Chapter Nine #3
“No one has ever said such wonderful things to me,” she confessed, ignoring the jab of the armor and mail. “I am so sorry you have had such a terrible life, Brandt. I feel as if I should hug you to make it all better. Perhaps we can be friends even after you leave me at Erith. I would like that.”
Brandt, startled as he was by her hug, nonetheless recovered swiftly and wrapped a big arm around her.
It seemed the most natural of things to do.
In fact, his other arm wrapped around her, too, and he held her tightly as she squeezed his neck.
He’d never in his life felt something so warm and wonderful, and he sorely wished he wasn’t wearing his armor.
He would have liked to have felt her against him, body to body.
The feeling of her was overwhelming him.
“How do you to this?” he hissed.
She pulled back to look at him, frowning. “Do what?”
His face was very close to hers. He could feel her hot breath on his face. “This,” he said again. “Show your emotions so openly? Give comfort to someone you barely know without thought?”
She shrugged, realizing that he still had both arms around her. He was so massive that it was like being swallowed whole, but she knew that it was a sensation she could grow to crave. To think of him leaving her off at Erith and never seeing him again brought waves of disappointment.
“I do not,” she murmured. “Not always. But my family is very affectionate so I suppose I grew up that way. When someone is hurt, friend or family, we comfort them.”
“I am hurt?”
She nodded faintly, studying his handsome face. “I think your heart is hurt and you do not even know it. You have never known anything else.”
“Would you heal it?”
It was a hugely open question. She sensed it immediately.
She unwound her arm from his neck and sat back on her heels, gazing into his eyes.
Brandt released her somewhat, but not entirely.
His hands were still on her as they faced one another.
The question had been presented. Her response would determine the course of their association and quite possible their future.
He held his breath, watching her as she considered the question.
“I would like to know what you mean by that,” she finally said, her tone soft.
He shrugged and averted his gaze. “I am not entirely sure,” he said.
“All I know is that… Ellowyn, we have known each other a matter of days but since yesterday, I feel as if… I have never felt like this in my life and I completely understand if it is unwelcome, but I have to say that I find you beautiful and brave and gracious and sweet, and I would like nothing better than to come to know you better and perhaps….”
Ellowyn could feel her heart swelling with joy. She broke out into the most amazing smile. “Perhaps… what?”
He couldn’t quite bring himself to say it. “Perhaps… well, perhaps you could….”
“Perhaps I could help you find a wife?”
He shook his head, realizing she was teasing him when she started to laugh. It was charming. He was stumbling over his words and she was mocking him playfully.
Throwing caution to the wind, he cupped her sweet face in his two enormous hands, studying her closely and deeply for the very first time. He felt giddy and quivering, but also elated and emotional. For a man who had learned to suppress his emotions long ago, it was both liberating and frightening.
“Perhaps…,” he continued, “you will consider me as more than an acquaintance. I realize that you may not be interested in me as a marital prospect, but I hope that given time you will consider it. I would very much like to explore the possibility if you are amenable to it.”
Her giggles faded and her eyes widened. “Marriage?”
“Perhaps… well, if you find the prospect an attractive one.”
She was genuinely shocked. It was more than she could have ever dreamed. “You find me an attractive marital prospect?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
He gave her a half-grin. “Because I had no idea how dark my days were until I met you. In this short amount of time, you have shown me the sun and it is blinding. I would be very happy to be blinded by you.”
“Surely you jest.”
“I do not jest.”
Ellowyn could hardly believe her ears. She began to giggle, growing louder as she threw her good arm around his neck again.
Brandt, overcome and out of his element, hugged her so tightly that she grunted when he squeezed the air out of her.
He also cracked her back. But neither one of them let go.
They simply held one another in the first real and true romantic embrace either one of them had ever experienced. It was magic.
But Brandt eventually loosened his grip. The feel of her, the scent of her, was overwhelming him and he found that he had to taste her. Her lips were soft and sensuous morsels, calling his name, and he answered the call with the fires born of passion.
Ellowyn was startled at first when his mouth descended on hers but her surprise was only momentary.
His touch was firm but not harsh, soft but not sloppy, and she couldn’t help but respond.
She’d never kissed a man in her life but instincts took over and she began to suckle his lips just as he was suckling hers.
Her belly began to quiver and her heart began to race, and soon she was pressed against him, her hand in his dark hair as they suckled one another feverishly.
But Brandt wanted more. His tongue licked her lips, snaking between them and licking her teeth, and when Ellowyn opened her mouth, he took great liberties in tasting her deeply.
He could feel her hesitation at something so new and intimate, but she began to relax quickly.
She even began to mimic him, something that drove him mad with desire.
He pulled her closer, his hands in her hair and his mouth devouring her, when a voice from outside the tent stopped their building passion.
“My lord?” It was Dylan’s voice. “A word, my lord?”
Ellowyn, lips red and wet from his seeking mouth, loosened her grip on his neck but Brandt didn’t loosen his at all. He continued to hold her tightly. He could not believe de Lara had chosen this moment to interrupt them.
“Can it wait?” he called out to the man.
“Nay, my lord.”
With a grunt of frustration, Brandt looked at Ellowyn apologetically. “I am sorry,” he whispered, letting her go with reluctance. “I will return.”
Ellowyn watched him rise, an extremely tall man who had to duck as he moved to the tent entry.
He turned before he quit the tent, however, giving her an awkward little smile and a wink before ducking out completely.
Once outside, Ellowyn could hear him speaking with de Lara but she could not hear their words.
All she was aware of was the soft, deep warmth of his tone.
With a sigh, she went back over to her pallet and lay down, trying to get comfortable with her bad shoulder.
She still could not believe what he had said to her and that kiss…
it had been everything a first kiss should have been; passionate, sweet, and overwhelmingly sexy.
Just thinking about it made her feel weak.
But perhaps she was asleep, dreaming everything that had happened.
As she lay there and stared at the ceiling, she knew that she would be terribly disappointed if that was true.
Brandt de Russe, as she had noticed from the beginning of their association, was an enormous and handsome man, much more perfect than any man she had ever seen. To think that somehow, someway, she had endeared herself to him was astonishing. She had no idea how she had done it.
Whatever it was, she would have to keep doing it. Now that she had his attention, she most assuredly didn’t want to lose it.