by Mia Pride
She had a nagging feeling in her stomach, a need to tell Brocc that she wasn’t going to kiss Collin, even if Brocc had never shown up. Knowing that she should wait until the morning, she simply could not control her anxiety. She needed to explain herself. Looking over at him, she winced at just how strong and intimidating he was, even in his sleep…even when completely nude.
Reaching a hand up to touch Brocc’s muscular tan back, she gently ran a finger up and down his spine, trying to rouse him from his sleep. “Brocc?” She lightly shook him, but he did not respond. She slid her hand up his back and grabbed his shoulder, trying to shake him a bit harder. Still, his breathing stayed consistent.
His skin was warm, soft, yet firm at the same time and curiosity took hold of her as she splayed her hands and ran them from his shoulder, over the muscular ridges of his chest, feeling the crisp hairs scrape against her palm. She had never seen a naked man before and she felt a strange need to take advantage of his sleeping state, to test out the feel of his body. Her hand started roaming up and down his chest, feeling his strength under her fingers. Her mind was no longer in control as her body’s need to discover displaced all logic.
Brocc was in a deep sleep and was showing no signs of waking. Una’s heart started to pound as inappropriate thoughts ran through her mind. The tiny glimpse she had seen earlier of his male parts had not been enough. She had been startled by his sudden nudity and diverted her eyes so quickly that curiosity kept tugging at her, willing her to seek answers.
She slid her hands slowly down to his lower chest, reaching a trail of coarse hair that seemed to continue down under the blankets. She simply could not bring herself to reach further. It felt like the worst transgression to do such a thing to a sleeping man. Touching him any lower was out of the question. However, perhaps a tiny little peek under the blankets would do no harm…after all, he was the one who had stripped naked and leaned over her earlier. He mustn’t have too many scruples about being seen, she convinced herself.
Carefully, she lifted the blanket a few inches off his flat stomach and leaned her head over and down, squinting her eyes as she tried to peer into the dark depths of the shadows. The reflection of the tallow candles flickering off the walls cast a dim light around the room. She could hardly see a thing. Lifting the blanket up just another few inches, she was better able to see and her heart started to pound as she spotted the part of him that made him male. It was quite large and strange, yet completely fascinating. What an odd part of a man, she thought to herself, having no concept of how it worked. Why did her core suddenly ache? How could this long appendage beneath his thighs do anything at all?
Her breathing became sharp and she felt as if she might faint as she realized how very brazen she was being. Feeling quite ashamed, yet full of wonder, she slowly dropped the blanket and pulled back her shaking hand. She let out a sigh of relief as she lay back down. She had not been caught.
Without warning, Brocc flipped over on top of her, the weight of his nakedness holding her down. She let out a squeal of shock as she felt his body crushing hers, both wrists caught above her head by one of his strong hands and that very same part of him she had been so desperate to see, was now brushing against her bare thigh as her dress bunched around her waist.
“What are you doing?” His voice was low and dangerous. “If you want to touch it, all you need to do is ask…” He pressed his hips into hers and she could feel his hardness brush against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. “Is this what you wanted?”
“You are a real brute, Brocc! Get off me!” she struggled but his grasp was relentless and humiliation overcame her as all of her blood ran to her head.
“Aye. I am a brute. I have never promised otherwise,” he whispered as his lips just barely grazed hers. “You, however, are the innocent lass playing a very dangerous game with the brute.”
“Game? I am not playing games! I was trying to wake you!”
“That is a clever way of waking a man.” He flashed a feral smile at her and she could see his dimple wink at her.
“Brocc, get off me! I wanted to apologize for my behavior tonight and explain myself!” She continued to struggle underneath his weight, but she was hopelessly pinned beneath him.
“As you said yourself, Una, you are not my wife. You have nothing to explain. You owe me nothing.” He let her go and rolled back over onto his side away from her.
She chewed her lower lip as she sat up and rubbed her sore wrists. “If I owe you nothing, why do I have this nagging feeling that I actually owe you everything?” She took a deep breath and laid a gentle hand on his back. “Please, let me speak.”
He rolled over onto his other side and looked at her, waiting for her to speak. She cleared her throat. “You should not have removed your clothing if you did not want me to see you naked.”
“Is this really what you wish to discuss?” he scoffed. “Alright, Una. Explain to me why I caught you staring at my co—”
“N-nay! Nay, let us forget that, please!” She blushed profusely and covered her burning cheeks. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “I wanted to unburden you with my presence. You need a wife and it cannot be me. The sooner I am able to move out, the sooner we can both move on.”
“Indeed? And what were your intentions with Collin? Were you going to go home with him, wed him, and go make babes?” The mocking tone of his voice was unmistakable and she couldn’t help but feel affronted.
She crossed her arms in defiance and cleared her throat. “Collin is willing to take me off your hands, if you want him to...but, I-I wasn’t going to kiss him tonight.” There, she said what she had wanted to say. The rest was up to him. If he wanted her gone, now was his chance.
Brocc propped his body up on his elbow and quirked a brow at her as he ran a finger down the side of her cheek. “Una, I was watching you far longer than you think. I saw you from the moment you walked in. I was having a meeting with a messenger from a neighboring tuath. Imagine my surprise when my bonny wee ward wandered alone into a room full of drunken men. I watched and waited, trying to decide if you needed my assistance. I saw the way Collin looked at you. Is that what you want, Una? Say the word and I shall arrange it on the morrow.”
Internally, Brocc’s heart was breaking. He wanted to rage at her to see reason, to accept his offer instead. He wanted to shake her, kiss her, shout at her, embrace all of her. Why was she so stubborn headed?
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. He could see a small tear trickle down the side of her face and tilted her head up with his finger. “Look at me, Una. I think you have more going on inside your head than I can understand. Help me.” She opened her eyes and he was struck by the pain that stared back at him.
“Are you saying that you do want me to leave?” More tears started to flow and she tried to bravely hide them by turning away from his gaze,
His jaw clenched as he tried to control his frustration. He gripped her arms, unable to refrain from giving her a slight shake. “I’m not trying to get rid of you! I’ve been trying to keep you! Have I not asked you to marry me? More than once?” He wiped her tears away with his hand.
She sniffled and wiped her flowing tears on her sleeve. “I thought you were only trying to be kind to me since I am all alone. I thought, perhaps, you may have changed your mind after I rejected your embrace.”
“Do you think me so frivolous that I would ask to marry you simply out of pity? Do you think I change my mind with the changing of the wind?” His voice croaked as he tried to suppress his outrage.
She put a hand on his chest to placate him. “I am sorry Brocc, I did not realize…”
“You did not realize I do not go around asking random women to marry me? You didn’t realize I have not lain with another woman since the last time I offered for your hand? I meant it when I asked you to marry me, Una! You, and only you. You may see me as a ‘brute’, but I tend to be a loyal one.”
“I-I am sorry, Brocc. I feel wretched,” she sai
d softly and then looked up at him questioningly. “You really have not been with another woman? Why would you do such a thing after I rejected you?”
His eyes locked with her piercing green gaze. They seemed to intensify in color the longer he stared, like the rarest of emeralds sparkling in the light of the sun on a clear summer day. It amazed him how her eyes could change as they did when he bore into her soul. “Perhaps because the woman I seek is a treasure far more lovely, sweet, innocent, and intelligent than any other. She is worth the wait.” His eyes roamed over her fully clothed body, then locked on her breasts pulling against the thin fabric of her lavender dress as one shoulder slipped out of the wide collar. “And, perhaps you only need to see for yourself what life as my wife could really be like.”
He closed the distance between them and before she knew it, his mouth was slashing across hers with a fever, then moving lower, scorching her neck with hot kisses. She felt her mind start to spin again, but this time it was not the mead. It was a feeling much more foreign to her, as if she were falling into an ocean of sensations sending waves through her body. How could his kiss create such a scourge within her? Knowing she should stop him immediately before things progressed past the point of no return, she found herself rendered incapable of denying his touch. She had felt so lonely for so long. His desire for her made her feel as though she mattered for the first time in a long time.
She was engulfed in his presence, the spicy musk scent of his skin, the heat pulsing through his body into hers and the feel of his whiskers tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. She briefly wondered how she had successfully managed to reject his touch for so long, and though she was too timid to return his caress, she found she could no longer resist his. He was the air she breathed, and yet she felt as if she were drowning with every caress of his callused warrior hands. How could his roughened hands, trained to kill in battle, feel as if they were breathing life into her soul?
His mouth was on hers again and his tongue sensually wrapped around hers, tasting every corner of her mouth. The less she resisted, the more confident he became and he boldly wrapped his strong arm around her waist, pulling her body closer to his and he continued to kiss her with an increasing fever. She found herself arching her body to his as a soft moan escaped her lips and it shocked her to feel how her body instinctively responded to his, as if it was made for this moment. She was made just for him.
He released his grip from around her waist and detached his lips from hers as he stared down at her eyes, then focused on her mouth, swollen from his rough kisses. Una’s chest rose and fell with arousal and, without breaking eye contact, his two hands came up to the top hem of her dress and tore it down the middle, freeing her breasts. He flashed a self-satisfied grin as she gasped and reflexively tried to cover herself. He shook his head, silently reprimanding her for trying to shield his view, and took her hands in his. “You are, without a doubt, the most breath-taking woman I have ever known. Do not ever cover yourself from my sight.”
His words were so genuine that she closed her eyes and felt all her remaining resolve leave her body. Why should she resist? He was all man and tonight, she was his woman. What the dawn would bring, she was unsure, but nothing else mattered in the moment but his strong embrace, the muscled arms that dwarfed hers in size. He was the brawn to her beauty. He was the dark to her light. Never had she known that two beings, so completely different by day, could meld together so beautifully by night.
She placed her hands around his neck and felt his lips moving down her throat. Feeling his hot mouth take hold of her breast, she gasped and squirmed as new sensations flowed through her. She did not know what was happening to her body, but she knew it was too late to question it. One hand was kneading her right breast while his mouth ravished her left and all she could do was sigh as the blaze within her intensified and she tried to stifle her moans, feeling slightly embarrassed by the sudden abandon of her sensibilities.
She wanted to reach out and touch him but was too keenly aware of her own inexperience, too afraid of fumbling around and breaking this wondrous spell. Slowly, she let her hands roam down his back, feeling the movement of his defined muscles as his mouth burned kisses down her abdomen, tearing the dress further as he went. As he reached the flat of her belly, he could not tug anymore of the fabric down and she pulled the sleeves off her arms and slowly lifted her backside, allowing him to tug the remaining fabric down her legs.
For the first time in her entire life, she was fully exposed in front of a man, but Brocc was not just any man. He was her former foster-brother, the lad she watched grow into this glorious man. The man who train to become a warrior and the warrior who turned into a king. But tonight, he was no lad, warrior, or king. He was just a man and soon he would become her lover. And somehow, it all felt so perfectly right, as if this was simply a natural course in the evolution of their relationship.
She looked up at his proud, naked body as he rested on his knees, staring back at her with wonder blazing in his eyes, his manhood prepared to take that which she had never before given. They were silent as the firelight flickered off the curves of their bodies, highlighting every detail. Smoke from the candles filled the room with a mystical haze that reminded her of the rolling mists of a seaside cliff. She was feeling a mixture of apprehension, embarrassment, and lust as he looked at her like she was the only woman in the world. His woman.
“Brocc? Is everything alright?” She started to feel self-conscious at his constant gaze and placed a hand over the apex of her legs while draping an arm across her breasts.
“Una,” he whispered her name reverently. “I have dreamed of this for so long. You think you are nothing. But to me, you are everything.”
He saw the doubt flash in her eyes, and he moved slowly toward her, laying her down on her back. “Everything,” he breathed again as he placed a soft kiss upon her brow, tucking a chestnut wave behind her ear. “Do you believe me? I need you to believe me.”
The hollow of her throat moved as she swallowed her fears and nodded, a nervous smile gracing her lips. He knew, with that one gesture, she had given him her consent, her trust, and her heart. Brocc positioned himself knowing that no other man had ever been given the gift she was bestowing upon him now.
“Una, mo grá. You will feel a twinge of pain, but it will only last a second.” Before she could ask questions or change her mind, she felt the sting of her innocence leaving her body. She cried out as the pain eased and she saw the concern on Brocc’s face. He stopped and kissed her nose in what felt like the most profoundly affectionate moment of her life. She knew then that this man would never hurt her.
She opened her eyes and saw his beautiful face leaning over her and she smiled, encouraging him to continue as jolts of pleasure seared her body. Never had she known what could exist between a man and a woman. His body was one with hers and she could feel the hairs on his chest graze the soft skin of her own. His stubbly chin rasped against her neck as he panted into her ear. The flickering lights and the scent of his sweat-slick skin as he made love to her for the first time surrounded her in a cocoon of majestic warmth that would live within her forever.
Arousal surged through her blood and she began to move wildly and freely, allowing her body’s instincts to take command. “Una, mo chailín stór,” she heard him groan against her cheek as his breathing became ragged and his movements quickened. He grabbed her hips tightly, bringing himself to his pinnacle of pleasure as a loud groan escaped his throat and his body shuddered.
She instinctively knew this was the end of their coupling and a sudden sadness fell over her. She wrapped her legs tightly around his hips as he tried to leave her body, preventing him from detaching from her. She let out a small whimper as he chuckled softly and leaned over her sweaty face, wiping brown tendrils of hair off her sticky forehead.
He groaned as he lay on top of Una, her legs still caging him in. “Am I your servant now, mo chroí?” he laughed and kissed her quivering lips.<
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“I hope so,” Una purred as she pulled him down to her and kissed him with abandon for several long moments before they made love once more, finally falling into a deep peace-filled sleep until mid-morning.
When Una awoke the next morning, the room was dark and she sat up with a start, not remembering where she was. Suddenly, the blood rushed to her head as she remembered, in full detail, the long night of sensual bliss she had shared with Brocc. It all seemed like some wild dream, but the dull ache between her legs made sure to remind her of the reality. She rolled over to drape an arm over Brocc, but all she found was the soft furs beneath her palm. Having no idea what time it was, Una sat up in bed, keenly aware of her naked state. She poked her head out of his chamber and lightly tiptoed into her own to prepare for her day.
Reaching for her dingy brown cleaning dress, Una stopped in mid step. She no longer knew what her status in the house was. Was she still to remain his servant? Surely not after all the barriers they had overcome the night before? He did say that he still wished to marry her and the prospect of becoming his wife, although still daunting, was much more intriguing than it had been only the day before. If last night was a sample of what her life would be like as his wife, then she had a lot to think about. However, she still wanted to marry for love, and though her feelings were growing quite rapidly for Brocc, she was not ready to call it ‘love’, nor had he ever mentioned love in his proposal.
Nay, she was still not ready to fully commit to being his wife. Even so, she was looking forward to spending time together, hopefully falling in love eventually. She folded the brown dingy dress back up and placed it in her chest. She simply could not be his servant anymore; it would be degrading and hopefully he agreed. Just as she started to seek out another dress for her day, she heard a pounding on the front door, alerting her to company. Frantically seeking anything to quickly slip over her head, she found a pale-yellow linen nightdress and quickly slipped it over her head, having no time to comb out her tangled hair.