Chapter Twenty-One #2
He cocked his head thoughtfully. “It has been a while,” he said. “Mayhap twelve years ago.”
“How long have you been at Blackchurch?”
“Eleven years.”
“How old are you?”
He grinned. “How old do you think I am?”
“Old. Very old.”
He frowned. “How cruel,” he said. “Let’s see if you can figure out how old I am. Can you do sums?”
“Of course I can.”
“I was born in the Year of Our Lord 1168.”
Her brow furrowed in thought as she tried to figure out how old he was. Her eyes widened. “You have seen forty-four years?”
“I have.”
“Then you are old!”
He laughed low in his throat. “You cheeky wench,” he muttered. “I am not old. I am experienced.”
She grinned because he was. “What did you do in the years before you came to Blackchurch?”
“I told you, I went to the Levant with King Richard.”
“But that was only for a few years,” she pointed out. “When did you return?”
“A year after it ended,” he said. “About nineteen years ago.”
“That is a long time ago.”
“It is.”
“If you have been at Blackchurch eleven years, what did you do in the other eight years that you were not at Blackchurch?”
He reached across the table and grasped her hand, fondling her fingers. “That will give us something to talk about whilst we travel,” he said. “I cannot tell you everything about my life all in one night.”
“Why not?” she said. “I can tell you everything about my life in one night. I present you with the following—I have seen twenty-three years, my father believed I was destined to be an old maid because I’d not married by the time I was fifteen years like my mother had, and my birthday is in January. What more do you need to know?”
He started laughing. “I am not sure, but I will think of something,” he said, lifting her fingers to kiss them. “The joy is in the discovery.”
Athdara tried not to let the reality of the situation dampen her smile. He would be sure to pick up on it. There would be no discovery, at least beyond this. Tonight was the last night for any such discovery. It was the last night to laugh. It was the last night to love.
And she very much wanted to love him.
She could hardly stand the thought of what was to come.
Standing up, she moved around the table and straddled him on the chair. For a moment, they simply gazed into each other’s eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair and he cupped her buttocks.
She suddenly looked closely at his dark strands. “I see silver in your hair,” she teased softly.
He slapped her lightly on the buttocks, and she yelped. “You do not, you liar,” he said.
Athdara grinned, raking his hair back as he closed his eyes, relishing her touch.
Her smile faded. She knew that she was taking her last look at him.
The last moment for them to be together, for her to touch him and for him to touch her.
She wanted it to be something special, something memorable, to hold against her heart for all time. It was now or never.
She wanted all of him.
Leaning forward, she captured his lips with hers and suddenly snaked her hands into his leather breeches. Immediately, she came into contact with his semi-aroused manhood, and he jumped when she touched him, grabbing her hands to stop her.
“What are you doing?” he whispered raggedly. “I thought we agreed not to—”
She cut him off by kissing him feverishly, trying to pull free from his grip so she could touch him. “Please,” she murmured. “We shall be married, eventually. You said so yourself. Please… do not deny me, Tay. I want to know the man I love with all my heart.”
He was quickly weakening. “Love, I think—”
She cut him off again, plunging her tongue into his mouth and throwing both arms around his neck, holding him tightly. She thrust her pelvis forward, rubbing against what was quickly becoming a full-blown erection.
“Please,” she whispered against his mouth. “Please don’t make me beg. Take me to your chamber and let me know you. All of you. Please, my darling.”
She was hot and squirming in his arms, and his resistance shattered.
He could hardly hold out against her onslaught, because when it came to Athdara his resistance was weak anyway.
To hell with his reasons for refusing her—with a growl, he picked her up and carried her, wrapped around him, up the stairs and into his chamber.
He kicked the door to close it, hearing it slam against the frame.
His messy bed was in front of them, and he fell forward, trapping her against the mattress.
Trapping her to him.
The voyage of discovery had begun.
By the light of the moon coming in through the windows, Tay kissed Athdara as passionately as he had ever kissed a woman in his life.
She was soft and sweet, pliable to his whims, and he rolled onto his side, facing her.
It took him a moment to realize that she was pulling at her tunic.
She had to let go of him in order to pull it off and another undertunic beneath it.
Then she was bare-chested in the weak light, and he found himself looking at her beautiful, full breasts.
Quickly, he sat up to remove what he was wearing from the waist up, and that pause gave Athdara time to shimmy off her breeches and unlace her shoes.
Everything ended up on the floor.
Tay took a moment to admire her magnificent body.
She was long and strong, with a narrow waist and round hips.
Athdara pulled him down to her, her arms around his neck as encircled her in his big arms, sucking the breath from her.
His hands began to roam, feeling her slender torso before moving to the flesh of her hips.
As he moved his mouth to her jaw, her neck, he moved his hands up to her full, delicious breasts.
The beast in him came out.
Her nipples were hard, and he toyed with them, causing her entire body to tremble. As a virgin, Athdara should be intimidated by his intimate touch, but she truly wasn’t. Tay’s touch made her feel warm and giddy, and she loved it. When he latched on to a nipple, sucking tenderly, Athdara groaned.
That sound in his ear made him suckle her harder.
Tay could hardly believe how responsive she was.
The more he suckled her, the more she bucked and groaned.
Her legs parted for him instinctively, and her right leg went over his left hip.
His left hand, one that had only really known warfare and brutality, was now the gentlest of appendages as he moved it down her belly to the dark curls between her legs.
Since she had a leg over his hip, he had free access to her woman’s center.
He suckled her breasts steadily, holding her against him with one hand while the other went to work between her legs.
Athdara was already wet and hot, and he put his fingers into her.
She gasped at the tender intrusion but didn’t pull away.
After taking a few moments to get used to the sensation, she began to move her hips against him, drawing at his fingers, and Tay genuinely thought he would lose his mind.
He’d never experienced anything like it in his entire life.
He had to have more.
In fact, he had to have it all.
Very carefully, he held her left leg behind the knee as he angled himself against her, gently thrusting his manhood into her quivering body.
She was so very tight that this time, he groaned.
He groaned and grunted as he worked his way into her with small thrusts, gently paving the way for his complete entry.
He nursed her breasts to distract her as he drew back and thrust again, listening to her sigh as he seated himself deep.
She didn’t cry out or try to push him away, but rather accepted everything he was doing.
When he was finally deeply embedded in her, he rolled her onto her back and began to thrust, gently at first but with increasing power.
Athdara lay beneath him, her legs spread wide as she welcomed him into her body for the first time.
There was no pain, only wonder. Tay was skilled and he was gentle, and he succeeded in building an overpowering heat within her loins that made her want to thrust her hips against him.
She learned that bolts of lightning surged through her every time they came together, and she wanted to feel that lightning.
It grew brighter with each successive thrust.
Then something happened.
The thunder rolled and the lightning exploded deep within her body. Overwhelmed with it, Athdara began gasping as wave after wave of ecstasy rolled over her.
Feeling her tight walls drawing at him, Tay could no longer control himself, and in one great and powerful thrust, he spilled himself deep.
It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced.
Even when he was spent, he didn’t want it to be over.
He wanted to remain embedded in her body for the rest of his life.
He continued to move in and out of her, feeling the warm wetness of what he had put in her, utterly content for the first time in his life.
He’d never experienced this act with someone he so deeply loved, and it bonded him to her like nothing he’d ever known.
It was heaven.
“Are you well?” he whispered into her hair. “Did I hurt you?”
Athdara was all wrapped up around him. She had no idea where she ended and he began because, at the moment, they were one heart, one body, one soul.
“Nay,” she murmured. “You did not hurt me. It was… beautiful.”
He smiled faintly, blowing her hair from his mouth. “You are beautiful,” he muttered. “Beautiful and powerful and naughty. I am the most fortunate man alive.” In his embrace, he could feel her giggle.
“I did not mean to be naughty,” she said.
“Aye, you did when you coerced me into this bed.”
“Very well. I did.” She lifted her head, looking up at him as they lay together on their sides. “You did exactly what I wanted you to do. There, I’ve said it. Satisfied?”