Chapter Twenty-Seven
There was no proper bed or any comfort, but Nicola hardly cared as she wrapped herself around Kenton and kissed the man as she’d never kissed anyone in her life.
It was as if the moment he touched her, a fire was sparked and it was a blaze that was growing more intense by the moment.
She didn’t want to let him go; she couldn’t let him go.
As Kenton carried her into Gaylord’s former solar, there was one thing on Nicola’s mind – to feel Kenton’s naked flesh against hers.
It was all she could think about.
Kenton didn’t give her any argument. In fact, he seemed just as intent on separating her from her clothing as she was on separating him from his.
He wasn’t wearing any armor, fortunately, but he was wearing heavy tunics, two of them, breeches, and boots.
Nicola was simply wearing layers of fabric, a lamb’s wool shift and a heavy brocaded surcoat over that.
But somehow, things came off, were tossed aside, and in the dark coldness of the room, Nicola and Kenton’s naked flesh came together.
She heard him groan, softly, when it did.
Kenton had her in his arms, aloft, and she instinctively parted her legs, wrapping them around his slender waist and holding him fast as they shared heated kisses in the darkness.
Kenton could feel her wet heat against his belly, resting above his full erection, and the sensation nearly drove him mad.
It was like a target he was seeking, and seeking it with a deep and instinctive need, and he shifted her so that she sank lower against him until her wet heat was nearly on the tip of his shaft.
But not quite; he was too tall for him to comfortably take her that way so he carried her over to what used to be Gaylord’s table and swept a big hand over the surface, sending parchment and quill and anything else on the tabletop crashing to the floor.
Carefully, he set her down on the table, making sure not to drive splinters into her tender bottom, and laying her back on the table, he mounted her.
His swollen staff thrust into her wet and waiting body, and Nicola cried out softly as he possessed her.
He was quite enormous, as proportionate with his height and the size of his body, and she wrapped her legs around him, drawing him deep inside of her as he repeatedly thrust into her.
His hands were on her buttocks, between her and the splintering table, protecting her skin as he drove into her, but he bent over her as he thrust, suckling her breasts, nursing against them, tasting the sweetness of her flesh as if he were gorging upon it.
His thrusts were so powerful that Nicola had to put her hands over her head, bracing herself so that he wouldn’t push her right off of the table, and she lifted her hips to him, begging for every sensation, every hard thrust he could deliver.
He answered her silent demands with all of the long, hard, and deep thrusts he could deliver and when he was finished suckling her nipples, he suckled on her neck, her chin, and her shoulders.
He tasted everything his mouth could come into contact with.
But the truth was that her soft, supple body had driven him beyond the point of madness and when he finally climaxed, it was such a powerful moment that his weakened knees pitched him forward and he nearly collapsed onto the table.
He imagined his seed finding its mark this night, taking root in her womb.
He found himself praying for it, praying that he would leave her something of himself come the morning.
He could feel her tremors beginning, her climax throbbing around him, telling him that she found as much satisfaction from their coupling as he had.
Then he lifted her up into his arms, her legs still around his hips and his male member still partially buried in her body, and held her close.
“I long for you already,” he murmured into the top of her head. “I have not even left this fortress yet and, already, I long for you.”
Warm, satisfied, but still very aroused, Nicola gripped his shoulders as she continued to grind herself down onto his manhood, feeling the wetness he had put into her, taking great panting delight when she climaxed again from the sheer stimulation.
Kenton, hardly able to stand, sat in the nearest chair as she settled on his lap, legs still parted, his body still joined to hers.
Now, it was her turn to kiss his neck, his chin, and finally his full lips, kissing him even as she continued to move her body on top of his semi-arousal, which was quickly growing hard again with her stimulation.
Kenton groaned as she latched her mouth to his again, realizing he was quite ready to resume at least some semblance of making love to her.
As she slowly, sensually plunged her body up and down on top of him, now bracing her knees against the chair he was sitting on, Kenton began to move his hips against hers, meeting her thrust for thrust.
The groans of pleasure that filled the solar reverberated softly off the walls.
Between Nicola’s panting and Kenton’s grunts, there was quite a chorus going on.
Kenton found particular interest in her breasts, which were quite full and beautiful, and his hands moved to them, fondling her tender flesh, feeling her climax around him once more.
He slanted his mouth over hers, muffling her pants of pleasure, as he thrust hard into her and released his seed once more, although far less of it this time.
The climax was very long although not quite as strong as before, as his body had not yet recovered from the first time, but he was so aroused that his body was responding the best way it could.
In the old leather-cushioned chair that had been made for Gaylord’s very fat father many years ago, Kenton and Nicola finally found total, utter contentment.
Seated on his lap, still straddling him with his body still embedded in hers, Nicola collapsed against his chest in complete exhaustion.
Kenton, his big arms wrapped around her against the chill of the room, held her tightly against his warm flesh, his cheek against the top of her head, thinking that there were no words in existence yet that were powerful enough to describe what he was feeling.
Still, he wanted to try. He wanted to explain to her just how much she meant to him and why. But the moment he opened his mouth, her soft snores cut him off. She’d fallen asleep against him and he hadn’t even realized it until now. With a grin, Kenton let her sleep.
It was the best night he’d ever spent.
*
Nicola was awoken at some point before dawn by Kenton, who heard the commotion out in the bailey as Conor and the priest arrived.
Groggy and naked, she climbed off Kenton’s lap and stumbled around for her clothing as he hunted around for his.
He kept laughing at her because she was quite uncoordinated in her sleepy state and he ended up dressing much more quickly than she did.
Kenton helped her with her surcoat, fastening the laces in the back, the same laces he had nearly ripped free in his quest to remove her from her clothing, but by the time Conor and the priest entered the keep, Kenton was lighting a fire in the hearth of the solar and Nicola was sitting, quite primly, on the same chair they had made love in.
Nicola sneezed at one point, thinking the room must have surely smelled like the sex that had so recently taken place there, but if it did, the men were too tactful to make that comment.
Sleepy, and the slightest bit sore from the vigorous sexual activity that she had partaken of only hours earlier, Nicola stood next to Kenton, with Conor and old Hermenia as witnesses, as a slovenly-looking priest from Huddersfield intoned the wedding mass.
Normally, a wedding mass was conducted outside of the church doors before the marital party moved inside the church to complete the nuptials, but since there was no church and Nicola did not want to go near the small chapel where Gaylord was buried, for obvious reasons, the priest conducted the uncommon ceremony in front of the door to the keep at Babylon just as the eastern sky began turning shades of purple and pink, signaling the coming sunrise.
Brides normally wore blue to symbolize purity for their wedding but since Nicola had already been married, purity was not an issue and she simply wore the heavy yellow surcoat she had worn the day before.
She carried no stones to symbolize other virtues that were expected in brides and there was no ring exchange, so the priest simply conducted a blessing over their heads and pronounced them man and wife.
And with that, Lady Nicola Aubrey-Thorne became Lady Nicola Aubrey-le Bec.
It was a tradition in her family for the women to retain their maiden name after marriage and Kenton, who didn’t particularly care if she did or didn’t, allowed her to make the choice.
Conor, with a grin on his face, had been permitted to congratulate the bride with a kiss to the cheek but Kenton had quickly chased the man off when he thought he had lingered too much in his congratulations.
Nicola had simply laughed as Conor shuttled the priest away, into the hall where a simple meal had been laid out to break their morning fast. Janet and Liesl were awake and had witnessed the tail-end of the ceremony, very happy that their lady had finally married the man she was so entirely in love with.
Finally, all seemed well at Babylon; usually a place of discomfort and unhappiness, at least in the days of Gaylord Thorne, it had now become something warm and peaceful with the introduction of Kenton le Bec.