With that, he pulled her out of the chair and took her hand, leading her to the fanciful bed. Pulling back the curtains, he also began to throw back the bedclothes. Emelisse saw what he was doing and went around to the other side of the bed, pullingback the other side to reveal a surprisingly clean mattress. There were two fluffy pillows which, she discovered, were stuffed with feathers.
Caius begin to remove his clothing and because he was, Emelisse began to remove hers as well. The traveling dress was designed to be easily worn, so it was simply a matter of untying the ribbons that trussed up the bodice. She fumbled with them, finally managing to loosen them up enough so that she could slide the dress down her body. It landed in a puddle of woolen fabric at her feet and she picked it up, carefully laying it over the end of the bed.
Now, she was left in the heavy woolen shift that Lady de Wrenville had loaned her with a lighter shift underneath. She wiggled out of the heavier shift and laid it out with the traveling dress, leaving her clad only in the thin linen shift. She was so involved in removing her clothing that she failed to realize that Caius was already nude and under the coverlet.
When the mattress gave way as she was laying the heavy shift on the end of the bed, she looked up to see him lying in the bed on his side, head propped up on his hand and the coverlet pulled up to his waist. Startled, she found herself staring at that magnificent form of a man with arms as big around as her waist. It was enough to set her heart racing. But the first thing she saw was that vicious viper tattoo on his right bicep.
She pointed to it.
“What is that?” she asked.
He had been looking at her with a smile on his face, rather alluringly, but was forced to stop looking at her as he followed her pointing finger. Realizing she meant his tattoo, he rolled onto his back so she could see it better.
“The mark of The Britannia Viper,” he said.
“The moniker the savages in The Levant gave you?”
He nodded, inspecting the gorgeously detailed engraving. “They did indeed call me that,” he said. “But they are not savages. They were some of the most intelligent, cultured people I have ever met. In fact, they put thisstigmataon my arm. They considered it an honor to do so.”
She cocked her head. “Your enemy put that on your arm?”
He lay back on the pillow, tucking a big arm in behind his head as he watched her. “Understand that they were not all my enemy,” he said. “There is a brotherhood with men who have fought against each other, and that brotherhood is built on mutual respect. The men who put this on my arm were Muslim, but our respect for one another was great. They were part of the spy assemblage that I was part of, and we greatly admired one another.”
Emelisse leaned forward, inspecting what she could see of the tattoo. “It is truly beautiful,” she said. “Whoever drew it is a great artist. I have never seen anything like it.”
He grunted. “And you never will again,” he said. “Christians consider marking the body like this to be a great sin, but to me… it was a great honor because it was put there by men considered my enemy. You can touch it, you know. It will not bite you.”
Considering the image was of a snake with large fangs, she laughed softly. She was also still in her thin shift, standing there awkwardly. Caius finally crooked a finger at her, beckoning her into the bed.
“Come to me, Lady d’Avignon.”
The way he said it, a purring deep voice, made her respond without thought. She was in the bed and up against him before she realized it as he pulled the coverlet over them both.
The discovery began.
Caius didn’t wait. He leaned forward, gently kissing her forehead, her cheeks, until finally descending on her tender lips. His reaction to her was the same as it had been in the commonroom. The moment he tasted her mouth, he felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. Perhaps he had kissed other women before, but it hadn’t felt like this.
Never like this.
He pulled her closer.
Caius’ mouth began to move. Suddenly, he was seized with the desire to taste every inch of the woman.My wife. As his mouth moved down her arm and began to suckle on her fingers, she brought those fingers to her own lips, tasting them.
Caius went mad.
His mouth descended on hers again, his tongue licking at her, tasting her, kissing her so deeply that she went limp in his arms. She was so pliable that he was able to lay her on her back without any resistance whatsoever. He suckled her lips, her skin, and she gasped beneath him and let him do whatever he wanted. When he decided the thin shift she had been wearing was no longer necessary, he snaked his hands underneath it and quickly pulled it over her head.
Hot flesh against hot flesh nearly did him in, his big erection already demanding satisfaction. Beneath him, Emelisse’s eyes were half-lidded, watching his enormous body as he moved, lifting her hands so she could run her fingers through his dark hair as he suckled on her shoulder. As a maiden, she had always imagined this moment with a future husband would come with such embarrassment, naked and exposed, but Caius’ touch had been so exquisite that Emelisse felt no embarrassment at all. He was hot and big and muscular, and in spite of his great size, his weight wasn’t heavy on her in the least.
There was something about it that excited her terribly.
Caius’ lips were on her neck once more and he stroked her arms, moving out until he reached her wrists. Using both of his hands, he grasped her wrists and brought her arms up above her head. Emelisse was so wrapped up in the delicious sensations hewas creating that she didn’t realize he had pinned both of her wrists, over her head, with one of his hands. When she realized that, she looked at him with puzzlement only to see him grinning lustily at her.
“May I not touch you, too?”
He shook his head, leaning forward to kiss her chin. “Nay,” he said hoarsely. “If you do, this will end far too quickly and I do not wish for it to.”
“What do you mean?”
