Chapter 27 #2
He brushed her expressive brows with his thumbs and gazed into her eyes. “I love your brilliant blue eyes. The way they glimmer with joy. Glitter with rage. Glisten with tears. How they look into my soul and see my truth.”
She seemed to soften a little at his words.
He ran his fingertip down the straight bridge of her nose and grinned. “I’ve always loved your freckled nose, even when ’twas broken and bloody.”
Her chuckle was throaty.
He brushed his fingers across her supple pink lips and bent close to whisper against them.
“I love your lips. The way they curve in a smile. And furl in a frown. The way they speak my name. The way they press gently against mine.” He felt the shiver of her breath as he gave her the lightest of kisses.
“The way you let me inside.” He angled his head and tenderly urged her lips apart, venturing between them with his tongue.
Tasting her sweet desire again and again.
She moaned faintly as he withdrew.
The beast of lust roared again within him. But he refused to feed it yet.
He grazed her smooth jaw with his knuckles, following with his lips. Then he nuzzled the delicate shell of her ear. She shivered as he nibbled at the delicious side of her neck.
“I love your throat,” he said. “So warm. So soft. The way your pulse throbs here when you’re excited.”
She was excited now. He could see her heart beat.
He could also see the deep rise and fall of her bosom as her breathing grew labored.
He let his fingers drift down to the gentle dip between the curve of her breasts. Then he pulled loose the tie holding the leine closed.
She arched up against him.
Sweet Saints, how he longed to nestle there in the warmth of her flesh.
Letting his thumbs slide beneath the neckline of her leine, he slipped the garment off of her shoulders.
“I love your arms,” he murmured, stroking the round caps of her shoulder and gliding the linen lower. “The way they can wield a sword. Or a besom,” he added with a smile, remembering their battle Feiyan’s solar. “The way you wrap them around my neck. The way you’ll cradle our children.”
Hooking his fingers in the leine, he pulled it away to release her breasts and let the garment sag to her waist.
She blushed and lowered her eyes.
He tugged the sleeves off her wrists and clasped her hands in his.
“I love your hands. So small, yet so capable. So soft, yet so strong.” He brought each one to his lips for a kiss. “Hands that toil and pray and seize and give. Hands that can make a fierce fist or a hold a butterfly on their palm.”
He swept his hands up then to caress her bosom, first with the back of his knuckles, then cupping the creamy globes.
She sighed, squeezing her eyes tight.
“I love your breasts,” he murmured. The beast in his braies roared as he stroked her soft flesh, thumbing her rosy nipples to life. “So ripe. So sweet. So succulent.”
He lowered his head to taste her luscious skin, licking circles around each taut bud.
She gasped and clenched her fists in his hair.
Taking care with her wound, he eased her leine down over her hips, letting it pool on the floor. For a moment, he could only stare at her in wonder.
How had this perfect woman have been under his eye all this time? How had he not seen her? How had he not pledged her his troth four years ago when they’d first met?
Then he swept her off her feet and placed her gently atop the pallet.
He took off her slippers and peeled off her stockings.
“I love your feet,” he said, rubbing her arches. “The way you stand on tiptoe to kiss me.” He grinned. “The way they sometimes kick my arse.”
She giggled.
But when he moved his hands languorously up her calves, she stopped laughing.
“I love your legs,” he said, grazing the back of her knees and making her arch up with pleasure. “So long. So strong.” He moved his palms up her silken thighs, murmuring, “I love the way they wrap around me when we’re making love.”
Merraid moaned. She could endure no more. There was a throbbing ache between her thighs. An ache that demanded relief.
But he wasn’t going to give it to her. Not yet.
Instead, he blew a gentle breath upon her curls. A warm breath that made her quiver.
“Do you like that?”
She nodded.
He flattened his hands on her thighs and nudged them apart.
She bit her lip. She felt so vulnerable.
But this wasn’t a battle. There was no need to protect herself. It was safe to let him have his way with her.
Between the tender touches of his fingers and the agile dance of his tongue, she was lifted to a dizzying height of passion at a pace that took her breath away. When she erupted in spasms of joy, she felt thoroughly replete and cherished.
As she lay dazed in the aftermath, her satisfaction lasted only a short while.
Her beloved husband was staring down at her with such adoration and wonder, she couldn’t resist him for long.
“Come to me, husband.”
He needed no further encouragement.
Taking off his hauberk was the work of a moment. She licked her lips at the sight of his broad and muscular chest. When he dropped his braies, she could see he was aroused and ready.
Their joining was heavenly. Enchanting. Unifying.
She took his eager cock inside her, welcoming him in her wet embrace. Together they traveled through a sensual landscape of delights. Stealing through a quiet wood. Swimming in a rolling sea. Galloping hard across a rocky hill. And finally soaring high above the clouds.
There they discovered a beautiful release in each other’s arms, tumbling gracefully back to earth.
Spent, they nestled in silence for a long time. But there was something Merraid wanted to tell him. Something she’d put off for days now.
“Gellir?” she whispered, easing up on her elbow to look down at him.
“Mm?” His eyes were still closed.
“Remember Beltane? The night we first made love?”
He smiled. “Mm-hmm.”
“I think…somethin’…might have happened that night.”
“You fell in love with me?”
She smirked. “Ye goose, I fell in love with ye four years ago. Nay, somethin’ else.”
“What?”
“Well… They say a bairn conceived on Beltane is blessed.”
His eyes flew open. “Are you…?”
She nodded.
She knew he’d be happy. She didn’t realize he’d be so overjoyed that he’d run naked to the window and shout the news to the world.
But she supposed she couldn’t blame him. Especially when she heard all the cheers from the courtyard.
By winter, Grim Gellir Cameliard would be the proud father of the next child of the Rivenloch clan. And Merraid would have just enough time to get into shape for the grand spring tournament at Rivenoch.