“Meooow! Fssst! Kittens respond best to warmth and affection.” Her emerald eyes sparkled mischievously.
“Indeed, madame?” Swinging himself off her, he pulled her up. “Then let me take this small, bedraggled kitten into the house,” he murmured. “Into my bed to cuddle it and make it more amenable.”
She shook her skirts free of the snow. “Purrrr!” she responded, and then she darted away from him and up the steps into the house.
With a burst of laughter he was after her, chasing her through the library, into the main hall of Greenwood, up the stairs, and down the passageway to their apartments. They burst into the rooms, startling Pansy, who had been dozing by the anteroom fire. Seated by her side upon the floor, his head in her lap, was Dugald, who leaped to his feet.
“M’lord! M’lady!” He poked at the sleepy Pansy, hissing, “Get up, lass!”
Bleary-eyed, Pansy stumbled to her feet, and Velvet realized the lateness of the hour. “Just undo me, Pansy,” she said, “and then find your own bed.”
Pansy nodded but said, “I’ll put your gown away, m’lady. ’Twill only take a minute.” She followed her mistress into her bedchamber.
The gown removed, Velvet stood in her silken undergarments thinking dreamily back on the lovely evening. Pansy fumbled at her neck and removed first her necklace and then her earbobs. Clutching the gown and the jewelry, she departed for the dressing room, to return a few moments later.
“Good night, m’lady,” she said, bobbing a curtsy, “and a Merry Christmas to you!”
“Merry Christmas, Pansy!” came Velvet’s reply. The door shut behind the young tiring woman, and slowly Velvet began to remove her petticoats, underblouse, shoes, and stockings, which she flung upon a chair. Naked, she walked to the small silver ewer holding the warm water that Pansy had prepared and, taking up a little cake of fragrant soap, washed her face and hands and then rinsed her teeth. In the bedroom fireplace the red-orange flames crackled sharply as a log slipped in the grate, sending up a shower of golden sparks. Velvet stretched lazily in the warmth of the room.
“Jesu, ye’re beautiful!” Alex stood in the doorway that connected their two bedchambers. “I never tire of seeing ye this way, as God has created ye. Yer creamy skin, yer eyes, yer hair! ’Tis all pure perfection, lovey.” He moved up behind her and, sliding his hands around her, cupped her breasts in his two hands.
The pier glass was before them, and, fascinated, Velvet watched as he caressed her. Her breasts were in perfect proportion to her size, yet as she watched him play with her it seemed as if his big hands made her appear smaller. Her nipples began to tingle with sharp sensations and shriveled into tight little love knots. The rounds of her breasts swelled under his soft, mesmerizing touch.
Velvet sighed deeply and said softly, “Don’t stop, my love. I adore it when you touch me so!”
He smiled at her over her shoulder in the glass. “I’m glad ye’re not one of those icy wenches who undresses in the dark and must have all the candles out,” he said. “I love to pet my kitten and see her purr with pleasure.” He bent his head and dropped a kiss on her smooth shoulder.
One of his hands slipped down her satiny skin and moved in a circular motion around her belly while the other remained in possession of a breast. Velvet’s whole body was becoming atingle with a myriad of delightful sensations. She relaxed against her husband and, closing her eyes, murmured contentedly. His long fingers slipped to her Venus mont and, parting the plump lips, found sweet sensitivity. Velvet drew her breath in sharply as her eyes flew open. She couldn’t resist looking into the mirror, and she was half-shocked, half intrigued by what she saw.
Suddenly everything in the deep, half-golden gloom of the room was richer and lusher. Her body seemed more voluptuous than she could ever remember it being. There was a tautness to her belly that gave her skin a silken sheen and belied the melting passion she felt within her. Slowly her eyes dropped to his teasing fingers, and then they widened as she saw her own flesh, pink and glistening with pearly drops of moisture. She was unexpectedly aware of his manhood, hard and insistent, pressing between her tight buttocks. Lifting her eyes, she caught her breath a second time as she saw his face dark with the hot passion he felt for her. He ceased his dalliance and, turning her about, drew her gently into his embrace, his mouth covering hers with a hungry kiss.
The pressure of his lips was hard and fierce, forcing the breath from her. She parted her own lips to catch a breath, and he invaded her mouth with his tongue. Velvet shivered but was not yet ready to give quarter. Together their tongues, those two sleek organs with seeming lives of their own, danced madly back and forth in the dark caverns of their mouths. Then, never lifting his lips from hers, he lifted her up and carried her to their bed. Gently he lowered her, his own body following hers down upon the mattress, which sagged under their combined weights. His fingers tangled in her thick hair holding her head still.
It was a fiercely passionate kiss that drained her totally of whatever will and strength she might have had. Her whole being was attuned to but one thing: to receive pleasure, and to give it.
His mouth now moved from hers to travel a route that took him to her quivering eyelids, her cheeks, her chin, her soft throat with its violently leaping pulse that told him the depth of her own passion. He let his lips linger on that pulse, kissing it softly until it quieted a small bit; then he moved onward down to her lovely breasts. With a sigh Alex took the nipple of one breast into his mouth and sucked it lovingly for several long minutes before saluting its mate as tenderly.
Velvet felt a strong tug of desire deep within her. Why was it that he could make her want him so very much? With a deep sigh of her own, she caressed his head and neck, her hand gradually moving to his shoulders then sliding down his back to fondle his buttocks. He groaned with the pleasure she gave him, and then with a fluid movement he parted her thighs and slid his loveshaft into her fevered body.
Velvet felt tears sliding down her cheeks in a totally uncontrolled fashion as he moved upon her. “I love you!” she whispered softly. “Dear God, how I love you, my wild Scots husband!”
He kissed her tears, tasting their saltiness upon his tongue, and then he took her face between his hands, saying as he did so, “I love ye, Velvet! There has never been any other woman who engaged my whole heart, and there never will be! I will always be faithful to ye, sweetheart. Always!”
Then they sought love’s perfection in each other’s arms, their souls as well as their bodies blending until there was nothing for either of them but the other in every moment of their love.
Christmas Day dawned with the sound of voices singing carols beneath their windows. Tousled but happy, Velvet and Alex smiled at each other and then arose from their bed, carefully sliding into the night garments that had been laid out for them but never used. Then going to the windows of their bedchamber, they flung them open and cried “Merry Christmas” to the children who were so sweetly serenading them. The children beamed delightedly at the lord and lady’s approval, and then scrambled for the coppers that Alex tossed to them.
“There’s cakes and ale at the kitchen door,” Velvet called to the small songsters who, curtsying and bobbing bows, scampered around the side of the house and out of sight.
Alex slipped his arm about his wife and pinched her mischievously. Then he buried his face in her warm bosom, inhaling her sweet fragrance.
“Oh, no, my lord!” Velvet pushed him away. “We have services to attend in the chapel. The priest is due at eight! Would you cause a scandal?”
“Yes!” He grinned and grabbed for her.
Skillfully she evaded him. “My lord, fie! As your wife I am the moral arbitrator of this family. We will begin our Christmas properly. What would the holy man think if we are late?”
“He will undoubtedly think of the fine breakfast of brawn with mustard and Malmsey he’ll receive afterwards,” muttered Alex, but obedient to his young wife’s wishes he repaired to his own room to dress.
