“Can you hear me getting closer to you?”
“Yes.”
“When I reach you, what do you think I am going to do to you?”
“Kiss me?”
“Think about what you saw that day in the barn. What is it that you saw that you wish for yourself?”
Diana sighed. “The words…are difficult to speak.”
“You can say anything you wish here. You know that.”
True. “I want…her pleasure.” There. She had spoken it aloud.
“Wouldn’t you wish for more than that?”
“Is that possible?”
“Oh yes…it is indeed possible.” His tone was deep and the words seemed to come from just behind her, breathed into her ear. “I can show you all the possibilities. All you need do is be willing to learn.”
Diana closed her eyes. Was he standing right behind her now? It sounded as if he was and she fancied she could feel the warmth of his body, so close to hers that they were nearly touching.
But he did not touch her.
“Imagine that the woman you saw in the barn was you.” His voice whispered by her ear. She could hear something in his tone, a thickness, that deepened and roughened his voice. “Imagine us on this bed together.”
Diana opened her eyes and looked at the bed. An image of them both lying there did arise. She saw Alaric’s hands smoothing their way along her flesh.
“Imagine my hands and mouth on your skin. What do you think it will feel like?”
“Hot…”
“Yes and you will like it, for my hands will be working to bring you the pleasure you wish. They will move only where you desire them to move. They will be yours to command.”
A shiver racked her body, almost violent in its power.
“You will be in control,” he murmured and this time, his warm breath touched the skin at the back of her neck. Tremors ran beneath her skin, up and down her body, radiating from that point.
She felt his fingers on her hair, tugging at the thongs. “Let me,” she murmured, lifting her hands.
“No, I will do it all,” he said quietly. Even as she dropped her hands again, she felt the thongs loosen and fall away. His fingers slid deeply into her hair, spreading it, smoothing it. She felt it fall over her back, warming it.
Next, she felt him tackle the ties around the lower legs of her trews. They fell away and his hands loosened and removed her shoes. Now she stood in trews, tunic and belt. She heard him stand up again and felt the warmth of his body just behind her.
“Take off your belt.”
With trembling hands, she slowly unbuckled the worn belt and her tunic loosened and fell straight from her shoulders. She felt the trews beneath slip lower down her hips and settle.
His hands were in her hair, gathering it, drawing it aside, exposing her neck. One hand drew the tunic over the edge of her shoulder. It dropped down her arm, revealing the upper slope of her breast and her upper arm.
His head brushed past her ear and Diana knew he was going to touch his lips to her skin. Her breath caught in her throat. But for a moment he did not touch her. He hovered, his hot breath radiating against her shoulder, sending a series of little shivers down her back.
Diana bit her lip.
Then he laid his mouth against her skin and it was indeed hot. Moist. What she had not expected was the tingling jolt that ran down her body. It seemed to arrow in to the tips of her breasts and deep in the pit of her stomach, where it curled and grew.
His hands were working on the ties of her tunic and they gave away suddenly. The tunic slid down her arms and puddled around her feet. Except for the trews riding low down on her hips, she was naked. For a brief moment she felt exposed, until his hands came to rest around her waist, the fingertips sliding over her hips and across her abdomen. Her concern for her nakedness fluttered away.
The flesh beneath his fingers quivered, again sending echoes of the jolt into the pit of her stomach, which seemed to roll over slowly. Pleasurably.
“Tell me what you want.” His voice was a rough shadow of itself.
Diana frowned. “I do not know. How could I?”
“Yes, you do know. Listen to your body. What is it telling you? What do you crave?”
She knew. She wet her lips with her tongue and whispered, “Up.”
“Move my hands up?”
“Yes.”
With intolerable slowness, his hands smoothed over her skin, sending little ripples out over her body, so that even her fingers tingled. His hands drew up toward her breasts and Diana found she was drawing in her breath slowly, anticipating his touch, yearning for it.
At last his hands cupped the breasts themselves and Diana gasped.
“Is this what you want?”
“Yes.” She frowned. “No.”
“Ah, then this is what you want—” and his fingers slid a fraction higher and caught at her nipples, sliding over the top of them, rubbing them.
Sweet, singing pleasure! Ah! Involuntarily, Diana’s back arched sharply and her head fell back. From a distance she heard a groan, a woman’s groan and realized that it was her making that uninhibited sound. She had fallen back against him. His body was hot against hers. She could feel his heart thundering but then his hands moved again, sending shooting spasms of shock through her and Diana could only focus on her body, on the rolling waves of delight. She wanted more.
“More,” she said, her voice husky.
She was startled to hear Alaric groan, a deep sound that reverberated against her shoulders. His hands grew still, then dropped away from her breasts.
“Ohh…” she breathed, disappointed.
He was turning her around to face him. She did not resist him, despite her nakedness and did not try to hide herself from his gaze.
“Say that again,” he demanded.
It was then Diana realized that she was having an effect on Alaric too, although she had not touched him at all. His eyes seemed drowsy, yet his body seemed taut beneath his clothes. His voice was not his own.
It was then she understood that the power ran both ways. “Kiss me,” she told him.
He cupped her face with his big hands and studied her lips for a moment. Then slowly he brought his mouth toward hers. The first touch was light, featherweight. Enough to feel heat, moisture but no more.
The next touch was more substantial. She felt his lips firm against her own and it was as sweet as he had promised. Diana felt herself falling under the spell of the kiss, lost in a world of feelings. Touch, taste and even scents, bathed her.
This was the spell that mere mortal man could spin, then. This was the spell that Alaric had spoken of at supper.
Diana found her arms were around his neck. If his arms had not been around her waist, his hands against her back, she suspected that she would not be able to stand properly.
He caught her face in his hand and lifted her chin to look at her properly. “Rapture,” he breathed and seemed pleased. “Do you want more, my feral kitten?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’d best lie down before your senses steal the choice from you.”
“Yes,” she breathed again.
He laughed and scooped her up in his arms. He was going to place her on the bed but now she felt no fear. Her longings made her bold, for when Alaric laid her down upon the covers, she reached for and grasped his tunic. “Your clothes. Take them off.”
His answer was a slow smile. “At once, my lady.” He did move at once to obey her command but his movements were just as slow as his smile. First the belt and tunic, revealing well-muscled arms and a chest grown strong from controlling sword, shield and high-fettled warhorse on the battlefield. As he threw away the tunic, the muscles moved under his skin in a way that mesmerized her.
Next, the lower thongs and boots. Then he straightened and his hands fell to the ties of his trews. He looked at her and kept her gaze while he loosened and lowered the trews and stepped out of them.
Diana sat up, staring at him. He
jutted out proudly. The rest of his body was as finely honed as the upper half. He was no scrawny farmer. Her gaze drew back to the proud flesh once more.
“Your turn.” Alaric indicated her own loose pants.
Diana understood then why he had not removed them himself. It was for her to strip away the last piece of clothing from her body, to show willingness.
Diana loosened the inadequate ties and slipped the trews from her. Suddenly shy, she curled up her legs beneath her.
Alaric sat on the bed in front of her and brushed back errant hair from her shoulder, letting it cascade over the back of his hand as he had done once in the forest clearing. Then his hand settled at the back of her neck.
“Tell me what you want.”
Diana took a deep breath. She knew now where this would end. She was able to draw on her crude and cruel education at the hands of the Saxon leader, although the memory itself had no power over her here. But the education spoke of pain and discomfort.
“Don’t be afraid,” Alaric said. “Tell me what you want. What does your body tell you?”
Her body was aching for his touch. She reached for his hand and lifted it to her breast. She gasped at his touch. “I want this.”
“I can do better than this,” he told her and lowered her back to the covers. Then, surprising her, he took her nipple in his mouth and she felt his tongue and teeth play with it. She gasped hard at the sharp thrill that speared through her and continued to echo itself in slowly increasing waves. Her hips arched hard and she felt an answering pressure, for Alaric’s thigh lay across her hips. His body was pushed up against hers.
It was like the Saxon but at the same time not like that at all. Here, Alaric was giving her pleasure. Not taking it. And she was here willingly. The last of her fear swept away, as Alaric moved restlessly against her, his hands and mouth continuing to weave the spell of mortal man. Diana joined him, learning rapidly, a willing student.
When finally he rested over her and between her thighs, Diana was ready—she could feel an empty ache inside her that cried out in need and knew that Alaric’s entry would be welcomed and would feel right.
His first thrust was slow, so slow that Diana writhed and cried out in frustration. But Alaric’s caution was needed, for despite her readiness, Diana found his intrusion caused a little pain. He paused, then thrust a little more and slid into her completely and Diana felt a fierce joy, for it did feel right.
After a moment Alaric withdrew a little, then thrust again. This time there was no discomfort and her body folded around him with pleasure.
The rhythm became clear to her and Diana gladly joined it, letting her body catch the stream and be swept along with Alaric’s. She grew aware of a mounting tension in her, an excitement that seemed to be building to…something. Curiously she allowed herself to be pulled along by the demands of the excitement and it gradually grew to a point that seemed feverish. Diana felt that she would snap with the tension if it did not stop and it didn’t, for Alaric’s body against her own was creating it and his thrusting had increased. She could feel the excitement press her body into a taut bow. Her breath caught and hitched, caught and hitched, until she thought that she would never breathe again.
She was right on the verge…and then suddenly, she felt the tension snap and tremendous, powerful waves of primal pleasure surged through her, battering her with exquisite, torturous delight.
Alaric’s body, too, tightened against her with locked joints and straining muscles and she reveled in the pride that knowing she had brought him to that point.
Now I am a married woman.
* * * * *
Diana woke at the sound of a door being opened and for a moment she lay warm and content, watching a watery light play over the painted daub.
This is not the library.
She felt movement beside her and remembered. A hand settled on her bare hip beneath the covers, then swooped the length of her torso, to cup her breast. At the same time she felt a warm pair of lips against the back of her shoulder. Both hand and lips stirred her.
She snuggled back against him, feeling the heat he generated along the length of her body. Too, she could feel him stiffening against her and contained a secret smile.
Alaric’s mouth moved to the top of her shoulder, then kissed her neck. “Time for work,” he murmured.
“Work?”
“You have an estate to run, remember? Besides, your breakfast is growing cool.”
Diana realized that she was hungry and was astonished.
“What breakfast?”
Alaric groaned. “What else? Gruel.”
Diana looked around. “But…where?”
“Where else? In the library. Come on. Up. Up.” He pushed her toward the edge of the bed.
Diana scrambled out of the bed, before his unceremonious pushing landed her on the cold floor and shivered at the chill touch of the tiles on her soles. She scurried into her clothing, aware that Alaric had risen and was also dressing.
Diana pushed past the hide that covered the doorway to the library and saw that she had not imagined the sound of a door closing. For standing on the table, as always, were the two bowls of gruel. As an extra surprise, though, was a platter of steaming honey bannocks, a recipe that one of the soldiers had taught Sosia.
Diana sat on her usual chair. Alaric appeared and took his place on the other side. Diana was already halfway through her first bannock.
“What are the tasks for today?” Alaric asked, reaching for a bannock.
Diana had to organize her thoughts and find the current list, before she could give him an answer. They fell to planning the day ahead in exactly the same way they had planned any other day before. It was so much like any other day, that Diana felt a moment of wonder. Had she imagined the previous night?
When Alaric yawned, arms high, body stretched taut and motionless, Diana paused to watch, her breath catching. The tension in his body was similar to another tension, one that she had witnessed several times the previous night. She knew then that she had imagined none of it—how could her imagination possibly have invented such a scenario?
The reminder set her body to tingling again. When Alaric finished his yawn, he glanced at her and his eyes narrowed. “There is no need to ask where your mind wanders, my lady,” he growled.
Diana looked away quickly, embarrassed. “You may lay the blame for that at your own door,” she countered. “If you had not taken such pains to educate me, then I would not have such a path for my mind to wander.”
“Aye and I’d be the poorer for it too,” Alaric drawled.
She glanced at him and found he was not laughing at her. She turned to face him properly again. “Why did you do it?”
His expression sobered. “Why do you ask?”
“We both know that you did not have to go to such great effort. Now I am your wife you are free to take what you will—”
“As the Saxon bastard did?”
Diana frowned. “They are not the same.”
“No? To you, they would have been.”
“That would have made no difference to you. A woman’s pleasure is of no concern to a man.”
Alaric smiled. “After last night, do you believe that I am not a man?”
Diana felt her face growing warm. “I do not mean…” She shook her head. “I do not intend to slight you. But any other man—”
“Would not have married you in the first place, my feral kitten.”
“Oh.” Diana nodded. “Of course. You married me to help keep your word to Arthur.”
“And are you not glad it was so?”
“It was a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Diana agreed. “But that does not influence—or explain…this,” and she waved a hand toward the bedchamber behind Alaric. “Or seating me beside you last night at supper.”
Alaric nodded. “You are right. Those were prompted by different reasons.” He crossed his arms. “You have fought hard to keep the place you chose for yourself
in the world, have you not?”
“Yes.”
“You agreed to marriage to preserve that place, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then how can we maintain the bargain if the marriage itself forces you from your chosen place?”
“Only in the eyes of others. We agreed beforehand that between ourselves—”
“An agreement that is held only between the two of us is of no use to you. The rest of the world must acknowledge it too. I merely enforced our agreement.”
“And last night?”
He shrugged. “I’ve learned that I do not like false subservience from you. I prefer you the way you have always been.” His gaze settled on her, his eyes narrowing a little. “Even in the marriage bed,” he added, his voice suddenly thick. Diana had no trouble recognizing that thickness for what it was. Excitement. Her own body was responding.
“Come here,” Alaric ordered.
Diana stood and walked around the table to stand before him. Alaric grasped her waist and pulled her between his thighs, holding her up against him. She could feel him stirring.
Listening to her body, as he had taught her, Diana followed her instincts, letting her hands explore where they wished.
“So, do we have a bargain, still?” Alaric asked.
“Is last night and today the way you intend things to be from now on?”
“Yes.” He gasped a little as her fingers caressed his small hard nipples under the tunic.
“Then it is a bargain I will happily keep,” Diana assured him.
He caught her hand as it began to move below his waist and stood up, picking her up around the waist. He moved toward the other room, carrying her.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To the bed.”
“But…the plans. The day…”
“Will start later and will be better served by me if I begin it without distractions.”
Diana smiled as he placed her on the bed, then rapidly stripped his clothes away, his gaze never leaving her. He lowered himself to the bed beside her, his hands fumbling at her own clothes. “Let us put the seal on our bargain,” he said.
It was a moment that Diana would remember. For the first time since she had stood and faced the Saxons, her sister and mother dying beside her, Diana could see the future, the way ahead, clear and straight. There was hard work to be had and difficulties but they were known quantities.
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