Sorrows of Adoration (28 page)

I made a very
unladylike sound of pleasure as I rose up on my arms and rocked
against him. On impulse, I moved my hips in a slow, circular
motion, which I was delighted to see pleased him so much that he
clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.

Happily, I found myself
in control of our lovemaking. I was enthralled by the rush of power
over him, knowing that my movements would determine our pleasure. I
cast aside all thoughts of virtue and appropriate behaviour as I
braced my knees on the bed on either side of him and proceeded to
grind myself down upon him. I found that I was able to move that
tender spot against him as I wished, so I began concentrating on
building that wonderful sensation.

Kurit’s eyes opened,
and he looked up at me in amazed delight. He kept one hand on my
moving hip, and with the other he fondled my freely swinging
breasts, pinching my nipples lightly.

I went out of my mind
in ecstasy and heard my far-away voice calling out to him wildly.
Kurit’s deep climax caused him to squeeze my breast painfully, but
I was in the throes of passion myself still, and the pain of it
excited me all the more.

When finally I
collapsed upon him, exhausted, my arms were shaking and my breast
throbbed where he had squeezed it too hard. But I didn’t care, for
it was the greatest pleasure I had ever known, and it had well been
worth the minor discomfort afterwards.

I let myself fall to
his side, keeping my head on his shoulder. He had his arm around me
still and traced small, sensual circles on my back with his
fingers.

Eventually we rose
again and dressed ourselves. Kurit left the room to the hall as I
went into the other bedchamber.

Leiset was there and
looked at me knowingly.

“You’ve had a busy day
thus far,” she said in a low tone, though she smiled as she
spoke.

I tried not to blush,
which of course made me turn an even darker shade of red. I
pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about. “Whatever do
you mean?”

Leiset sat down beside
me on the edge of the bed. “Aenna, I know you’ve been married less
than a day and you’re still excited, but you must learn to control
your desires immediately.”

“Whatever for?” I
asked, still blushing slightly but resentful at the thought of not
being able to enjoy marital relations with my new husband. “Kurit
doesn’t seem at all displeased.”

“No, not now, of course
not,” she said. “At the moment, he’s delighted to have won himself
a sensual wife. He enjoys your lust now, Aenna, but in time he will
come to disrespect you for it.”

I shook my head. “No, I
can’t imagine that. He loves me.”

“Of course he loves
you, but you are supposed to be a lady, after all. If you let him
take you whenever he wishes, or worse, if you pounce upon him
constantly yourself, in time he will begin to think that you are
not a proper lady after all, and he may well resent you for
that.”

Leiset rose from the
bed. “Furthermore, if you don’t learn now to keep his desires under
your control, he will take you at every chance he gets, and you’ll
end up with twenty babies in your lifetime. Not only is that quite
unseemly for a lady of high station, but it could easily result in
your early death.”

I sighed. She was right
about that last part. While I very much wished to have children, I
certainly did not wish to spend my entire life having one after
another until I finally dropped dead from the exhaustion of it. In
my childhood at the Temple Academy, those who wished to convince us
to join their ranks in service to the Gods often cited escape from
a lifetime of bearing babies as a good reason for young women to
become priestesses.

I sighed again and left
the room, not wishing to hear further lectures on why I shouldn’t
enjoy the new passions I’d discovered.

After lunch, Kurit and
I went for a walk not far from the cottage. He brought his sword
with him just in case any of the men who had passed by the broken
coach were lingering about.

When we were far enough
away that I knew we wouldn’t be heard, I bluntly asked, “Kurit, do
you find me to be unladylike in my desire for you?”

Startled by the sudden
question, he stopped in his tracks and said, “No! Of course
not!”

I stood facing him and
tried to explain to him why I had asked, but I felt silly and a
little bit ashamed. Words failed me as a result, and I began to
blush.

Kurit reached out a
gentle hand to caress my cheek and asked, “Whatever makes you think
that I would find you unladylike?” Then his eyes widened and he
said, “Oh, Leiset gave you a lecture on propriety, didn’t she?” I
nodded, and he pulled me into an embrace. “Aenna, my love, I’ve
heard those same arguments of morality myself. Not from Leiset, of
course, but Leiset is known for her disdain of men in general. Did
she paint you a picture of how terribly vulgar it would be if you
didn’t keep control over your desires?”

“Something of that
sort,” I said.

He pulled back to look
at me, his hands still on my shoulders. “Aenna, I want so much for
you to be happy. I am delighted that you have been happy in our
bed, and I want that to continue. Having said that, our frequency
at the moment really is due to the fact that we were only just wed,
and I know I’m still overexcited with everything still being so
new.” He winked and smiled roguishly, making me giggle. “If Leiset
thinks that I have the stamina to make love with you all night and
all day long, day in and day out for the rest of our lives, well,
I’m flattered, but my love, I must admit that I shall likely drop
dead if I try!”

Despite an effort to
remain civil, I burst into laughter.

He continued, “Aenna,
do you have the slightest idea how empty my mind is after we have
made love? By the Temple itself, if I were to pounce upon you every
time I had the whim, I’d not have enough mental capacity left to
remember my name, let alone run a kingdom!”

I laughed so hard that
tears rolled down my cheeks. He kept on with the silliness, making
jokes about having swarms of children biting at his knees and
becoming a wretchedly lustful old man. Finally I was laughing so
much that I could scarcely breathe, so I croaked out between laughs
for him to stop before I fainted away.

I sat on the ground, up
against a tree, and closed my eyes so I could not see his roguish
grin. Finally, the gales of laughter subsided, leaving me tired and
with sore muscles but happy nonetheless.

Kurit sat beside me and
put an arm around my shoulders. I leaned my tired head against his
shoulder. “I am glad I decided to speak to you on this,” I
said.

“Do you mean to tell me
that you considered not speaking to me on it?”

“Well, yes. I was a
little nervous to air the issue,” I admitted.

“Aenna, love,” he said,
kissing the top of my head, “you must never think that you cannot
talk to me about anything. I know I tease you awfully and make you
blush, but I am capable of behaving myself when you require that of
me. Honestly, had you not started laughing at my first comments, I
would not have spoken in jest thereafter. I would have been
serious, if you had been upset.”

“But, Kurit,” I teased,
“you take such delight in making me blush.”

“Because you’re so
pretty when you turn pink and hide your face. You’re like a little
girl then, and I find it very endearing,” he said, kissing my head
again. “And I admit that it makes me feel powerful. Aenna, you
command such power over me, though you probably aren’t even aware
of it. I tease you because it’s the only way I can take some
control back!”

I sat up and turned to
look at him. “Kurit, it’s one thing that I might delight in a bit
of power in our love play, but I don’t really wish to have control
over you otherwise.”

“Whether you wish it or
not, you do. You’re just the type of person who commands attention,
Aenna. There’s just something about you that makes people listen to
you and abide by your words. Maybe it’s because you’re intelligent.
But then, I’ve known intelligent people who lack any power
whatsoever. No, there’s something else about you. I don’t know what
it is,” he said seriously. Then he smiled again and said, “But
don’t fret on that. It’s a good thing. And it is probably one of
the many reasons I desire you so.”

He leaned to me and
kissed me passionately. When the kiss was over, he declared, “Never
think that I would condemn you for your passions. I share them. If
others find it scandalous that we enjoy making love so very much,
then let them think what they will. I care not. You have made me a
very, very happy man. You are every man’s dream and my reality. I
would never disrespect you. I love you, my little klysh.”

“Klysh?”

Kurit smiled roguishly
again. “You don’t know what that is? It’s an old Kyran legend.
Klyshes were feminine creatures that lurked in forests to entice
men off the path. They’d kill the men with erotic pleasures and
then devour their souls.”

“Well, I certainly have
no desire to kill you, Kurit,” I said teasingly.

“I don’t imagine that
you do,” he said. He kissed me deeply and then said, “But you
certainly have devoured my soul!”

I feigned indignation
until he laughingly apologized and kissed me again. Then my new
husband leapt to his feet, helped me up to my own, and we continued
our happy walk.

* * *

We made love again when
we went to bed. It was a very warm summer’s night, and we lay naked
afterwards without so much as a sheet covering us. Kurit kept
staring at my hip and tracing idle circles there with his
fingertips. When I would speak to him, he would look at me, answer,
and then go back to staring at my hip.

Finally I asked, “What
is it? Is there a mark there?”

His reverie broken, he
looked at me in confusion for a moment. “Hmm? Oh, no. It’s
perfect.”

“Perfect?”

Kurit smiled at me
lovingly and said, “You wouldn’t understand. You’ll think me a
beast.”

“I already do,” I
teased, tickling his tummy gently.

Kurit returned the
tickle and then continued touching my hip.

“Tell me,” I said
softly.

He glanced up at my
eyes again, then back to my hip. “This curve,” he said, tracing his
fingers from the top of my hip, down over it, and then around to my
backside. “This curve drives me to madness for you.”

I looked at him
strangely, not understanding what he meant.

Looking at my
questioning eyes, he chuckled and said, “See? I told you that you
wouldn’t understand.”

“How can a curve drive
you to madness?”

He put his warm palm on
my hip and squeezed softly. “Well, that’s the part wherein you
shall undoubtedly tell me I’m a beast.” He chuckled again. “In
these last weeks, I would see you walking in the palace, and this
curve, when you walk …” He sighed happily and closed his eyes
for a moment. “When you walk, this curve moves. It’s hard to
explain. It’s like a wave, not on the water, but an alluring,
womanly wave instead.

“I would watch as you
walked. Sometimes you would pass me in a corridor, but more often I
would watch you from above the Great Hall. I would watch as you
walked away from me, and I’d just watch your hips moving under your
dress, and …” He sighed again. Then he looked at me with a
rogue’s eye and moaned, “Oh, Aenna, the thoughts in my head when I
watched you walk …”

I smiled at him and
teased, “Were they lustful thoughts?”

“Lustful? That greatly
understates it. Aenna, it was all I could do to not chase after
you, grab you, carry you to the closest bedchamber, and take you
with a wild passion.”

Kurit moved closer,
pressing himself against me. He was aroused, as was I. I arched my
back so that my breasts would be pushed against his chest. He
kissed me, moving his mouth seductively, pushing his tongue between
my lips.

Then he kissed my cheek
and whispered, “Do you think me a beast?”

“Yes. And I like it,” I
whispered back.

Kurit folded his arms
around me as we kissed again. Then he rolled onto his back, pulling
me on top of him.

“Do what you did
earlier. I enjoyed the way you moved your perfect hips,” he said
with a light growl to his voice.

Happily, I complied
with his wish, moving on him again with slow circles. This time he
kept hold of my hips and used them as leverage to pull himself up
into me. I was too tired to reach the same height of ecstasy I had
before, so instead I endeavoured to drive him wild. I grinned,
feeling quite powerful and proud, when I saw him clench his teeth
and grunt in his climax.

He fell asleep very
quickly afterwards, and I let the sound of his breathing lull me as
well.

* * *

We set off one morning
together with a blanket and picnic basket. I wore a simple dress
that would not be ruined by sitting on the ground, and Kurit wore
equally sturdy clothes.

We walked down to the
lake, where Kurit spread the blanket out by the shore. He laid
himself back upon it, staring lazily at the small clouds overhead,
his arms folded behind his head. I joined him after tucking the
picnic basket under the shade of a tree. I lay perpendicular to
him, my head resting on his stomach. He kept his right arm under
his head, but moved his left hand to hold mine. We stayed like that
for a long time, talking idly, noticing shapes in the clouds.

Soon I grew bold enough
to ask a question that I had considered for some time. “Kurit, were
you ever intimate with another woman?”

“Aenna, don’t ask
that!”

“I don’t mean to be
rude, I’m just curious. And you said the other day that I should be
free to speak to you on anything.”

He sighed, my head
riding along with it. “I’m not going to talk about that. You’ll get
jealous and upset, and I can’t bear to see you that way.”