Heddas Sword.jpg

by Hedda's Sword (lit)

  He smiled, rising up to kneel afore her. "Do you not know how beautiful you are to me? How desirable?" He nibbled at her ear, teasing his way down her throat and over her shoulder. One hand cradled her head, his fingers buried in her hair. He caressed her arm with his other hand, fingertips gliding across her skin.

  Maleta trembled at his words, his touch. She stroked a hand up his chest, finding a flat male nipple and pinching it lightly betwixt her fingers afore continuing up to curl around the back of his neck. She heard his breath hiss at the contact. "Kiss me," she whispered. When his lips captured hers, she reached up with both hands to pull him closer, threading her fingers through his hair.

  Cianan slid his hands down her shoulders and back, hooking the material of her dress and pushing it down to her waist. She sucked in a breath as her breasts sprang free, and his caresses drew her more firmly against him. Her nipples puckered as he slid against her, and he groaned. "Lord and Lady, you feel good. So soft... " He fell back onto the quilt, bringing her down with him, rolling over so she lay aside him with her back to the fire. Cianan eased back. "I have waited so long for you, elingrena. Let me look at you."

  Maleta's face flamed, and she bit her lip, fighting the urge to cross her arms over her breasts. The open love and appreciation in his eyes eased her shyness. She couldn't panic when he reached out to cup her breast – there was such gentleness, almost reverence, in his touch. It was all she could do to remember to breathe as he circled her pale pink nipple with his thumb, and she swelled in his hand. Her nipple tightened, begging for his mouth. "Please," she whispered.

  "So lovely." He nuzzled betwixt her breasts. "So sweet. I need you, elingrena. Cerilyrian avariel."

  She turned in his arms, daring to brush her nipple across his lips. "Please," she whispered again.

  "I love a woman who knows what she wants." Cianan drew her into his mouth, stroking her nipple with his tongue. He reached down to cup a hand around her leg, sliding upward beneath her skirt, kneading the muscles under her stocking. His hand met bare skin at her thigh, gliding up to lightly squeeze her backside, and he groaned. "Sweet Mother, wife, you wear nothing beneath your gown?"

  Maleta shook her head, panting. She drowned in a sea of heat and sensation. More, she needed more. She must have spoken the word aloud, because he suckled harder. Her legs shifted, and he drew one over his hip, trailing his fingers along her inner thigh. It would have tickled had she not burned so. Then his fingers tangled in the damp curls betwixt her legs, sliding across her swollen, molten core, and she was lost to a wanton creature of fire and need. She felt his fingers probe deep, first one, then two. She rolled her hips into his hand, clutching his head and arching into his mouth. His thumb located a point of pure heat, and he circled it, mimicking the motion with his tongue on her nipple. She started to shake, and he inserted a third finger into her as her body jerked and the world exploded once more. She felt herself pulse around his fingers, coming to coherence enough to marvel at the truth of his words: "No fear. No pain. Just pleasure." Twice now, the pleasure had been entirely hers.

  "Not entirely your own," he murmured in her ear. She opened her eyes to see his blazing inches from her own. "Have you any idea how magnificent you are, elingrena ? After all you have been through, to trust me enough to lie here with me? To not only accept the touch of passion but to throw yourself headlong into it? You make me feel ten feet tall."

  She blushed at his words, but felt herself glowing at his sincerity. "I love you."

  "Cerilyrian avariel, elingrena. I love you too." Cianan stood, pulling her to her feet as well. Her legs still quivered with aftershocks, but she clung to him as he slid her skirt down over her hips. It pooled around her feet, and she stepped clear of it. "You are in my heart and in my blood. I want you, I need you so much. I want us to come together in our bed. Take that final leap with me. Make us whole."

  Tears burned her eyes, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. He stood afore her, heart and soul open to her. Burning for her. Only her. A nod was all she could manage – and a squeak as he swept her up into his arms and carried her to their bed. He laid her down on the coverlet, but didn't join her right away. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

  "I am admiring you, wife," he said. "My beautiful vertenya bride, in my life and in my bed at long last."

  Maleta sat up and took his hand. "Then come join me. Our bed wasn't made for one, husband." She pulled him up aside her, wrapping her arms around him and brushing his lips with hers. She marveled at being able to lie here like this, naked and wanting a man. She shivered at his strength, his restraint and gentleness. He had awakened her heart, and her body, and she wanted nothing more than to share both with him. She wanted him to know how much she wanted him, needed him too. She slid against him, stroking his hot skin with her hands, leaning down to rain kisses across his chest, to run the tip of her tongue over his nipples.

  Cianan groaned something incoherent and ran one hand through her hair. The other stroked down her back and over her hip. Maleta's caress moved lower, and his stomach muscles clenched beneath her hand. When her fingers teased along the waistband of his breeches, he sucked in a breath and palmed her breasts in his hands. He burned against her skin. He pulled her up for an open-mouthed kiss of pure fire, his tongue sliding over hers.

  She trembled as her tongue dueled with his. Her breasts swelled at his touch, her nipples peaking into his hands. She felt their points against her palms, smelled the sweet scent of freesia. She felt her hands running over his sides, trailing along the edge of her breeches. She faltered. It was Cianan. She was feeling what he experienced, how he burned at her touch. She breathed in the scent of hot, aroused male, of salt and sweat and need. She broke off the kiss to run her tongue along his collarbone, over his nipples. She felt his skin slide against her breasts, felt her hair tickle his skin. She felt the moist heat gathered betwixt her own legs.

  Cianan grabbed at her hand, turning it to trace the veins of her wrist with his lips. She gasped, slipping free of his hand and reaching down to dip her fingers along the waistband of his breeches again. They stretched tight over an aching erection. He longed to be naked with her, ached to the point of pain, but she had to ask. He'd promised himself she'd have to ask – when she was ready. She rained kisses over his belly, and the flash of heat made her moan. His hips lifted off the bed, straining toward her.

  "Take them off," Maleta whispered, her voice hoarse. "I'm asking now. I want nothing betwixt us."

  His eyes blazed at hers as he removed his breeches and hose. Only his loincloth remained. She'd have to take it off herself. He captured a breast, suckling on her. She moaned at the flash of heat that caused, felt herself swelling, softening. He shuddered as well at her liquid response. Her scent drew him to her. Afore she knew what he intended, he kissed his way down her belly. His hands slid over her inner thighs, teasing her legs apart. Hooking her legs over his shoulders, Cianan moved betwixt them.

  Maleta cried out in shock at the touch of his mouth... there. She had no idea men did such things... His tongue swiped a line of fire along her wet, swollen flesh, delving deep into her aching core, and all thought ceased. All she could do was feel – feel the decadent pleasure of his mouth, teasing her most sensitive flesh with tongue and lips and teeth. Her mouth watered at the tangy, salt scent and taste of her woman's cream, and she sobbed as she moved on his mouth. He wanted this, thirsted for the proof of her passion. She needed this more than her next breath. Together they burned to the edge of exploding with a need beyond desire.

  Mine, echoed in her head, an intense satisfaction in the knowledge that none other had brought her this pleasure, that she needed him. She caught Cianan's desperate need to sheathe himself within her hot, voluptuous core until she shattered around him. He ached for release. Her soul cried to give it to him.

  She pulled him up for an open-mouthed kiss, moaning at the taste of herself on her lips. She reached down to fumble with his loincloth, her hands brushing against his
erection as the cloth fell away. She faltered. He was huge in her hand. They'd never fit.

  "Aye, we shall fit," he whispered. He scraped his teeth across the pulse pounding in her throat, circled her nipples with his thumbs, keeping her on the razor's edge of desire and not allowing the fear to fully form. "I was born for your pleasure, elingrena. You are so ready for me – I can feel your need. Your body cries out for mine. Mine burns for yours and yours alone. No pain, only pleasure."

  Dara's advice came back to Maleta. She wouldn't let him hold her down. Immediately he rolled onto his back so she straddled his thighs. "What do I do?" she whispered, a quiver in her voice.

  "Take me into your body as you brought me into your heart," he murmured. "As I brought you into my soul. Join us, complete us." He grasped her hips and guided her over him, gritting his teeth with restraint as her wet heat slid along his length. He reached down to grasp himself, moving to tease her sensitive hidden jewel with the tip of his penis, coating himself with her cream.

  Maleta gasped at the flash of pleasure and eased down to take just the tip within her. She pulled back, then took more. His hands on her hips steadied he as she took him with exquisite slowness, a little more after each equally slow withdrawal. She stretched around him. There was a sense of fullness, but no pain. She gasped again as her body pulsed around Cianan. He groaned as she sank down on him completely, and she hesitated as her body adjusted.

  Cianan reached up to caress her breasts, pinching her nipples. Maleta felt a flood of wet heat around him. She shifted, and the stab of fiery pleasure made them both moan. She moved on him with slow rolls of her hips, finding an angle that caused a sharp twinge of excruciating pleasure. Her body swelled and pulsed around his shaft. She felt the rising heat, his rising passion.

  "Trust me now, wife, and we shall fly together." Cianan rolled her over onto her back, sliding her legs up over his shoulders. He eased almost completely out of her, then back in slowly. Maleta cried out at the new sensations. Her hips rose, trying to quicken his pace. With a groan he obliged, with short, quick thrusts that rubbed a point of intense pleasure deep within. She squeezed around his shaft, her body tightening unbearably. He thrust harder, faster, as his blood boiled within her and she felt herself tighten around him – and then explode as his seed burst forth.

  "Cianan!" she cried.

  "Cerilyrian avariel, elingrena." He shuddered as her hot sheath milked him of every last drop of himself. He lowered her legs. Bodies still joined, he rolled onto his side, pulling her into his arms. She quivered as he kissed her shoulder. A feeling of completion, of contentment, washed over them. The scent of their lovemaking hung in the air, curling around them.

  Maleta was stunned. The strength of their combined passion left her completely drained, exhausted. Thirsty.

  "I shall get some wine, as soon as I can move," he promised.

  He had not spoken aloud. His voice reverberated in her head. "Cianan? It's true, then?"

  She felt the warmth of his love filling her, a sense of wonder, of peace. "My final miracle."

  Cianan took her hand in his, pressed a gentle kiss to the ring on her finger, turning her hand to place another kiss on her palm. "You are my miracle. My heart." He rose from the bed, poured water into the washbasin and cleaned away the evidence of their passion from his body. Then he brought the pitcher and cups to the bedside table. He handed her a cup of wine, and gently washed her with a soft cloth while she drank.

  She handed him her half-full cup. "Here, for you," she said.

  "Are you all right?" he asked. His gaze never left her face as he drained the cup and set it aside, with the cloth.

  "Better than all right." Maleta drew him up aside her, snuggling into his embrace. "I'm free. It was wonderful. You've made me whole again." She kissed him.

  His mouth lingered on hers, with great tenderness. "You complete me, my heart, my love."

  "Forever," she vowed. "My final miracle... is you."

  Epilogue

  Cianan stood at attention and faced the class of warriors he had taught. "I have been granted the position of Ambassador to Shamar by our king and have resigned my post as your instructor," he told them. "You have done well, and I am very proud of you. I expect to hear good reports in the future. I salute you."

  Maleta slipped her arm around his waist as the academy class filed out. "It's so beautiful here. How can you bear to leave it?"

  "It is not so beautiful as you, and I would not miss it as I would miss you," he told her. "Like my next breath, like the beat of my heart. What are they compared to that?"

  Sweet Hedda, he'd make her melt to the floor. She turned in his arms, pulled his head down for a tender kiss. Her heart was so full she thought she'd burst, but she pulled away, laughing, when he tried to deepen the kiss. Even though he made her tingle in secret places, and there was no one else present... "Stop that!" she laughed. "Oh, no you don't. I'm on to that trick, my lord husband."

  He looked mournful. "You learn far too quickly, elingrena. Later?"

  "Absolutely."

  Lord Elio met them on the front steps. Maleta threw her arms around him. He frowned at the public display, but his eyes twinkled down at her as he hugged her back. "Greetings, daughter." His eyes shone, and he smiled at Cianan. "My son."

  "They are all yours now, Father."

  "Will we see you later, at dinner?" Maleta asked.

  "Tonight only. This is supposed to be a two-week retreat for thee, alone." Elio cracked a rare smile. "The presence of a parent would be quite counter-productive, I should think." He nodded. "Kikeona awaits thee. Go."

  Cianan and Maleta strode down the steps to where Kikeona stood. Her brown eyes glowed, and she nuzzled her partner and his wife. "Thank you for bringing me home," she said. "I expect I shall soon not be the only one with a youngling underfoot."

  Maleta's face flamed. Cianan laughed and placed his hand on the mare's neck. "We shall always be partners. I love you." The three of them walked down the winding lane to the academy pasture, where Hani`ena awaited her sister. Maleta opened the gate, and Kikeona entered the field. Cianan smiled. "You shall make a wonderful mother, but remember – if you ever need a break, Hani`ena can foal-sit."

  "What?" If a horse could look appalled, Hani`ena did. She flattened her ears and took off at a gallop. Kikeona joined her a moment later.

  "Are you sad?" Maleta asked.

  "Oddly enough, no," Cianan replied. "Everyone should follow their dreams. I did, and look what it got me." He pulled her close. "My beautiful elingrena. Forever."

  She smiled. "Forever. Take me home, husband."

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