Now the farmer is nevermore, nevermore!
They were shouting more than singing by that point, howling at the bawdy song. Diara covered her mouth so they wouldn’t see her grin as Roi, biting off laughter, continued to wave his hands at the group.
“Get out of here, you fools,” he demanded. “Take your filthy plows elsewhere!”
They roared with laughter. Roi could see that the group was comprised of Douglas and Westley, Gallus, Tiberius, Maximus, and Andrew. There were also several de Lohr soldiers trailing after them from the great hall, who were now shouting up at the window.
“Take her by the hair and tie her to the bed, m’lord!” someone cried. “Women like it when you tie them up!”
Roi smirked, shaking his head at the group, turning to Diara and mouthing,Nay, they do not. She burst out laughing as Roi shouted down to the group again.
“If I have to leave this chamber to come down there to disperse the group, you will not be pleased,” he warned. “It would be safer if you simply go back into the hall and stay there.”
“Give her the flesh sword, Roi!”
That one came from Westley, who was quite drunk. But the entire group took up cries of “sheathe the flesh sword, sheathe the flesh sword!” and Roi slapped a hand over his face in disbelief while Diara giggled uncontrollably. At that point, Roi had had enough, and he shook a fist at the group below.
“Goaway,” he said. “That is not a request!”
As he reached for Diara to pull her inside, the group shouted up one last batch of encouragement.
“Demand the prick, Lady de Lohr!”
“Poke her, Roi!”
“Bury the matrimonial sword!”
That brought laughter from both Roi and Diara as he pulled his new wife into the chamber and dropped the oil cloth over the window opening. Diara was laughing so hard that she was wiping tears from her eyes, but just as she was calming down, she looked at Roi and started laughing all over again because he was smirking. He was terribly embarrassed. He opened his mouth to say something, but a faint shout caught his attention.
“Roi!” It was Douglas. “Shall I come up and give you some instructions? Shall I show you how it is done, brother?”
They could hear the laughter outside, and Roi rolled his eyes. “God’s Bones,” he muttered. “That group is enough to drive any man insane with rage. I am sorry, angel. They mean well.”
Diara was still smiling. “They do it because they love you,” she said. “I’ve seen enough mean-spirited men to know that they were not being malicious. They are simply happy.”
Roi shrugged. “I suppose,” he said, moving to the bed and sitting heavily. He puffed out his cheeks. “I did not realize how exhausted I was until this moment. It has been an eventful day.”
She stood about a foot away, smiling at him. “Too exhausted?” she said. “Then mayhap you should go to sleep and we will continue this in the morning.”
He looked at her for a moment before whipping out an arm and pulling her against him. “There is not a chance that will happen,” he muttered, his face in her neck. “You and I have business to attend to.”
Diara was quickly succumbing to his heated breath on her skin, his powerful body wrapping itself around her. “Business, is it?” she asked breathlessly. “What business could we possibly have?”
His lips were on her shoulder, but he couldn’t help from smiling. “You are about to find out.”
It didn’t matter that Diara had never really been in an intimate position like this. It didn’t matter that she’d never gone beyond the kiss she and Roi had shared in the solar. Her mind might be naïve, but her body wasn’t. It was responding, innately, to what it had been born and bred to do—respond to a man’s touch. Everything about her was on fire as Roi kissed her, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears.
“Show me,” she whispered.
Roi didn’t need any further prompting. Her request had him on fire, and he cupped her face in his two enormous hands, bringing her mouth to his. When his lips claimed hers, it was hungrily, as if he had never kissed a woman before until this moment. He’d been married before. He’d had women before. But not like this—never like this. It was as if Diara was the only one. As his tongue began to lick her, begging for welcome into her warm, delicious mouth, his hands moved from her face and went to work on her clothing.
The red dress came off, seemingly dissolving in his hands, and he had no idea why. He didn’t think he’d pulled that hard on it, but he evidently didn’t know his own strength. The entire thing began to fall away, and it took him a moment to realize that it was because Diara was helping him.
Inch by inch, the dress slid off her body and onto the floor.
Beneath that, she wore a shift, which came off as well, and in the dim light of a dozen glowing tapers, Roi found himself gazing at his wife’s perfect, nude body. He couldn’t remember ever seeing anything so completely arousing, but as he moved to pull her against him, he realized he was still wearing his clothing, and, almost frantically, it began to come off.
The tunic went over his head, and he tossed it to the ground before untying his breeches. He had to let her go in order to pull those off, and they ended up on the floor alongside the tunic. In all his naked glory, Roi returned his attention to Diara only to see that she was sitting on the bed trying to cover her chest with her arms. She seemed embarrassed, and probably cold, and he felt remorse that he hadn’t shown more consideration. This was her first experience with a man, after all, and even though she was a strong and brave woman, she couldn’t pretend that she was completely comfortable. Rather than try to move her arms, he simply pulled her into a tight embrace and covered her with his big body.
