Before Alienor could think, she was pinned to the bed, Dagobert’s weight between her thighs, his pelvis imprisoning hers as she reveled in his endless kiss.He moved her chemise aside with one smooth gesture, his strong hands exploring her hills and valleys in one unceasing caress.The pulse pounding in his manhood thumped against her secret lips and Alienor moaned, wrapping her knees around his waist to welcome him closer.
He slipped lower, his elbows bracing her knees wide, his hands capturing her wrists.His tongue lit on that pearl hidden between her thighs, laving, teasing, caressing so that Alienor thought she might be driven to madness.She writhed against his strength, but he would not let her twist away from his touch.
The heat built to a crescendo within her, onward and upward till she thought she could endure it no more, and still it grew.Suddenly, abruptly, light ran through her veins to her fingertips in a bright explosion of color.She thought she screamed as her back arched off the bed, every muscle extended in ecstasy and then satisfaction.
She gasped for air, her arms clasping Dagobert’s neck when he rose to nuzzle the soft spot beneath her ear.The weight of his hands sliding over her breast quickened her blood again.Almost dizzy from her release, she felt her body begin to respond anew.She gasped with pleasure as his fingers slipped into the dampness between her legs, knowing that he intended to cast her over that precipice again.
His thumb landed on that still-swollen bud.Alienor inhaled sharply at the jolt, but his touch was gentle and she readily parted her thighs for him.He kissed her gently, almost reverently, his lips grazing a path down her throat, nibbling at her collarbone, unerringly making their way to the hardened point of her nipple.He pulled the tip into the warm wetness of his mouth and Alienor groaned, grabbing a fistful of his hair even as he slid one finger inside her.
Never had she felt so cherished and adored, and she positively purred beneath his touch.Was he begging her forgiveness for his stubbornness of the night before?Perhaps for his absence?Alienor could not think clearly, but she would keep her own vow and ask him no questions this night.The storm rose anew within her and she pulled his lips to hers, twining her fingers into his hair as she rained kisses all over his face.He gave her too much by pleasuring her alone; she would share this ride with him.
“Come with me,” Alienor urged, and she thought she felt him smile against her lips before he leaned back and rolled her to her stomach, His teasing fingers were splayed flat beneath her and wound into the nest of curls at her crotch.His hand moved there and she giggled as he tickled her, gasping when his finger stretched to touch that sensitive bud once more.
Dagobert rolled atop her, his hips against her buttocks, his other hand sliding beneath them to cup her breast, his breath on her ear as he slowly licked the sensitive spot behind the lobe.She wriggled with delight and his manhood hardened still more against her.Dagobert lifted his hips quickly and slid his strength along her wet folds.Alienor pulled up her knees and he groaned while his fingers caressed her more urgently, his heartbeat pounding against her shoulder blades as she heard herself begging for his possession.
He melded their bodies together with one long stroke and Alienor lifted her hips against him that she might take even more of his length.He gasped at her move and she undulated her pelvis.The curse that tumbled from his lips and the way his arm tightened around her filled her with a curious and wonderful sense of power.His fingertip teased and she was lost herself, writhing beneath him as he began to move, hardly noticing that he grabbed a fistful of her hair and bared her face to his gaze as they found satisfaction together.
And so Alienor’sdays fell into an easy rhythm, her needlework filling her days and her husband’s ardor filling her nights.Every night he came to her without fail, and every night she kept her vow to asking no more of him than he wished to give.Of his body, he gave her all, but naught of his heart or soul was she apparently to have.
Her foolish hope that more would grow between them dwindled as the white unicorn took shape beneath her fingers on the precious red samite, Iolande often commented on the piece and Alienor saw the pride in the older woman’s eyes at the work.No doubt Iolande believed that Alienor stitched with such care out of love for her husband, but it was a labor she was sure would be no more or less appreciated than her willingness to welcome him to her bed each night.
She not expected much from marriage.Protection.Shelter.Pleasure and tenderness had not been among her expectations, but Alienor was grateful for both.She found, though, that time at Montsalvat made her yearn for more of her lord husband.
Perhaps she would not have minded Dagobert’s silence and single-minded pursuit of a son if Alaric had not been so often in her presence.The contrast between her husband’s reticence and the goatherd’s interest in her was marked and saddened her heart on those days that she thought overmuch about it.
The goatherd was always nearby, his warm gaze upon her, his encouraging smile at the ready.’Twas true enough that he teased her and laughed aloud when he managed to make her blush, but he kept her confidence about her faith and indulged her fancies.When guests arrived at dinner and she was forced to eat meat at the board for appearance’ sake, she would find fruit, bread and cheese in her chambers when she retired and he would wink conspiratorially at her when next their paths would cross.
’Twas good to have one friend at Montsalvat.Mere friendship, though, was less than she came to desire of Alaric, and the very idea made her feel guilty.Too often now, Alienor found herself aware of him as a man and not a servant, too certain was she that he was finely wrought, too often did she imagine how he would tease a woman in bed.
’Twas unseemly for her to think thus and undoubtedly wrong, yet the matter was not helped by the fact that her husband had no face in her thoughts.His body she knew well, its smell and taste, the hard curve of his muscles, the texture of his hair against her lips, but she would know the man and he refused her that one indulgence.
’Twas probably inevitable that Alienor’s frustrations would come to this, but when the deed was done, she was as shocked as her husband.Dagobert was undoubtedly stunned when, in the midst of their lovemaking one night in early March, Alienor called out “Alaric” as she found her release—instead of gasping “Dagobert,” as was her wont.
Immediately she realized her error, but ’twas too late to make amends.Her husband climbed abruptly from the bed and stalked across the room before she could utter another sound.He was at the portal when Alienor called out an inarticulate apology.Her fingertips pressed to her lips when the slamming of the oaken door was the sole reply.
What had she done?Her tears spilled down her cheeks and she threw herself across the bed, sobbing that she had insulted her lord husband.
Doubtless he thought she had been unfaithful to him, but worse, Alienor could not defend herself.
’Twas only much later, as the sky tinged pink and he did not return, that Alienor realized that Dagobert had not needed to unlock the chamber door.
Chapter 4
“Get up,” Dagobert whispered in the darkness of the antechamber, too furious to be polite.Eustache roused himself with some difficulty, sparing a skeptical glance at the shadows still enfolding them.
“Can you not make merry a little longer?It would do me no injury to have a decent night’s sleep,” the older man growled.He gathered a blanket around his shoulders against the chill of the early hour.
“She knows,” Dagobert hissed.He paced the width of the room and back while his friend absorbed the tidings.He had the urge to kick the one-horned goat that was at the center of the entire mess, though none of it was that creature’s doing.The fault was all his own.His temper was not improved by the timing of Alienor’s declaration.
Eustache ran one hand through his hair and squinted at his lord.“And what of it?”he asked.“Most others know within the keep.”
“You do not understand,” Dagobert insisted, spinning to confront the other knight.He had never made himself so vulnerable to another and now he feared the import of that.“I was convincedthat she did not know.The woman has deceived me.”
“You are not easily tricked.”
Dagobert was disgusted with his own gullibility.“Desire blinded me, and I cannot be proud of that.”
“Do you think she meant to deceive you?”
