Page 45 of To Love

“Let me see to yours first.”

His hands clasped around her own, and Alden guided them up and down. She could tell by his expression Alden was very much enjoying her touching him, but she wanted more.

She shifted forward, guiding him toward her. Opening her mouth, she willed herself not to be bashful even though Elara was well beyond the realm of anything she’d ever done, or even considered doing, before.

Taking him, hearing Alden groan, was more pleasurable than she expected. He grasped the back of her head, moving her hair out of the way.

Hesitant at first, she quickly understood what he enjoyed. Every lick, every time she pushed him deeper into her, the sounds he made encouraged her.

“Elara,” he said in a voice she’d never heard before. “We need to stop. If you don’t, I’m going to spill my seed.”

When Elara had found release like this, he had not stopped. She didn’t intend to, either. In response, she took him more deeply than ever.

“By the saints.” He was breathing heavier, pushing her head even while warning her. “Elara, if you continue—”

She did exactly that, and more. Waiting. Almost smiling against him at Alden’s rare loss of control. “Elara,” he said, and this time, she knew he was close. She peered up at him, and that seemed to push Alden over the edge.

The sounds he made were like ones she’d imagined a man such as him might in battle. Deep. Guttural. Uninhibited. So unlike the well-controlled man she had come to know, and suddenly Elara understood the power she held, women held, in a way she never had before.

When he said he’d spill his seed, Elara knew what would happen but was still little prepared. But she took him, all of him, strangely satisfied with herself.

Pulling away, Elara licked her lips and looked up at him once again.

Shaking his head, Alden let go of her hair and helped her to stand. “I’ve no words.”

“Kiss me, then, instead.”

He did.

It was unlike any of their previous kisses. Elara so quickly lost herself that another fire could have broken out just then and she’d have been unlikely to be aware of it.

Some time later, when they broke apart and Alden reached down to re-dress himself, Elara spied the tops of his thighs. She hadn’t noticed them earlier.

“Everything about you is strong,” she said, admiring all of him. “And hard.”

“Keep looking at me that way and all of me will be hard.” He reached for her, pulling Elara back into him. “When I said I have no words, ’twas not an exaggeration. Seeing you like that, your mouth around me . . . Elara, I will go to my grave with that thought of you in my mind.”

“With luck that will not be for some time.” She sighed, pulling back. “It is difficult to think so close to you, and we must talk.”

“Must we?”

“Aye,” she said. “Wine?”

She didn’t wait for his response but, as she did each eve, Elara poured two goblets. It had become a ritual of sorts, taking wine by the fire in her antechamber.

“I’ve become accustomed to you in here,” she admitted.

“As have I, though some are beginning to notice my absence.”

“Beyond Darien and Roland?”

“Aye.”

She sighed. “We expected as much. You are able to come here unseen?”

“Easily enough, aye. Some of the men went into the village this eve. There are rumblings of a campaign on the horizon.”

“Winchester.”