He was overcome by powerful emotions he did not even care to examine let alone explain. Eventually he ventured to dip the tip of his tongue into her mouth slowly and sensuously, holding back on the fierce desire that suddenly consumed his body, fearing that he might frighten her with the strength of his passion. Sex was most probably not the answer but now that he was here with her, his only excuse was that he couldn’t help himself.
With a soft sigh, the tension left her body and her mouth softened as her tongue tentatively brushed his. Their kiss deepened, becoming more passionate, and he felt sexual desire well up even stronger inside him as his stomach tensed and his cock began to harden. He was desperate to pull her close and caress her breasts, then possess her again completely, no longer just in his fevered imagination but in reality once more. Instead he was forced to hold back on his desires as he kissed her with affection and reassurance.
The empty goblet slipped from her hand and made a clattering noise as it fell on the floor. Edwina jumped in surprise but Stephen held her close and whispered softly, ‘You are still beautiful, Edwina. As beautiful and desirable now as the day we first met.’
‘Stephen,’ she murmured, relaxing in his embrace for a moment. Suddenly, she drew away from him a little. ‘We should not be alone like this. I’m newly widowed. It is not seemly.’
‘Not even when the king himself commands it?’ he said, smiling reassuringly at her. ‘We are under royal protection. He thought it might help if he sent me to care for you at this unhappy time.’
‘The king commands it?’
‘He knows how much we once cared for each other, does he not?’
‘Stephen, I don’t know anything any more.’ She didn’t appear at ease in his company; and why should she be, he asked himself. The present situation Was very different now from what it had been in the past.
‘I arranged for a bath, I thought it might please you.’
‘I stink of the sickroom and the water looks so tempting.’ She glanced longingly at the tub of water where a thin trickle of steam was still rising lazily in the air. ‘It is a luxury that has been denied me for such a very long time.’
‘Then bathe you shall, at once.’ He drew back the coverlet and watched her shakily slide her legs from the bed.
Edwina winced a little as she planted her feet on the wood floor. ‘I’m more exhausted than I thought, it seems,’ she said tremulously as she smiled awkwardly at him.
As she stood up, her shift slipped from her shoulder, revealing the upper curves of one small, firm, creamy breast. Her full bosom had shrunk with her loss of weight but she was as desirable as ever to him. Lust filled his loins and he felt his cock stiffen even more beneath his clothing. He wanted to bed her right now and the licentious side of his nature told him it wouldn’t be inappropriate because she was a widow and now had a measure of freedom for the first time in her life. Hugh had no living heirs and, with the money and land she had brought to her marriage, combined with his riches, she was now an extraordinarily wealthy woman. Many men would clamour for her hand. Yet she was exhausted and he knew that it would be wrong to take advantage of her weakness and even think of bedding her at a time such as this.
‘Come.’ He rose to his feet. ‘Let me help you.’ He went to take her arm.
‘No, Stephen.’ She tensed nervously.
‘I’ll expect nothing you are not prepared to give,’ he assured her. ‘I wish to help you bathe, nothing more.’
‘The water does look inviting.’ She took a cautious step towards the tub. ‘A bath would be wonderful.’ She gnawed anxiously at her lip.
‘Do not be so modest, Edwina. It is not as if I’ve never seen you unclothed before.’ He stepped closer but did not touch her. ‘You are so weak I doubt you can manage alone, but I will keep my eyes averted as much as possible.’
‘My body is not as it was then,’ she said tremulously as she glanced down at the soft fabric of her shift, which had moulded to her diminished breasts.
‘You are as beautiful to me as you always were. I can assure you that you’ll soon grow fit and well again, especially after I feed you some of the rich sweetmeats that Princess Berengaria loves so much.’
‘They say that the Saracens like their women well fleshed,’ she said awkwardly. ‘So they would not like me either.’
‘You placed your trust in me once. Can you not do so now?’ he pleaded.
She might be embarrassed about her looks and her situation but surely she knew she could trust his words above all else. However, what troubled him most was that he sensed that her concern at present was prompted by more than just mere modesty.
Edwina took another couple of hesitant steps towards the tub. Stephen frowned. She was wearing something quite bulky beneath her shift and he couldn’t understand what it could possibly be.
Pausing, she looked nervously at him and, when she realised what he was staring at, fear and concern clouded her eyes again. ‘No, Stephen . . .’ she faltered. ‘It was Hugh, he made me wear it.’
‘Wear what?’ he asked in confusion as he saw tears start to roll down her pale cheeks.
‘He has the key.’ She looked wildly around the room. ‘I know not where it is or how to find it now that he’s gone. I have looked before and it is not in this room.’
‘The key to what?’ Her words were not making any sense to him.
‘I’m ashamed,’ she said uneasily. Biting her lip, she nervously pressed the fabric of her shift to her body and he could see that she appeared to be wearing what looked like some kind of heavy belt around her slim hips. ‘And I cannot get it off.’
‘You’ve no reason to be ashamed,’ he said gently, feeling very confused. ‘If you need my help then there can be no false modesty. You must show me what concerns you so much.’
She stood there, looking forlornly at him. ‘I cannot,’ she said with a sob, shaking her head.
This was certainly not the time for maidenly indecision. ‘Yes, you can,’ he said determinedly, as he stepped forwards and gently took hold of the hem of her shift. Stephen lifted the fabric slowly, first revealing her slim legs, which were trembling visibly. As he reached her hips and lower torso she gave a murmur of embarrassment but he ignored it as he saw the strange contraption fastened securely around the lower half of her body. ‘By St George!’ he gasped. ‘What is it?’
‘I know not what you would call it,’ she said shyly, her face flushed with humiliation. ‘Hugh obtained it from a master craftsman who came from Florence. He told me that in some lands men force their women to wear these things to ensure their chastity.’
As far as he could ascertain it was a wide metal belt with elaborate hinges set at intervals to give it a measure of flexibility. It girded her body just below her waist and another, wider piece of metal, ran down the front, over her belly to disappear between her legs. Stephen was appalled and the thought of her being forced to wear such a contraption made him feel sick with disgust.
‘How long has he made you wear this thing?’ he asked with concern as he examined it more closely. It was terrible to be sure, but it was also exquisitely crafted with metalwork finer than anything he’d ever seen before.
‘When the mood took him. Or when I displeased him in some way,’ she explained awkwardly, clearly mortified by his discovery. ‘Of late, far more often, perhaps because practically everything I did seemed to anger him. Here, he could not keep me hidden away like he did back in England. This time it was because some young nobleman smiled at me. Hugh was insane with jealousy even though he claimed not to desire me one jot. He made me put it on some days ago, just before his unexpected illness.’
‘Yet surely it is not designed to wear for such long periods,’ Stephen said. He wondered if it might have been fashioned to be used on a fleeting basis, just as titillation between lovers, nothing more. Nevertheless, Hugh had cruelly strapped her into this contraption as a punishment because she had displeased him in some minor way. He presumed it must have some provision t
o allow normal bodily functions, but he could see wide red weals on her skin where the metal had chafed her delicate flesh.
‘It is uncomfortable most of the time,’ she confessed, tensing as he reached out to touch it. ‘Now I fear that I will never get it off.’
‘Have no fear of that, Edwina.’ Stephen swept her into his arms and carried her back to the bed. As he lay her down on the mattress, he made sure her shift was rucked around her waist so that he could see all of the belt clearly.
‘What will you do?’ Her face was scarlet with embarrassment but she made no attempt to cover her modesty.
‘I never told you of my friend Robert,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘His father was the local blacksmith but in his youth had been a thief. I hasten to add that he had paid dearly for his crimes and obtained the necessary absolution from the village priest, so my father agreed to employ him in our castle. Merely to amuse us both as young boys, Robert’s father taught us how to open just about any lock. Believe me, the skill has proved very useful on a number of occasions when I have been carrying out missions for the king.’
He glanced around the room and eventually his gaze rested upon an ornate tray filled with hairpins. Striding over to them, he selected one. ‘This looks suitable.’ He stepped back to the bed.
Edwina watched as he bent the pin into the shape he required. ‘You can open it with that?’
‘I know I can,’ he said sounding far more confident than he actually felt. A door lock was huge in comparison to this exquisite piece of ironwork, a tiny padlock barely bigger than a walnut which held the belt together at her waist. ‘Stay still,’ he warned her as he eased the tip of the pin into the tiny keyhole and moved it gently until he connected with the lock mechanism inside. He wriggled the pin carefully until he heard just the faintest of clicks. ‘As I said – it was simple.’ He smiled, happy that he’d managed it so easily as he eased the hasp of the lock open.
Edwina gave a sigh of relief as he pulled the waistband of the belt apart. Her skin looked red and inflamed but was not damaged as much as he had expected it to be because the inside of the waistband was padded with soft leather. ‘Stephen!’ she gasped in horror as he leant down and gently prised open her legs.
‘I cannot get it off otherwise,’ he said lifting her bottom to ease the two hinged metal straps, which rested either side of her buttock cheeks, down towards her thighs. Just as he’d suspected there were lines of small perforations in the piece of polished metal that cupped her sexual parts, but he could see that the sides had dug into the tender flesh of her groin, rubbing it raw in places. ‘Hugh was a monster,’ he muttered angrily as he eased the cruel contraption away from her body. It made a noisy clattering sound as he threw it on the floor with disgust.
‘Thank you.’ She went to pull down her shift but he gently stayed her hand.
‘One moment.’ After rising to his feet he strode over to the tub and wrung a washing cloth out in the water. He walked back to Edwina, knelt before her and lovingly cleansed her sexual parts, trying to ignore his sudden surge of lust at the sight of her secret pink flesh. Swallowing hard, Stephen suppressed his shameful desires as he felt her shudder every time the damp cloth brushed her abused skin.
‘You will soon recover,’ he reassured her as he tossed the cloth aside. ‘I have a wonderful salve in my baggage, which I obtained from an Arab doctor. It will heal your skin in a couple of days or so.’ He tried to concentrate on her face and stop himself from looking down at her tempting sex again. ‘I’d kill Hugh if I could. You know that?’
‘It appears that fate has already accomplished that task.’ She smiled nervously. ‘I do not know what I would have done if you’d not been here, Stephen. I could never have asked anyone else to free me from that thing.’
‘I give thanks that I was here then.’ As he moved his hand away from her, his fingertips briefly brushed her mons and he couldn’t be entirely sure if it was an accident or whether unconsciously he wanted it to happen. ‘Forgive me,’ he muttered awkwardly is he saw her shudder in response. He was mortified that he could still feel desire just by looking at her sexual parts, when all he should feel was anger for the suffering she had been forced to endure.
‘There is nothing to forgive . . . it felt . . . it felt good,’ she said shyly. ‘You will never know how much I have missed the loving touch of a man I desire. Sex with Hugh was cold and brutal; all I felt was loathing and disgust. When I couldn’t bear it any longer I used to close my eyes and try to pretend it was you.’
‘Edwina,’ he groaned, unable to resist the temptations of her flesh a moment longer. Wanting to replace all the pain she had suffered with pleasure, he leant forwards and brushed his lips against her mound. Her soft sparse pubic hair tickled his lips and he longed to slide them downwards towards her cleft.
‘Please,’ she murmured as she allowed her thighs to roll open.
The unspoken invitation was clear. Gently he slid his fingers into the slit of her sex and caressed the soft pink velvety flesh. To his surprise it was already becoming moist.
‘I thought that you would not welcome such intimacies so soon,’ he murmured, looking back at her to see if her expression displayed any revulsion, but she had a half smile on her lips and her eyes were closed. Tenderly, he explored her soft folds until he found what he sought, the small bud of her clitoris. At least the casual liaisons he’d indulged in since their parting had taught him more about pleasuring women, he thought wryly. Yet he still found it amazing that touching something so small and insignificant could arouse a female so much. As he gently stroked the bud, he heard Edwina give a low keening moan of bliss. Then he could have sworn that he felt the tiny nub of flesh stiffen as her sex grew even moister.
‘I’d forgotten how good this felt,’ she gasped, then tensed in surprise as Stephen dipped his head between her slim thighs and ran the tip of his tongue along the folds of her sex. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’ve learnt that there are many different facets to lovemaking, my sweet girl,’ he murmured as his tongue delved deeper, lapping and teasing her sensitive flesh.
Edwina stiffened as his lips found her clitoris and fastened around it. His tongue flicked against the small nub as he sucked on it gently. Stephen heard her gasp with pleasure, and she thrashed her head against the pillow as he began to suck harder, pulling the nub deeper into his mouth while his fingers continued to delicately explore every part of her sex.
Stephen ignored his own needs, the aching rigidity of his cock and the tenseness in his balls as he continued to use his mouth and lips until she was moaning and twisting beneath him like a woman possessed. He slipped two fingers into her soft sheath, and the smooth interior seemed to swallow them up willingly. He moved his fingers gently, finger-fucking her until she was beyond anything but her own imminent release.
3
Edwina lay on the bed and watched Stephen strip off his clothes, feeling almost euphoric and hardly able to believe that her life had changed so much In an instant. Stephen looked so gloriously masculine, fitter and more muscular than ever, although there were a number of unfamiliar scars on his body which reminded her of how much time had passed since they had been forcibly parted.
She shivered with anticipation as he turned towards her, his delicious-looking cock swinging free between his muscular thighs, and she felt faint at the thought of that thrusting inside her again. How could she suddenly feel so wanton, she wondered, as he eased her shift from her body and swung her into his arms.
‘Your bath awaits, my lady,’ Stephen said as he strode over to the tub and gently deposited her in the water. It felt warm and deliciously smooth, lapping around her soiled skin like a soft caress.
‘That is wonderful.’ She felt that she could just close her eyes and drift dreamily in the comforting warmth but clearly Stephen had no intention of letting her slip into an indulgent lethargy. He picked up a washing cloth, wrung it out in the water and then rubbed it over her shoulders and down her back.
‘My soap,’ she said, pointing to the small jar which Fulk had sent her from France. It was a sweetly scented concoction which was far kinder on the skin than the acrid-smelling potion they used in Hugh’s castle in England.
Stephen poured some of the soap into his palm and began to rub it gently onto her skin. First he massaged her arms, then her back and shoulders, but it was clear that his thoughts were not just connected with cleanliness. Her breasts were not covered by the water and her skin prickled sensually as his gaze roved over the upper half of her body. Edwina sighed softly as his hands brushed her breasts. Cupping the small globes in his palms, he squeezed them gently and shivers of pleasure darted down to her groin. Soon, his soapy fingers focused on her nipples, squeezing and pulling at them until they hardened into firm peaks.
‘Your body is so tempting, my sweet,’ he groaned as he leant forwards and kissed her lips. He carefully rinsed the oily soap from her body with the soft cloth.
‘As is yours,’ she murmured, conscious of how impossibly firm his body was as she felt his muscular chest pressed close to her shoulder. Edwina resisted the sudden temptation to look down at his cock, knowing that by now it must have already started to grow hard. Dear Lord, how she wanted this man and needed to feel his swollen shaft thrusting inside her.
She had clung onto her wonderful memories of Stephen for such a long time, until they had gradually been swallowed up by Hugh’s constant brutality. Even on her wedding night he had been cold and vicious, unconcerned with her feelings and intent only on his own release. Her memories of Stephen’s sensual lovemaking helped keep her sane in the early months; even though Hugh had been furious beyond belief when he had discovered that she wasn’t a virgin. Yet, he had refused to set her aside and annul the marriage as he had no wish to relinquish her generous dowry. Even so, he had never for one moment let her forget that she had not been a maiden when they wed, castigating her about it constantly, using it as another reason, among many others, to treat her cruelly most of the time.
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