Chapter 16
AREZOO
Arezoo had been afraid of this night, but now the fear was gone.
It had disappeared the moment Ruvon dashed into the bathroom as if he were the anxious virgin.
Well, maybe not at that exact moment.
At first, she'd been bewildered, but then when understanding dawned, it had brought with it an unexpected loosening because she'd realized that she needed to be brave for him.
He might be the one with all the experience, but he was terrified of hurting her, emotionally or physically or both, and that fear paralyzed him. She needed to take the initiative for both of them.
Getting naked in front of him hadn't been easy, but she'd practiced it in front of the mirror in her room for days, and the many scenes of first lovemaking that she'd read in Drova's romance novels had helped as well.
She hadn't anticipated feeling so secure and at ease when Ruvon started washing her feet, and that sense persisted as he carefully ran a soapy cloth slowly up the curve of her calf.
The feeling was hard to describe. It went beyond mere safety and relaxation.
It was a pleasant melting in her muscles and a calm awareness of his love and care.
The only nervous one in the room was Ruvon, who was doing his best not to lose his composure.
She'd done that to him.
The girl who had walked into the village barely able to make eye contact with anyone, let alone males, was now playing the part of a seductive diva who was being pampered by her incredibly patient and loving husband.
She'd been worried that her body would betray her tonight, that it would lock up at the wrong moment, remembering things that had no business being remembered on her wedding night.
But her body was smart, and it knew the difference between then and now.
Ruvon moved past her calves to her knees and stopped there as if he feared trespassing.
"Keep going," she said softly. "There are no safe zones or forbidden zones. I'm yours, and you are mine, and tonight, we are going to explore every inch of each other's bodies."
She had no idea where she'd found the courage to say that to him. It wasn't anything she'd read in those raunchy novels or had heard anyone say. It came from the heart.
He looked up at her with adoration in his eyes that was mixed with trepidation, as if he didn't trust that she meant what she'd said.
"I mean it, my love."
"I love you."
She smiled. "I love you too. Now, continue worshiping me with that washcloth. It's very enjoyable."
He chuckled. "Yes, my queen."
When the cloth moved up over her hip and into the curve of her waist, he kept going, but his breathing became more labored. The cloth moved up her ribs, and then around the side of her breast, and then over the top of her breast, and her body responded.
It wasn't the first time he'd touched her there.
They'd ventured into this territory several weeks ago in the dim privacy of his living room, but they'd both stopped before things could go any further because crossing a certain line would have ended in them breaking the promise they had made to each other to wait for their wedding night.
That night was now, and there was no more reason to stop, and that knowledge made the contact feel more profound than it had the first time.
She drew in a breath.
Ruvon's hand stilled.
"Don't stop," she whispered.
He moved the cloth in a slow circle around the curve of her breast, and then over the other one, and her body wanted it, needed it, and the wanting and needing wasn't tangled up with any old memories that didn't belong between them tonight.
She'd expected those memories to ambush her, to surface. She'd expected them to surface when things got heated. She'd lain awake for nights imagining the moment when the past would come crashing in and ruin what should be the best and most memorable night of her life.
But none of that had happened, and the past remained where it should, locked in a compartment in her brain and denied entry to this special moment.
Ruvon's patience and love were the cure and the antidote.
He moved up to her shoulders.
"Lean forward a little, sweetheart," he said.
Arezoo did, and Ruvon washed her back, and his hand was steadier now.
She liked that he wasn't taking anything for granted, not even on his wedding night.
Her mate was an incredible male, and she was the luckiest girl in the world to have been awarded such a boon by the Fates.
She had definitely suffered enough to be deserving of a truelove mate, and so had he, so she didn't doubt that they were each other's reward.
Ruvon rinsed the soap from her back with the handheld spigot, then returned it to its place and reached for a fresh cloth.
"You wanted to take off the makeup."
"I do."
"Do you want me to do this?"
He looked unsure about performing the task, but she was too languid and relaxed to do it herself.
"Yes, please."
He took a clean cloth, dampened it with water from the faucet, wrung it out, and then, holding her chin, he started wiping away the makeup.
He did it gently, with the same focused patience he'd used to wash every other part of her.
The cloth moved over her cheeks, then her forehead, then around her eyes, where he was doubly careful.
Angelica had piled so much makeup onto her face that morning that it took several passes of the cloth to get it all off, and each pass came back with more gunk on it.
When he finished, he leaned back, looked at her, and smiled.
"There you are."
"Did I go anywhere?"
"You were hiding under all of that. You looked beautiful with the makeup, but you are even more beautiful without it."
She laughed, and it came out closer to a snort. "You're probably the only person who'd say that. My mother, my aunts, my sisters, and my cousins all said that I looked like a movie star."
"You did look like a movie star, but that's not who I fell in love with. I fell in love with my Arezoo." He leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
Was it possible to keep falling in love with this male?
Arezoo felt tears gather in the corners of her eyes, but she commanded them to recede because she didn't want Ruvon to interpret them the wrong way.
Reaching for a towel from the rack beside the tub, he held it open for her, and as she stood up carefully, water sheeting off her body, she saw him swallow.
She stepped out of the tub onto the bathmat, and that was when she noticed his trousers.
The black tuxedo pants were soaked from the knees down. He'd been kneeling in the puddle the whole time he'd been washing her. He'd just knelt there in cold water for however long it took to make sure she felt warm and cared for, and he probably hadn't even noticed the state of his trousers.
That was when whatever last small piece of nerves she'd been holding on to dissolved.
Ruvon wrapped the towel around her, and before she could say anything about his pants, he scooped her up.
"Ruvon."
"I'm carrying you to bed. I don't want you to slip on the puddle."
That was such a transparent excuse, but she liked being in his arms, so she didn't argue and let him carry her.
She'd forgotten about the pink rose petals on the bedspread, which she was about to crush.
It doesn't matter, she commanded the practical voice in her mind to get quiet. Her wedding night was the perfect occasion for silly romantic things, not practicality like a bedspread that might get stained from the crushed petals.
Ruvon set her down on top of them without giving them a second thought and stepped back, leaving her wrapped in the towel.
That was a little disappointing. She'd imagined him unwrapping her like a gift. She'd read that in a romance novel.
No matter. She had been playing the diva seductress since Ruvon had carried her into their home, and she was on a roll.
Unwinding the towel from around her body, she let it fall open.
Ruvon stopped breathing again.
"Who are you," he said, "and what have you done with my blushing bride?"
She laughed. "I might still blush, but I'm no longer shy. Not with you. You make me feel beautiful, safe, and cherished. I don't feel the need to hide."
The tears gathered once more at the corners of her eyes, but she wasn't going to cry and alarm Ruvon. Her eyes were stinging, and she had to blink several times before she trusted herself to speak again.
"I thought tonight I would face the greatest relationship hurdle I had to overcome, but thanks to you and your infinite patience, it turned out to be as easy as breathing."
He stood there in his trousers that were soaked from the puddle, his wedding shirt that was opened at the collar, and the sleeves that were rolled up from the bath, and he looked at her like he didn't know what to do with what she'd just said.
His mouth opened, then closed.
She smiled. "Now it's your turn, my handsome husband."
"My turn?"
"Take off your clothes. I want to see you. I've been waiting a long time for that."
"You have?"
"Of course I have." She propped herself up on one elbow and let the line of her body settle along the bedspread. "What did you think? That I haven't been thinking about this? I'm impatient to see you. All of you."
He arched a brow, and his lips lifted in a cocky smirk that she hadn't seen on him before.
Her Ruvon liked to be told that he was handsome and desired, just as much as she liked to hear him say that to her.
He started on the hidden buttons of his tux shirt, undoing each button slowly, working his way down, and teasing her on purpose. He'd decided to make her wait for it.
She approved.
The shirt came open. He shrugged it off his shoulders and let it drop to the carpet.
He was magnificent. She'd seen him shirtless before, the same night they had gotten adventurous, but he'd been training, and he'd filled out since then.
She made a small appreciative sound.
His smirk became more pronounced. "You approve?"
"Very much so. Keep going."
His hands went to his belt.
The belt came off and dropped to the carpet beside the shirt. The button at the top of his soaked trousers came open, and the trousers came down. He stepped out of them and kicked them aside, and they landed somewhere with a wet sound.
He was standing in front of her in nothing but a pair of black undershorts.
For a second, she forgot that she was supposed to act confident. She felt heat rise up her chest and into her face, but she didn't try to hide it, because hiding it would have suggested she was embarrassed, and she wasn't embarrassed.
She was hungry.
She'd never been hungry like this before, and he could probably smell her desire, but she wasn't embarrassed about that either.
Her eyes traveled over him without attempting to disguise anything.
"Now the last piece," she said.
He hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his undershorts, hesitating for a fraction of a second, and then he pulled them down and stepped out of them.
Arezoo had thought she was prepared. She'd read about what it looked like when a man was aroused, but the novels hadn't prepared her for the specifics of Ruvon. He was tall. He was lean. And he was big and fully erect.
She gasped and then pressed her hand to her mouth.
He misinterpreted her response and covered his erection with his hands, or at least attempted to. "Too much?"
She shook her head. "Come here."
Where she had gotten the courage to say that was beyond her. Was she channeling Drova?
She hoped not.
He let go of his erection and climbed onto the bed slowly, bracing one knee on the mattress beside her hip, and then the other.
He settled over her without putting his weight on her, his arms braced on either side of her shoulders. One dark strand of hair fell forward onto her cheek, and he was looking down at her with an expression that mixed reverence and desire in equal measure.
Arezoo's hands came up of their own accord and settled on the warm, bare skin of his chest. It felt hot under her palms, and his heart was beating fast.
"Hello," she whispered.
"Hello."
He bent down and kissed her, slowly, deliberately, taking his time. Her hands traveled up over his shoulders and into his loose hair, and his weight settled gradually against her.
When he let go of her mouth, he didn't move away. He just lifted his head a fraction and looked at her.
"I'm going to take my time with you," he said.
"Good."
"You're going to tell me if anything is too much."
"I will."
"I mean that, Arezoo. Anything. Even if you can't say why. You just say stop, and I stop."
"I trust you."
"I love you," he said.
"I love you too."
He kissed her lips again, then her jaw, then the soft place under her ear, and when she felt him begin to move slowly down her body, she knew what he intended to do because she'd read about it but hadn't been sure she would be okay with that.
She was about to find out.
He kissed what seemed to be every inch of her on his way down, and her body responded by arching up and welcoming every kiss, every caress, even the small nips that sent shivers through her body.
She was going to let him kiss her down there.
She'd let him do anything he wanted tonight, because she trusted him completely, and because every part of her that had been afraid of this for so long had quietly shut up shop and gone home.