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“My body?” He hoped she had not noticed his inevitable reaction to her closeness. He certainly had no intention of making demands of her in the middle of the Howard’s meadow.

“Your aches and pains,” she elaborated. “From earlier.”

He thought about it. “Surprisingly good,” he admitted. Usually by this time in the evening his joints and muscles would be protesting. “You did a good job.”

“Mayhap I will become indispensable to you, given time, husband,” she said, with a wistful catch in her voice.

His throat closed, and he lay blinking in the dark. How was he supposed to answer such statements? He was not good at making other people feel valued. In fact, he was monstrously bad at it. He lay a moment feeling frustrated with himself. Then he realized something. She gave him opportunities all the damned time. Opportunities he failed to take.

Fuck it. “You already are,” he growled and felt gratified when Aimee’s arm, which lay around his waist, tightened in a squeeze. She gave another happy sounding sigh that went straight to his already half-hard cock. Hopefully, she would not realize what was sticking in her hip.

“Konrad?”

“Aimee,” he groaned. “We should really get some sleep. I have the joust tomorrow.” The trouble was that he was aching in different places now, thanks to her.

She lifted her head from his chest. “Of course, if you are tired,” she said reassuringly.

He groaned with frustration and then rolled her under him. “If you truly want to know how my body is, I will tell you. It is aching, wife, but not in my joints.” He ground his hips against hers, letting her feel his hard, aching shaft against the swell of her soft stomach. He wished he had not blown out the bloody candle so he could see her face. Her lovely, beauteous face gazing up at him, with her dark hair spread out behind her. He stared into the darkness but could not make out more than her form.

“Konrad,” Aimee breathed, her arms reaching up to clasp him to her. Thank gods.

“I’m an unreasonable brute to expect you to do this – to let me rut you in a field,” he muttered shakily as he yanked up her shift. “Tell me now if you want me to stop, sweetheart, and I will.”

She gasped, though whether it was from his using an endearment or something else entirely he was not sure. He forced himself to halt his progress, resting his hand at her waist. “Aimee?”

“Yes – I mean no. It – it is not unreasonable,” she stammered, sounding as though she was striving to catch her breath. She slid her legs restlessly against his, and he had to bite back a groan. “I want you to do that. Here and now in your pavilion.”

“You do?” He dipped his head to make sure he had heard her right. “You would tell me if you did not? Aimee?”

“Truly,” she urged breathlessly, and her hands slid down his back so firmly, he could not help but buck his hips against hers. “Yes,” she moaned. “I’ve wanted it since I saw you naked in the tent this afternoon.”

Konrad’s eyes widened in the dark. He had not been expecting that.

“I wanted to – to touch you here.” Her hands slid down over his buttocks and squeezed, drawing a startled grunt from him.

“Fuck, Aimee. Why did you not say so?”

She gave a breathless laugh. “Well, I was not sure you would be receptive to such a strange request.”

“There’s nothing strange about it,” he growled, slipping a hand between her legs. He paused to stroke against her nether hair before sliding his fingers through her cleft. Finding her already wet, he grunted again and teased her there, wedging his thigh between hers and toying with her until he could hear how wet she was. Gods, he was a lucky bastard. A really lucky bastard.

Aimee whimpered. “Konrad!” Her hands roamed over his back again. Her touch felt amazing, and at her touch his body seemed to light up from within, somehow recognizing it as uniquely hers. Maybe he was growing fanciful in the near dark, but no one else had ever touched him with such reverence and obvious pleasure as Aimee. No one else had made him feel as desired as she did. Not even before his face was ruined.

He shifted down the mattress, and Aimee let out a muffled wail of disappointment, her hands landing in his hair. “No, Konrad,” she begged in a hoarse whisper. “Not that. I do not want everyone to hear me.”

“You think only my tongue can make you scream?” he asked, rubbing his jaw against her soft thigh. Aimee shivered and he could deny himself no longer. “Put you hand over your mouth,” he said thickly and lowered his mouth between her plump thighs. It was mere moments before she was squirming and sobbing beneath him.

He did not hold back, sucking and tonguing her tender flesh until she came apart with a muffled shriek that almost undid him on the spot. Instead, he forced himself to pause, breathing raggedly between her trembling thighs as he strove to get himself under control. He concentrated on listening to Aimee’s shallow breathing until he could inch back up her body and take full possession of it with his pulsing cock.

To his delight, she looped her arms about his waist as soon as he moved back up, making him welcome. “See?” he teased. “You were nice and quiet.”

She gave a breathless laugh that somehow made his chest contract. He wanted to kiss her but was not sure how welcome that would be considering where his mouth had just been. Women could be squeamish about such things. Would Aimee? “Can I kiss you?” he asked gruffly.

The bedclothes rustled, and he realized she was lifting her head to meet his. When their lips met, he felt the tightness in his chest relax, even though his ballocks were starting to throb with increasing urgency. He settled his palms over her plump bosom and lightly squeezed, letting his fingers find her generous nipples, plucking at them lightly through the fabric of her thin shift.

Aimee gave a soft moan into his mouth that made his poor neglected cock jerk. He lifted his mouth from hers to whisper her name and thought he caught a gleam from her eyes even though the interior of the tent was black as pitch. He tugged the neckline of her shift down, exposing her bared breasts to the brisk night air. Again, he regretted the lack of candlelight so he could feast his eyes, but he found her hardening nipples just fine with his hot, sucking mouth.

By the time he had traced the underside of her breasts with his tongue and rubbed his beard up and down the tender valley betwixt her lovely globes, her legs had parted once more and tightened about his hips with a pleasing urgency.