The women reacted most swiftly to his request. Many of them winked and blew kisses to Alissende as they tugged their men away, enticing them with promises of more wine and some dancing. It did not take long for their efforts to bear fruit. With some final calls of naughty teasing, the crowd began to clear.
When the last few were turning to meander back to the great hall, and Damien had waved away her lady’s maid and the servants who had come to light the tapers inside the wedding chamber, he nudged the door open with his shoulder and carried her across the threshold. For an instant, the light from the corridor spilled into the room on a slant from behind them, throwing into garish relief the milky leaded windows, the table and chair near the hearth, and the large, curtained bed.
And then the heavy wooden slab swung in behind them.
It shut with a muted thud, muffling the revelry of the final stragglers on their way back to the wedding feast, and leaving the two of them alone in the heady, silent darkness.
Chapter 5
With deliberate care, Damien released Alissende, easing her to her feet before stepping back and away from her as swiftly as he could. His insides were a jumble. His mind—and other parts of him—flamed with desires that had been stimulated almost beyond bearing in the act of kissing her. In hearing those soft sounds she’d made as his mouth had captured hers, tasting her again after so long…
In feeling her body pressed against him and breathing in her tantalizing scent until his body had pulsed with the need to take her in all the ways they’d once known so well together.
Heaven help him…
He had to stop this, damn it. Right now.
Glad for the shielding dark of the chamber, he stalked over to one of the few windows not filled with leaded glass and pushed open the shutter, letting in the fragrant summer breeze. And then he simply stood there, looking out and taking in deep, even breaths, trying to recapture his self-control. Behind him, he could hear Alissende’s faint movements; she had shifted from their spot in the doorway to approach the hearth. Soon he realized that she was completing the task the servants would have done had he not sent them away.
She lit several of the beeswax tapers scattered about in as much abundance here as they had been in every other chamber he’d seen in the castle. Behind him, a muted glow flickered to life, dispelling the darkness; it created a shadow of her movements, a graceful display against the lush blue and gold designs painted on the wall next to the window where he stood.
But still he could not bring himself to turn and face her directly. Not yet.
The room fell quiet. He concentrated on looking out and heard naught but the sound of the summer breeze whispering around the crenellations…until a tiny clicking noise at last drew his attention. Instinctively, he hazarded a glance toward the source of the sound and immediately regretted the decision.
Alissende was loosening her hair from its pins and circlet. Freeing those fragrant, glorious tresses in preparation for bed.Hellfire and damnation…
He tried to pull his gaze away but could not. To his gratitude, she was sitting with her back to him, on a bench at one of the large wooden trunks that served as a table between travels. Her arms were lifted as she removed the delicate jeweled pins, setting each one down carefully as she pulled it loose of the arrangement. The final pin came free, releasing the spill of dark, wavy silk down her back, and Damien felt his gut clench, felt his breath seize up in his chest. He was forced to fist his hands in response to the sudden, powerful memory that swept through him of another time and place…of burying his hands in that soft bounty to tip her head back as he lavished kisses along the tender, exposed column of her throat and lower, ah, sweet heaven, yes, much lower…
He choked back a groan, but not swiftly enough. Alissende stiffened; he saw her breathe in and heard her gentle, full exhalation before she twisted around to face him.
She met his gaze, and he saw that her vulnerable expression of earlier had been replaced by a look of seeming composure. Only one thing marred her controlled aspect. As had been the case since the day he’d met her, her eyes revealed all the inner workings of her heart, no matter how she tried to mask it. And right now she was not feeling as calm as she pretended.
“Do you wish to retire to the bed, then?” she asked.
Surprise and a sharp, unwelcome jolt of heat shot through him. Suppressing it by force of pure will, he raised his brow at her in challenge.
Her cheeks tinted a delicate pink, and he saw her struggle not to glance away. “I refer only to our arrangements for sleep, Damien. As lord of Glenheim, use of the bed is your right.”
“And what of you?”
“That depends upon your wishes,” she replied evenly, and he could not help but admire the way she kept her gaze steadfast upon him; if this moment was proving half as difficult for her as it was for him, then she was a veritable pillar of strength.
“Wishes and necessity often travel two separate paths, Alissende,” he murmured, gratified to see a tiny crack appear in her armor, when the hands she’d folded so placidly in her lap clenched in response.
But still she kept her gaze constant, and he realized that he would not—could not—continue this sparring with her. Too much had happened today already, and he was feeling far too raw.
“The bed seems wide enough to accommodate us both in such a way that our agreement can be honored without fear,” he settled for saying in a low voice. “However, tonight, I think it is safe to say that any restful sleep will elude me. You may retire to the bed alone.”
“As you wish.”
Damien felt a tiny jab of warning at her nonchalant tone. What—no argument? But it was too much for his tormented mind to unravel right now, so he pushed it aside and finished somewhat awkwardly, “You may prepare for sleep in privacy; I will turn around until you are within the enclosure of the bed curtains.”
“Then you will be waiting for a very long time.”
“Why?” Damien frowned, wanting nothing more but to have this already painful day over.
“Because I cannot disrobe by myself,” Alissende replied matter-of-factly. She half twisted to show him the laces and a few very expensive buttons along the slender length of her back.
