Drawing away from him with a frustrated groan, Catherine stared into the wide ebony eyes she knew oh so well; opal gems framed in a face of chiseled splendor, also boasting carved cheekbones, a carved chin and full, moist lips.
For just a moment she graced her friend with a soft, gentle smile; raising her hands to stroke the velvety tendrils of her curly, shoulder length ebony hair.
“Thank ye for your concern, dear friend,” she whispered, adding as she lifted her chin and squared her substantial shoulders, “As it stands, however, I am just fine. Tis just that—well, things did not go quite as planned at the feast of this eve.”
Gaston nodded.
“I gathered as much,” he told her, adding as he planted gentle hands on her arms and lead her forward into the chamber. “As your knight protector, my lady, I see it as my honor bound duty to ensure that you are calm and joyful at all times.” He paused here, staring into her eyes as he added in a lower tone, “And as your doting friend, I shall not see you unhappy. Whatever can I do, milady, to relieve your mind and lift your spirits?”
Catherine shook her head, closing the door behind them as she said over her shoulder, “Just listen to me, Gaston. Tis truly all I need.”
Moments later the two sat sprawled in the luxurious depths of her whisper soft sleeping space; sipping fresh made cinnamon tea freshly poured in floral print china cups.
“Ah, my crony,” Catherine sighed, running two soothing hands across the silken folds of her shiny, billowing gossamer skirts, “I well forgot that ye could prepare a most fetching drink of tea.”
“Tis just one of your knight’s many hidden talents,” Gaston declared, pinning her with a devilish, white toothed smile that made her heart beat just a little bit faster. “Do ye recall when you were a lass, Miss, and ye would play in the garden of your parents’ castle with your porcelain dolls and china tea pots. I as a spry, sturdy boy refused to sit with ye and your dollies at the table—but I did agree to prepare your tea and crumpets, and to stand guard over your tea party with my mighty paper sword.”
Catherine guffawed outright.
“Indeed I do remember,” she affirmed with a nod, adding as she graced him with a gentle nudge, “Aye, my good man, those were jolly times.” She paused here, adding as her dark eyed gaze collided with the bed beneath them, “”At times, in fact, I do wish that we could magically transport ourselves back to that very time and place, where and when we knew nothing but happiness.”
She took in her breath as an attentive Gaston took her full chin in some firm but gentle fingers and lifted her head until their gazes met and locked.
“Tell me what so troubles ye, milady,” he urged her on a whisper. “And more important, just what your devoted knight can do to make ye feel better.”
Catherine shrugged.
“Indeed, I am not sure that much can be done for a lady in my situation,” she revealed. “A duchess is born to be proper and good, to live in eternal service of her queen, her parents and her people. Ah, but she never must act in the service of her own heart—or, for that matter, of her own desires. To put it simply, Gaston, when may I have my fun? My sin? My outright ribaldry?”
She started as she saw the wide-eyed expression that met and greeted these words; one that conveyed, not empathy or shock, but blatant and very heated desire. She’d never seen Gaston’s jet black eyes come alight with such bare emotion, their ebony hue coming alive with flecks of greater gold.
“If I was your man, milady,” he told her, voice low and rough, “Ye never would want for my affections. They would be yours—along, I must add, with all of the fun, sin and outright ribaldry ye so desired. Any time, day or night.”
For a long moment the couple stared at one another, their breath suspended as their gazes locked and their lips loomed dangerously close...yet so far away. As much as she longed to sweep this gorgeous, abiding man up in her arms and devour him, finally satisfying the raw lust that held her being captive, she knew that her station and duties forbade her from doing so.
And, apparently (she couldn’t help but note with a pout), so did her knight servant.
“Ye must remember, milady that the good Lord Gerald only has your best interest at heart,” he reminded her, taking a deep breath in what seemed a blatant attempt to control his own raging yearnings, “He wishes only to show ye greatest respect, and to preserve your maidenhead.”
Catherine nodded.
“I well know this, Gaston, and I love my intended more than I can say,” she told him, adding as she spread her arms between them, “I only wonder, though, if he truly respects his previous lovers—the countesses, the duchesses, the common women and chambermaids who have filled his busy bed. I only hope that he acted a gentleman with them, as well, as opposed to using and discarding them with little thought to their feelings.”
Gaston thought a moment and then shook his head.
“I tell you true, milady,” Gaston declared, covering his knight’s heart for emphasis, “In all my days at court, I never hath seen or heard of Lord Gerald being anything less than a gentleman, and a right honorable lord. And when it comes to ladies, of all ages and stations, he is nothing less than chivalrous.”
Catherine smiled, but only briefly.
“Aye, I am most relieved to hear this,” she admitted, “This revelation, however, does beg the question: If Gerald does indeed respect and revere his lovers, then why cannot he not be with a woman he loves and respects already? Why did he reject me this eve, Gaston?”
Sensing her distress, the knight wrapped some tender arms around his lady’s sturdy back.
“Regardless of how much a gentleman respects a lover,” he reminded her, tone soft and comforting, “A lover still differs from an intended wife.”
Catherine let loose with a low, bitter laugh that brought a pronounced frown to the visage of her knight.
‘Ah, I well see,” she sniffed, setting aside her teacup and rolling over onto her back; her gaze now focused on the fine bronzed tapestry that oversaw their conversation. “And in what other ways, I wonder, do I happen to differ from Gerald’s previous lovers? The ones to whom he actually gave his body and affections? Was it just my title that divided me from the lovers he took? My status as his future wife? Or is it also my plump form? Perhaps my less than beautiful face? Could it be, I wonder, that Gerald plans to keep his pretty little maids after our vows have been said? Well I shall not stand for it, one moment, I tell you….”
She fell silent seconds later as her vision was filled with the sight of her intense, concerned friend, his face glowing beautiful against a bronze backdrop as he seared her with emotional eyes.
“Ye, milady, have a beauty that far surpasses that of any lady at court,” he assured, cupping her face in two tender hands as he added, “Ye have a radiance that glows from within you—a beauty that I adore. And that I now wish to taste.”
With these words Gaston claimed her lips in a hot, passionate kiss; his full, moist mouth devouring hers as his breath came hot and hard.
Surrendering immediately to his advance, a rapt Catherine met his advance with a bare, raw hunger expressed in her kiss. Plying his delicious mouth with hers, she thrust her tongue into his mouth to entangle and dance with his; also entwining her fingers in his silky black hair as his tender fingers caressed her cheeks.
Finally Gaston broke their kiss, engulfing her in a heated gaze of narrow eyed seduction as he released on a whisper, “”Milady, do forgive my boldness. Yet I must confess that, well beyond the incredible care and respect that I always have borne for you, I also harbor a secret desire for my adored, worshipped lady. I want ye, Lady Catherine—I always have, and so badly.”
Catherine’s eyes flew wide as her impassioned knight fell to his knees before her; staring up at her with an intense gaze as he whispered, “It is my duty as your knight servant to fulfill your every need and desire and ensure your happiness at all costs. So with this in mind, milady, I hereby offer you my body this eve. I swea
r to bring your fantasies to life, to meet every demand of your beautiful, lustful being,” he paused here, adding in an intimate tone as he took her hands in his and brought her upward on the bed, “I swear, furthermore, to love you like you’ve never been loved before.”
She stared at him for a long moment, and then graced his words with a nod of assent that came accompanied by a wide and most devilish smile.
“Ye may,” she said simply.
Letting loose with a joyful whoop that seemed delightfully improper, a beaming Gaston fell at her feet, freeing them from her slippers as he licked and suckled her toes.
A happy Catherine sighed with delight as his knight massaged the pads of her feet; reaching upward to strip off her hose and underthings and drag them down the length of her legs. This delight intensified as he kissed and licked his way up her legs and thighs, finally bowing his head between her parted, fleshy thighs to blow a soft kiss across her tender feminine folds.
Opening herself to him with a gasp of excitement, his lady threw her head back as he wrapped his full, moist lips around the surface of her throbbing nub; kissing and suckling as shards of ecstasy soared upward through every fiber of her being, causing her heart to pound as he leaned his head inward to intensify his kiss.
Moving his head from side to side to intensify the feeling, Gaston growled low in his throat as the soft tendrils of his ebony hair teased the skin of her thighs. He licked, nipped and laved her heaving nub until sensation overcame her; also reaching upward to caress her breasts as his nipples hardened beneath his touch.
Finally and with a last resounding lick, her loyal knight sent her hurtling across the bounds of an incredible climax—the first she’d ever experienced. Catherine shuddered outright as reams of succulent pleasure consumed her from head to toe; in a fit of passion her body descended outright into the luxury of lavender softness.
Hopping onto the bed in a single smooth flourish, Gaston gathered her trembling body into two strong arms and held her closer than close, showering her face with sweet gentle kisses as he whispered, “What you just experienced, milady, was only a small sample of the pleasure I can give you--of the incredible pleasure I can show you, this and every eve.”
Catherine nodded.
“I desire ye,” she insisted, opening her arms to him, “Now, my knight.”
Sweeping her up in adoring arms, Gaston cradled her in a tight embrace as he lowered her onto the bed beneath them; seizing her parted lips in an intense kiss as he unlaced the sparkling girdle that formed the top of her exquisite ball gown, soon peeling the dress from her sweat lined body to leave her exposed in her bodice and chemise.
“I wish to see ye,” she hissed, stripping off his tunic and hauberk to reveal a massive bronzed chest; one that gleamed in the light of the solitary candle that stood on her engraved bed stand. “Ye are beautiful.”
Standing tall and proud from the bed, a grinning Gaston flexed his golden pectoral and abdominal muscles for the pleasure of his duchess.
“Like what ye see, milady?” he hissed, adding with a wicked smile as he grasped the border of his sleek hose and pulled them down nice and slow over long, trim legs, “Care to see more?”
Catherine gaped outright as, for the first time, she bore witness to the shaft that she and her friends had giggled over and rhapsodized about, the beautiful man part that was longer and more beautiful than she’d imagined.
And now that she’d seen, the lady longed to touch.
“Come to me,” she growled, licking her soft, pearl pink lips as she threw herself down into the cushiony surface of her luxury sleeping place; a spot where, or so she suspected, she wouldn’t be getting much sleep this eve.
True to this notion, her passionate knight descended upon her in a gentle but passionate frenzy, gathering her up in encompassing arms as their naked bodies joined.
Burying his head in her neck, an ardent Gaston kissed and licked her nape as he slipped off her sweat lined chemise and unlaced her corset; soon tossing both on the floor beside them as her breasts crushed against his rock hard chest. Their arms and legs entangled between them as his long, hard shaft soared upward to tease her cleft, seeming to salute her as her famished hands stroked the length of his firm, planed back—laying a firm slap on his peerless ass as the lovers reveled in their sinful and most delicious act.
Their hips and thighs locked between them as they rolled fast and reckless on the bed. And as Gaston buried his head in Catherine’s heaving breasts, licking her nipples as his sturdy hands ran the length of her sensitive sides, Catherine massaged his back and rock hard behind as she tossed her head back in a fit of ecstasy.
“Ye know not how long I have dreamed of this moment,” he hissed against her skin, his rock hard hips gyrating hard against hers as he added in a breathless tone, “I never thought this day would come. And now that it has, I must contain my excitement. I must be gentle with your breaching.”
Accenting these words with a passionate kiss, Gaston ran a loving hand across her tender breasts and down her rounded stomach; finally reaching between her parted legs to once again stroke open her tender feminine folds.
Gasping as she felt once again the divine feeling of pleasure she’d experienced before, his lover ducked her head to rain adoring kisses across the breadth of his masculine chest; then seizing his lips in another heated kiss as he settled himself between her thighs.
Clutching her body to his, an adoring Gaston licked the roof of her mouth as his lips plied hers and his fingertips teased her enflamed clit; reawakening feelings of intense desire that seized her body and soul.
She threw her head back as his hands and mouth served to stoke a fire within her, one that finally inspired her to throw her legs around his trim waist and arch her hips against his.
“Now!” she hissed, running her fingernails down his planed back and throwing her body against his.
Taking this as a cue, her aroused lover eased the tip of his mighty shaft through the slit of her wet femininity; advancing forth inch by inch as she moaned outright in obvious approval.
Catherine bit her lip as a quick flash of pain was consumed in a greater haze of pure, unmitigated pleasure; one caused by the feeling of his magical fingertips working and kneading her nub, and by the deepening penetration of his long, hard shaft.
Their hips found an immediate rhythm as his free hand stroked her back; their hips and thighs locking between them as their bodies danced and writhed together.
“I, too, have dreamed of this,” she revealed, sinking in his warm embrace as their free hands finally enclosed, and his pulsating member slithered within her--surging forth through the confines of her lush feminine garden and toward her feminine core. ‘I, too, wondered if we’d ever come together.”
“I rejoice that we did, my love,” Gaston hissed out, laying a final firm squeeze on her throbbing feminine fruit as his reverberating shaft plunged forth to her core. Soon he sent them both over the edge of an incredible, multi-layered orgasm.
The couple clung together in a haze of sweet pleasure as ecstasy overcame them, driving them deeper into one another’s arms as they cried and howled their pleasure.
“Aye, that was incredible,” Catherine sighed relieved, her tired, satiated body collapsing into the all-encompassing embrace of her ever-loyal knight.
“I am so glad that I please you, milady,” Gaston pulled her closer to him, smattering her cheeks with sweet kisses as he added, “As ye have pleased me, so very much, and made my dreams come true.”
Catherine smiled.
“Twas a beautiful night that we have shared,” she agreed, adding as her beam dissolved, “Yet what, I must ponder, will happen on the morrow?”
Chapter Three
As was customary, Lady Catherine answered her own question before dawn next morn, when she and her knight servant stole away from the royal feasting hall and took off on horseback in the direction of Ballamore; the palatial castle that Catherine shared with her parents, the honor
able Lord Dirk and Lady Sophia, servants to the Royal Crown.
“The last thing we be needin’ is for Gerald to catch ye coming out of my chamber before dawn,” she told Gaston, adding as she bit her lip, “I did leave a missive for him, to assure him that all was well and that I simply needed some time to consider things. I also told him that I well loved him.”
Gaston nodded, sitting astride Nuit, his trusty ebony stallion, as he kept his gaze trained on the emerald grassed meadow that lined their path to Ballamore.
“If I dare ask, milady,” he asked her. “How much of that sentiment do ye actually mean?”
“Every word of it,” Catherine answered immediately, reaching forth to stroke the silken mane of her chestnut mare, the ever whinnying and much beloved Carissa. “I do indeed love Gerard very much. I am no longer certain, however, that I wish to be his bride.”
Gaston nodded.
“Do I happen to play a role in that decision, Miss?” he queried, casting a cautious glance in her direction.
Catherine bit her lip. Again.
“Yay,” she said finally. “Of course ye do, Gaston. Our friendship has ignited something more, something beautiful. I cannot be ashamed of the affair that has brought me such joy and freedom. And do ye know what, my friend?” she paused here, screeching outright as her lilting voice carried high across the meadows, “I want more of ye, ye gorgeous man! AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”
Gaston guffawed outright.
“And ye indeed may have me, milady,” he assented in a deep, booming voice that equaled her own in terms of sheer and unbelievable amplification, “As many consecutive times as ye so desire, and AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”
Yet with his tone lowered, and he penned her with a serious stare.
“As much as I adore ye, my dear, sweet Catherine, ye must remember our stations in life. I as a knight cannot wed a duchess—and ye most certainly cannot marry a knight,” he reminded her. “Ye must abide by your parents’ wishes. It is their demand that ye wed Lord Gerald.”
ROMANCE: THREESOME : Billionaire Brothers' Party (MFM Menage Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Threesome Short Stories) Page 70