Since the day he met our Tilly.
His love for her nearly drove him daft,
When he discovered not a puss, but a shaft.”
The strains of Tilly Nodden, the bawdy tavern song he had refused to sing to her earlier, filled her ear upon his whispered breath. She’s giggled uncontrollably the rest of the night whenever she thought about the song and even now, as their passion built to a peak, the words from that song made her smile yet again. After all, it was a rather naughty song. But, then again, she was feeling rather naughty at the moment.
But her smile soon faded as her loins exploded in a burst of shattered stars and sunlit pleasures. Eyes closed as wave afterwave of ecstasy rolled over her, Annavieve saw stars as her climax came fast and heavy. Kevin’s came soon afterward, with a grunt, and she could feel his manhood throbbing within her. She knew that meant he’d spilled his seed for she’d seen the pearly-white evidence the previous night after he’d taken her. She knew that meant his seed was within her, hopefully to take root.His child, she thought.I shall bear Kevin’s child. Content, and exhausted, she wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly, holding him close to her as if to never let him go.
They lay there for some time, wrapped around each other, until a cock crow caused Kevin to lift his head. He could see that the sun was becoming brighter as the dawn deepened. He was warm and satisfied as he had never been in his life and reluctant to break that spell but he knew that he must.
In fact, he knew he must break the spell for many reasons, not the least of which being that it was dawn and a new day was beginning. It was because he had made love to his liege’s wife, as ordered, but this second time around, it had most definitely ceased to become a task. Now, it was becoming a need. He was quickly losing his perspective on the situation. All he knew was that, this morning, he had bedded her because he wanted to, not because he’d been ordered to. The walls around his soft-centered heart had crumbled significantly.
“We must rise and get dressed,” he finally said, feeling her hands on the back of his neck, caressing him. It was a wonderful feeling. “Then we must go to the church to see if your garments have been suitably altered.”
Annavieve couldn’t help but notice he didn’t look at her as he spoke. “We have time,” she said. “How are you feeling this morning?”
He pushed himself off of her, gently, breaking her hold on him. “Well enough,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
Disappointed that he had separated himself from her, Annavieve clutched the coverlet against her nude breast as he got out of bed. “Because you drank quite a bit last night,” she said. “If I’d had that much, surely my head would be aching this morning.”
Kevin turned away from her in search of his clothing and it was then she saw the massive scorpion tattoo on his back. She hadn’t seen it the day before when they’d first made love.
“I am fine,” he said again, picking his leather breeches up off the floor. “Get out of bed, now. We must break our fast and go to the church.”
Annavieve wasn’t listening; she was looking at the elaborate tattoo. “Your back,” she murmured, fascinated. “You have a drawing on it.”
Kevin pulled up his breeches. “I do, indeed.”
“What is it?”
He looked at her as he tied the waist. “A scorpion,” he said. “Have you never seen one?”
She shook her head, inspecting the tattoo. “Never,” she said. “What a magnificent piece of artwork. Who did it?”
Kevin had to turn so he could collect his tunic and her view of the tattoo was gone. “A very old man in a town called Sidon,” he said. “The man’s entire purpose in life was to draw images on people that will not wash off.”
Annavieve was still very curious about the tattoo even though she could no longer see it now that he had pulled his tunic over his head.
“How does he do it?” she asked.
He pulled his mail coat off the table and shook it out a bit. “With tiny needles,” he said. “He takes tiny needles, dips them in a black ink, and makes the design with tiny pricks of the needle. The ink embeds in the skin and is permanent.”
She thought on tiny pricks from a needle. “Does it not hurt?”
He shook his head. “Not at all.”
Annavieve eyed him doubtfully but didn’t say anything to the contrary. She was certain that needles in the skin would be painful. He was putting his mail coat on now, something that usually took two people because of the weight and size of it, but Kevin managed quite ably alone. As he was bent over, she tossed back the coverlet with the intention of dressing but he must have heard her movements because he spoke.
“When I am downstairs procuring our meal,” he said, “should I have a bath sent up to you? We have a long ride ahead of us and mayhap you would like to bathe.”
Annavieve sat on the edge of the bed, the coverlet drawn up around her to cover her modesty. “I… I suppose so,” she said hesitantly. “But I do not have any soap.”
Kevin stood up, shaking the mail coat down on his body as it settled. His saddlebags were on the table and he reached into one of them, pulling forth something wrapped in a cloth. He brought it over to the bed, putting it in her palm.
“Now you do,” he said. “I will go down and procure hot water for you.”
Annavieve unwrapped the bar of soap as he went for his boots. She sniffed at the lumpy, white bar that smelled of something very musky and sweet.
