“I have hurt you!”
“Nay, lovey, you pleasure me beyond all,” and he drew her into his arms and kissed her again. Her round breasts, hard now with her mounting passion, rubbed against his dark furred chest until the little nipples were raw with desire. Her torso pressed tightly against him like burning silk, trembling weakly as her legs began to give way. But her voice was low and strong.
“Take me, my Niall. Take me like the stallion took my mare!”
He lowered her to the ground, then knelt beside her. Her violet eyes were wide with wonder as he bent his head to catch a little nipple in his mouth. Slowly he sucked on it, watching with narrowed silver eyes as her breath came in short little gasps and her hips began to twitch. A caressing hand moved down her fevered body, and she jumped as he touched that most secret of places. His finger pushed through the soft defensive folds, rubbing insistently, and Constanza thought she was going to faint.
Her heart was leaping about wildly, and she was being buffeted by a great storm of new feelings, the like of which she’d never known. Her belly ached, and between her legs where his hand teased she ached in a different way. When he gently put his long finger into her she was relieved, but when he withdrew, the ache was worse and she whimpered.
“All right, lovey,” he said softly, “I will make it better now,” and he mounted her, parting her trembling thighs, and slowly entered her. She opened herself to him like a flower. Her eyes never left his face even when he reached her tight little virgin shield and pierced it, swiftly, so as to give her less hurt.
Constanza felt the slow, burning pain spread quickly up her,and she cried out. His lips covered her protest, his tongue probing her mouth, matching the rhythm of his throbbing spear. Something wonderful was happening to her, and she eagerly thrust her hips upward to meet his fierce downward thrusts. The pain was gone, and she was soaring like a bird in flight. Her little hands grasped his tight buttocks to bring him closer, and at the moment of her climax she tore her head away from him, shrieking her joy. Then she fainted.
Niall Burke lay panting in astounded exhaustion. Never had he experienced such passion in a virgin, and she had certainly been a virgin, as the blood on her thighs attested. Now she lay drained and unconscious. He studied her for a moment, this girl who would be his wife. She was certainly lovely, and although he wasn’t entirely sure he liked her excessive passion she would certainly be a better bedsport than poor Darragh had been. The MacWilliam might be angered momentarily by a surprise bride, but if Niall was lucky he would bring her home to Ireland with a babe in her belly or at her breast. In that case, all would be forgiven.
She was barely breathing, and he pulled her into his arms to warm her, to awaken her. Her eyelids fluttered as she began her slow return to consciousness. He held her close, murmuring soft little words of endearment, and as her eyes opened to focus on his face, she blushed furiously.
“Oh, Niall, what must you think of me? But, oh, it was wonderful!”
He laughed. “What I think,niña, is that I am a very lucky man. You were quite magnificent. How do you feel, lovey?”
“I flew, Niall! I really flew! I feel so happy now, and I want to do it again!”
He chuckled. “We shall fly together again, lovey, but I think perhaps it would be best now if we returned to Palma. I must ask your father’s permission to marry you.” He stood up and began to pull his clothes on, but it was not easy to concentrate when Constanza lay naked at his feet on her bed of meadow flowers and soft green grass. He finally managed to return some measure of order to his garb and, holding out his hand, he said, “Come, madam, and I will maid you.”
She stood, and he was again enchanted by the perfection of her slim body. Slowly she pulled on her undergarments, then the dress skirt, and lastly the dress top which he laced for her, first cupping the sweet round breasts and fondling them. Leaning back against him, she murmured contently.
He spanked her bottom fondly. “Pack the luncheon basket,niña, while I catch the horses and saddle them up.”
They returned to Palma in the late afternoon. One look at Constanza’s face brought a cry of joy from Ana. As Niall dismounted his horse the older woman grasped his hands and kissed them. “Gracias, Señor Niall! My Constanza will make you a good wife, I swear it!”
“Then you think the Conde will give his consent, Ana?”
A crafty look came into the woman’s eyes. “He will at first refuse you, for he has never forgiven myniña’s birth. If, however, you tell him that you have dishonored his daughter then he will quickly consent, for he fears scandal more than anything else.”
“In that case, Ana, I shall speak to him at once,” smiled Niall.
“He is in his library now, my lord.”
Niall bent down and brushed Constanza’s lips. “For luck, Constanzita,” he said, and was gone.
“Aiiieee, myniña!You have at last found a man, and what a man! He will keep your belly filled for years to come. It is what I have prayed for,niña. Someone to take you from the Conde, and his bitterness. Now you will have a good life, a normal life.” She hugged the girl hard. Then, catching herself, she gasped, “In my happiness I have forgotten you, my Constanza. You are all right? He was gentle?”
“He was gentle, nurse, but I am sore and could use a bath.”
“At once,niña!At once!”
And while Constanza bathed herself in a warm, scented tub, Niall Burke sprawled his long frame in a rather uncomfortable chair in the Conde’s library. In his big hand he twirled the stem of a small wine glass. The Conde stared coldly at his guest.
“You are vastly improved in health, Lord Burke.” It was more a statement than a question. “I expect you will soon leave us.”
Niall nodded. “Soon, my lord, and when I go there is something I would take with me from Mallorca.”
“A souvenir of sorts, Lord Burke?”
Niall could not resist a chuckle. “Of sorts,” he said. “I wish to marry Constanza. I am formally applying to you for her hand.”
The Conde’s facial expression never wavered. “It is impossible, Lord Burke.”
