The Battle Lord's Lady (37 page)

To his left a sheer gauze curtain blocked off
a portion of the room. A figure in shadow moved behind it. Slowly
he lifted the drape and stopped; his breath caught in his
throat.

Atty stood with her back to him. She was
completely unclothed and standing in a wide washbasin. She’d
braided her freshly-washed hair and pinned it to the top of her
head. Yulen stared at her glistening wet skin as she bathed
herself, using a big sponge to squeeze warm, soapy water over
herself.

His eyes drank in her form, her beauty, every
dip in her vibrant body, until he caught sight of the streaks of
dried blood still clinging to the lower insides of her legs. As
another flush of heat warmed his face, Atty froze, suddenly
realizing she was no longer alone. Yulen smiled, in spite of
himself.

“I can’t believe I’ve finally managed to
sneak up on you without your being aware of me first,” he laughed
softly.

She turned around to face him and gave him a
tender smile. “I was daydreaming.”

“It must have been some daydream,” he teased.
His eyes followed a rivulet of water as it poured down her breast
and around a pale pink nipple before it dripped onto the rug on the
floor.

She nodded, noticing where his gaze was
directed. “It was...or it will be.”

Her admission was like a bolt of heat fusing
itself to the pit of his stomach. Without knowing it, Yulen glanced
over to where she’d set out pillows and bedding, and he realized
they were finally getting their night. Their first real night.
Together.

Their first time for actual lovemaking.

Quickly Yulen shed his clothes and went over
to join her, reaching for the sponge. But before he could take it
from her, his arms encircled her body instead and pressed her
tightly against him. Atty’s arms wrapped around his neck as his
lips hungered for hers, and Yulen felt the warm water cascading
down his back as she squeezed it dry behind him.

“Atrilan,” he breathed into her mouth.

“Tonight, Yul?” she asked in a small
voice.

He pulled away just enough to look into her
face. It wasn’t difficult to see the black and purple bruising, or
the redness of past tears around her eyes. “Are you...healed
enough?” he asked tentatively.

She slowly nodded her head, her eyes gazing
into his lovingly with the memories of how he could make her feel,
and how he’d made her feel in the past. If what he promised was
anything like those moments, it didn’t matter if she was healed.
She knew nothing would stop them tonight from having their first
time, their first real time, as lovers in every sense of the
word.

“Love me, Yul. Make love to me,” she
murmured, making her need for him clearly understood as she
tenderly wiped away the bloodstains from his face.

“Answer one question first,” he smiled into
her eyes. “Be my wife?”

“Be my husband?” she responded, unaware of
the low moan coming from her throat as his lips found her neck and
his hands pressed the juncture of her thighs against his growing
erection.

He lifted her into his arms. He was no longer
willing to wait or play the little love games. They were both
inflamed with a passion that roared in their heads and spread
tendrils of fire through every nerve in their bodies.

Lying her across the bedding, he stopped long
enough to run a hand up along one shapely leg, over her belly where
he teased the silken valley of midnight-colored curls in her lap,
across her ribs, and around a perfect breast.

Atty shivered from his touch.
“
Yul...”

This was not a cold, infested dungeon. They
were on satin covers, surrounded by pillows made of soft linen and
cotton. And they were starving for each other.

He found her lifting her knees for him as he
approached her. Crawling past the temples of her thighs, Yul
pressed his hands to her lower abdomen and slowly ran his fingers
up her body as he stretched over her. When his thumbs finally found
the underside of her throat, he brought his mouth down over hers,
and he slid most of his hardness into her depths with one slow,
smooth stroke. She was incredibly tight, but now she was
deliciously wet, and more than ready for him.

Atty gasped. She clutched his arms, and he
guided her hands down to his buttocks. Pulling out slightly, he
watched her face to see her reaction. It was so soon after that
moment in the cell. He worried about hurting her.

He felt her pressing down upon his backside,
and he gently slipped back into her an inch at a time, filling her
as much as she could take. Expanding and spreading her untried
muscles. This time she groaned with pleasure. “More?” he
murmured.

“More!”

Again he withdrew, and again he found the
center of her heat. And again. And again. Over and over, repeatedly
slow and deep, until she was trembling and her skin was covered
with a fine sheen of perspiration. Her thighs were glued to his
from the moisture.

“Yul...oh, God...”

“What, my beloved Atrilan?”

“Can we...do this all night?”

Yulen chuckled as his fingers ran down the
softness of her back. “This is only the beginning, my love. Just
wait.”

She slowly lifted her head and gazed at him
with passion-filled eyes. “Wait?”

Giving her a seductive smile, Yulen sat back
on his heels and pulled her towards him, lifting her up off the
bedding. He grabbed several of the pillows tossed to the side, and
built a small rise behind her. Now when he lay her back against
them, she was at a slight incline, giving him the freedom to use
his hands without having to worry about his weight crushing
her.

“Tell me if I hurt you,” he whispered before
plunging suddenly into her.

Her whole body rose off the pillows as she
convulsed and cried out softly.

“Atrilan?”

She smiled at him, tears filling her eyes. “I
never imagined it could feel...like this.” She swallowed hard, then
shivered.

Yulen pressed his face into her hair and
breathed in its scent. His hands followed the curve of her back
until her hips rested in his palms. Holding her firmly, he began to
make ardent love to her, guiding her over him as much as guiding
himself into her with longer, faster, and deeper strokes. There
would be no more holding back, no more denying them their final
moment of fulfillment.

Atty opened herself more to him, reached for
him, and lifted herself toward him. She closed her eyes and her
mind to everything except for the center of their universe between
her legs where he worshiped her.

He was gentle but demanding, passionately
taking her into his arms before launching them both over the
precipice, and the exquisite pain of release exploded within them.
Fire within fire. Pleasure and pain blended into one. Atty cried
out, but this time her voice was echoed with his as their bodies
tumbled and trembled in the aftermath. Her first climax as a woman.
The first of many, he swore. He owed her so much.

Breathing heavily, Yulen continued to take
her, plunging deep as his strokes took her from the valley back to
the top of the trees, where she choked on her second orgasm. He
wanted to go on. He wanted to make love to her all night, but the
stress of the past few days had taken their toll on his body. And
on hers. She would be raw and in severe pain if they didn’t cease.
He dragged huge draughts of air into his lungs as he trailed his
lips over her sweaty skin, tasting and drinking her in like
life-giving water. Her fingers were tangled in his hair, and every
so often she’d press his face closer against her when he’d find a
sensitive spot.

Encircling her waist with his arm, he pulled
her off the hillock of pillows and into the valley of bedding with
him. As their weariness and languidness overtook them, and their
mutual warmth protected them, Yulen could feel himself sinking at
last into restful, healing sleep.

In his last moment of consciousness, he heard
her breathe a feathery sigh into his ear.

“Yes.”

The answer to his question.

Darkness overtook him as he smiled.

Chapter Forty

Morning

There was a long warmth along one side. On
her other, an even warmer sensation, but one that was firmer. More
muscular. And it moved.

Her mind was fuzzy from inadequate sleep. A
calloused hand gently skimmed the surface of her skin, sending
lightly erotic sensations throughout the rest of her body. Atty
stretched slightly, then shuddered. She felt her legs being lifted
and her thighs spread. The silken coverlet was slid over her
breasts to reveal them to the cool night.

His hand moved between her legs and began to
slowly spread a slickness downward...below... intimately massaging,
pressing, teasing, and working his fingers between the folds of her
lower lips until they found their way into her. Sliding into her
inner warmth to heighten her arousal. The scent of perfume drifted
up to her, and she knew she was being warmed with oils. She could
also smell him and his unique masculinity. His strength and his
love for her was almost a tangible cloud which descended over her
like a fog.

A pair of lips found her left breast, teeth
teasing her nipple until it stood erect and sensitive. Atty moaned
as the fingers worked their familiar magic with her. Gently, she
grabbed the wrist and pulled it away. “No,” she barely whispered,
keeping her eyes closed. “You. Only you...”

The firm warmth shifted, moved over her, and
when his hardness began to penetrate her oiled body, a fireball of
indescribable heat engulfed her senses. Atty felt her reason and
sanity flee as he began to move inside of her, as his body tried to
merge into hers and their hearts tried to meld.

She knew he had used the oils to help
desensitize her, to help her adjust to the newness of having him
inside her. God, she was hurting, but what he was doing to her was
more than worth the pain she knew she would have to endure later.
As she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and jutted her hips
upward, she quickly found herself matching his stroke with her
acceptance. His lips burned against her neck, and his breath was
ragged in her ear.

Their hearts quickened, to become a pace
matching their bodies’ rhythm beat for beat. When she felt Yulen’s
muscles begin to bunch, before her mind could comprehend the power
and passion of his hot release inside her, her body arched of its
own volition. Her skin reached flashpoint, her mind turned into
ash, and she became a brilliant spark that could become a raging
forest fire at the next touch of his glowing embers.

She was spent and hurting, but she wasn’t
sated, and in his embrace she lifted her lips to his.

“Good morning, my beloved,” he breathed over
her. He could feel her quivering. Her hips rotated under his,
grinding and lifting slightly under his weight. He chuckled and
captured her mouth again, until the overwhelming depth of his kiss
stopped her movements, and she sank back into the pillows.
“Atrilan?”

“More,” she begged throatily. She started
pressing hot, wet kisses over his face, pulling his head down by
his hair so she could reach his forehead, temples, cheeks, and
eyes.

Releasing her, Yulen cupped her face in his
palms and held her firmly until she finally opened her eyes. The
look on his face reflected his identical hunger, but there was also
a wistfulness in his eyes as well.

“I would give anything to be able to remain
here all day, tasting you. Loving you. But I have nearly a hundred
men waiting for me, and a duty to lead them. Please help me to be
strong enough to get up from here and tend to that duty.”

“I want you inside of me,” she whispered with
a smile. She traced the scarred seam running down the side of his
face with a tip of her finger.

He kissed her softly, caressing her lips with
his. “Tonight. I promise. By then the swelling should be down.”

Carefully, he rolled off of her and got to
his feet. Tendons cracked as he stretched, trying to get his aching
muscles to obey. All the lanterns had extinguished themselves
during the night, except for one last one, which cast its fading
golden glow over his body—the wide shoulders, the slim hips, the
long legs. Atty watched him move over to the basin to wash his
face, and her body tingled as it remembered his. “What time is it?”
she asked softly.

“Time to be getting on the road.”

“You sure we can’t stay here a little
while longer, and make love for another couple of hours, then catch
up with the rest later?” she asked, trying to make it sound like
she was teasing, although she knew he would sense her seriousness.
She got her answer by the way he tilted his head at her. “It was
just an
idea
,” she
grumbled.

“And a very good idea, my love.
Unfortunately, though, not in this case. I’ll try to make it up to
you this evening,” he smiled.

“Okay. But I’m holding you to that
promise.”

Over by the door flap, someone had
unobtrusively placed a fresh set of clothing for them both. Picking
up the bundle, he walked back over to where she lay amid the pile
of pillows and placed hers next to her feet. He began pulling on
his pants. “I’m leaving Verris and Karv here to resettle the
compound. I need Mastin back with us at Alta Novis.” He tugged the
fresh tunic over his head and looked down at her as he straightened
the material at his waist. “Better hurry, my love. It may take the
soldiers an hour to put this tent up, but they can break it down
and pack it on the wagon in less than ten minutes, and I’m sure
they’re anxious to be gone at first light.”