“It is that, lady. As it has been almost from the moment that I saw you on the battlements and you refused me entrance to your castle.”
“You desired me then?”
He climbed on the bed and knelt before her. “Aye, there was desire, although more than once I could not discern if the desire to kill you was stronger than the desire to kiss you.”
“And now?” she asked, needing no answer, for the proof was before her eyes.
Sebastien leaned forward and crawled over her legs. Grabbing her thighs, he pulled her down until she lay under him and then, grasping the edge of her chemise, he tore it until she was exposed to his gaze. He bent down and kissed her mouth. “I want…” he whispered as he moved his mouth to her neck. “I want to kiss you.” His mouth was hot and wet against her skin. “And taste you.”
Now he moved, kissing a path down her throat onto the slopes of her breasts. He suckled there, stronger and stronger, and he used his teeth against that skin until she thought she would scream. She did scream when his mouth covered the sensitive tips of her breasts, and instead of startling him, it seemed to urge him on. Moisture poured from that place between her legs and it began to throb and ache.
And still he used only his mouth. He pressed his face against her belly and then held her hips as he rubbed his chin against the place between her legs. Surprised by his actions, she discovered that the pressure created by his chin and the roughness of a day’s length of beard aroused her.
“And taste you,” he repeated as he moved between her legs and spread her open to his view and his touch. When he leaned down and suckled there, she could not control the spasms of pleasure that shot through her.
Lara tried to grab his hair to pull him away, even as she lost all desire to make him cease. He batted at her hands and, with a deep laugh, kissed and touched and tasted her in that most private place. Then, instead of stopping when her peak was upon her and filling her as he had before, he urged her over that precipice, making her body do as he wanted with a more insistent touch of his mouth and more ardent attention with his tongue.
When her body finally stopped spasming beneath his touch, she could not move. He still knelt over her and she waited for him to lie next to her. But, that part of him was still hard, and it looked larger than before. The expression in his eyes told her he was not done with her.
“I had no idea that a man could do such a thing to a woman.”
He smiled gently at her. “There are many things a man can do to a woman.” He kissed her belly and her body shuddered.
“Are there such things a woman can do to a man?” she asked, suspecting she already knew the answer…or some of it.
“Aye, Lara. Many things can be done.”
He kissed her on the mouth now and she could taste the musky flavor of her own release there. “Can you show me another?”
And with very little urging, Sebastien taught her many more things that could be done between men and women before they slept that night.
Chapter Thirteen
The first time he awoke, he found Lara draped over him, asleep. After offering up a short prayer of thanks, he fell back to sleep, for how long he did not know.
The second time he woke, it was to Margaret’s startled gasp at finding him and Lara still naked and entwined in their bed. With a shushing and a wave, he ordered her from the room. Although Lara mumbled a few words and shifted in his arms, she did not wake.
The third time he woke it was to the loud and not subtle presence of both Hugh and James in the next chamber. The subject of their discussion was not clear, but their intent to rouse him from sleep was. Sebastien eased Lara from his side and slipped from the bed. Striding to the door, he opened it and quietly cursed them both, warning them of a challenge later that day. He realized his mistake when Philippe, Malcolm and Margaret all met his gaze with incredulous stares. His body’s condition was apparent even to the youngest of them. He slammed the door just as the laughter began.
“What is going on out there?” Lara asked, rolling over and gifting him with the most wonderful view of her bare bottom and legs. His body responded to her voice and to the sight before him, but he knew he must leave her bed.
“Two men are asking for death,” he said, smiling at her.
“Do you leave with James this day?”
“Leave with him? Nay. Although I must leave on the king’s business soon, ’tis not now.”
She yawned loudly and stretched her arms out before pushing the hair from her face. The movement was so stimulating Sebastien decided his friends would simply have to wait until he was ready to leave her. When he lifted the blankets and climbed back in next to her, she moved immediately into his arms. And wonder of wonders, when she felt his hardness pressed against her hip, she rolled onto her back, opened her legs to him and pulled him on top of her.
Then, she startled him as he moved to accept her invitation and to fill her just once more. He felt the walls of her core begin to convulse and shudder within moments. Lara arched against him and it took barely a minute before his own release. Nothing had ever felt so right to him before. No woman had ever felt like this. Sebastien could only describe it in his mind as finding a home.
Not wanting to rush, but mindful of those waiting, he lifted himself from her and kissed her softly. The wince that passed over her face told him that he may have been too aggressive with her in their love play.
“I apologize if I’ve hurt you, Lara. I have wanted you for so long, waiting for you to give yourself to me, that I fear I could not be gentle. Mayhap now that the commitment has been made, we can go a bit more slowly in our pursuit of all things between men and women.”
She blushed, probably thinking about some of the actions and positions that he had shown her. “Commitment? What do you mean?” Lara slid up to the headboard and dragged the blankets with her.
“You made your first commitment to me when we exchanged vows. The second time was yesterday, when you agreed to try to be my wife and Lady of Dunstaffnage. The most important one so far was when you trusted me enough last night with your body. And trusted me to teach you what could be between us.”
