“Don’t blame yourself,” Aled said when she had finished. “It was not your fault, Ceris. You are a gentle woman. It is not fair that you have got caught up in all this violence. I’ll get up and take you home.”
“You will not,” she said, rallying. “You will not move from that bed tonight, Aled Rhoslyn.”
“I can’t let you walk home alone,” he said. “There could be danger out there.”
“I am not going home,” she said. “I am staying here.”
“No,” he said. “Your reputation, Ceris. And your parents will be worried.”
“I told them I was going up to spend the night with Mrs. Evans and her mother,” she said, “since Marged would be going with Rebecca. And I don’t care about that other, Aled. I am not leaving you. Not tonight.”
He set the back of his good hand over his eyes and was quiet for a few moments. But he did not argue with her. “I’ll get up and let you have the bed, then,” he said. “I’ll sleep on the settle.”
“You are going to stay where you are,” she said. “I’ll sleep beside you. The bed is wide enough.”
His hand stayed over his eyes. She was not sure whether the sound she heard was a sigh or a laugh. She unbuttoned her dress and took it off so that it would not get more creased than it already was from the night’s activities. She blew out the lamp and climbed carefully over Aled to the inside of the bed. She scrambled beneath the bedclothes.
The worst of the pain had receded. Now it was rather like a persistent and gnawing toothache. He knew he was going to be stiff and sore tomorrow. And yet he would have to be at his anvil and busy at it too if there was anyone snooping around, asking questions, as there was bound to be. He just hoped the bleeding would be under control by then.
She was beside him in bed. He could already feel the warmth of her, though she was not touching him. He slid his arm across and took her hand in his.
“When a man and a woman are in bed together, it is no simple matter to fall asleep,” he said.
“I know.” Incredibly, he felt her cheek come to rest against his shoulder. He understood then that she had not stayed just to tend to his wounds. She had not climbed into bed with him from any naive assumption that they could sleep peacefully side by side. She was offering herself to him.
It increased his pain to move, but he managed to get his good arm beneath her head, and she came across him of her own volition, careful not to touch his left arm or shoulder, and gave him her mouth, soft and pouted and trembling in the darkness.
“Cariad, ” he said softly after he had kissed her, “it is my seed I will be putting in your womb if we do not stop right now.”
“Yes.” There was a sob in her voice.
“Will you take it into you, then?” he asked.
“Yes.” He could feel her tears on his face. “But I do not want you to move, Aled. I do not want you to hurt yourself.”
“Lie over on your back,” he said, “and I will manage.”
It was not easy. And certainly not painless. He had to put all his weight on her after she had lifted her shift and removed her underthings for him. And he could not be as careful or as gentle as he would have liked. But they both wanted it, and wanted it badly. Somehow she knew how to lift her legs to twine about his and raise her hips from the bed, and somehow he positioned himself and pushed into the tight, wet little passage.
He heard himself sob when she flinched and made a guttural sound in her throat, but she spread her hands over his buttocks and pulled tightly when he would have withdrawn. He pushed the rest of the way in.
He made it last for several minutes, feeling her first relax and then rock her hips to his thrusts and withdrawals, and then tighten inside. She was hot and wet and indescribably wonderful. He wanted to burst into her at every inward stroke, but it was an act of love and he desperately wanted it to be as wonderful for her.
“Aled!” she cried suddenly in a strange, lost, surprised voice, and he felt her body jerk out of control beneath him. He surged into her over and over again, excited by her climax, until his seed came spilling deep and he released all his energy, all his love into his woman.
His first woman.
His only woman. Ever.
It took him a long while after he was lying on his back again and Ceris was curled up against his good side, his arm beneath her head, to bring the pain under control. But it was a physical thing and would pass off. He focused his mind on what had just happened and on the feel of her, relaxed after love. With his seed in her.
“Aled,” she said, “can I bring you anything? I can tell by your breathing that you are in pain.”
“Stay where you are,” he said. “You are the only medicine I need, cariad.”
“Aled,” she said after a short silence, “I meant it. I will not wake up tomorrow to be horrified at what I have done. I meant it. And I loved it—far more than I ever expected.”
He surprised himself by chuckling. “We were not bad for a pair of novices, were we?” he said.
