Pleasurably Undone! (16 page)

Elise mustered all her courage and, reaching down between them, took his manhood in her hands. It pulsed like something alive in her grasp, but she did not let it go. Rubbing it up and down, she drew him closer to her cleft and moaned the words she’d heard the laundry maid say to her brother that day months ago.

“Take me, my lord,” she whimpered, trying to imitate the girl’s tone of voice. “Fill me now, my lord. Take—” she rubbed his member again “—me now.”

And he did.

T
he touch of her hands on his hard length was pure torture. Stunned by such a caress, he thrust twice into her grasp before he could stop himself. But when she begged him in that throaty moan to take her and fill her, he lost all semblance of control and drove into her as deeply as he could go. He took her and he filled her so full of himself that no fitted glove could have been so tight, skin against skin.

Lost in the haze of lust he’d given himself over to, Simon drew nearly out and plunged inside her again, feeling the heat of her core and letting his seed build to release. He’d wanted her so much for so long that it took but one more thrust, all the way to her womb, and his release was upon him. With a groan, he felt his cock pulse against her inner walls until he was empty.

Only then did he open his eyes and realize his mistake.

Elise lay beneath him, not moving, with an expression of pure horror and confusion on her face, and her hands pushed against his chest in an ineffective attempt to make him stop. He’d loosened his hold on his lust and let the ruffian inside him free to ravage his innocent wife. God forgive him, for he was certain Elise never would.

Simon eased out of her and climbed off her, sitting for a moment at her side. Her linen shift was pulled up to her waist and now marked with his sweat and seed and her blood. He went to the smaller chamber and brought the bowl and pitcher to the bedside.

His servants had thought of everything; he found a pot of heated water in the hearth, and the smell told him that someone had added herbs to it, hopefully those needed to soothe the hurt he had caused Elise with his fumbled claiming. Pouring the hot water in the basin first and tempering it with cool water from the pitcher, Simon brought it to the bed and offered his wife a cloth soaked in the steamy water.

“This should soothe the pain I caused,” he said quietly. He thought he should say more, but what words could ever excuse his rough treatment of his virgin bride?

At first, she didn’t move or say a word, but then she pushed herself up to sit and accepted the cloth from him. Without speaking, they passed the cloth back and forth, wetting it over and over, until Elise cleaned herself of the remnants of their joining. Only when her gaze focused on his groin did he realize that he was marked as well by her blood. Standing, he wiped himself clean and put the basin away. Pulling on his braies, he knew he must say something to her to explain, but what and how?

“May I get a clean gown, my lord?” she asked in a soft voice from her place in the bed.

“Please do not call me that, especially after all that has happened here. I would have you call me Simon.” He walked over to her trunk, searched for a clean linen gown and brought it to her. “Here now, let me help you.”

He reached over and took her hand, assisting her to the edge of the bed, where he could take the soiled shift off and
let her put the clean one on. Once she was covered, as it was, she looked confused once more. Simon took her hand again and led her to an alcove near the windows that had two large, carved wooden chairs, each one cushioned and covered in velvet. He allowed her to sit and then, after tugging his own shirt back on, he stood at the window, staring out and trying to come up with the correct words to explain his terrible mistake in their marriage bed. Turning back to face her disappointment and fear, he nearly fell over her.

“Elise, what are you doing on the floor?” he asked, trying to pull her to her feet from the place where she knelt at his.

“I humbly beg for your forgiveness, my lord. I swear I will do whatever pleases you. If you do not forswear our marriage, I promise to allow you anything you ask,” she cried out, grasping the edge of his shirt and touching it to her mouth. “I did not know,” she said, shaking her head. “I did not know.”

Shocked at such behavior, Simon realized that she thought herself to blame for things going badly between them and she was terrified by the thought he would repudiate her as his wife. Taking her by the shoulders and lifting her to her feet, he pulled her onto his lap where he could speak softly and calm her.

“I am the one who needs to beg your forgiveness, Elise. I was trying to be gentle with you, but when you touched me like that, I lost control of myself. I did not want you to see the barbarian I am and fear me. I wanted to be something different for you.”

Though shaken to her very core by what had happened between them, his words now shocked her even more. Lord Simon, Simon, worried about her reaction to him? It was too much to accept, for it was her shortcomings and fears that caused things to go awry when he bedded her.

“I thought it would please you,” she said, sitting up and meeting his gaze then. The dark green of his eyes softened and she found compassion and caring gleaming forth from them. “I only wanted to please you.”

“Did your mother say such things to you? Did she tell you to…” His words drifted off. Would Lady Bertrade say such things to her innocent daughter?

“Oh, nay,” Elise said, shaking her head. “Lady Alianor told—” Realizing her error by the way his gaze changed, she shook her head. “Not Lady Alianor, my lord. I meant to say—”

He lifted his hand and touched a finger to her lips to stop her. She watched as his brow furrowed and he shook his head now. Tilting his face, he scrutinized hers for a moment before speaking. When he leaned so, his hair drifted over his brow and she clenched her hands to keep from reaching up and pushing it aside for him.

“What did Lady Alianor say to you, Elise? Tell me the truth.” Though his words were calm, she just wondered if he was as well.

Taking a breath and releasing it, she began. “Lord…Simon, I sought advice on how to please you in all things, but mostly in our marriage bed. Everyone knows that Lady Alianor pleases you—”

“
Pleased
me,” he interrupted.

“
Pleased
you?” she asked back.

“I have not shared Lady Alianor’s bed since our betrothal three months past, Elise.”

“You have not?” Then she remembered her place, and she could not meet his gaze. “Forgive me. ’Twas not my place to ask such a thing of you.”

He shifted beneath her then, turning them so that they faced one another. Taking her hand in his, he lifted it to his
mouth and kissed it. “I have not taken any woman to my bed since our betrothal, Elise. I have only wanted you.”

Her heart skipped a beat then, for his words were completely unexpected and his actions even more so. Before she could say anything, he repeated his question.

“What did Lady Alianor tell you?”

“I confess that I had neither the time nor the courage to ask her directly, my…Simon. But Petronilla is her sister-by-marriage and she related some of the things that Lady Alianor told her…to me.” She stopped then, aware of what she would have to tell him if she continued.

“And Petronilla told you…what?” By the stern expression growing in his eyes, she knew she must tell him, and hopefully make him understand about her own shortcomings.

“That you liked women who were lusty and noisy and who…who…” She hesitated just as Petra had, finding it impossible to utter such words. Then, she just let them burst out. “You like lovers who use their hands and their mouths on your privy parts.”

From the movement she detected beneath her, Elise knew his body had reacted to her words. From the guilty look there in his eyes and from the way they shifted to a deeper green, she also knew that he did, in truth, like such things.

“And so you used your hands on my…privy parts to try to please me?”

“I know that this was my first time in such an endeavor, Simon, but you did not look pleased by it. Indeed, you looked as though you were struggling to get through the ordeal.”

He choked then and she jumped from his lap to get him some wine. Bringing it to him and thumping his back to help him clear himself of the coughing fit, his laughter surprised Elise.

“I was struggling, my innocent wife, to keep from ravaging
you during our first
endeavor
as you called it.” Simon pulled her back onto his lap then. “I was almost able to move slowly when you grasped my privy parts and caressed them. It destroyed any remnants of control I had and I just plunged in to take you. ’Twas never my intention for it to end with such haste and without you receiving a full measure of satisfaction.”

His words touched her then, and even her body, so recently used, began to respond to talk of privy parts, caressing, plunging and satisfying. She had been enjoying his affections until that moment when he broke through her maidenhead and brought pleasuring to a halt. Even the act of joining did not cause the pain she had been warned about, only a tightness and slight burning when he entered her so quickly.

“So, you were trying to please me by being bold and I was trying to please you by being gentle?” He laughed and the sound of it delighted her. “Mayhap the next time, you can simply ask me and not your friend or my last mistress for advice?”

“Your
last
mistress, Simon? What do you mean?”

“With a wife so willing to please me in my bed, what need have I of another woman?” Her husband leaned over and kissed her then. Between his words and his touching affection, she did not know which surprised or pleased her more.

“Mayhap you should wait to see if I am truly able to please you before you make such a vow? The first time did not proceed very well.”

Simon stood then, holding her in his arms and carrying her towards the bed. Sitting on the edge, he lifted her to the center and then stood, looking down on her as she lay in only her linen gown. Instead of fear, waves of anticipation raced through her, heating the blood in her veins and making her heart pound.

“I think that instead of trying to be other than we are to
please each other, let us try to simply enjoy the things that please us together.”

He tugged his shirt off in one move and his braies fell with another tug. This time he did not hide his body or his erect manhood from her sight. Simon simply stood there at the side of the bed and let her look her fill—as he did just moments later after easing her gown from her. Her body warmed, and that place between her legs grew moist and ready to accept him. Climbing to her knees on the bed in front of him, Elise reached out and ran her hands down from his shoulders over his broad, muscled chest, through the curls there and down as they made a path below his waist to his cock.

She knew he waited for her to grasp it, but she skimmed over it, much as he had when touching the hair on her mons, and slid her hands down his thighs and then back up again. Such strength, such power, she felt it ripple beneath her hands and wondered when his control would break again. Elise moved closer to him, bringing them in contact from chest to hips, enjoying the searing heat of his skin and the pulsing of his manhood between them.

Then it was his turn. Simon pulled her into his embrace, kissing her, plundering her mouth with his tongue, slipping it in and tasting hers, teasing it until she finally followed his lead and did the same, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. He suckled it gently and noticed that she moved even closer to him when he did that.

Lifting her off the bed, he wrapped her legs around his waist, allowing her to slide along his prick without entering her. Oh, no, he would make this time about her pleasure before releasing himself inside her. Elise gasped at the contact and then gasped again as he sat on the bed. He knew that having
her like this opened her to his touch and he saw that she was beginning to realize it herself. Once he was leaning against the headboard of the bed, his hands were free to touch her.

“Does this please you, wife?” he asked as he stroked her breasts with his hands, cupping them and rubbing his thumbs over the nipples until they tightened.

“Aye, husband.” She sighed, arching into his grasp.

Simon leaned forward then, taking one nipple into his mouth, sucking on it, teasing it with his tongue and lips and then tugging it gently with his teeth. She gasped at each touch of his tongue, each nip of his teeth, and probably did not even realize that she slid herself up and back on his hard length as he aroused her.

“And this,” he said, sliding his hand down between them and stroking those sensitive folds between her legs. “Does this please you, wife?”

Not waiting for a response, he licked and tasted the other breast while still teasing the slick, tight passage of her with his fingers. Her body opened to him and swelled beneath his hand and beneath his mouth, giving him all the answers he needed. She pulled his head against her breasts, tangled her hands in his hair to hold him close and moaned.

“Aye, husband,” echoed through their chambers and she gasped as the pleasure overwhelmed her.

Her body convulsed and shuddered on his hand and against his mouth, but this time he waited for her to gain its full measure before offering himself to her.

“Take me, lady. Take me now,” he begged as he lifted her higher and showed her how to take control of him.

And she did.

It took her but moments to learn the way of it, and soon she was riding his cock, moving her hips and moaning with
each slide up or settling down. Or mayhap it was him moaning as he guided her along his hardened member, losing himself in her tightness and in the pleasure he saw on her face this time. Or mayhap it was both of them, for just as he tightened and his seed began to spill, she leaned her head back and cried out another release. Simon held her still, as deep inside of her as he could be, and touched the small bud within her folds that made her entire body shudder another time.

It took moments or hours before their bodies calmed, neither one wanting to break the connection between them. Elise slumped forward against his chest, panting and sweating until both of their hearts had slowed, and he held her there. When they were no longer joined, she raised her head and gazed at him.

And her gaze filled with wonderment and something that looked like love to him. But could such a feminine, demure lady such as she ever love a brutish ruffian such as he?