Unbidden (The Evolution Series) (32 page)

She sagged against the stone, her eyes limpid and her lips well kissed. Her tunic drooped deliciously to one side and just the tiniest bit more of unlacing would show him those perfect breasts he had still only fondled through several layers of cloth.

“A bit more,” he groaned as he quickly bared the top half of her body, tugging at her sleeves with urgency
. Her girdle trapped her garments at her waist. He pulled back to survey his new domain, immediately stiffening in her arms. An expression of pain twisted his face.

“What is it?” she whispered, afraid she repulsed him in some way.

He traced his fingers ever so gently over the bruise centered on her breastbone. “Did I do this?” he asked, horrified.

She grabbed his hand, pulling it to her
mouth.

“I am sorry, Rochelle
. I am so sorry,” he breathed, replacing his hand with his mouth to kiss her deeply before leaning back to study her body again. Her breasts were compact but beautifully rounded, the nipples already pert with her desire. He weighed them in his scabbed hands so gently, and she watched him touch her then brought her own fingers up to cover his, her face filled with soft wonderment at seeing her body thus caressed, their hands twined on her pale skin.

“You,” she breathed, as she moved her hands to push ineffectually at his tunic.

“Rochelle,” he warned, but he showed her the lacings of his tunic and undergarment. She spread the halves of cloth wide, thrusting her hands beneath to rub across his chest. When her fingers bumped the bandage at his shoulder, her brows knit. Nothing could have prepared him for the feel of her lips on his bare skin as she now whispered her own repeated apologies against the smooth heat of his chest. She still straddled his thigh, and the way she rocked against it set his blood boiling.

“Rochelle, we should stop.”

She shook her head vehemently, her breath hot against his injured shoulder. “No, something else will happen. I do not want to stop. I do not want to miss my chance this time.”

To hell with it, he thought
. He wanted to see all of her and claim her in some way. To put his mark on her, a stamp of pleasure and fulfillment she could never forget. He had no intention of denying his own needs for long, but clearly this was not the right place for the consummation of a marriage. The ceremony, perhaps, but not the consummation.

S
he clung to him, opening his tunic wider and wider, her fingers sliding over his ribs, her breasts now flattened against his chest as she invited him for another kiss. He couldn’t stop his hands from moving down the slender line of her back to grasp her rounded bottom. He pulled her up higher on his leg so that her thigh pressed against his sex. They moaned into one another’s mouths.

To hell with it, he thought again
. He hated the clothing covering her hips and legs. He wanted to see and touch every bit of her skin. Perhaps he had time for that, and to give her her release. He’d save his own fulfillment for later. If he could restrain himself.

But they needed more privacy
. Even in his fevered state he knew he couldn’t lay her out in the aisle of a basilica. He glanced around the church. What he wouldn’t pay for a gallery such as in the palatine chapel in Aix-la-Chapelle. There was nowhere private in this church, only dark shadowy places. He decided on the darkest one.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

He bent down to collect their clothing, then he lifted her into his arms, carrying her into the small altar room to the right of the main altar
. This area was almost completely dark, with the weak rays of light from the oil lamps making the two lovers barely visible to each other.

He set her gently on her feet then laid their cloaks out on the stone floor, the soft fur of his on top
. When he knelt down and raised his hand to her, she came on her knees before him without trepidation. He kissed her again, caressing her until she leaned against him, senseless. She pulled his tunic and undertunic off, rubbing against him, skin to skin. They sighed together at the intimate contact, breaths mingling.

He slipped his arms around her to lay her gently on her back
. He unclasped the heavy girdle still slung around her hips, setting it aside with a metallic clang. She lifted her bottom to help him slide her clothing off. Woolen hose were all that remained, and he took his time rolling it down each long, leanly muscled leg.

He sat back on his heels to look at her, finally bare, the skin of her body pearly in the feeble light of the distant lamps
. Perfection. He wasn’t sure he would ever breath properly again.

His hand found her calf, and not too gently
. He gripped it, his eyes meeting hers. The green glinted back at him without fear or nervousness, her own fingers distractedly combing the silky fur of his cloak. He let his hand slide up the back of her leg, watching, fascinated as her neck slowly arched the closer he ventured toward her sex. Her legs hesitantly parted as he found the slickness there and began to caress. The scent of her reached his nostrils, nearly ending all thought, nearly ending the gentle introduction to a woman’s pleasure he hoped to provide.

He wanted her with a desire past any recognition
. And she lay here before him, open, whimpering, beginning to move against his fingers. Her hand reached for him, beckoning him closer to her. He laid beside her, concentrating on a kiss, just a kiss, as his touch drove her to madness. Her arm wrapped around him, one hand fanned over his back, and the other splayed across his chest.

He continued to touch her in a way that drove her thighs apart, her hips lifting in a primeval rhythm
.

“More,” she begged
. He pressed one finger inside her, eliciting a deep guttural moan. His erection became nearly painful as he felt the wet tightness of her passage, imagining himself clamped within. Still she strained, pushing against his hand. He gave her the width of two fingers, causing her to lift her hips off the cloak. Her head soon tossed from side to side in frustration.

“You said we would be together,” she whispered breathlessly.

He tried. God knew he tried to bring her release without the final act. But she looked up at him, her eyes glazed with desire, yet confused, as if she knew he could give her what she wanted.  He wasn’t sure she even understood what she was asking of him as she clung to his shoulder, her face hidden in his neck, her hips pressing up again and again. “David,” she whispered, pleading.

“Sw
eetling, not here. We cannot.”

“Y
ou said it was right for us. Even in the stable.”  She pulled back from him and he watched the desire recede, pushed away by memories and reason. “I have ruined it. You did not want me at the river and you do not want me now.”

He brushed the hair from her face
. “Where do you get such ridiculous ideas?”

“You said that after the tournament there would be no boundaries, but there are!  I
have ruined everything.”  She tried to sit up, to escape from the shame of it all. He caught her shoulders.

“
Fire and smoke, woman, do you remember every word I have ever said?”

“Yes,” she whispered pitifully
. “What else have I had to do for the past week but go over every conversation and every kiss, wishing I could have done it all differently.”  She reached up to touch the bandage on his shoulder. “Been better. More careful.”

He studied her face for a moment until he finally understood
. While he had been actively escaping the pain of her betrayal, she had been immersed in it, denied escape across the fields of Alda, surrounded by cruel strangers and memories with a cruelty of their own. He moved her hand to the place above his heart. Theo had told him, but he hadn’t heard. She had been waiting and suffering. For him. The idea of it smote him until he could barely breath. “I love you,” he whispered.

Her gaze finally lifted to his face
. She nodded, incapable of words. Then he kissed her as he should have the moment he had left the field today. Softly and gently and reverently, until the heat built between them again.

She moaned in prot
est as he left her side to finish undressing. She studied his body, the sinew of his legs, the athletic cut of his hips, her eyes settling on his fully erect manhood. Primal recognition shaded her gaze, the instinctive knowledge that this would bring her fulfillment.

He knelt between her thighs, his legs shoving them wide
. He placed his hands on her knees, relatively neutral ground in the present circumstance.

“Look at me, Rochelle.”  Her eyes rose to his, her face glazed with desire
. “It was not my intention to take you in this manner, or in this place of all places. If you choose to continue, then you are binding yourself to me, as a wife to a husband. No more denials. No more tricks. If I mount you now, no other man will ever touch you in this way as long as I live. No other man will lay claim to your body, or your estate, or your love. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Do you want me to stop?”

She drew a deep breath
. “No. I love you, David. I want to be yours.”

Triumph burst in his mind, and only with great difficulty di
d he hold in a shout. He leaned over, bracing his arms by her shoulders, a wry smile quirking his mouth. “And I, yours.”  He sealed their pact with a gentle kiss, but soon his lips and hands were everywhere, building her up again to a place so high she could only cling to him, gripping first at his shoulders, then at his hips, urging him to take everything, and thus, give her everything.

At the first pressure of his sex against hers, she moaned
. She was slick and tight, and the instinctive rocking of her hips brought him further inside her than he intended. “Gently,” he rasped, not sure if he was telling her or himself. With a few small strokes, he found the barrier of her maidenhead and stopped. She bit his neck for his care, so he pulled back to press smoothly through. She made no sound until he settled firm and high inside her.

She moaned his name in a tone he had never heard from her before
. The sound seared the blood in his veins. Every muscle in his body tightened with the effort of his restraint.

He moved against her, forcing himself into a gentle rhythm, trying to be tender when he wanted to pound at her
. She shook and moaned with pleasure, her legs quivered against his flank, her sheath pulsed around him exquisitely, but still she did not climax.

He was there with her, on the precipice
. He could feel her trembling against him, her breath coming in little gasps, yet she would not let herself fall. “Open your eyes,” he ordered. She focused on him. He saw passion mingled with panic. He understood in an instant. She was afraid to relinquish the last vestige of her control. “Give to me, Rochelle,” he grit out. “I am here on the edge with you.”

“You are feeling this too?” she whispered in awe.

“Yes, I feel it,” he rasped. “But I cannot hold on much longer. Let go, my love. I want you to be with me.” 

She stared at him for a heartbeat, taking in the harsh planes of his face, the familiar command over his body
. “I want to be with you,” she breathed, bringing her hot palm to his cheek. His fingers touched her again and she held his gaze as long as she could as she pushed her hips up hard against him, twice, thrice, and he felt her shatter, her keening cry a sound of victory to his ears. He attended her, making sure she felt every pleasurable wave as he matched her motion. With her last echoing call to him, he heard the “snick” of the door. He caught her mouth against his, forcing himself into exquisite silence as he released his seed, pouring his soul into this beautiful woman who had finally agreed to become his wife.

In a few more minutes she would say the words to do so, in front of God and his representative here on earth.

But in this moment, she still knew only of him, her lover, her protector. He smoothed her hair gently back from her forehead. “You have made me very happy,” he murmured, echoing the simplicity of her earlier words. She smiled vaguely, stunned by what they had just shared. She’d never known such sensations existed. If she had, she’d probably have leapt on him the first night in Aix.

“It was beautiful,” she sighed.

He kissed her nose. “Remember what you promised, my wife,” he whispered, his eyes boring into hers.

“I —”

The familiar tinny voice of the priest interrupted her. “Who dares dirty the House of God with the…with the…with sins of the flesh? Do not think to fool me, I am an innocent, but even I can clearly recognize the sounds of…cavorting!”  He huffed loudly. “Show yourselves, sinners!”

David brushed her lips with a kiss, then rose lazily off her, grunting as he slipped from her body
. “Give us a moment so we do not show more than you are bargaining for,” he called, placing himself between her and the opening to the main basilica. If the priest approached, he’d be treated to a view of David’s backside. David began to replace his clothing with the efficiency of a man long accustomed to dressing quickly in less than optimal surroundings.

Rochelle lay staring at the ceiling for a few seconds
. “How much did he hear?” she hissed, replaying in her mind the sounds she’d made. She’d been nigh to screaming at the end.

“Nothing
. I would have muffled your cries if he had arrived any sooner.”

Rochelle flung her hands over her face, approaching panic at the absurdity of her position
. She’d been caught, in a church — no, on an altar! — engaged in a sexual liaison with a man to whom she was not yet officially married. It was unthinkable. It was unforgivable before God. She was naked in a church!  She scrambled for the edges of his cloak, wanting desperately to cover herself.

David, who had been watching her w
ildly swinging reactions, knelt and grabbed her hands to pull them to his lips. She could not bring herself to meet his eyes, but the fierceness of his voice broke through her shame. “Do not be ashamed of what has happened here. We are legally betrothed, we have lain together, and according to the beliefs of even that holier-than-thou priest, that is enough to be considered married. The words this man will say are just a formality.”  He squeezed her fingers. “Do not let him cow you.”

How did he know the man would marry them?  What was a priest doing here at this hour?  It was so…convenient
. “You planned this,” she said dully.

He scratched his head and appeared disgustingly pleased with himself
. “Well, I did not plan to take your virginity on the altar of a church, if that is what you mean. But yes, I fully intended to marry you tonight. I brought you here with that distinct intention. Just like you, I did not want to miss my chance.”

She opened her mouth, ready to rail against him for his trickery
. His deception. But who was she to shout about being the victim of a devious plan when she had placed him within reach of death just this afternoon?  And tonight, he’d given her every opportunity to stop. If anyone had brought them naked to this dark altar, it had been her. Besides, this marriage was exactly what she wanted.

“No more denials,” she whispered to him.

His smile made her brave enough to face whatever waited for them in the main basilica. “No more tricks,” he promised.

“I demand to know who is there,
” the priest yelled.

“David and Rochelle, who else?” Theo’s voice answered in exasperation.

Rochelle jumped. “What is
he
doing here?”

David rose to tie his braise
. “He brought the priest,” he answered matter-of-factly. “I will keep them busy while you arrange yourself.”  He strode away with a decided spring in his step. “Father!” he shouted. “You will need your books and your vestments. We have need for a wedding. Tonight!” 

The man argu
ed. “Weddings are to be public.”

“We will have another one tomorrow at noon
. Get your book.”

Rochelle heard the priest bustle away.

David and Theo didn’t know she could hear their furious man-whispers as she fumbled with her clothing. Theo sounded on the edge of violence. “I never would have agreed to this if I had known how far you were going to carry out your plan. You said you would place yourselves in a compromising position so the priest would agree to marry you. Based on the satisfied grin on your face, you surpassed compromised by a long distance!”