Chapter Thirteen #3
She was quite serious. “When he opened his lips, he had a mouthful of rotten teeth,” she said.
“We started calling him The Disease. Every time he came around, Susanna would say ‘here comes The Disease’. It got so that I could not look at the man without breaking into laughter. Truth be told, I think it damaged his pride. He left after only a couple of days and never returned.”
Kress was fighting off a smile. “Shameful,” he scolded, but he wasn’t serious. “How could you insult such a man?”
She rolled her eyes. “With teeth like that, it was easy!”
He laughed low in his throat. “Anyone else?”
Cadelyn cocked her head thoughtfully. “A very arrogant young knight from an excellent family,” she said. “I will not tell you the name, but he was about as big as I am and tried very hard to convince Padraig to allow him to court me.”
“Did he?”
“Nay!” she said, seemingly insulted. “It is not his privilege. Besides… I would not have allowed it. This knight was very naughty – he tried very hard to entice me by telling me that he might have been small in stature, but he was big where it counted. I did not know what he meant until Lady Summerlin explained it to me. It was Lady Summerlin who finally chased him away. She told him to take his horse-sized manroot elsewhere.”
Kress had been drinking his wine at the time and ended up spitting it out, all over the floor, when she told him of Lady Summerlin’s astonishing response.
Surprised by the spraying wine, Cadelyn looked at him in shock before bursting into laughter.
Kress, unable to contain his own laughter, joined her for a moment, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand.
Cadelyn was far gone with gales of laughter as Kress was reduced to sheepish grinning.
“God’s Bones,” he said, pouring himself more wine. “No wonder you write such lewd poetry. You are surrounded by, shall we say, interesting women.”
“Honest women,” she corrected. “There is nothing wrong with honesty. Even if it is not well-met.”
She abruptly sobered as she said it, leading Kress to believe she meant the situation between them.
She’d been honest with him about her feelings and he’d been…
resistant. Resistant on the outside, but oh-so-tormented on the inside.
In days past, he would have brushed over her comment but at the moment, he couldn’t seem to do it.
“Honesty is always appreciated and well-met,” he said quietly, gazing at her over the table and watching the firelight play upon her face. “One should never be ashamed of being honest, but it is true that honesty in certain situations is futile.”
“Like this one?”
“Like this one.”
She bit her lip, looking to her lap for a moment. She was toying with her borrowed robe, deep in thought. When she finally spoke, it was hesitantly. “Would… would you do something for me?”
“I am at your service, my lady.”
She lifted her head to look at him. “Call me Cadie. Please.”
He sighed, long and slow. “Cadie,” he whispered. “What would you have of me?”
“Will you simply sit there and not move?”
His brow flickered with confusion, but he nodded faintly. Cadelyn set her spoon aside and stood up.
Dressed in Jude’s overflowing garments, she had to pick the skirt up so she wouldn’t step on it as she moved away from the table.
As Kress sat there, he couldn’t help but notice she was heading in his direction.
She came to stand next to him, looking down on him as he gazed up at her. She held up a finger.
“Remember,” she said. “You promised not to move.”
“I will not.”
She looked at him a moment, long and hard, before bending down.
Kress watched her come closer and closer, and he knew what was coming.
God help him, he knew it, and he should have stopped her.
He should have pulled away, or pushed her away at the very least, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Every stalwart resolve he’d ever had, or ever known, vanished and, suddenly, she was on him.
Warm, gentle lips touching his.
He was finished.
Kress knew he was lost the moment she latched on to him with her soft mouth. He didn’t even try to pull away; he lost himself in her sweet lips, his hands quickly reaching up to entangle themselves in her hair. She was warm, soft, and delicious. He could not have resisted her in any case.
His emotions finally overwhelmed him.
His need.
Kress began to take the aggressor role. He was more forceful in his kisses.
Perhaps it was the wine or perhaps it was simply because he was having his first taste of her, sweeter than anything he’d ever known.
He didn’t even realize when he rose to his feet, picking her up against him and carrying her over to the bed.
Cadelyn ended up on her back and Kress ended up on top of her, and the loose garments Jude had loaned her were coming off under his expert hands.
There was never any question that they would.
But his lips never left hers and before Cadelyn realized it, Kress had stripped her nude.
Hot, desperate kisses rained down on her lips and face and neck as his smelly, damp clothing began to come off, too.
In little time, they were both naked.
Kress’ big body came down on her soft, slender form, enveloping her in his strength and heat.
His mouth left her lips, devouring her flesh as he moved down her body.
He tasted every inch of skin on her shoulders and arms, moving to her chest and depositing hungry kisses on her swell of her bosom.
A big hand kneaded her right breast as his lips finally found a nipple, moving from one breast to the other.
Any restraint he’d ever forced himself to have with her was gone.
He was no longer in control.