A WONDROUS NIGHT
The banquet had passed as a hazy blur. Alina, sitting beside Duncan, had been too tired, too elated, to eat much. She had smiled at the jokes and laughed at Amabel and Broderick's stories. As she started to tire, Duncan had gently led her away into the courtyard beyond.
In the courtyard, their lips met. Alina felt a slow, trembling heat start to fill her. She was wife to Duncan now. Now they could be all they had always longed to. Her body pressed against his and through the satiny gown she could feel every hard contour of him, pressing against her form.
Under the bright, chiseled winter starlight, they kissed. Again and again. With each kiss, Alina felt her body melt a little further, reach new places of longing.
“Duncan?” she breathed. Her lips were bruised with loving, her fingers in his hair.
“Yes?”
“Can we..?” She looked around. For she and Duncan to sneak away from the banquet, without the raucous ceremony of putting them to bed, would have been unthinkable. Yet, it was exactly what she wanted. This was their love, their expression of their union. She did not wish it to be a thing others would share.
“Yes.”
“Duncan?” Alina smiled up at him incredulously. He was grinning a dangerous, giddy grin, his tawny eyes warm. She could hardly believe he would agree to something monumental so lightly.
“What?” he asked. He shrugged. “What if we go up now? They can hardly stop us! And in the morning they will simply be too happy to share in our joy to even think to reprimand us.”
Alina looked up into his eyes. She was almost as tall as him, perhaps an inch or two apart. She grinned as recklessly as he had.
“Yes,” she whispered. Her long arms twined around his neck, dipping his head to hers for another kiss.
They smiled and, hand in hand, they walked as quietly as they could from the courtyard to the inner hallway.
They raced up the stairs to where the bedchamber had been prepared for them. Alina breathed in the scent of rosemary and fresh rushes, the warmth of logs in the grate. Then all her senses were overwhelmed as Duncan leaned against the door, closing it behind him. His mouth descended onto hers, his hands on her shoulders, drawing her close.
Alina felt his tongue slide between her lips, probing her mouth with an urgency he never had before. She let him explore her mouth and leaned against him, her arms encircling his body, holding him against her.
His lean muscled chest pressed against her breasts and she loved the sensation, wanting more. Still kissing, they walked back towards the bed. He broke the kiss a moment, looking down into her eyes.
“Alina?”
His eyes were reckless, his voice thick with longing. Alina felt the joy of feeling so desired seep into her, making her whole body glow with warmth.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He swallowed hard and, very gently, drew the silk of her sleeve down, letting the neck of her dress slide past her shoulder. He kissed the exposed skin and Alina gasped as his hot lips seemed to scald her even as he made such gentle lapping, nipping motions that she felt tickled.
His fingers undid the fastening of her gown, working slowly as he kissed each inch of skin as it appeared. First the cleft between her collarbones, then the line of her breastbone. Then, at last, when the dress slid to her waist, he stood back.
He rested a hand on her shoulder, just looking at her. Her long dark hair hung around her body, the skin pale in the candlelight.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered.
Alina smiled. His words, the look in his eyes, made her womb stir inside her, filling her with the strangest sensation that was joy and longing all rolled into one.
“You're not exactly an eyesore yourself,” she said, almost before she could stop the words from leaving her mouth. He had shed his tunic at some point, and the firelight played over his rippling muscles, painting shadows on the gleam of skin and the clefts and tendons on his upper arms.
He looked at her with a surprised laugh.
“Thank you, my wife,” he said, voice thick with sincerity.
She bit her lip. It was true. He was everything she had ever imagined and all the things she could not have imagined.
Feeling bold, she walked across the room towards him, letting her hand rest on his warm, muscled shoulder.
He shivered as she ran a hand down his body.
“Oh, lass,” he said, voice raw. “You make me want you so much.”
Alina smiled up at him. “I hope so.”
He stared at her again, and laughed. “My. I am the luckiest man in the world.”
She leaned against him, her body warmed by his skin, and felt the strange wonder of his skin against her own, the warmth against her breast, as they kissed.
He led her to the bed and there they lay down together, side by side.
He propped himself up on one elbow, hand tracing her smooth waist.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, awed.
Alina felt her whole body shiver under his tender glances.
* * *
Duncan could not stop looking at Alina. She was, beyond a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her skin was like flawless alabaster, her hair a silk cloak. Her face, with those deep eyes a man could drown in. Her body was...I don't think even poets know the words, he thought, as he looked at her, drinking in every curve.
She was tall and slim, her breasts high and plushly full, her nipples pink and firm. Her waist was deep carved; her long legs pressed together, just hiding and revealing a pink cleft.
Duncan felt his whole body taut. He did not want to do anything but look, yet the rest of him was aching, shivering, and full with need. He leaned in and kissed her again, feeling his body quiver as it touched hers.
“Lass,” he whispered into her hair.
She nestled closer and his body overwhelmed all else.
He smiled and moved down her, reaching her breasts. He looked at them, so perfect, pointed and tipped in palest rose. He could not believe skin was as warm and soft as the skin he touched. He leaned in and sampled one, letting his lips clamp around her nipple, feeling it tense under his tongue.
“Oh!”
Her moan of delight fired him even more, so he teased it gently, plying his tongue across the hardened tip. She moved beneath him seemingly unsure whether to lie there or move away, and sat up slowly.
“I've no hurt you, have I, lass?”
Alina's eyes opened. The pupils were round, her eyes black in the darkened room. “Oh, Duncan,” she murmured. “Not even slightly.”
He chuckled, feeling her pleasure fill him with greater pleasure. He moved to her other breast, taking that between his lips and then, slowly, let his hand wander to rest on her belly. He felt her shiver and waited a moment, then moved down.
When he reached the parting of her thighs she made a small sound. He looked up at her, but her eyes were closed, her mouth curved in a look that looked pleased. He smiled too, and moved lower down.
When his hand slid into the warm cleft between her thighs he had to bite his lip to stop himself crying out aloud. He could not believe how ready she was! He could not resist moving down lower still and, gently, extending his tongue.
When he licked her there, she tensed and cried out. He smiled, knowing it to be an expression of longing – he already knew some of her lexicon of sounds. He repeated his act, lapping the cleft of warm, moist skin and feeling the experience fire him to greater and greater longing as she moaned and bucked.
When he finally rose up and moved over her, her eyes opened once in drowsy delight.
“Yes?”
“Yes...”
The whisper was all he needed. Moving down, adjusting his weight, he found her opening and slid into her. He met resistance and waited, then pushed more gently. She moaned, a sound of pain, and he stopped, against all desire to carry on. His body was screaming, each nerve straining, as if wild horses tugged him. He looked at her face.
“Well?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
He moved then. Moved and moved and moved. He was a body, drawn to the fullest, most exquisite place of longing, quivering on the peak of something that would transport him to another world, if only he moved within this warmth, and moved...
“Oh...” he was gasping, shuddering, shaking, so near to climax that he thought he might explode. However, he did not want to reach it...not yet. He pulled back, and went more slowly, moving and moving and …
“Oh. Oh!” Alina was crying out now, her body shuddering as they moved together, slick with perspiration. As he opened his eyes she gave a sudden, shuddering cry and gasped, then lay very still. He smiled. She was smiling.
He moved then, letting his own climax build and build inside him, lifting him up and up and...When he reached it, it broke like a wave on the ocean, thrilling through his blood like fire. He gasped and groaned, pumping in her as his body took over, going through the motions while his mind, floating in paradise, knew nothing.
Later, as he lay on her chest, and then beside her, cradling her in his arms, his body still inside hers, he leaned over and kissed her. Her face was wet with tears but she was smiling.
“Alina,” he whispered, stroking damp tendrils off her brow. “My best love.”
“Duncan,” she whispered. She had no words. She wrapped her arms around him and together they fell into a deep, happy sleep.