Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

D arien thought him mad, and maybe he was. Having left the barracks when he did, well after most of the men returned for the evening, was not without risk of being questioned. On the other hand, Alden could not resist.

He had to see her.

"What are you—"

Shutting the door behind him, Alden reached for her. Elara had clearly been caught in the rain on the way back from Ashford Manor.

Pulling her into him, Alden brought his lips to hers. She immediately opened for him, and he took all that Elara gave him. Their mouths fused, tongues tangled. His shirt was already wet from how closely their bodies pressed against each other.

His need for her overwhelmed every other thought. Alden had said he would possess her, and that thought had driven him to this moment. All day he imagined breaking down the barriers she erected for everyone.

Unfastening the brooch at her throat, Alden tossed it, along with Elara's cloak, aside. He loosened the ties at the front of her surcoat as their kisses deepened. The soft sounds she made encouraging him, Alden paused for a moment, kissing her deeply, and then broke away.

With a quick glance to be certain she wanted this, he reached down and pulled the wet surcoat over her head. From there, he moved quickly. Unlacing more ties, he allowed the bliaut to slide off her shoulders and down her body, with his assistance.

"You are undressing me," she said, though the words were hardly necessary.

"You are wet," he said, staring down at her linen chemise. It was the only thing keeping her from view. Knowing it would be difficult to stop once that happened, Alden knelt before her instead.

"After I remove these boots," he said as he began to unlace the first one, "I plan to take off that chemise next. If I do..." He looked up at her. "You will be mine, Elara."

"You mean to take my virginity?"

Dear lord, the very thought of it. "Nay. You will marry a nobleman, a man with title and land, things I cannot give you. I'd not take that away from you."

"How, then, will I be yours?"

He tossed her first boot aside and went to work on the second one. "I will carry you into your bedchamber and worship your body in every other way imaginable. I will know you like none have ever done before me, and only the man you marry will know after I am long gone from here."

Alden hated—hated—the fact that he could not be that man. If he were born a nobleman instead of a blacksmith's son, he would have offered for this woman on that very first day. Drawn to her, consumed by her, Alden would give anything to be such a man.

Alas, wishing and hoping for something so out of reach was futile. But until then, while they were here together, she would be his. As completely as she could be.

"I'm yours."

He tossed the second boot and stood.

"For as long as we can be together, I am yours, Alden." Her proud chin rose. "Do with me as you would."

"Elara," he warned.

The rest of his words never came. Rather than waiting for him to do it, she reached down, grabbed fistfuls of her chemise, and tugged it upward.

Elara wore nothing underneath.

No garter. No undergarment.

Nothing.

Her body was so perfectly formed, Alden was certain the memory of it would stay with him for the rest of his days. He wanted to remain there, staring at her breasts, the curve of her waist, hips he could hold onto forever.

But he wanted to touch her more.

As promised, Alden scooped Elara up easily. She tossed her arms around his neck as he carried her into the bedchamber.

"You're wet," she teased.

"Why, I do wonder, is that?" he teased back.

Placing her onto the bed, he removed his own boots.

"You are perfect, Elara," he said. "Do you know how beautiful you are?"

"I know you are fully clothed, and I am as exposed as I've ever been to a man's eyes."

Before joining her on the bed, Alden removed his linen shirt. "Better?" The appreciation in Elara's eyes made him smile.

"Much."

He joined her in the bed, not wasting a moment. Starting with her lips, Alden kissed her, becoming accustomed to the way their lips melded together perfectly. From there he moved toward her neck as his hand relished in the feel of her full breasts. One, and then the other. He caressed, kissed and worshipped her as he promised Elara he would do.

Her touch, though tentative at first, became bolder. When her hands moved over his stomach, and then lower, Elara's fingers inching beneath his chausses and braies, his already hard cock grew harder still.

But there was naught to be done about that. So Alden took her hand and explained. "Though I would very much like for you to continue there, I made a promise and intend to keep it."

Moving downward, Alden explored every curve, his lips learning which spots made Elara sigh and which made her squirm. Her body was magnificent, but her expressions, even more so.

He moved between her legs.

"That first lesson," he said, watching Elara's hooded eyes, both pleasure and curiosity in them. "Your beauty startled me, as it did all the men. Every one of them."

Parting her legs, his hands not moving from Elara's inner thighs, Alden moved into a more comfortable position.

"But when you began to speak, it was that moment that truly captivated me. I wondered then, and every day since..." He ran his hands upward then, parting her with his thumbs. "If that stern countenance, one you'd no doubt cultivated at court, would hold steady in the bedroom."

Without warning, he leaned down to her, surprised that her hips bucked at his first taste. From Elara's expression, she'd not seen or heard of this being done before, which made it even more remarkable, that she asked no questions nor stopped him in any way.

Just as he'd thought.

With every lick, with every flick of his tongue, she not only relaxed into it but grabbed the back of his head. Her fingers grasped Alden's hair, encouraging him as much as the sounds she made.

His perfectly proper Strategies instructor writhed beneath him, and Alden loved it. He loved how she tasted, loved the way her hips met every movement. Loved the way she called his name.

He would not be waylaid.

His goal? Make this release so powerful that when he walked into lessons on the morrow, she would look at him and squirm with need. A need he would quench every single night, showing her how pleasure could be between a man and a woman who desired each other this way.

An easy task since he desired her above all.

"Alden, please."

He knew what she begged for. Relishing in the firm grip she had on his head, Alden did not relent until her legs began to shake. Until she cried out, hips thrusting upward. Until she came on his lips, Alden continuing until there was nothing more of her release.

When he finally lifted his head, seeing Elara's expression, Alden smiled.

"I would ask if you enjoyed that, but I can see the answer on your face already."

"Enjoyed. 'Tis not the word, precisely."

He kissed both inner thighs before moving up toward her. Lying beside Elara, head propped on one elbow, he waited as the aftereffects dimmed. As she came back to herself.

"Which word," he said finally, "would you use?"

"Savored, mayhap." She turned her head to him. "I did not know. Whisperings at court of ‘sex with your tongue' meant nothing to me. Until now. I've just one question."

"Anything."

"Once I spied a woman in a darkened alcove on her knees before a man, who, I shall add, was married. Nonetheless, I moved away so quickly, 'twas hard to tell, but I wondered if I had seen her with his..."

Alden knew already where her story led, and so help him, the thought of Elara's mouth around him was nearly too much to bear.

"This is the first time," he said, when she failed to continue, "I have ever seen you struggle to find a word, Lady Elara."

"I am your lady again, am I?"

He kissed her, letting Elara taste herself. When he did pull back, she was smiling.

"You are my lady. As I promised you would be if we began this dangerous liaison."

She rolled toward him, her breasts moving in a way that made Alden ache to touch them. Feel her nipple beneath his fingertips.

So he did.

"I am yours," she said.

No three words had ever sounded as sweet.

"But you are mine, as well."

"I've been yours from the start, Elara. As you know. And the word you were searching for," he said, his hands now roaming, "is cock. Say it."

"So demanding." She laid her hand on his shoulder as Alden continue to play with her breasts. "Cock."

"You do not ever need to hesitate to say something, to do what you wish, in my bed. Ever."

"This," she said, her fingers trailing a path from his shoulder to his chest, "is my bed."

"That it is," he acknowledged. "And to answer your earlier question—"

He stopped as a bell rang out. Something was wrong.