Chapter Ten
Bram was waiting for her, the covers thrown back to show his bare chest and the long, silky black trousers he’d changed into—presumably his sleep wear.
“Come to bed, little one,” he murmured in that deep, rumbling voice Alanah was coming to love so well.
“All right.” She started to approach the vast bed…then stopped. She was still wearing her dressing gown, she realized. It was time to take it off.
Taking a deep breath, she unknotted the cord around her waist and let the gown slip to the floor, leaving her clothed only in her thin white sleep shift. It showed the shadows of her full breasts and the V between her legs—though there wasn’t much to see there, she thought ruefully.
From the bed, she heard Bram take in a deep breath of his own.
“Come here, little one.” His voice was hoarse with longing. “Come here and let me hold you.”
The top of the bed came up to her waist so Alanah had to hitch herself up to get into it. But once she was in, it was easy enough to slide under the silky sheets and warm covers to lie beside her giant.
Bram gathered her into his arms at once and laid her head on his chest, cuddling her close to his big, warm body.
Alanah knew she would have stiffened and drawn away if he had been anyone else. She’d never been so intimately close to any man and yet with Bram, it felt right. More than right—it felt like she was feeding a ravenous hunger that had been gnawing at her for the past six months—ever since she’d started dream-sharing with him.
With a little cry of passion, she pressed herself closer, throwing her arms around his neck and rubbing against him restlessly—shamelessly—like a catkin begging to be stroked.
“Oh, Alanah,” Bram breathed and there was a depth of longing and need in his voice that echoed what she felt herself. He held her to him carefully, as though she was fragile and infinitely precious, and stroked all over her body with his big, warm hands as though he was learning her by heart.
Dimly, she remembered thinking those hands were strong enough to crush her skull if he’d wanted to. But she had no such fears now. She could feel the tenderness in his touch—the care he took with her even in the middle of a passionate embrace. Her giant wanted only to love her, only to hold and protect her and it was that emotion that made her feel free enough—confident enough—to take one of his big hands in her own and press it to her chest.
“Here,” she whispered, letting his fingers trace one of her small, flat nipples. “This is what I mean—what I was trying to tell you. Do you see?”
“See that your nipples are small?” He frowned. “But all of you is small, little one. I don’t understand the problem.”
“No, look.” Impatiently, forgetting her previous shyness, Alanah pulled down the top of her sleeping shift. “Look,” she told him again. “They are more than small—they’re unripened.”
“Hmm…” He rose up on one elbow to look down at her. The room was lit with dim, golden light which came from the corners but it was enough to see by.
Alanah wanted to squirm with embarrassment at his close scrutiny but she forced herself to hold still. What would he think of her now, she wondered. Would he still want her?
But the look on Bram’s face wasn’t anger or disgust—only curiosity and gentleness.
“Can you feel, there?” he asked. “I mean, are they sensitive?”
Without waiting for an answer, he blew a thin stream of air over her tiny buds, making Alanah gasp and tremble.
“Hmm…I guess that answers that question,” Bram rumbled. “You’re certainly sensitive enough.” He looked up at her. “Honestly, I still don’t see the problem, little one.”
“That’s because you haven’t seen…haven’t seen all of me yet,” Alanah blurted.
Quickly, before she could lose her courage, she pulled the white shift up above her hips, giving him a clear view of her unbloomed sex as well.
“Mmmm…” Bram leaned over her, so close she could feel his warm breath puffing against the unfurled outer petals of her pussy.
This time Alanah couldn’t help squirming in mortification. Gods, what had she been thinking? She had never allowed another person to see her naked before. And why had she chosen this moment to show the man she cared for her physical deformities?
But again, Bram didn’t seem put off and there was no indication he felt he’d been cheated by agreeing to marry her. Speaking of that, Alanah couldn’t believe she was letting him see her like this when they hadn’t even had a ceremony yet! But she couldn’t help feeling that he needed to know what he was getting into before they made their relationship permanent.
“Help me out, little one—what am I supposed to be seeing that you don’t have?” Bram murmured, looking up at her. “You appear to have female parts as far as I can tell.”
“Well, yes but…but I have no color—no curls,” Alanah pointed out, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment. “When a woman’s flower—her pussy—has bloomed, it grows pink and plump and open and a little mound of curls sprouts—just here.” She motioned to the flat mound above her closed slit. “Do you see now?”
“I see that you’re beautiful,” he murmured and looked up at her. “Are you sensitive here as well?”
“Well…” Alanah bit her lower lip and shifted her hips. “I don’t…don’t know.”
“Can I touch you? To find out?” Bram murmured. “Just very lightly, with my finger?”
“I…” Her heart was suddenly pounding so hard it seemed to shake her body. “I guess so,” she whispered. “I mean…it is our, uh, Touching Day after all.”
“Yes, it is.” His voice was deep and hungry but his touch was light as he traced the tightly closed slit of her sex with one large, gentle fingertip.
Alanah gasped and writhed under his tender caress. She’d never felt anything like this before! Bram’s hands on her set every nerve in her body on fire and at the very center, between her closed lips, she seemed to feel an aching or throbbing.
“Hmm,” her giant rumbled. “You’re certainly sensitive enough here as well. So it’s not like you can’t feel anything.”
“But I can’t…can’t open up,” Alanah protested. “I can’t because I haven’t bloomed!”
“But you can feel pleasure.” Once more his long finger traced her slit and this time he seemed to linger near the top, just where the throbbing seemed to be centered. Very lightly, he pressed down and rubbed in a circular motion.
The gentle touch shot a lightning bolt of pleasure straight through Alanah’s entire body.
“Oh…ahh!” she gasped, her hips arching involuntarily. “Oh, Bram—what did you do?”
“Pressed your button, little one.” He gave her a lazy, amused smile.
“My…my button? What button?” Still panting, Alanah looked down at herself uncertainly, halfway expecting to see one of the shiny silver buttons from the lift which lit up when pushed. But there was nothing but her own narrow slit—although it did seem to be a little more rosy and flushed than before.
“Your clit,” Bram said, as though that ought to mean something. “The pleasure center all females have in their pussies.”
“They do? I do?” This was news to Alanah.
“Of course you do, little one.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Have you never touched yourself before?”
“Touched myself? Between my legs? How?”
Because a female couldn’t open until she bloomed on her wedding night with her husband, she’d never even considered such a thing. It simply wasn’t done.
“Like this,” Bram murmured and pressed lightly over that same spot again.
“Oh!” Alanah’s back arched again, as though someone had pulled a string attached to her spine. “Why…why does that feel so good?” she demanded.
“I’d like to claim it’s magic only I can do,” Bram murmured, giving her a sleepy, smile, warm with lust. “But it really is just your body responding to stimulus. Alanah…” He looked at her more seriously. “If I’m very, very careful, will you let me touch inside you—just enough to stroke your little clit again?”
“Touch…inside me? But, well…I don’t think you can,” she protested. “My petals won’t open—they can’t.”
“Maybe not much,” he allowed. “But even a little can go a long way. Look here, near the top of your sweet little slit…” He pointed to her flat mound, a little way down from where her narrow slit started. “Do you see that little pink pearl just starting to peek out?” he murmured.
Alanah looked and was surprised that she did. It looked like a tiny pink nub and it seemed to be the source of the throbbing pleasure he’d given her. Hesitantly, she reached down to touch it herself and was surprised at how sensitive it was.
“Oh,” she whispered. “How did you…what is that? Is that the…the button you were talking about?”
“It is,” Bram rumbled softly. “It can bring overwhelming pleasure to a female if you stroke it just the right way.”
“But how…how did I never see this before? How did I never feel it there between my legs?” Alanah asked and answered her own question. “It must be because I’ve been unbloomed all my life.”
“Which doesn’t seem to mean you can’t feel pleasure,” Bram pointed out. His eyes grew half-lidded again. “Which is what I want to give you now, little one.” He leaned down and murmured close to her ear. “I’d like to try to make you come.”
“Come?” Alanah asked, frowning. “Come where?”
“You’ll see if I’m successful. Will you let me try? You don’t think it would hurt you, do you?”
“No…no I don’t think it would hurt exactly,” Alanah said slowly. “So I guess if…if what you want to do makes me feel that way again…” she nodded down to her spread legs where Bram was still cupping her tiny slit loosely in one big hand. “Then I say yes—go ahead and try.”
“All right, little one—just try to relax,” Bram murmured. Then, to her surprise, he slipped the tip of his index finger into his mouth and sucked it.
“What--?” Alanah began
“Just getting it wet—moisture helps,” he told her. “I suppose your pussy doesn’t get really wet and juicy until after you, uh, bloom but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself.”
Alanah wondered why he was so intent on giving her pleasure—that certainly wasn’t usual in a man from any of the stories she’d heard whispered by other newly married females. According to those accounts, most men were impatient to make a woman’s flower bloom so they could shove their shafts inside and seek their own pleasure. Bram seemed to be the doing the exact opposite of that.
But just then her giant’s long, gentle finger was back and this time it was slipping tenderly into her tight folds and targeting that warm, tingling place he had called her button.
She jerked and moaned as he found it—Gods that was intense—and began a gentle massage that sent sparks of pleasure shooting through her entire body so strongly she found it hard to breathe.
“Bram!” she gasped, reaching up to grab onto his broad shoulder as he leaned over her. “Oh Gods, Bram, what are you doing to me?”
“Stoking your sweet little clit. Getting you closer, little one,” he murmured as his finger continued the gentle swirling motion over and around the tingling button at her center.
“Closer to…to…?” Alanah couldn’t finish the sentence. A feeling was building up inside her—a feeling so high and hard and deep she could hardly hold her hips still while Bram stroked her with that one gentle fingertip.
“Closer to coming, little one,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s all right, just let the pleasure build. And when it reaches a peak just let yourself go.”
Alanah didn’t have to ask what he meant by reaching a peak. She could feel her body doing it now. Closer and closer he pushed her—higher and higher, filling her body with bewilderingly pleasurable sensations she’d never felt before but somehow knew she had always craved.
If I’d known this was possible before, I would have been doing it all the time, she thought and then she felt the peak that Bram had been talking about. It was like something snapping inside her—a jagged bolt of pleasure that was overwhelming in its intensity.
“Ahh…Bram!” she cried, her hips bucking wildly under his gentle touch. The pleasure seemed to affect her entire body—her heart raced, her muscles stiffened, and her hands curled into fists. “Oh…Oh.” The moans and cries were drawn from her lips as the wonderful sensation swept over her in a wave.
Through it all, Bram held her close and murmured sweet encouragement in her ear.
“That’s right, little one—let yourself go. Let yourself come. Gods, you’re so beautiful…so perfect when you come.”
The sensation seemed to last forever but at last, it faded and Alanah was left panting in his arms. She looked up at him in wonder, her fists finally unclenching as her body relaxed into a warm kind of torpor.
“Bram that was…I didn’t even know I could feel such things.”
“I think the fact that you can proves this ‘blooming’ you’re so worried about isn’t as big a problem as you think,” he rumbled. “Look…you’re even getting a little wet.” He stroked his fingertip gently down her slit to show her how it was glistening with moisture.
“But my petals are still flat and I have no curls.” Alanah couldn’t help feeling disappointed. It seemed to her that the intense pleasure she’d just experienced should have somehow cured her. But of course, that was impossible—she couldn’t bloom fully without the fertility ritual performed by the Elder Witch, she reminded herself. Still, her flower seemed to be a little more open.
“Maybe you don’t need to ‘bloom,’” Bram suggested softly. “Alanah, may I have your permission to touch lower…to stroke the entrance to your pussy?”
“The…my entrance?” Alanah felt uncertain all over again. “You…you can, but I’m afraid it will be pursed tight,” she whispered. “Much too tight to enter.”
“Let me see,” Bram murmured. His seeking finger traveled lower and soon she felt the warm tip sliding gently against her unused core. “You’re quite slippery down here,” he told her. “I think the orgasm you had has helped a bit.”
“Orgasm?” Alanah asked breathlessly.
“The intense sensation of pleasure when I made you come,” Bram explained. As he spoke, he slipped his finger gently inside her—or tried to, anyway. Her entrance was still pursed tight, as Alanah had predicted. Her giant could barely get his finger into her to the first knuckle before she started squirming uncomfortably.
“Bram,” she whimpered softly. “That hurts—it’s too tight.”
He stopped at once. “I’m sorry little one—forgive me,” he murmured, withdrawing.
“It’s all right,” Alanah said but then a sob choked her. Because it wasn’t all right—not a bit! If Bram couldn’t even get a finger into her, how was she ever going to accommodate the long, thick shaft she saw straining at the shiny black fabric of his sleep trousers?
“Oh sweetheart…” he rumbled gently. “Please don’t cry—I promise everything is going to be all right.”
“How can it be?” Alanah sobbed, pressing her hot face to the smooth, hard wall of his chest as he stroked her shaking shoulders. Somehow the intense pleasure she’d had earlier seemed to have brought all her other emotions closer to the surface and now she couldn’t help crying. “How can things be all right if I can’t let you in me?” She looked up at him, her eyes stinging with tears. “And Bram, I want to let you inside me. I want to feel you filling me up—making me yours. So much.”
“That’s not important,” he assured her, gathering her close to him and kissing her wet cheeks. “What’s important is that we’re together, holding each other, loving each other. Everything is going to be all right, Alanah—I swear it.”
But Alanah couldn’t see how it would be all right. She only knew she was miserable because she couldn’t give herself to her giant the way she wanted to. And all because that horrible Thiera had denied her the fertility ritual.