“Ahh, yes, girl, you are almost ready for me.” The fingers swirled expertly between her nether lips, playing with the sensitive nub. He half rose, putting her between his two sinewy thighs. He leaned forward, moving carefully toward his ultimate goal.
Lara watched him, fascinated, through half-closed eyes. The play of emotions across his face was most revealing. She sensed the tip of his manhood touching the entry to her body, felt him pushing his manroot into her, stopping, and then with a cry of undisguised triumph bursting through her maidenhead to fill her entirely. Lara cried out, for the momentary fork of pain caught her off guard. She struggled to unseat him, scratching and clawing at him even as the pain subsided quickly and was gone.
Enda caught at the dainty hands that fought him, pinioning them at her sides as he found his rhythm, and began to pleasure himself within her tight sheath. He groaned with his enjoyment, relishing her compactness as he was filled more and more with hot desire. Never had a woman given him such delight. He actually wept with the feelings consuming him, and realized he craved far more of her than he had any right to want. He brushed her lips tenderly, and was startled when their gazes met.
Lara looked at this man laboring atop her, and for a brief moment she felt sorry for him. His need for her seemed so genuine and so desperate. She didn’t understand why. “Free my hands, my lord,” she whispered to him. “Tell me what to do.”
He released her immediately. “Put your arms about me, and close your eyes,” he instructed her in a tight voice.
She did, drawing him down against her breasts, her fingers caressing the back of his thick neck. With her eyes closed she was more acutely aware of him inside her. She sighed and, catching his rhythm, matched it. He told her to wrap her legs about his torso, and when she did so she felt him slip deeper. She began to gain a certain pleasure herself now that she was no longer afraid or in pain.
Enda could not hold back any longer. She was too delicious, but he hadn’t had enough of her yet. Still his juices exploded forth with a ferocity that left him breathless, and Lara, surprised at another revelation Susanna had not mentioned. But when he collapsed upon her, she held him as she would have held a fretful baby, and in that moment Lara understood the power that women held over men. Men might think whatever they chose to think, but in the end women would rule the day. She almost laughed aloud. To take a man between your legs was nothing at all.
Finally his breathing grew normal, and he rolled off of her. “You show promise,” he said to her.
“I am glad if I have pleased you, my lord,” Lara told him dryly.
“I must summon Durga now,” Enda said. “He will want his share of you tonight before I may have you to myself again. Do not let him frighten you. He will be rough, and he will be quick if he is up to his usual form.” He laughed as he arose from the bed.
She lay quietly as he left the room, returning several minutes later with his older brother.
Durga viewed her with contemplative lust, his piggy black eyes bright. “Has she washed your scent off of her?” he demanded of his sibling.
“She will do so now,” Enda said. “I arose from her body immediately to fetch you, brother.” Reaching out, he pulled Lara up from the bed.
She hurried to the hearth, where the bowl of warmed water and a cloth was waiting. Susanna had advised her to always wash one’s private parts after passion. She winced, however, as she bathed herself, amazed at the amount of blood that had been shed in the taking of her virginity. When she turned back to the bed she found both men were already in it. Durga had drawn off his clothing, and she saw that while he was a big man, he did not run to fat. Lara approached the bed slowly.
“Hurry up, now,” Durga snapped. “I’ve waited for you long enough, I think.” Reaching out he yanked her atop him. “Sit up now, faerie girl, and let me play with your titties. They have a ways to grow, but they’re the prettiest I’ve ever seen!” His two big hands sat her up and grabbed at her breasts, crushing them and making her cry out.
“Gently, brother,” Enda said, laughing. “Lara is a delicate little creature, not like that big healthy cow, Truda, you’ve taken to your bed.”
“Truda knows how to give a man a good ride,” Durga answered. “You should try her sometime. She can suck a manroot better than any I’ve ever had.”
“I think I’ll keep my little faerie girl for a while,” Enda replied. “She gave me much pleasure tonight, and will give me more when you have had your turn, brother.”
“All right, wench,” Durga said, looking directly at Lara, “the time has come for you to give me a bit of that same pleasure.” He removed her from his torso, and put her on her back. Then climbing atop her he lifted his engorged manroot to her eyes, and pushed it between her two breasts, closing his eyes for a long moment. “What do you think of this one?” he demanded of her.
Knowing she was expected to comment, Lara said, “’Tis a very fine manroot, my lord. Quite different from the lord Enda’s.”
Durga laughed heartily. “Aye, mine can split a girl in two, and leave her wanting more than she ought to have.” And he roared with laughter once again. Then withdrawing himself from between her breasts, he pulled her beneath him, and without another word thrust hard into Lara’s body, groaning with delight at her denseness. His black eyes closed, a look of rapture blooming on his face as he pumped her vigorously over and over again.
She had not been ready, but he hadn’t cared. Didn’t even notice. All he had wanted was her body for his pleasure. At least Enda had made the experience a pleasant one. But Lara knew what was expected of her with this man. She cried out as if she were actually enjoying his attentions. She wrapped her legs about him, whimpering. But she felt nothing but anger at his cruelty.
With a roar and a howl he released his seed into her body. For the briefest moment he lay atop her, crushing her, but then he arose. “She’s good, brother, and with your careful schooling she will eventually be perfect. I’ve had my fair taste, and I wish you much enjoyment of her. You may have her to yourself for the autumn, but come the winter I will want her again. But I am willing to share as we have this time. Good night.” And gathering up his few garments he left them to find Truda, for if truth be known, it was Durga this night who wanted more than he ought to have.
Lara arose and bathed herself again. She was sore now, and where Enda had taken care with her, Durga had left her feeling dirtied. Returning to the bed she lay down, and waited for Enda to claim her again.
Instead he said, “Sleep now, Lara. I will stay with you, and later I shall have my pleasure of you again.” He rolled away from her, and was quickly asleep.
She was surprised, but grateful. She doubted he would be as thoughtful in the nights to come, but this was tonight. She reached for the crystal to reassure herself. Well it is done, she told the guardian silently.
Yes, it is done, Ethne returned as silently, and the flame flickered. Lara closed her eyes and slept.
When she awoke she could see a sliver of light coming through the leaves outside the window, and Enda was covering her face with his tender kisses. “You wish more pleasuring,” she said quietly, looking at him directly. She supposed he could be called handsome. He was tall, and big-boned, his skin ruddy from being outdoors. Durga, however, was stockier and shorter than Enda, although just as big-boned. And Durga’s features could not be called pretty by any means, though his black beard was attractive. His dark eyes were small, and his nose large. Yet they had the same mother. It was curious, Lara thought.
“Aye,” he agreed, “but first you need a little bit of soothing. Open your legs for me, Lara,” and when she had he slid between them. Drawing her nether lips apart with two fingers, he let his tongue begin a journey of exploration about the coral shell of her womanhood. He licked her slowly, first the inside of the lips themselves, and then moving deeper into the more hidden regions of her body.
Lara murmured with surprise at his actions, but it was so nice, and he was soothing
her newly opened flesh. The pointed tip of his tongue swirled gently about the opening to her sheath, and her eyes closed to better savor the sensations he was now arousing within her. She was almost purring. The tongue touched the sentient nub within her flesh, and began to tease at it. She moaned and moved restlessly as her body grew hot, and she experienced a longing she had never before felt. She could feel her own wetness as the nub tingled.
He raised his dark auburn head, his brown eyes glazed with his desire for her. Then slowly he moved his big body up and over her, his manroot sliding into her smoothly in a single motion. And then he lay quiet. “Do you feel me within you, Lara?”
“Aye, I do, my lord.” He seemed thicker and longer than he had earlier.
“Tell me,” he murmured hotly in her ear.
“You are hard,” she whispered. “Harder and bigger than before. I feel the heat from you. I am almost afire.”
“You are beginning to experience passion,” he told her, “and you could not have a better teacher, my little faerie girl, for I am a master of passion. Tonight I shall begin teaching you all you must know to please me, and thereby any man you take between your legs. But now I must release my lust for you for it but weakens me.” He began to move on her, and shortly she felt him filling her with his seed again. And when he had finished he arose from the bed they had shared, gathering his garments. “Remain in bed to rest,” he told her. “I will send a woman to you with food and water.”
“I want to bathe again,” she said.
“Will you do this every day?” he asked her, amused.
She nodded. “I like being clean, and I can smell both you and your brother on my flesh. Besides, I am more pleasant for you when I smell fresh.” She gave him a small smile.
“I will tell the woman she may escort you to the bathhouse,” he agreed, and then was gone out the door.
Lara slept, awakening when Belda entered the bedchamber calling her name.
“I have brought you something to eat. Gracious! That bed looks well used.”
Lara slid from beneath the coverlet. “I am well used, and the prize of my virginity gone in the night,” Lara told her, stepping from the bed.
“You bled heavily,” Belda said, pointing. “Was he pleased?”
“Well satisfied, and his brother as well,” Lara replied.
“Both of them?” Belda’s eyes grew wide. “You poor girl!”
“First the lord Enda, and then his brother who came, conquered and departed. Lord Enda is not a bad sort I suppose. He was not unkind last night when he breeched me, or this morning when he took his fill again.” Lara pulled on her chemise. “He says I may go to the bathhouse.”
“Aye, so I was instructed by the lady Sita. Do you want to eat first?” Belda inquired. “I’ve brought a meal.”
“First I need to get the stink of those two men off me,” Lara told her. She picked up her cloak and started for the door. “Have you see the giant, Og, who lives in the bathhouse? Lord Enda says it is the only place other than the out-of-doors where he may stand up.” She followed Belda down the stairs through the hall and outside.
“They say the Forest giants were servants of the Forest Lords until some plague wiped them out. Og was an infant, and the only survivor,” Belda said. “Imagine an entire race being extinguished like that. Poor fellow must be lonely.”
They hurried through the village which was busy this morning. Lara noticed that some of the women pointed toward her, and others made signs as if to ward off a hex. Reaching the bathhouse they went inside where Og greeted them, bowing low.
“The lord Enda sent ahead to say you would be coming, lady,” he said.
“I am Lara,” she told him. “A Pleasure Woman, and nothing more, Og. Please call me by my name. And this is Belda, a slave woman.”
“The water is hot, Lara,” Og said to her, and he smiled a sweet smile. He had very light blue eyes, and short cropped red hair. “Go in, go in.”
“I’ll come back for you,” Belda said. “Do you know how long you will be? The lady Sita doesn’t approve of idleness, and so I must return to the hall now or be punished.”
“Perhaps a half an hour,” Lara said. “I washed my hair last night.”
“I’ll tell my lady, and someone will return to escort you back,” Belda said, and then she hurried out.
Og ushered Lara into the bathing room, and then withdrew, closing the great oaken door behind him. Alone now, the girl shed her enveloping cloak, slipped out of her chemise and stepped down into the water, pinning her hair up as she did. It was hotter than last night, and perfect to take the soreness from her body. With a sigh she closed her eyes. The worst, she hoped, was over, although she still didn’t understand what it was they wanted of her. After a few minutes Lara stepped onto the lower step of the tub and, taking up the washing cloth, dipped it into the stone jar of soft soap. She washed herself thoroughly, removing the soap with the rinsing shell by the bathing tub’s edge, and then returning to soak for a few more minutes.
Finally remembering that someone would be coming to escort her back to Durga’s hall, she stepped from the water and wrapped herself in a large drying cloth. A long dull day stretched ahead of her, but at least there was more mending to do. She had not finished repairing Enda’s garments yesterday, but she probably would today. And what would she do tomorrow, penned in those two rooms? She would ask him tonight for a little more freedom. Even in the City she had been permitted to roam. Pulling her chemise back on and covering herself with her cloak, Lara came from the bathing room. But no one was waiting for her. She sat down on a bench within the waiting room where they had waited last night for Og to stoke the fires heating the water.
The giant shuffled into the chamber, ducking his length beneath a stone arch in order to do so. “I would take you back myself, but they are very bound that things be done a certain way. Your desire for a bath has discommoded them. They will make you wait here to punish you.”
“If they would permit me to speak with the lady Sita I could schedule my visits here to coincide with their tasks,” Lara said.
“Yes,” he agreed, “that would be the sensible thing to do, but the Forest folk don’t always do things in a sensible manner. They have their traditions, their ways, and will change nothing. You are part faerie?”
“Aye, I am. And you are the first to understand that half faerie is not all faerie,” Lara told him with a smile.
He chuckled. “If any of them had ever seen a real faerie they would know the difference,” he told her.
“You have seen them?” Lara was intrigued.
“You must not tell,” he said, and was suddenly frightened. “I should not have said it, Lara.”
“I will keep your secret,” she promised, reaching out to pat his huge hand with her tiny one. “I am good at keeping secrets. I thought the Forest Faeries were the allies of the Forest Lords.”
“Once,” Og said, “but no more. They work hard to keep that fact unknown lest any think they have lost their powers as the oldest clans on Hetar.”
The door to the bathhouse opened, and Truda stepped inside. “I’m to escort you back to my lord Durga’s hall,” she said sourly.
“Goodbye, Og,” Lara said, rising and following after Truda.
“Goodbye, Lara,” he called after her.
Chapter 7
“YOU TALK with that dirty giant?” Truda wanted to know.
“He is the bath keeper,” Lara said. She didn’t want to talk to Truda.
“My master, lord Durga, came right to my bed from yours,” Truda said. “You obviously didn’t give him much pleasure.”
“But you do,” Lara answered sweetly. “I am glad.”
Truda looked confused. She had just bragged on her allure, practically saying that hers was obviously greater than Lara’s, and yet the faerie girl had simply agreed, and she had even been pleasant.
Lara could see the puzzlement on Truda’s face. Good! She didn’t want to speak with the woman to begin w
ith, and now she had rendered her speechless. They climbed the winding staircase up the tree and entered the hall. “Thank you!” Lara told Truda cheerfully, and ran into the corridor where Enda’s chambers were located. Safely back in those two rooms she opened the trunk, and took out the two garments that still needed mending.
Suddenly the door to the chamber opened, and a woman stepped through. “I am the lady Sita, Lord Durga’s wife,” she said. “I came to see if you were all right after your ordeal last night.” She was a tall woman with sad eyes, but an air of command.
Lara arose, and bowed from the waist. “Thank you, lady, I am well. Tired, perhaps, but well.”
“You are mending Enda’s garments?” There was surprise in Sita’s voice.
“I am not used to being idle,” Lara told her. “That is why I asked for needle and threads yesterday. Thank you for sending them.”
“I did not know Pleasure Women were able to sew,” Sita replied.
“I am not a Pleasure Woman, lady. I was supposed to be, but I wasn’t sold to a Pleasure House. I was sent to the coast. Virgins entering the pleasure houses have their first-night rights auctioned off, and not until after that night are they taught their craft. My father was a mercenary until he became a Crusader Knight at this last tournament just held in the City, and I helped my stepmother keep his house clean and his garments mended. I am just a girl, no more,” Lara told her quietly.
“Then why did they buy you from the trader?” Sita asked.
“I do not know, but I believe it had something to do with the fact that I am half faerie. They seemed quite interested in that,” Lara responded.
“Who told them that?” Sita said.
“The slave woman, Truda,” Lara answered.
Sita nodded, and then she said, “You will tell no one of this conversation between us, girl. Do you understand me? Sometimes it is better a wife know things that perhaps she should not for the protection of her family.”
“You are the mistress of this hall, lady, and I will obey you. In return I beg your permission to bathe at the bathhouse each day. It is my habit.”
Lara: Book One of the World of Hetar Page 16