Chapter Seventeen #5
Emelisse looked as if she were trying to be quite rational, even clinical, about the whole thing. “Then someone has told you how?”
Caius wasn’t entirely sure how to explain it to. Surely she couldn’t believe he was so – inexperienced? Him? He was almost insulted by the mere idea, as if it were a slight to his manhood. It was almost laughable.
“Emelisse,” he said patiently. “Someone has, indeed, told me how. In fact, someone has shown me how. I have done this more than once.”
She looked at him as his words settled before lowering her gaze. She ended up looking at her lap.
“I see,” she said quietly. “I suppose it is foolish of me to think that a man your age… what I mean to say is that a man as handsome as you are would have surely had… forgive me. I am rambling on. Shall we move to the bed, then?”
She seemed… hurt. Caius watched her, thinking he could do one of two things – he could ignore her behavior or he could talk to her about it.
He’d never been one to discuss feelings, as he’d told her, but somehow, he just couldn’t let it go.
He didn’t want her to feel badly, about anything that had to do with him or their marriage.
He didn’t want her to think badly about him.
“Not yet,” he said, reaching across the table and collecting her hand. “And you were not rambling on, sweetheart. Clearly, you had expectations about this moment in your life, so I do not want you to feel badly or hurt about anything.”
She wouldn’t look at him. “I am not hurt.”
“Aren’t you?”
She shook her head. “You are a seasoned, virile man,” she said. “Of course you would not have remained celibate for the moment when you married. And you did not know you were going to marry me, nor I you, so this conversation is foolish.”
“It is not,” he said. “I am a man of honesty and this is an honest conversation, so let us explore it. I realize that it is a strange society that expects women to remain pure, but that same expectation is not placed on men. And you are correct; I am seasoned. I have seen forty-three years this past summer, meaning I have been to many places and known many people in my lifetime. I’ve known many women, too, but given that I was unmarried and had no marital contract, I would say that there would be something wrong with me had I not shown any interest towards women in all that time. Wouldn’t you?”
She nodded reluctantly. “Aye, I would say so.”
“Then do not be surprised nor hurt that I have known women before you,” he said.
“Before you ask, I have bedded women before you. I will not lie to you about it. But I have never had a wife before, and once you became my wife, you shall be the last, and only, woman I shall ever bed. I swear upon my oath that you shall be the only woman I ever touch for the rest of my life.”
She looked at him, a timid smile on her lips at his sweet declaration. “I never asked that you should swear your loyalty to me.”
“I know you did not ask,” he said. “But the moment I married you, my loyalty became yours. I know some men do not treat marriage that way, but I swore I always would. It is a bond I will not break and I promise it will be you, and only you, until I die.”
Her smile turned genuine. “Thank you,” she said softly. “And I shall swear the same. Only you, until I die.”
He grinned at her, lifting her hand to his lips. “Thank you.”
With that, he pulled her out of the chair and took her hand, leading her to the fanciful bed.
Pulling back the curtains, he also began to throw back the bedclothes.
Emelisse saw what he was doing and went around to the other side of the bed, pulling back the other side to reveal a surprisingly clean mattress.
There were two fluffy pillows which, she discovered, were stuffed with feathers.
Caius begin to remove his clothing and because he was, Emelisse began to remove hers as well.
The traveling dress was designed to be easily worn, so it was simply a matter of untying the ribbons that trussed up the bodice.
She fumbled with them, finally managing to loosen them up enough so that she could slide the dress down her body.
It landed in a puddle of woolen fabric at her feet and she picked it up, carefully laying it over the end of the bed.
Now, she was left in the heavy woolen shift that Lady de Wrenville had loaned her with a lighter shift underneath.
She wiggled out of the heavier shift and laid it out with the traveling dress, leaving her clad only in the thin linen shift.
She was so involved in removing her clothing that she failed to realize that Caius was already nude and under the coverlet.
When the mattress gave way as she was laying the heavy shift on the end of the bed, she looked up to see him lying in the bed on his side, head propped up on his hand and the coverlet pulled up to his waist. Startled, she found herself staring at that magnificent form of a man with arms as big around as her waist. It was enough to set her heart racing.
But the first thing she saw was that vicious viper tattoo on his right bicep.
She pointed to it.
“What is that?” she asked.
He had been looking at her with a smile on his face, rather alluringly, but was forced to stop looking at her as he followed her pointing finger. Realizing she meant his tattoo, he rolled onto his back so she could see it better.
“The mark of The Britannia Viper,” he said.
“The moniker the savages in The Levant gave you?”
He nodded, inspecting the gorgeously detailed engraving. “They did indeed call me that,” he said. “But they are not savages. They were some of the most intelligent, cultured people I have ever met. In fact, they put this stigmata on my arm. They considered it an honor to do so.”
She cocked her head. “Your enemy put that on your arm?”
He lay back on the pillow, tucking a big arm in behind his head as he watched her.
“Understand that they were not all my enemy,” he said.
“There is a brotherhood with men who have fought against each other, and that brotherhood is built on mutual respect. The men who put this on my arm were Muslim, but our respect for one another was great. They were part of the spy assemblage that I was part of, and we greatly admired one another.”
Emelisse leaned forward, inspecting what she could see of the tattoo. “It is truly beautiful,” she said. “Whoever drew it is a great artist. I have never seen anything like it.”
He grunted. “And you never will again,” he said. “Christians consider marking the body like this to be a great sin, but to me… it was a great honor because it was put there by men considered my enemy. You can touch it, you know. It will not bite you.”
Considering the image was of a snake with large fangs, she laughed softly. She was also still in her thin shift, standing there awkwardly. Caius finally crooked a finger at her, beckoning her into the bed.
“Come to me, Lady d’Avignon.”
The way he said it, a purring deep voice, made her respond without thought. She was in the bed and up against him before she realized it as he pulled the coverlet over them both.
The discovery began.
Caius didn’t wait. He leaned forward, gently kissing her forehead, her cheeks, until finally descending on her tender lips.
His reaction to her was the same as it had been in the common room.
The moment he tasted her mouth, he felt as if he’d been struck by lightning.
Perhaps he had kissed other women before, but it hadn’t felt like this.
Never like this.
He pulled her closer.
Caius’ mouth began to move. Suddenly, he was seized with the desire to taste every inch of the woman. My wife. As his mouth moved down her arm and began to suckle on her fingers, she brought those fingers to her own lips, tasting them.
Caius went mad.
His mouth descended on hers again, his tongue licking at her, tasting her, kissing her so deeply that she went limp in his arms. She was so pliable that he was able to lay her on her back without any resistance whatsoever.
He suckled her lips, her skin, and she gasped beneath him and let him do whatever he wanted.
When he decided the thin shift she had been wearing was no longer necessary, he snaked his hands underneath it and quickly pulled it over her head.
Hot flesh against hot flesh nearly did him in, his big erection already demanding satisfaction.
Beneath him, Emelisse’s eyes were half-lidded, watching his enormous body as he moved, lifting her hands so she could run her fingers through his dark hair as he suckled on her shoulder.
As a maiden, she had always imagined this moment with a future husband would come with such embarrassment, naked and exposed, but Caius’ touch had been so exquisite that Emelisse felt no embarrassment at all.
He was hot and big and muscular, and in spite of his great size, his weight wasn’t heavy on her in the least.
There was something about it that excited her terribly.
Caius’ lips were on her neck once more and he stroked her arms, moving out until he reached her wrists.
Using both of his hands, he grasped her wrists and brought her arms up above her head.
Emelisse was so wrapped up in the delicious sensations he was creating that she didn’t realize he had pinned both of her wrists, over her head, with one of his hands.
When she realized that, she looked at him with puzzlement only to see him grinning lustily at her.
“May I not touch you, too?”
He shook his head, leaning forward to kiss her chin. “Nay,” he said hoarsely. “If you do, this will end far too quickly and I do not wish for it to.”
“What do you mean?”
He laughed low in his throat. “You are a na?ve, darling,” he murmured. “If I let your hands go, you’ll figure out what I mean very quickly. But for now, I do not wish to be interrupted in my pleasure, so simply lay there and enjoy it.”