The Second Sister (The Amendyr Series)

by Magdon, Rae D.

  Wanting her to feel this with me, I reached a shy hand between our bodies, feeling the smoothness of a hip, the point of a hipbone. My fingers wandered around her waist, moving lower and squeezing the swell of her backside with both hands. She groaned around the bud she was worrying with her tongue, looking up at me with dazed blue eyes. Releasing her lips with a slight pop, she stroked my cheek with her fingers, pressing the tips to my mouth. I bit at them gently and she smiled.

  “I’m sorry. Your touch makes me impatient,” I explained, smiling back.

  “I imagine it might. But you will only get what you want when I say so. Is that clear?” Sparks shot through my belly, and I nodded my head. Her control was firmly established as she reached a hand between my legs and caressed my inner thigh, not moving upwards even when I pleaded with her. I tossed my head against a pillow as she took my breast back into her mouth, her hands charting my legs and hips, but refusing to explore further.

  I was almost in tears when she finally moved her hand up, cupping me and squeezing possessively. A flood of wetness greeted her touch. I blushed and Belle kissed my warm cheeks. “Oh, Ellie...You fit inside my hand perfectly.” Her fingertips pressed between my lips, and her bright eyes glistened with tears. “I'm so in love with you...” she said helplessly, kissing a purple mark she had left on my neck. “Knowing I'm the first to touch you is making my heart burst.”

  I slid the palm of my hand down her slick back, rubbing soothing circles over her warm skin. “You'll be the only one to touch me.”

  Belladonna caught my chin with her lips, sliding her mouth up to meet mine in our gentlest kiss yet. “You're ready?” she whispered into my mouth.

  “I'm not afraid.” And now that I was used to feeling her body against mine, I wasn't. I trusted Belladonna with all my heart and trusting her with my body came easily.

  At last, she let the tips of her fingers press against my entrance, and her thumb grazed over a spot that made my hips jerk upwards. “Oh,” I gasped, surprised by my body's sudden response. “More...I want more of you, Belle. Please...” I opened my eyes and leaned up to kiss her tight forehead. The look of amazement and love on her face put all thoughts of pain out of my mind as she slipped a second finger into place and pushed forward, filling me with a slow, burning stretch. We held still, savoring our joining.

  My body offered no resistance as she moved inside of me, curling her fingers. The place where she had touched me before, the star of heat, began to swell and ache. I reached down to try and redirect her, because the feeling was almost too intense to bear, but she used her free arm to lift my hands back above my head. I remained stretched out before her, helpless.

  “Oh, Ellie, you're so soft and warm...feeling you is driving me mad.” She kissed me again, and I was lost in her lips.

  Although I had no idea what I was doing, my body responded instinctively. I rocked against her hand, trying to take her deeper. I did not care how shameless my behavior appeared. My inner muscles clasped greedily around her fingers, pulling tight around them as I gasped for breath.

  My responses only seemed to encourage her. After a few testing strokes, Belladonna found a place against my front wall that threatened to unravel me completely. She hooked her fingers against it, dragging a sharp cry from my throat. The pad of her thumb continued circling just above, grinding down firmly against me, and I feared that I might shake apart. I had never known that anything could feel this blissful.

  Suddenly, Belladonna removed her hand and shifted her weight. Before I could gather my thoughts and tell her not to stop, I felt lips skim down along the plane of my stomach. A wonderful, white-hot burn folded over the place where her thumb had been moments before, and my throat ached as I let out another scream. Forcing my eyes open, I looked down and realized that it was Belladonna's mouth. Her lips were folded around me, drawing me in as her fingers continued moving inside of me. “I...Belle!”

  She looked up and we locked eyes. I could not look away. The picture we made, her tongue scraping against me, my pink folds petaled around her fingers, her dark hair running down her back like wet ink, shattered me. I felt as though I was swelling out of my skin. Tears squeezed from the corners of my eyes as I shuddered and released all of myself to my lover.

  Belladonna's voice was somewhere nearby, comforting me with nonsense words as I drifted back to her. “Shh, that's it. I have you, my heart, I have you.” She was holding me in her arms, pressing kisses to every inch of skin she could reach. The place where her mouth had been shook and trembled with the memory of what I had experienced. “Are you all right, Ellie? Do you need to rest?”

  I shook my head, pushing away strands of wet hair plastered to my neck and cheeks. “Only for a moment. Then, you are going to teach me how to do that to you.”

  Belladonna smiled. “Anything you wish, my Ellie.”

  CHAPTER 3

  I WOKE WITH Belladonna's arm curved around my hip, her warm breath playing over the soft layer of skin behind my ear. Her breasts were pressed into my back, just above my shoulder blades, and for a moment, I felt the most profound peace I had ever experienced. Then, the fear came. It rushed in as soon as the stone wall of Belladonna's bedroom came into focus, tugging wretchedly at my insides. What if Belle left me now that I had given her what she wanted? What if she decided that I was a horrible lover and did not want to bother with me anymore? What if the diary was some sort of elaborate seduction?

  The thought of rejection frightened me. I needed the dizzying possessiveness and control of her kisses, the warmth of her hands against my skin, and the wonderful, stretched fullness of her inside of me. Now that I knew what it was like to love another woman, I was not sure I could live without it, without Belladonna. No one else would satisfy me. But what would happen now? Would she continue her rendezvous with Sarah and the others after we had admitted our feelings to each other?

  Belle stirred beside me, angling herself on her elbow and lifting her body to face me. I turned in her arms. Her fingers trailed along the small of my back, unwilling to lose contact with my skin. She looked at me, her sleep-swept hair sticking to one cheek. She must have seen the fear and doubt in my expression.

  “Do you regret what happened?” The words fell heavily from her lips.

  “No,” I said, my voice cracking with sleep. “I was worried that you would have regrets.”

  “Of course not.” She lowered her body back onto the mattress and pressed her forehead against mine. She gently fingered the small bruise that ran down the column of my throat, circling a purple bite on my collarbone. Even the memory of the marks she had left, breaking the fresh landscape of skin, sent shivers of lust along the ridge of my spine.

  Belladonna felt me tremble and held me tight against her chest. “Oh, darling...” She wrapped her fingers around my naked wrist, gripping it gently. “I'm so sorry. Are you in any pain? What about here?” Her hand moved from my throat to cradle me between my legs, trying to heal anything she might have torn with her soft fingers.

  “No, I'm not hurting. I feel...stretched. And the rest of me feels wonderful, even where you marked me.”

  Belladonna's eyes widened, and her breath hitched in her chest. There was a faint flicker of hope, and perhaps desire, buried deep in her irises. “I didn't hurt you too badly? I didn't...”

  I pressed the pad of my thumb against her cheekbone. “No.”

  “I've never taken a lover like that before,” Belladonna admitted haltingly. “I wanted to, but I was afraid of becoming just like her. She likes to leave bruises and bites all over the skin of her toys. With you, though, it felt so right...”

  I covered Belladonna's words with kisses, trying to show her that I was fine. “You weren't like Luciana at all. You didn't hurt me, Belle. I like it when you mark me.” I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply through my nose. “Will I be your only lover now?” I blurted out, unable to swallow the question any longer.

  Belle's bottom lip dropped, her mouth hanging open awkwardly. Sh
e looked shocked. “Why on earth would I take another lover? I thought I made that clear last night.” Rolling on top of me, she captured my lips in a slow, deep kiss that had my heart drumming inside my chest. “We might not be able to have a large, extravagant wedding or share our marriage with the world, but when you kissed my palm, you asked me to be your wife, and I accepted. It was a little sudden, but I consider that oath binding.”

  At those words, I was sure my heart would explode through my ribs. It was lucky I was already lying down, because if I had been standing, I might have fallen over. I was dizzy, happy, immensely relieved. I rolled on top of Belladonna and gave her the most passionate kiss I could, wanting to share my joy with her. Her lips met mine eagerly, and we kissed for several long moments.

  Belladonna smiled, her mouth still breaths away from mine. “Well, I'll certainly do my best to keep you happy if kisses like that are going to be my reward.”

  Briefly, I thought about Cate, Sarah, and Mam. If they hadn't noticed my absence last night, they would surely be missing me by now. But suddenly, the rounds of questioning I would have to endure when I went back to the servants' quarters seemed unimportant. The only important thing was this woman with me, my new lover, my whole world. I gave Belle another kiss, softer this time, just a brushing of lips.

  “Can we—”

  “Make love again?” Belladonna finished my question for me. Her next kiss served as her answer.

  ***

  They all noticed the marks that littered my neck and shoulders, of course. I saw Sarah first and she spent most of the morning teasing me about my rendezvous. “So, our innocent Ellie isn't quite so innocent anymore,” she said loudly as we straightened the library. Of course, we would be cleaning the library after the kisses I had shared with Belle there the night before. I was more than a little distracted by the fresh memories and very embarrassed.

  “Sarah, lower your voice,” I pleaded, dropping a book that I had been trying to put back. Sarah watched me as I bent to pick it up. I gave her a sharp look over my shoulder as I grabbed the book's spine and returned it to its proper place.

  She rolled her brown eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, stop jumping around like a frightened cat.”

  Jessith, who was curled up on one of the armchairs by the fire, opened one slitted eye and yawned. “I take offense to that remark. Humans are so dense sometimes. I can't believe she doesn't know you were with Belladonna. I can smell her all over you.” Even Trugel, who had risen from her nap when Cate, Sarah, Jessith, and I had entered her domain, blinked in agreement. I scowled at both of them.

  My cheeks flared, but luckily, my conversation with Sarah was embarrassing enough to warrant a blush. “What are these, then?” she asked, prodding at a bite mark along my collarbone. I didn't answer her, pulling away from her finger and reaching for another book. She grabbed it from my hands, holding it against her chest. “So, you're not going to kiss and tell?”

  “No, I'm not.” I tried to take the book back, but Sarah held it above her head, keeping her arm locked straight. That is one of the annoyances of being small – people are forever holding things too high up for you to reach. Having played this miserable game many times as a child, I knew that I could not win and picked up a third book. Sarah immediately dropped the one she had been holding, and I picked it up, too, reshelving them both.

  “Oh, Ellie, don't be angry with me.”

  “It's too late, I already am. You're supposed to be helping instead of badgering me about who I might or might not have seen last night.”

  “I'm just curious. After all, you've always been so modest before. One mention of love and you turn bright red. Now you go missing for a night and show up with bite marks all over you. Not to mention you're walking about a foot off the ground and you haven't stopped smiling all morning until I started pestering you.”

  Although I was more than a little embarrassed, I wasn't really angry with Sarah. I had hoped that snapping at her would put her off, but she was determined. I had stayed in bed with Belladonna for a few extra minutes after we had explored each other's bodies that morning, unwilling to leave her. We had discussed what I would and wouldn't tell my friends when they asked questions. Since Sarah wasn't going to leave me alone until I told her something, I decided to take a different approach.

  “I have to be very careful, Sarah,” I said, looking over my shoulder to make sure that we were alone. “I'll admit that I'm...meeting with someone. But I really can't talk about it, and neither can you. Luciana can't touch me because of the bet she made, but she could hurt my lover.”

  “Perhaps we need to get you a pregnancy charm from the village,” Sarah teased, completely missing the importance of what I had just said. I was slightly amused by the fact that Sarah, who I knew had taken at least one female lover to her bed, assumed I was seeing a man. I did not correct her. Revealing that a woman had stolen my heart might have given me away, and many Serians, especially the aristocracy, frowned upon choosing a lover of your own sex.

  “I don't need a pregnancy charm,” I told her, settling for a half truth.

  “Oh, don't you? Haven't let him have his way yet completely, I suppose. A wise choice. Wait until there's a bracelet on your wrist before you give him what he wants.”

  This time, I was the one who rolled my eyes up to the ceiling, adding a sigh to the gesture. “Sarah! This is incredibly serious. We can't talk about it at all. Luciana would find a way of getting the information and using it. It's not that I don't trust you, but you never know who might be listening in the hallways or what she might do to you to get answers to her questions.”

  I saw a hint of concern in Sarah's face, and I knew she would accept my excuse. Imagining what Luciana would do to her if she wanted information seemed to dampen her curiosity. I could tell she was disappointed that I had not shared my secret with her, though, so I decided to toss her something and ease her appetite for gossip. “I can't give you details, but—since we're alone—I will say that I had a wonderful time.”

  Sarah seemed satisfied with that information, and we were able to clean the library without any further problems. She did try and catch my eye more often than usual, though.

  ***

  Cate was much easier to deal with than Sarah. She was much more talkative than she had been a few months before, but she was still shy and not as hungry for secrets. She saw the marks while we were clearing the plates from the dining room after lunch, but was not quite brave enough to approach me about them. I noticed her glancing at my arms, checking for bruises and wondering if Luciana had finally decided to break her promise to Belle.

  I felt sorry for her. Unlike Sarah, who had immediately assumed that the marks on my body were the signs of a new lover, Cate was all too aware of another explanation for them. Her fears made perfect sense, considering what she had endured. When she nearly dropped a plate as I passed her on the stairs, I decided to speak to her.

  “Everything's fine, Cate, no one hurt me,” I said once we had set our loaded trays next to the sink in the kitchen.

  Cate's relief was visible in her entire body, which nearly collapsed as all the tightness left it. “Thank the Saints,” she said, wrapping me in a soft hug. I felt her tremble and I was surprised to see just how worried she had been. “I don't know what I would have done, if she...if you...” Her face was buried against my shoulder and her words were muffled.

  “No, I'm fine. Luciana did not touch me.”

  With her worries and fears released, I sensed Cate's brain searching for the next likely explanation. “So, you...with someone else?” She looked at me with flushed cheeks and such an embarrassed expression on her face that I was reminded of how I must have looked earlier in the library. Cate was certainly a contrast from Sarah.

  “Well...yes.”

  Of course, the next obvious question was, “Who?”

  “I can't tell you,” I explained. “Luciana might hurt you.”

  “You don't trust me?” The muscles around Cate’
s eyes pulled tight. “I'm used to pain from Luciana. I would never betray you.”

  “Of course I trust you!” I said, pulling away and looking her straight in the eye. “I trust you more than anyone, Cate. You're my best friend here. I just don't want to give her any reason to hurt you more than she already does. You shouldn't have to bear any pain on my account.”

  “I'm truly your best friend?” Cate asked softly.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “You're my best friend, too, Ellie. I'm glad Luciana isn't...” Her voice trailed off. This time, I was the one who trembled at the thought of what my first experience might have been like at Luciana's mercy. The idea still made me violently sick, but I had hardened myself to it.

  “I'm glad, too.” Cate smiled, pulling away from my arms and picking up a stack of plates from the table. I followed her toward the servant's entrance and down the stairs with another stack, careful not to trip as we went down. Someday, I thought, I would make sure Cate found someone to show her the wonderful things I had learned and erase her memories of Luciana.

  ***

  “We need to find a way to stop Luciana from tormenting you, Ellie,” Belle said that night as we rested on her large, canopied bed. Cate was fast asleep in the room we shared and Sarah had not said anything as I passed through the kitchen, only watching me from her place by the fire with a knowing smile. Thankfully, the darkness hid my blush as I exited through the far door.

  When I slipped into Belladonna's rooms, I had found her waiting for me without any clothes. After staring at her with a mixture of shock and desire for several long moments, I took off my own dress and joined her on the bed, hoping that we would repeat the wonderful things we had shared the night before and earlier that morning. But it seemed Belle wanted to talk instead.