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“A game?” Judith asked with widened eyes.
But she needn’t be told Tristram loved games. All sorts of courtly games, and word games. They’d already played several word games together, because they both enjoyed playing with words and making rhymes. Yet Judith understood Tristram wasn’t speaking of a word game at this time.He likes to play games, that one. He’ll toy with you because this is how men of his sort are.
“Aye. There’s nothing wrong with being playful in the bedchamber, so that you know,” Tristram now said, beginning to caress the palm of her hand in slow circles. “A kissing game perchance? Would you like that?” he added in a lazy voice which instantly stirred deep heat inside Judith’s body.
“A kissing game?”
“Aye. It is very simple. You just close your eyes and think of a spot in which I could kiss you. You tell me if I guessed right after I’ve kissed you. If I am right, I get a kiss in return from you as a reward,” he said, speaking ever so softly.
His voice and touch were simply bewitching, and Judith found herself already breathing hard in anticipation of his kisses. She strived to find her own voice and said, “What of penance, my lord? What should your penance be if you guess wrong?”
Tristram smiled and answered in a tone even softer and lazier than before, “There is no penance in this game, my lady. It’s not that kind of game, because the time’s not yet right for such. This game though… I think you may find it truly rewarding.”
Judith strived hard to keep her head clear, but Tristram’s voice was quite compelling and she found herself eagerly acquiescing to what he was asking. She closed her eyes as they both lay on the bed, and instantly thought of a part of her body where she’d like Tristram lips to kiss her. She thought she wanted Tristram’s lips upon hers once more. Nevertheless, Tristram, the fiend, certainly had other things in mind. He brushed a feather-light kiss on the side of her neck, burying his hands in the dark mass of her hair.
“Mm,” he said against her hot skin. “Did I guess right, my lady?”
Judith recalled only too well what he’d told her before. He’d get a kiss in return as a reward from her if he guessed right, and, in spite of the warning voice in her head, her own lips suddenly ached to kiss him.
“Aye, husband. You guessed right,” she lied brazenly.
He chuckled, and it was plain he knew she was being brazen, yet he closed his own eyes for a kiss from her. And Judith could not help herself. She lifted his undertunic to caress the hard muscle of his chest, placing her hot lips there where she could hear his heart thumping.
“My turn now,” Tristram told her in the same lazy voice, when she was done shyly caressing him.
This time his kiss was even bolder. He undid the laces at the back of her gown and then simply divested her of it, and she was left only in the linen dress she wore underneath. He slowly lifted the hem of it, to bestow several kisses right at the sensitive spot at the back of her knee. His kisses were practiced, and Judith strived hard not to simply melt under the heat of his lips. How did he know so well what would give her most pleasure? She suppressed a sigh, striving hard to chase from her mind the image of the many lovers he might have had. Again, she lied brazenly when he asked her if his guess had been right. And then she got her own turn to kiss and caress his beautiful body. He’d already stripped himself of his shirt, but she averted her eyes from his erect manhood which she had already felt prodding against her. Instead she kissed his elegant, long-fingered hands. And when his turn came again, he was even more brazen than before. He simply rained soft kisses down her belly, and Judith thought she’d swoon with pleasure. He smiled at her when he at last lifted his head to look into her eyes.
“So?” he asked. “Was I right this time as well?”
“You know you were,” Judith whispered, understanding it was not a lie after all, since all his kisses were in places where she’d pictured him caressing her in her mind when she’d thought of him in her lonely bed.
She kissed his lips ardently, and they both became entangled in the kiss. He buried his hands in her hair once again.
“I love your hair – so like a mermaid’s. It is a shame you have to cover it during the day. It’s beautiful. Just like the rest of you,” he muttered against her lips.
And Judith nearly smiled at the praise, but suddenly a sharp splinter pierced her heart, as cold as ice. She knew she was not beautiful, but only plain. Her heart started thumping with unease. Tristram’s next words did not reassure her.
“And I love you, wife. All that which is you,” he said, and his voice sounded full of heat.
The image of the pressed flower she’d glanced upon sprang in her mind and coldness enveloped her entire body. How could a man as wondrous as Tristram loveher? He must be lying. And it was perchance just as her mother had feared, that it was all a game to him. A lie… And she was just a plaything among others. Tristram kissed her again, and as his kiss deepened, she perceived he was now slowly hoisting the hem of her shift. And Judith understood that, in spite of the coldness in her heart, her quim was hot and wet for him. If he got to touch her there, he would get to see how eager she already was for his thrust. And he would get to understand how utterly besotted she was with him. And then he would break her heart, because he did not truly love her. Belatedly, Judith understood she’d begun to push her husband away.
He didn’t press, but rolled away from her with an astonished look in his fine dark eyes.
“And still you fear me?” he asked in an incredulous voice.
Judith sat up, bowing her head in utter shame and raking a hand through her hair. She did not know what to believe, but she so much wanted to believe his words of love that she simply wanted to weep.
“Tristram…” she whispered, feeling utterly lost.
He heaved a deep sigh.
“What is it that you’re so afraid of? I thought you were so eager, but now you flinch from me. Help me see it!”
“Forgive me,” Judith muttered, deeply ashamed of herself and knowing he was being gracious at a time when other men wouldn’t have behaved so.
He sat up in turn, reaching for his discarded shirt and pulling it over his arousal.
“It’s best I sleep on the floor tonight. I do not trust myself in bed with you at this time,” he said darkly.
