by K. E. Saxon
“So…you have not…you know…yet?”
The smile he gave her was strained as he shook his head.
Maryn could not bring herself to ask him to move away from her again. Not until he’d found his own pleasure as well. She tried hard to keep the disappointment from her voice when she said, “I see.”
“Dry your tears, love, I beg you.”
She wept? She had not known. “I do not weep,” she lied, “my eyes are damp from the…umm…smoke from the hearth.”
His lips tipped in a tender smile. “‘Tis a sweet untruth, that,” he said, before brushing them across each of her eyes and softly kissing the tears from her cheeks.
Her husband quaked rather forcefully now, she realized. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she lifted her head and gave him a soft kiss on the mouth. “I know you liked it not that you hurt me and I do want you to find your pleasure with me—the pain is almost gone.” And it truly was, Maryn was amazed to discover. “Make love to me, Daniel.”
A look of relief came over his countenance. With his eyes boring deeply into hers, he began to move in shallow plunges.
A feeling of splendor washed over Maryn and, before she realized it, she began to match her husband’s movements, opening her thighs wide as she moaned with utter delight.
“Wrap your legs around me, my love.”
Maryn complied and found that the new angle brought her even more pleasure. She felt herself tensing and trembling the way she had before when Daniel was savoring her. This time she knew what to expect and she gloried in the process.
“You are so lovely, sweetheart. And you fit around me so snugly—like a newly sewn glove,” he rasped out. “God’s truth, you do please me, love.” Taking hold of her hips, he plowed more deeply, more rapidly, into her. As he moved inside her, he brought his head down to her breast and suckled her nipple.
It was all that was needed to send her hurtling once more through the heavens. Maryn saw stars, thought she would swoon as a keening cry exploded from her throat. Fiery heat licked over her skin as she arched and strained, her inner muscles expanding and contracting around her husband’s thick, stroking manhood, while wave after wave of acute pleasure washed over her.
*
Maryn’s cries of ecstasy echoed through the chamber. Daniel growled and strained not to find his own release as he felt her sleek canal milking him in its hot grasp. But he was not near finished loving her yet. He rose to his knees, put his hands on the insides of her thighs and pushed them even further apart. Gazing down at the place where their bodies were joined, he slowly moved in and out of her. He felt himself grow harder still seeing her from this angle, watching as he delved into her feminine portal. She had her virgin’s blood on the junction of her thighs and his erection was red with it.
Still determined to draw out this first mating, he slowly pulled out of her, and a chill ran over his skin. He sucked a sharp breath through clenched teeth at the acute pleasure-pain.
She whimpered. Limp from the strength of her release and her eyes still closed, she was clearly in an erotic haze.
Daniel rolled to his side and rested his head on his palm as he gently tickled the sensitive folds of her labia once more with the tips of his fingers.
She moaned and threw her head back.
He stroked one, then two fingers inside her and rubbed her sensitive nub with his thumb. “Do I hurt you?”
She let out a loud moan and widened her thighs. “Nay,” she gasped, straining against his hand and trembling as he expertly stoked the flames of her desire once more.
Daniel’s sex expanded to a painful degree, his gaze never leaving his beautiful love-thralled wife. Her skin was flushed a rosy hue and damp from the attainment of sexual release. And her musky sex smell drove him mad as well. He leaned down and opened his mouth wide over the peak of her breast, sucking hard. When the wet velvet of her inner muscles began to contract around his fingers, he increased his sensual massage.
“Ooohhh…ah…ah…aaahhh,” she cried out, her face contorting in rapture.
Daniel continued his erotic manipulations until he’d given her another orgasm. But before the last wave of her release was over, he thrust himself back inside her. “Come for me again,” Daniel ground out.
“Aye,” she agreed, tossing her head as he brought her to the precipice of release once more. “Please…harder…oh, God, faster! Oooaaahh!”
He slammed into her, so deep he touched her womb, and immediately, uncontrollably, exploded inside her. “Maryn! Ahhh…ahhh…ahhh…aaahhh!” Giant swells of ecstasy crashed over him as he experienced the longest orgasm of his life.
This sent her over the edge as well, and she arched, screaming his name and fell back, limp and gasping for breath.
Dizzy from the incredible climax he’d just experienced, Daniel collapsed on top of her, nuzzling her neck with his day’s growth of beard. The feel of her soft, damp breasts billowing against his chest with each harsh breath, as well as her curving hips, so perfectly cradling him, fulfilled him in a way he’d never been before. He imagined remaining inside her while he recovered and then taking them both on another trip to the stars.
Nay, he must somehow control his lust for her, else he would surely maim her should he take her again too soon. As it was, she was bound to be quite sore from the aggressiveness of their recent loveplay.
A sense of complete satisfaction unfurled inside him, for his wife was an extremely passionate woman; the type of woman he’d dreamed of sharing his life with, but never believed he would. He kissed her shoulder and ran his lips up the side of her neck until he reached the soft lobe of her ear. “I do so enjoy angling for cold trout, wife,” he teased.
When he felt her body tense under his, he slowly pulled out of her and rolled to his side. Rising up on one elbow, he propped his head on his hand and gazed down at her. He was gratified to see the bright lights that sparked in her slumberous eyes.
“And I’ve acquired a taste for what that clever rod of yours offers, husband,” she quipped.
He chuckled at her quick retort and, grabbing hold of her, tickled her ribs.
She screamed and giggled. “No more! Stop! Stop! I beg you!”
When he did, Daniel could not keep himself from teasing her once more. “The way you gobble your food, I know not if I should encourage your taste for what my clever rod offers!”
“Daniel!” Both embarrassment and shock brimmed in her voice, but a light of confusion twinkled in her eye, which gave him a needed reminder of her innocence. He gazed down into her starlit eyes and stroked his fingers across her soft, smiling lips. He bent and repeated the action with his tongue, tasting the salt of their recent exertion. “I love you, Maryn,” he murmured against her mouth.
*
Maryn’s heart skipped a beat. Her smile changed to one of joy as she caressed his cheek. “And I love you, Daniel.”
He grinned and lifted his head to study her, a look of concern on his face. “Did I hurt you terribly, sweetheart? Are you tender?”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. She simply could not bring herself to voice her answer—it was much too humiliating. She did manage to shake her head, however, but Daniel would not be swayed. He rose from their bed and doused a cloth into the water in the wash basin, holding it in his hand a moment to warm it to an acceptable state of coolness before coming back to her side.
“Open for me, Maryn,” he demanded softly. “I want to cleanse your thighs of your virgin’s blood, and the cool cloth will sooth any soreness you may be feeling. I need to see for myself that my eagerness did not bruise you.”
After the second gentle urging, Maryn reluctantly did as her husband requested. She was mortified at having him examine her so. She knew this was not a rational reaction—after all, he’d not only seen that part of her earlier, he’d had his mouth on it as well! Rational or no, she could not watch him while he tended to her. She turned her head on the pillow and instead gazed at the flames licking the logs in the he
arth.
*
Daniel was relieved to see that there was no visible chafing once he’d rinsed her clean. He tested the tenderness of her feminine passage by slowly entering her with his finger. She tensed and hissed in a breath, giving him the answer he sought. He withdrew and leaned down to place a healing kiss on the delicately feminine region to which he’d just caused pain but that had given him his ultimate pleasure. After which, he rose from the bed to take care of his own cleansing.
He smiled, a bit amused by his wife’s inability to speak to him about her body, especially after the open way she’d responded to him earlier. But recalling the first moments after he’d broken her maidenhead—and later, the aggressiveness of his strokes inside her as he found his own release—he frowned and threw the damp cloth he’d just washed himself with into the blood-pinkened water. He should have been much more gentle with her. Thankfully, he had not truly hurt her. For she was tender, as he’d expected her to be, but not bruised as he’d feared she might be. But he would not be able to bed her again for a couple of days—he must survive on sweet memories instead.
Raising an eyebrow in speculation, a devilish smile tipped the corner of his mouth as he thought of other ways they might enjoy each other in the meantime. He turned and looked over at his wife. She was sound asleep. The devilish smile turned instantly to an arrogant grin. He’d exhausted her—just as he’d fantasized doing.
A moment later, Daniel lifted the corner of the blanket covering his side of the bed and crawled in beside his slumbering wife. He pulled her into his arms to hold her against him while he slept for the first time in too many nights. He fell asleep with a contented heart.
PART FOUR
The Magic Giant
“Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moonshine revellers and shades of night,
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office and your quality.”
Merry Wives of Windsor (Act V, Scene v) “I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly;
a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.”
Othello (Act II, scene iii)
CHAPTER 9
Two hours later, the dream returned. He could see and hear the bloody, violent scene, feel his mother’s fear, his father’s wrath, know both their thoughts, but could do naught to stop the mad fury being played out before him. He strove to cry out, but no sound came forth.
“Jamison, I beg you, do not do this thing!” Nora MacLaurin shouted. Prone on the floor of her bedchamber, she fought to free herself from the death grip another of the men had on her arms. He yanked hard, nearly forcing them from their sockets. She screamed in agony.
Jamison Maclean, already on his knees between her splayed legs, bent forward and swung hard, slapping her still-too-lovely face with the back of his hand. The knight’s ring he wore opened her bottom lip, mixing her blood with that of the others’ on his skin.
Nora began to keen then. “Please,” she mewled, keeping her face turned away from the monster who had fathered her bairn. Without warning, the large, blood-encrusted hand of her captor covered her mouth and nose.
“Hold her down!” Jamison instructed. “Do not let this bitch’s claws at my face again!” And then he swiftly unlaced his braies and lifted her legs high over his shoulders.
She attempted to kick him free, her cries muffled by the suffocating, calloused palm across her face.
“Aye, fight me—it makes the sport that much more gratifying!” He rammed himself into her then, with bruising force, wanting to cause pain, not pleasure, to this faithless, beautiful woman who’d ruined his life.
Nora’s entire body went rigid.
Jamison relished her reaction to his dry entry. “You shall have her next, lad,” he promised the youngest of his men, who’d not got his chance with the young maid downstairs before she’d perished.
“Your father liked it not that I fucked you before his eyes, did he, sweeting?” Jamison cruelly asked. He pushed deeper still, satisfied when she went rigid once again. “But worry not, he’s dead now—lost his head and his manhood this day!”
Frantic now, she began to struggle with a force that would either free her or break her bones—she cared not which. Her only interest in that instant was to liberate herself from the beast that rutted between her legs.
Daniel tried to run to his mother, but he could not force his feet to move. He was there, but not there. Knowing what was to come, yet powerless to change it, he watched the vile scene as it continued to unfold.
Long minutes later, after the last man finished with her, his father leaned down and sliced her throat, wiping the dirk’s bloody blade on the hem of her torn, stained, gown. “‘Tis the best way to stop a woman’s infernal bleating, I trow,” he said.
The men laughed at their leader’s jest.
With the familiar heavy weight of fury and despair crushing his chest, Daniel grew desperate in his need to get to his father, to kill the beast that had cold-heartedly cut short the lives of those he held dear. Fighting his body’s torpor, he tried with greater force to propel himself forward into the scene.
*
Maryn woke with a start. Tortured, guttural sounds were coming from her husband’s throat.
The hearth fire offered the only light in the room, but ‘twas enough for her to see his face. She raised up on her elbow and looked down at him. “Daniel?” she said softly, worriedly. He did not answer her. She touched her hand to his face. It was dripping with sweat! And his entire frame was atremble. Alarmed now, she looked into his open, fear-glazed eyes, but there was no recognition in them. “Daniel! Daniel, wake up!” she said, and grabbing his shoulder, she shook it forcefully.
He bolted upright.
She squealed and fell away from him.
His chest heaved with his rapid intake of breath as he pressed the base of his palms against his eyes, but he said naught.
Maryn’s heart beat fiercely against her ribs. She placed a hand over it and raised the other to his back in a calming caress.
His voice was grim when he finally spoke. “Go back to sleep, Maryn,” he said. “I’m fine. I just had a bad dream; ‘tis over now.”
But Maryn was much too shaken to go back to sleep. Besides, she wanted to know what preyed on her husband’s mind so insidiously that he was visited by it in his slumber. “What on earth were you dreaming of?” she asked gently.
“‘Tis none of your concern,” he replied, his tone harsh. “Just…go back to sleep as I told you to do.” He jerked out of her grasp then, as if he could no longer bear her touch, and rolled out of bed. He hauled on only his tunic before storming out the door without another word to her.
Heartsick and thoroughly confused, stunned tears gathered in Maryn’s eyes. Daniel had hurt her deeply. And she had been so blissfully happy prior to his stinging words—his abrupt departure. What had made him turn so cold, so distant, toward her? Was it the dream that had affected him so? She wondered again at the content of it. The terror he’d been in prior to waking was proof enough that his slumber was haunted by foes, not friends. Her heartache at his churlish behavior eased, and in its place, sympathy grew.
But why would he not tell her of his terrors? Should a wife not share her husband’s burdens, whether they be physical or spiritual? She ached to help him find his ease, but knew he was in no mood now to suffer further questions from her.
She at last resolved to simply let time bring them closer. Surely, after they’d spent more nights like the one just past, he would learn to trust her with his deepest thoughts and feelings. She resolved to tear down his defenses with a loving hand. She smiled to herself at the thought. After all, was that not the truest way to slay a giant?
*
The morning sun shone through the cracks of the shuttered window, landing delicately on the creamy smooth skin of his beloved. Daniel had awakened only moments before and took this time to watch his wife as she slept. The need to make love to her pounded painf
ully between his thighs, memories of her cries of ecstasy echoing in his mind.
Last night, he’d come to the decision that the dream’s return was somehow connected to his ever-blossoming love for his wife and had returned to their chamber a mere hour after departing it. Fortunately, his wife had been sweetly sleeping, not awaiting his return to question him further on the reason for his upset.
Tho’ his hands itched to do so, he dared not touch her now, else his resolve would surely wither into dust. For the time being, he must be content to simply enjoy the view. She stirred and the blanket covering her naked breast fell away, revealing the roseate peak.
“Hmmmm,” she sighed, slowly coming awake.
He looked up from his fascination into her glowing, slumberous eyes. “Good morn, my love,” he croaked, his voice not yet awake.
A joyous smile broke across her countenance. Lifting her head from the pillow, she kissed him fully on the mouth and, wrapping her arms around him, brought him down to cover the top half of her. Daniel allowed the contact for a moment, unable to resist the temptation, but finally pulled away, knowing ‘twas too soon for anything further.
Rolling onto his side, Daniel propped his head in his hand and gazed at her as he reached behind himself and grasped the prize for which he blindly searched. He lifted it high above her abdomen and let it dangle, one end softly stroking her belly. “I believe this belongs to you.”
She let out a surprised gasp. “Your mother’s girdle!”
“Nay, ‘tis yours. You should have allowed your father to take it when he retrieved your other belongings; a gift once given and accepted is not meant to be returned.” The dark centers of her eyes grew large and her lips parted as he continued weaving the sensuous spell by allowing the girdle to puddle a bit between her hip bones, before trailing the remainder of the length of thin silver discs over the rise of her mons and along the crease between her lovely thighs. The contrast of the silver filigree against the dark bronze hair that covered her pubic area intoxicated his senses. “I’d like to see you in this once more.”