed, clearly still awake and eager to see her again. Nimue smiled at his impatience and then slowly made her way toward the bed, perching herself on the edge of it once more, much to Chrisdean’s obvious frustration.
“Why are ye so far away, lass?” Chrisdean asked, reaching for her only to have Nimue move away again, just enough so that he couldn’t grab her. Chrisdean groaned in frustration, and Nimue couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s na funny,” he said. “I’ve missed ye, mo ghràdh. Why are ye so cruel to me?”
“Cruel?” Nimue asked, an amused smile playing on her lips. “I just dinna want ye to hurt yerself more. Ye need yer rest, aye? Ye shouldna exert yerself.”
“Na?” Chrisdean asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Then why are ye here, teasin’ me like this? Ye could let me sleep and rest, but ye’re na doin’ that.”
“Ye were the one who said ye couldna sleep,” Nimue reminded him. “I thought that perhaps ye could rest and I . . . weel, I could help ye release all that . . . excitement.”
As she spoke, Nimue climbed onto the bed, her hands coming to rest on Chrisdean’s chest as she knelt before him on the mattress, straddling his legs. There were too many layers of clothing between them, she decided, and she slid her hands under Chrisdean’s shirt, desperate to touch him without any barrier separating them.
At her touch, Chrisdean let out a soft gasp, arching into her touch. Nimue loved hearing those sounds from him and knowing that she was the reason for them, and she wanted nothing more than to draw more of them out of his lips.
Slowly, her hands moved to his trews, pushing them down his hips until she had freed his manhood from them. She found him already hard, and the sight made her breath hitch and her lips part as she wrapped his hand around him.
Before she had even begun, Chrisdean tried to grab her, but Nimue stopped him again, pushing him firmly back onto the bed and shaking her head.
“Let me,” she said. “I told ye, I dinna want ye to open any more wounds again. Lie down.”
There was an authoritative tone in her voice that surprised even her, and it seemed to surprise Chrisdean, too. He did as he was told, though, and rested his head back on the pillow, watching Nimue with dark, half-closed eyes.
Nimue moved her hand slowly, paying attention to Chrisdean’s reactions as she stroked him, trying to find out what he liked. And from the sounds he was making, soft, breathless moans that echoed around the room, there was little she could do that he didn’t like.
He felt so thick in her hand, a solid heat that she wanted to feel inside her. There would be time for that, though, she reminded herself. For a while, she wanted to explore Chrisdean’s body, to see what gave him pleasure and commit it to memory.
Nimue splayed her other hand over his chest, her nails gently scratching through the patch of hair there. She leaned down and scattered kisses on his torso, teeth scraping over his skin.
As much as she hated to let go of him, Nimue soon did, moving back a little to undo her dress. It took her a while, as Chrisdean obeyed her former orders and gave her no help—not that she asked—but in the end, she had tossed every offending piece of clothing to the side and straddled him once more, this time naked.
