It had been a day full of emotion, to be sure. But I felt surprisingly removed from the heart-pounding events of the afternoon. My focus now was entirely on these chambers, on Wilkie and on soothing away the stresses that showed clearly on his face.
My weapons had been returned to me, and they sat propped against the stone wall in the antechamber. Their presence there brought me no comfort, nor Wilkie, I detected, from his stormy demeanor.
He crouched by the hearth, adding logs to the fire, and his thoughts seemed far away. Then he came to me and sat in a chair near the bed.
He was still upset and stormy.
I lay quietly, warm under the layers of furs. I closedmy eyes for a moment. I was still too modest and naive to entice him in a knowing way. But I wanted to please him tonight, to calm him and give him pleasure, as he had done to me. I wasn’t at all sure what to do, but I wanted to try.
After a time, I heard him undressing, the clunk of his boots, his belt, the sound of fabric dropping to the floor. And I felt the heat of his body next to mine as he lay down beside me, pulling the furs to his midriff, below where the fresh bandage was wrapped.
We lay quietly for some time, allowing the events of the day to dissipate.
Absentmindedly, he let his fingers sift through the end strands of my hair. I sat up slightly and leaned closer to him. He watched me as I carefully fixed a twist in his bandage and smoothed a stray lock of hair from his forehead.
“I aim to soothe you tonight, my warrior,” I said, and my voice sounded breathless and nervous with my twilit intentions. “You know I would do anything for you. You saved me.”
He opened his mouth as though to speak, but I put my finger gently across his lips to silence him, and I traced the plump of his lower lip with my fingertip. I kissed him then, and I used all the skills I had learned from him, carefully exploring his mouth with my tongue, tasting him, playing him. I was hungry for closeness to him. I crawled farther across his chest so I was almost on top of him, and I could feel the hardness of him against my leg.
I kissed his face, the bristle of his cheek. I softly bit the lobe of his ear, working my kisses down his neck, to his chest. I took one of his nipples between my teeth,and he squirmed and chuckled. The sound of that small laugh encouraged me; my efforts to ease his tension were working.
“You are a temptress, lass. You undermine my control.” His eyes were so very dark, compelling and fierce. Inviting me to tempt him further.
I was curious about the rise of him, under the covers. I remembered the beauty of his body, a brief flash of recollection, that first time I had seen him emerging from the loch. I eased my body to the side, and I dared to drag my fingers lower, across his bandage, and lower still, to the bulging swell. Over the furs, I rubbed my palm on the mounded surface, feeling his heat through the thick layer of his covering.
He let me touch him in this way. I could see that he liked my careful caresses. I fingered his length through the bulk of the covers, fascinated by the hardness of him.
After several minutes, and as I became more adept at reading his reactions, Wilkie let out an uneven sigh. His blue eyes were fiery with his burn. “My Roses. Your touch is a miracle. So soft, yet so very potent. I can’t get enough of it, lass.”
Shyly, I reached for the edge of the blanket. I pulled the covers down, to reveal him to me.
I gasped. The size of him was astonishing. The change in him! The image as I remembered him, at the loch, did not at all match the discovery I found here.
“Warrior,”I whispered. The sight of him both fascinated and alarmed me. My education on these matters was decidedly limited, but I knew the very basics, and I wondered at the mechanics of it, ofus.
“Touch me, lass. Don’t be frightened by me.”
I did as he wanted, touching him, tentatively at first, running my fingertips over him, marveling at the silkiness and the heat. He was hot to the touch. I let one hand explore lower, to the soft, looser skin below, as my other hand gripped his shaft more tightly, rubbing along the length of him to the tip, where a slick of wetness had gathered. Shamelessly, I wanted to touch my mouth to him, to taste him. He groaned deeply as I swirled my finger across the broad end.
As though reading my thoughts, he murmured his request in a dark voice, rasped from his passion, “Put your soft mouth on me, Roses.”
Leaning over him, I gripped his engorged shaft with both hands and lifted it away from his stomach. I touched my tongue to him, tasting salt, lightly licking at his essence. I placed my lips around him, taking more, struggling to fit my mouth around his thickness. I took as much of him as I could, squeezing my hands gently around the base, working him slowly, getting a feel for his response. My long hair fell to brush across his skin.
“Ah, God,”Wilkie growled, and I’d never heard him use our Lord’s name in vain before, but he repeated it more than once.
I was too inexperienced to know how to please him. His body was tensed and arched, his fists grabbing handfuls of the furs at his sides, as though he was laid out on a torture rack. It took me some time to find a rhythm. I sucked on him as tenderly as I could, drawing him farther and farther into my mouth, using my tongue to stroke him.
Wilkie let out an agonized groan, and I was mildly startled when his shaft jerked and hot liquid jetted into my throat, flooding my mouth with his milky seed. Itwas difficult to accommodate all of it. Wanting to keep him and soothe him and drink him into my body, I swallowed more than once and suckled gently on his softening shaft until I had taken all of his essence.
Wilkie lay still as I continued to tenderly kiss his body, loving the feel of him and enjoying a small sense of jubilation, that I had been able to please him in this way. I liked learning him and learning how I could pleasure him best. I could sense that he was floating now, as I had floated after he’d kissed my intimate places.
“Come to me, lass,” he said huskily, and I climbed up and lay into the crook of his arm as he held me against him. “Your touch is the most profound thing on this earth. I have never felt anything like you.”
“Nor I, you.”
“Never leave me,” he said, watching my eyes, searching for compliance.
“Nay, warrior. I’ll stay with you and soothe you, each day and each night. Close your eyes.”
