Fortune laughed softly. "Dare I ask you if you know how to help a lady remove her gown?" she said.
Kieran grinned, and turning her about began to unlace her bodice even while Fortune undid the tapes holding her skirts up. In short order she stood in her chemise and petticoats. Pulling the garments up she held out a slender leg to him. Kneeling he slid the silk rossetted garter off, and then rolled the gold silk stocking down the shapely limb, and over her foot, kissing her kneecap as he did so. She giggled. He repeated the procedure on her other leg, but then he surprised her for his hands glided smoothly beneath her skirts, clasping her buttocks in a firm grip as he drew her body forward, his face pressing itself against her belly, rubbing insinuatingly.
Fortune could feel the heat through the fabric of her undergarments. She could acutely sense the longing he felt. Her hands touched his dark head, and gently caressed it. His hair was thick, and silky to her touch. He looked up at her, and the passion she saw in his deep blue eyes took her breath away. Instinctively she loosed her petticoats, letting them slide down, drawing her chemise over her head, and dropping it. He released his grip upon her long enough to allow the silk to fall away; then he grasped her once again, but this time he bent his head slightly, his lips touching her plump Venus mont.
Her head spun, and her fingers tightened in his hair. She couldn't speak for a long moment for her throat was so tight. Her heart beat wildly against her chest as a burst of heat washed over her.
"Fortune! Do you mean to tear the hair from my head?" she heard him say in a strangled voice.
She looked down and saw that she was gripping him fiercely. "Ohh!" Her fingers loosed their hold on him.
His blue eyes danced now with amusement. "You have a strong grip, wife," he told her. Then he stood up.
"I like it better when you kneel at my feet," Fortune replied pertly, the delicious shock of his intimate kiss receding.
"You are utterly charming without your clothes," he told her.
" 'Tis time you had yours off, sir," she replied wickedly. Then her fingers began to undo his doublet, casting it aside in a heap with her wedding gown and petticoats. She loosened the ties on his shirt, her hands glossing beneath the fabric to press against his chest. Pushing the shirt from his shoulders so that it fell to his hips, she bent her fiery head and began to kiss the warm flesh with tiny, feathery kisses. Unable to restrain herself she let her tongue smooth over his skin.
Kieran gritted his teeth. She had the manners of a courtesan, and yet he knew she wasn't a wanton. "I'm going to remove my breeches," he warned her. When she didn't answer him, but instead kept on kissing and licking at him, he loosed and then lowered the garment in question.
Fortune's head shot up. "You aren't wearing any drawers!" she squeaked. Her eyes were riveted on his manhood as his shirt slid by it to the floor. She had brothers, and was not surprised by his possession of a manhood, or even its location. It was the size of it. She stared, fascinated, a bit frightened, yet enthralled. Then she spoke. "It's wonderful. Why don't you wear drawers?" Her hand was itching to reach out and touch him.
"They're a waste of time, and material," he said, intrigued by her reaction. Then he pulled her to him. She melted into his body, feeling the hard length of him against her thigh. His fingers brushed over her mouth. He saw the innocent desire rising in her eyes. He wished she weren't a virgin for he wanted nothing more than to plunge himself into her sweetness right now.
"Hurry!" she whispered into his ear.
"You're not ready yet," he told her. "Don't you think I want to take you right now, Fortune? But I won't hurt you. I want this first coupling between us to be perfect. I have waited a lifetime for you!" His mouth came down fiercely on hers, kissing her deeply, taking her breath away as he plundered her lips, kissing and nibbling upon them until she was gasping. His tongue found hers, stroking it sensuously. He could feel the little nipples of her breasts hardening, and pushing against his chest. Lifting her into his arms, he stepped from the puddle of velvet and silk that was his breeches and shirt. Walking across the room he laid her gently upon the bed.
Looking up at him she held out her arms. He smiled, and lay next to her, taking her hand in his, and kissing first the palm, and then each finger. "You are the most beautiful girl I have ever known," he told her quietly. "And you are the only girl I have ever loved."
"In practical terms you are the most implausible man I could have married," Fortune replied softly, "but I love you, Kieran, and I have never loved any man. Not even an infatuation, my darling. I want to please you, but I have absolutely no real idea of how to do so. Mama would tell me nothing except the mere rudiments for she says, as did my sister, that passion between two people who love each other is wonderful, and indescribable."
He smiled into her eyes, and Fortune was suddenly filled with an incredible sense of well-being, knowing that she was loved. "Just be quiet, lambkin, and let me adore you in my own fashion. There is nothing to fear from me, Fortune." Then he kissed her lips again, but briefly, his mouth brushing over the pure white column of her throat, nestling into the tiny hollow beneath her ear. He nibbled upon her lobe.
"Do you mean to devour me then?" she teased.
"In very tiny bits that will last forever," he replied. His lips then found the soft hollow of her throat. He could feel her pulse throbbing excitedly beneath his mouth. He rested there a moment; then raising his dark head again he laid it upon her chest, listening to her heart which beat a tattoo beneath his ear.
Fortune caressed his head once again with her fingertips. She hadn't known what to expect, and while this was lovely, it really wasn't very exciting. Still Mama and India seemed to enjoy love-making. Was there something wrong with her? Then Kieran raised his head, and began to kiss her breasts. The sharp intake of her own breath was very audible, and almost painful. She lay helpless as he cradled her in the curve of an arm. Then his big hand began to fondle her tenderly, but firmly. His fingers lightly crushed the supple flesh, leaving brief marks she could see in the shadows of the firelight. A frisson of sensation ran down her spine when he pinched a nipple, and a small "Oh!" of surprise escaped her lips.
He rolled onto his back, drawing her atop him. She felt her cheeks flaming with the exquisite intimacy as their naked bodies touched from shoulder to toes. His hands caressed the length of her, brushing over her suddenly sensitive flesh. Then those hands fastened themselves about her narrow waist, and lifted her up so that her breasts hung over his face. Raising his head just slightly he licked at her nipples, and a little moan slipped from her lips, to be followed by a gasp as his mouth closed over a nipple, and he suckled upon it. Now this was definitely more exciting, Fortune thought, and then she gave herself up to the delights he seemed to be engendering within her by his actions. She sighed deeply as he transferred his mouth to her other nipple.
He was rolling them again. She found herself upon her back once more. He began to stroke her breasts and belly. Waves of heat again coursed through her body. There was a distinct tingling in that forbidden spot between her legs. Unable to help herself she squirmed slightly. He smiled knowingly, putting his hand upon her Venus mont, and pressing down. A bolt of sensation shot through her. A single finger began to run up and down the shadowed gash between her nether lips. She could feel the moisture beginning to ooze from between those fleshy folds as his finger glided back and forth.
"You will be ready soon, sweetheart," he murmured against her mouth. He was as hard as granite now, his male member throbbing with excitement and anticipation.
"Do what you did before," Fortune begged him. "Please!"
"Little wanton," he laughed, and then he pushed his finger between her nether lips to find her love button.
Fortune gasped with pleasure as he attained his goal. This was what she had wanted. Not the caressing, but the excitement of her own lust. "Ohhh, yes!" she cried to him. "Don't stop, Kieran! Don't stop!"
He had no intention of stopping. He played with the sentien
t nub of flesh, exciting it, rousing it, making her squirm with her own rising passions. Her lust boiled over once, but he did not cease the sweet torture until she was whimpering with another burst of delight. It was then he growled into her ear, "Open yourself for me, Fortune!"
"Not yet," she pleaded, wanting more.
"Now!" his voice said harshly as he forced a knee between her thighs, levering them open. "Now, you honied little bitch, before I explode with my desire for you!" Reaching down he positioned himself, and then with two fingers he pinched her love button hard, sending Fortune into a paroxysm of pleasure. At that moment he plunged deep into her eager body, feeling her maidenhead explode with the force of his fierce thrust, hearing her astonished intake of breath.
"Ahhhh!" she gasped. His initial entry had been painful, but now the pain was quickly gone. She became awakened to his possession of her. Her first reaction was to be frightened, but then she was acutely aware of how he filled her. It was so natural. So perfect. She sighed deeply, her arms wrapping themselves about him.
"Look at me," he commanded her.
She opened her eyes and stared into his which were so filled with his love and his passion that she was near to weeping. "I love you, Fortune," he told her once again. "I love you!" Then he began to move within her. With each stroke of his love lance she became more and more conscious of a new pleasure that was rising within her, reaching up to claim her very soul. Her gaze locked itself on his until the intensity of her emotions was so great that her eyes closed of their own volition, and for the first time in her life Fortune soared among the stars.
He drove deeper and deeper into the sweetness of her. Her fingers dug strongly into the flesh of his muscled shoulders. "Please! Please!" she said huskily, and he understood the delights she was experiencing because he was savoring those same delights as their bodies, one now, peaked together in a fierce firestorm of satisfied passion.
"Kieran! Ahh, 'tis sweet, my darling! Sweet!" Fortune cried as she was swept up in a maelstrom, and then hurtled down into a pool of warm darkness.
His hunger burst, flooding her secret garden with his juices as he collapsed upon her lush body. He could scarce catch his breath, but he quickly realized his weight on her was much too much, and rolled from her. He lay gasping, feeling the moisture from his exertions oozing from every pore of his body. As his heart slowed he heard it. A soft weeping. Stricken he turned toward her. "Fortune? What is it, sweetheart? Why do you weep? Have I hurt you?" He was a beast! he thought. So wrapped up in his own pleasure he hadn't even considered her. He gathered her into his arms. "What is it, lambkin? Tell me!"
"I am so happy," she wailed, and wept all over his smooth chest. "I have never been happier in all my life, Kieran!" she sobbed. "You were so worth waiting for, my love. I didn't think love would ever find me. When I met your brother, and knew almost at once he wasn't the one, and thought I might have to take him because it was expected…" A fresh flow of tears poured forth from her blue-green eyes.
He wanted to laugh at her innocent confession. He wanted to shout with joy at it. Instead he held her tightly. "I didn't think love would find me either, Fortune, but then I saw you, and knew I could not let Willy have you. I would have stolen you away in the manner of my Celtic ancestors if you had chosen him. You are mine! You always were, and you always will be. Now, cease your weeping, my love, and kiss me," he told her, turning her to face him.
Their lips met in an almost desperate embrace. Then drawing away from him she said candidly, "Can we have each other again tonight?"
He nodded. "Aye, but let me rest awhile, and you also, my darling. I have much more to show you, and to teach you, Fortune. I hope you will not be disappointed."
"I want to know how to pleasure you," she said. Then she climbed from their bed, and padded across the bedchamber to where a silver ewer had been set next to a small pile of soft cloths. Bringing them back to the bedside she set them down, and first washed herself, then bathed his manhood carefully. "Mama calls these love cloths. She says it is advisable to bathe after each encounter with passion because then we are ready for more."
He had never heard of such a thing, but it seemed quite sensible to him, and he certainly had no objection to the procedure. "I like it," he said. "Will you always care for me so tenderly, Fortune?" He reached up, and fondled her breast, rubbing the nipple with the pad of his thumb.
"Aye," she said, carefully putting the basin and cloths aside, then climbing back into their bed atop him. His two hands began to caress her two small round breasts. Fortune clasped him between her two milky thighs as she would her gelding. "I can ride you, sir, even as I do Thunder. Will you prove as lusty a mount?" she teased him, almost purring as he squeezed her breasts. She arched away from him, and his hands glided down her torso, sliding around beneath her bottom to fondle it suggestively. "Ohh!" she squealed, and wiggled herself against his outspread palms.
He chuckled, and looked up at her, his eyes twinkling. "So, you're not afraid of my lust, my beautiful wife." His strong fingers kneaded her flesh. He could feel his love lance hardening with each of her very provocative movements. She had wondered if they could make love again tonight. He now wondered if he could stop. He had never known such desire for a woman as he had for Fortune. Usually his lust was easily satisfied with one good tumble, but not with his young bride.
She could feel the throbbing of him, and raising herself above his manhood she slowly lowered herself onto it, a gusty sigh escaping her as she couched his lance entirely. He groaned, and pulling her forward so he might kiss her again began to move rhythmically within her. Their lips tasted each other. Their hearts beat frantically. "Oh, God!" Fortune cried desperately as he drove once again with unrelenting insistence until the stars were exploding within her head, behind her eyes, and in her very heart.
"Fortune, my love!" he cried out as his desire peaked once more, his arms tightening about her as she yielded herself to him again.
And afterwards as they lay together, fingers entwined, he insisted that she sleep for a time. "You are so fierce a lover, my darling," he told her, "but you must rest, and so must I."
"Yes, sir, my lord husband," Fortune replied sweetly, sated, and replete with her contentment. "But can we please do it again when we awake? Kieran? Why are you laughing? Have I said something amusing?"
He somehow managed to restrain his mirth. "Are all the women in your family this passionate, Fortune?"
"Isn't passion with your husband a good thing?" Her look was honestly questioning.
"You will never hear me complain, my love," he told her, "but this thought suddenly comes to mind. I don't have to worry about my little brother killing me when he learns I have married you, Fortune. You will probably kill me with your wickedly delicious lustful nature before much longer. Willy doesn't know what a narrow escape he had." And he laughed again.
"Villain!" she scolded him. "And you have yet to answer my question. Can we make love again after we have rested?"
"Aye," he said, and then, "I wonder if I shall live to see the morning, you delightful wanton."
Fortune leaned over him, and ran her tongue along his lips before kissing him quickly. "Now that you have shown me the delights of passion, my love, I intend keeping you alive," she told him.
"Keeping you content will be a lifetime occupation," he replied, pulling her against him so that she could hear the steady beat of his heart.
"You will have to work very hard," she told him.
"Oh, madame, I will," he responded. "You may be certain that I will."
Chapter 11
“What do you mean Kieran has married Fortune Lindley?" Jane Devers stared at her husband uncomprehendingly.
"They were wed yesterday by the Reverend Steen at Maguire's Ford's church," her husband replied. "I was there, and witnessed the ceremony."
"You allowed this thing?" She could feel her anger beginning to rise. "You let that Celtic bastard of yours marry the greatest heiress in all of Fermanagh?
How could you?" Her fair skin was mottled with her ire, and she was practically gasping.
"How could I prevent it?" he asked her quietly. "The duke of Glenkirk and his wife were content with the match. And do not ever again refer to my eldest son as a bastard, Jane." His look was hard.
"What else is he?" she shrieked. "Your Catholic marriage was illegal. That is the king's law! Your children by that creature you called a first wife were not legitimate, and yet I looked the other way, raising them as if they were my own. When you recognized William as your legitimate heir, I thought we were of one mind, Shane."
" 'Twas you, my dear, who said unless Kieran became a Protestant I must disinherit him if Mallow Court was to be protected, and remain in the Devers family," he replied. "Are you now telling me that if Kieran had complied, and became a Protestant, you would have claimed he was illegitimate because my first marriage to Mary Maguire was celebrated in the Catholic Church?"
"Yes!" she told him bluntly. "Yes, I would have! We did not marry for love, Shane. You married me for my inheritance, and I married you for Mallow Court. Did you really think I should let Kieran have it after my William was born? And if I had not borne you a son, but only a daughter, I should have wanted it for Bessie. Mallow Court does not belong to you, Shane. My father bought it with his gold, and I sealed the bargain when I let you grunt and sweat over my body in order to give you a daughter and a son. In the eyes of the law they are your only legitimate heirs! Do not ever forget it!"
"I am not such a fool that I believe ours a love match, Jane," he said, "but I did think we had an affection for one another after two children, and all these many years. I am saddened to learn I was wrong."
"You Irish are such romantics," she sneered. "Marriage, like anything else, is a practical business, Shane. Now, let us discuss this disaster that has come upon us. Kieran cannot be allowed to have Erne Rock, and Maguire's Ford. It would give the local Catholics who persist in remaining here too great an advantage."
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