Trusted (21 page)

“Ladies,” he said. Then he reached into the bed and swept Sarea up into his arms. Sarea gasped and grabbed for the sheet, dragging it with her to cover her naked body as he strode out of the room with her and with a “Good night ladies.” He kicked the door between the suites shut.

Garrick carried her to his bed and set her down on it.

“I-I don’t understand. Isn’t it customary that the king visits the queen in
her
bed?”

“What will be customary for us,” he said as he sat down in the bed beside her, bridging an arm over her body, “is that you will sleep with me in my bed. Every night. Until you are sick of me. Or breeding. Whichever comes first.” He seemed to think on it a moment. “Come to consider…breeding will not be an excuse either.” He reached to cover her flat belly with a hand. “I would love to sleep with you, feeling our child quickening within you.”

She exhaled a breathy, “Oh.” Then she nibbled anxiously on her bottom lip. “And what if we fight? Will we not fight?”

“I imagine we will. But we must never go to bed with hard words between us. I will vow it to you if you will vow it to me.”

“I will,” she said softly.

“Good. Now that that is settled…” He plucked at the sheet with teasing fingers. “Will you not show me what it is I have won today?”

“Won! How have you won anything?”

“Earned then,” he amended. “Would you not say I have earned my prize?”

She nibbled on her lip some more.

“Yes,” she said, her voice small.

“Good. But first…before all of that…”

He reached for her virgin’s noose, taking the tail end of it in hand. He had the tie off in a second and quickly began to unravel it. Even when she had been sick and hurting, she had kept it in its noose, making her mother freshen it every day, so he would not see her with her hair down and loose. He saw her begin to protest, but then she clearly realized this was his right as her husband. And he was right. He
had
earned this. In so many ways. The most recent of which was putting an end to the threat that had been following her around. But to think that it had almost cost him his life…

She touched the wound on his shoulder. It was bandaged up with bleached cloths, a small stain of blood visible through the bandage.

“Does it hurt? Oh! You shouldn’t have lifted me!”

“It doesn’t hurt. And you weigh next to nothing. Lifting you is no task.”

Once all of her hair was loose and free, Garrick combed his fingers through the long mass of shining ebony locks and sighed with satisfaction. She looked even more beautiful this way than he had imagined. He brought up one of the crimped tresses to his lips and kissed the silky ends of it. All the while his gaze remained locked on hers.

“Are you frightened?” he asked her.

“Very much so,” she admitted on an exhaling breath.

He chuckled at her honesty. “Good. You are being honest with me. We will do much better if you continue to be so. But let me assure you, there is nothing for you to be afraid of. I will not hurt you.”

“I do not think you will hurt me,” she said, surprised he would think she would feel that way.

“Then what is it you are afraid of?” he asked her curiously.

“That I will disappoint you,” she said sadly.

“I believe we have had this discussion,” he said. “You could not possibly disappoint me. As it stands right now you have already pleased me more than words can say.”

“But I have done nothing,” she said.

“So imagine how much better it will be once you do something!”

She laughed. She could not help herself. In the middle of her laughter he swooped in and caught her mouth with his. She gasped in a breath of surprised, then released it on an aching sigh.

He kissed her deeply, his tongue catching up hers. She tasted like ambrosia to him, sweet and full of life. She was a feast for his palate and senses. Her hands came out and touched his shoulders, but she must have felt the bandage so she drew back. He broke the kiss long enough to say, “It doesn’t hurt.” Then he seared his mouth to hers, burning them both with his intensity. It wasn't long before her breath began to come in excited little pants. And while he was kissing her he took advantage and grabbed hold of the sheet and pulled it away from her body in one long decisive pull.

To his satisfaction she didn’t try to cover herself with her hands or in any other way. She simply let him look his fill.

“Am I pleasing, my king?” she asked softly.

More than pleasing. She was beautiful. Long limbed with sensuous curves and ripe breasts. They were perfect, save the ugly red scar on her breast right above her nipple. There was still residual bruising…very faded but still faintly there even now, two shona later. It made him frown to see it and she took the expression wrongly.

“You find it to be ugly?” she said, covering the scar with her hand.

“I find the act that caused it ugly,” he said, taking her hand and moving it away. “But never you. You’re supple and sweet, bold and beautiful. There is nothing about you I find ugly.”

He touched the scar gently, then skied his fingers down her breast to the very edge of her nipple. He watch it gather tight in anticipation and it made him smile. He brushed his thumb over the tip, tracing the berry pink color of it. Then he turned his hand and cupped the full weight of her breast within it.

“Hmm. So soft. Yet a little bit hard right here.” He brushed her nipple again.

Her hand fell boldly in his lap, her fingertips brushing down the length of his bourgeoning sex.

“I could say the same of you,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.

He chuckled, though it was hard to catch his breath just feeling her touching him so intimately. He felt as though he had been waiting for this an immensely long time.

“Do you know what I plan to do to you?” he asked her as he got up on his knees on the bed and began to loom over her.

“I…I think I have a fair estimation of an idea,” she said.

He laughed. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, you’re probably off in your estimation by a fair bit.”

“Of that I have no doubt. I am told you are a reasonably good lover, so no doubt you will show me what my estimation should resemble.”

He hooted. “A reasonably good lover! Is this what you’ve been hearing?”

“You do not wish to know what I’ve been hearing. Some of it is…well, it must be an exaggeration. No one could possibly enjoy the act of coupling that much.”

“We shall have to see about that,” he said slyly.

“I promise you, if you are even half so good as the rumors say you are, I shall be content.”

“I suddenly feel a great deal of pressure to perform,” he said with mischief.

“I am sure you’ll muddle through,” she said cheekily.

He threw back his head and laughed. Then he pinned her in place with a steady look. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”

He put his hands between her knees and with a slow caress up her leg he parted her thighs. His gaze left hers to look at her and she held her breath.

“So pink. And so perfect,” he said, his touch drifting further up her thigh until he was caressing her sex with light fingers. “So delicious.” He slid his fingers between her nether lips briefly, making her draw her breath in. Then he removed his touch and brought his fingers to his lips. She saw his nostrils flare as he took in her scent, then he touch his finger to his tongue.

It reminded her of the time on the terrace, when he had made her taste herself on his fingers. She wondered what she tasted like to him.

He withdrew his finger from his mouth and took the wet tip to touch her nipple. He wetted it, then moved forward to take it in his mouth as he moved his body between her legs. As good as it was feeling, all of these touches and tastes, he was still very imposing as he moved his large body over hers. She laid back to put a little distance, but he followed, his mouth attached to her breast. That was when she began to feel more than nice feelings. She felt his tongue flicking across her nipple and it made her feel warm and wet inside. She wondered if this was normal, then decided it must be. She was a normal person. Surely what she was feeling was quite ordinary.

But it didn’t feel ordinary. It felt extraordinary. It felt like the world was being upended and made right all at the same time.

Garrick left her breast and caught her mouth in a soul-stripping kiss. Her whole body went weak, her hands touched him of their own accord. She stroked the hard contours of his chest, the bunching muscles of his shoulders, the flat disc of his nipples. He began to purr and she answered the sound. Their bodies vibrated together in a singular sort of harmony.

Garrick loved the sound of her purr. Such a soft, lulling sound, and yet it excited him. He placed his hand on her chest and felt her vibrating. Then he moved his hand and replaced it with his mouth. He licked her soft skin, tasted the sweet flavor of her. He licked and sucked his way down the center of her body and he felt her hands entering his hair, gripping at him as he reached her navel. He dipped his tongue inside of it, then moved onward, traveling down until he came to her silky black curls. He bit at her plump mound, then slid his tongue deep within the folds of her sex.

Sarea gasped at the sensation, her whole body tensing and relaxing by turns as he tasted her in slow, languorous strokes of his tongue. She felt as if he had locked on to something inside of her, something she didn’t even know she had. She laid back and reveled in the hot, swirling pleasure that rushed through her again and again. Then he found that pleasurable bud of nerves he had found so accurately the first time he had touched her and danced his tongue around it. Then suddenly he sucked on it and blinding pleasure skyrocketed through her. She cried out, clutching him to her, riding the wave of pleasure as he chased her down, played hard around her, made her come fast and fierce.

Her entire body was throbbing with spent pleasure, she was gasping for breath and realized that somewhere along the way she had thrown her calves over his shoulders and had clutched his body to hers unthinkingly.

“Your shoulder!” she cried.

“Doesn’t hurt. Doesn’t matter,” he said, and began licking her again.

“Oh no I can’t!” she breathed in complaint, her heart racing madly at the idea of feeling that much pleasure again.

“You can and you will,” he said, and then attacked her in earnest. She threw her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. It focused her even more on what he was doing, what she was feeling. When he made her come this time it was almost painful in its intensity.

“Please. No more,” she breathed. He chuckled and came up the length of her body.

“One day you’ll want more. And more. And you’ll scream at me to never stop. But I understand this is all new to you. Come and kiss me. Taste yourself on my lips.”

She did so eagerly, tasting that salty sweet flavor, smelling the light musk of her sexual arousal. Then she felt something hot and hard sliding up against her sex and she realized it was him. His cock. Ready to mate with her at last.

“Now I promise you,” he said, his breath coming hard. Her responsiveness and her passion were off the charts and he was dying of wanting her. “This is the only time I’ll ever hurt you.”

“Will it be very painful?” she asked nervously.

“It shouldn’t be. It might sting a bit. But it will pass quickly.”

He hoped. It had been a long while since he’d had a virgin, and that was so long ago he couldn’t even remember the particulars. But he seemed to recall the girl getting over it pretty quickly.

He notched himself at the cusp of her entrance, loving the hot, wet feel of her. He had slid himself all over her, wetting himself in her slick juices. He should slip in with ease.

He pressed forward and she gasped.

“Does that hurt?” he asked, confused and worried. It shouldn’t hurt her yet. He hadn’t even progressed far enough.

“No. It’s just such a strange feeling…to take in something I have worked so hard at keeping out.”

That made him chuckle. “All of that is over now. Now feel what you have been missing. One little hurt, but then so much pleasure.”

He thrust into her.

Oh holy Joyous One, he thought suddenly. She felt so tight! He knew she would stretch to take him, but right then she was just so tight.

“Oh! I feel it. It does hurt! Please, stop!” she cried.

“Better to be done with it,” he muttered before thrusting hard into her, pushing himself as deep into her as he could manage on a single thrust. Still her body resisted him. But another thrust and he was there.

She had pushed at him hard, tried to resist him, shoved at his injured shoulder unthinkingly. Now it hurt as much as she was probably hurting. Which was probably his due. He had not stopped when she’d asked him to. He had known it was for the better, but she had not.

He looked down into her face, trying for all the world to hold as still as possible. But it was probably the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. He was part wild cat, mating was meant to be done hard and fast and equally wild. But he was also a man and she was an untried woman and he would not ruin yana of their future together by hurting her now.