“I can kiss you too,” she said, tracing the shape of his nipple with her fingertip. She could feel the strain of his arousal against her hip. She danced her fingers lower.
“Willa,” he said in warning.
She reached the edge of the towel. “I've never done it before, but my sister told me how.”
“What sort of sister tells—”
“The kind of sister that thinks women ought to know everything there is to know about pleasure for her own sake,” Willa said somewhat defensively, but she would not be deterred. “I want to. You gave me pleasure. Let me return it.”
His breathing hitched, and she suspected she’d won this argument fairly quickly.
She smiled, kissing his chest again. “Come sit down.” Willa led him to the chair, pushed him down, and then kneeled before him, unwrapping the towel. There he was in all his naked glory. His male organ thrust out from a nest of dark curls. She ran her hands up his thighs, not waiting a moment more before taking hold of him and exploring the satiny hot skin. His fingers curled around the arms of the chair, but he didn't stop her. She moved closer, breathing on the rounded tip. He was larger than any picture she'd seen, heavy and thick in her hand.
Willa tried to remember all that Josie had told her. Her mind was fractured into several different pieces of sensual knowledge. She would have to make it up as she went along, but she thought she remembered most of it. She bent close and kissed the very tip of him. His breath hissed out of his helmet, and she licked him, first around the tip and then along the length of him.
“Christ in heaven, Willa,” he said.
She smiled against his skin and took him into her mouth. His hand sifted into her hair, guiding her as she took him deep and then released him, over and over. She loved the sounds he made. His groans and sighs instructed her in how to please him. The muscles of his thighs were tense beneath her, his hand almost tugging her hair as she loved him with her mouth.
“Stop,” he said. “I'm so close.” He wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her into his lap as he showed her how to stroke him up and down his length, squeezing. He found his release, spilling his seed on his thigh. Willa kissed his neck as his breathing settled and went to fetch a cloth to clean him up.
She was drowsy now, all of her fury, lust, and passion spent, and ready to crawl beside him in the bed. Willa nestled up against him, more relaxed and happier than she could ever remember being.
How unusual that growing up, life had been difficult and frightening at times, wondering if her family would have enough food for the next winter. But her home had been happy, filled with laughter and joy. Equal parts hard work and fun. But this moment right now, like he'd said earlier, might be the best moment of her life. But unlike him, she remembered everything. But he was still the best, the most special, and that was her last thought before drifting off to sleep.
Chapter 20
The next morning, she woke naked beside the man she loved, and he was nibbling on her shoulder, his lips nipping along her skin. Willa smiled.
“I found a place I can kiss you,” he said.
“Don't stop,” she said in return.
“I have to.” He slipped from the bed, that glorious part of his body on display again, arrogantly protruding through his drawers.
Willa blushed as she buried her face in the pillows.
“We have to hurry and dress before the doctor gets here. He arrived around this time yesterday. I don't want him to catch us indisposed.”
That was enough to make Willa jump to her feet and dress. Her shift was only half dry. She’d left it on the floor last evening in a wet pile. She grimaced as she pulled it on and then her dress. She finger-combed her hair and twisted it into a bun on top of her head, using the scrap of her shift to wrap around it and keep it in place. She washed her face in the basin and used her finger to scrub her teeth.
“Shall I go down and order breakfast?” he asked.
Willa turned to him with surprise. “Are you sure?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Dear God, I'm getting used to this thing.”
He went back to the chair and sat.
“I’ll go down and you wait here for the doctor,” she said.
She went down to order breakfast, coming across Dr. Smith in the tap room, eating at a table with his apprentice.
“Lady Knightly, how fairs the patient?”
“He is doing well.” Willa thought back to moments ago when she'd been tucked against him in bed. “I think his fever is gone.” He felt warm but not feverish. Or maybe she had been too warm to tell, naked and pressed against him as she had been.
“Good,” the doctor said. “I'm almost finished with my meal. I'll let you partake of yours, and then I'll come up to see him.”
