With Heart to Hear (3 page)

Garth nodded, perhaps to her, or possibly hearing his own command to speak. “Years ago—it seems like a dream now—I took Margaret to wife. It was… we were… very happy.” Garth looked away for a moment as if at a beautiful picture, far out of reach. Then his green eyes returned to Elise’s. “Just when I was getting used to being about as happy as any man could stand to be, Margaret gave me a daughter, and increased my joy tenfold.” Garth’s gaze fell to knee height, and he smiled as though he were looking at the upturned face of a small child. “She was fair, like Margaret, but she had my eyes. And she liked magic tricks.” Elise stared wide-eyed as Garth reached and withdrew a yellow finch from behind her ear and then laughed as it flew from his opened palm. Then the shadow of grief returned to his eyes, and he fell silent.

Elise waited, somehow knowing, and dreading, what he would say next. Knowing he would continue. He had to. The music wouldn’t allow him to stop now.

“They died. Here, at this bridge. A carriage accident.”

The pain in his words twisted in Elise. A theme of grief wove through the melody surrounding them, answered by an echo of rage.

“I went mad for a time. I wish I could forget that, but I remember clearly. Too clearly. My friends rallied around me, right enough, but I became a wretch and abused anyone who tried to pull me back into life. I think I feared that if I let go of the grief, I would lose them forever. I frequented the bridge, there, sometimes for days at a time. And then…” Garth glanced away, embarrassment wrinkling his brow. “I became, in fact, what I had acted: a dark and repellant creature as ugly as my heart.

“I never returned home. I stayed here, chained by my anger and hatred to the bridge that had stolen all my joy.

“Until now.” Garth cupped Elise’s face in his hands. “This isn’t a Faerie story, sweet, nor am I mad. You saw for yourself.”

She had indeed. Perhaps she was mad for believing him, for believing the evidence of her eyes, but the song surrounding them rang clearly now. Underlying the normal sounds of the evening meadow, it sang of hope and joy and a promise of fullness. If a soft discordant note ran through it, Elise barely noticed.

Garth apparently needed no more answer than her smile. As she gave it, the music leapt up, and he swept her into a dance across the meadow.

They twirled together through the tall grass in perfect step with one another, until Elise stopped, laughing, to cast off her skirt. Her bodice and chemise quickly followed, for their confinement seemed to strangle her. Her pins went the way of her clothes, allowing her hair to fall freely down her back. Finally, she stood naked beside Garth just outside the tree line. The last rays of the setting sun caressed her skin and struck sparks of red from her tumbled brown tresses.

“So beautiful,” Garth murmured, smoothing the strands where they fell over her breast. Then he pulled a lock aside and replaced it with a kiss. When he drew her nipple into his mouth Elise gasped and buried her fingers in his chestnut hair. A lightning bolt of desire flashed from her breast to her womb and beyond to the sensitive place between her legs. Garth’s hands skimmed over her skin, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. Suddenly her entire body was awake and clamoring. Garth raised his head and grinned. Then he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the forest.

He set her down in a bower of wildflowers beneath the green canopy and knelt beside her. Pausing a moment, he looked at her. Elise returned the favor. He was quite possibly the finest specimen of manhood in all of England, and his stunning erection gave ample evidence that he, too, liked what he saw. She only wondered how it could possibly fit.

Her gaze drew his attention, and he smiled. “Don’t worry, love. We’ll take our time. I won’t hurt you.” Then he kissed her. When his tongue parted her lips, she opened to him, welcoming his questing warmth. Hot and primal, her tongue fenced with his, drawing him deeper until he pulled away to rain delicate kisses down her neck and shoulder. His mouth found her right breast while his hand gently kneaded her left. She heard a hungry moan and distantly realized it had come from her own throat.

Garth’s touch moved downward, caressing, stroking, teasing until it rested on her mound. She pressed against him, instinctively spreading her legs. But he only petted her, toying with her curls and the edges of her nether lips until her hips were writhing, seeking something–something more. Then he slipped a finger into her.

Yes!
This was what she’d wanted, yet it wasn’t enough.

Garth’s finger moved, pulling out then pushing in even further. She pushed back, trying to take him deeper. “You’re so hot and tight, Love. And so eager.” His voice was thick. “But not yet. You’re not quite ready.”

His finger pulled out, and she whimpered. Then he traced the center of sensation, the point of her pleasure, circling it round and round until she was twisted and knotted in delight. When he plunged back into her, she almost screamed with the joy of it. A moment later he withdrew to tease her nub again. About and about his fingers traced, never quite touching her center. The sharp intensity swept everything from her mind. She almost forgot to breathe. Then he returned with two fingers, slipping them into her.

The stretching sensation filled a hunger she didn’t know she had. His hand was still for a moment while she accommodated to him, and then he began to stroke in a rhythm she intuitively understood. When he stopped to tease her again, she cried out.

Then the delight of his touch spread her legs even wider. The powerful sensation was almost too much. Almost–and yet it wasn’t. Her hands fluttered over his back.

The restless hunger grew and grew. “Please, Garth,” she begged. “I need…” But she wasn’t quite sure what it was she required.

Garth seemed to know. “Not yet. This is all for you,” he murmured against her lips. Then he drove his fingers into her, stroking in and out as she convulsed, his attentions taking her higher and higher.

Lightning exploded as the power of her release fragmented her soul. No wonder the French called it
le petit mort
, the little death. Disintegrated, she was nowhere and everywhere at once. Her legs clamped tightly around his hand and yet still he moved his fingers, drawing out the ecstasy, pushing her into blissful oblivion.

Slowly, so slowly, she returned to herself. Her muscles quivered with little tremors. No one in all her life had given her such a gift.

Garth carefully withdrew and positioned himself between her legs. “You are a joy, my dear,” his voice was husky. “Open for me.”

She looked between them at his jutting erection. The plum colored tip glistened as he rubbed the moisture on his hand over the shaft. It was so large, much bigger than his two fingers.

“Don’t be afraid, love.”

Elise felt the warmth of Garth’s embrace, the promise of renewal in his green eyes. She let her thighs fall open.

Garth kissed her, his firm lips meeting hers languorously, his tongue caressing hers, his teeth nibbling gently. Her blood heated again under his persistent attention. She returned his kiss, meeting his tongue with her own, nipping gently at his lips. He groaned in pleasure, and then he slid his cock into her core.

She’d expected pain this first time despite his promise, but there was none. Instead she felt as though a hunger she hadn’t recognized had been satisfied. Almost. Stunned with the wonder of it, her breath came in little pants.

He pulled back, then pushed forward a little, then a little more. When he eased nearly all the way out, she could have wept at the loss, but then he returned, penetrating and pervading her every sense. Back and forth, back and forth, he gently pressed deeper and deeper, tending the flame that was flickering to life, until he settled fully into the cradle of her hips.

She felt him quiver as he held himself still, waiting for her. Then something in her relaxed and she felt herself opening to him like a flower turning to the sun.

He began to move once more, thrusting slowly at first, then with greater urgency. The flame he was stoking burned hotter and hotter, until she thought she might combust. Her jaw clenched and her fingers clutched his shoulders. The beauty of this experience was beyond what she had imagined, and yet she needed more. Her hips arched, meeting him stroke for stroke until lightning struck a second time. Sharp and vivid, the light nearly blinded her as her body convulsed around his, grasping with her inner muscles like someone starving reaches for a banquet. A guttural cry tore from deep in Garth’s chest, and his whole body shuddered. He threw back his head and plunged into her, his seed filling her beyond completeness.

*

Elise’s skin flushed pink with the dawn as she stood looking at the meadow from the edge of the forest. The expanse of tall grass glistened with dew, and insects flitted from stem to stem, drinking the moisture and singing their own gentle song. Behind her, Garth stirred in his sleep, and she turned to gaze upon him. He lay in shadow, but she could still see the perfect expanse of his chest and the sweep of hair across his brow. One leg was drawn up, and she remembered the strength in the firm muscles of his thighs. Suddenly she missed the feeling of him wrapped around her. Elise returned to the bower they had shared the night before. Snuggling into his warmth, a sense of wholeness enfolded her. No shame at her nakedness or her behavior marred it.

“You were beautiful at dusk, but the dawn suits you even better.” Garth kissed the nape of her neck.

“I thought you still asleep.” Elise turned in his arms and ran her fingers across his wide chest and down his side to the evidence of his arousal. “But I see now you are quite awake.”

Garth chuckled deep in his throat and rolled Elise under him, kissing her nose and each eyelid in turn. Elise’s arms went around him, and she opened her lips. Hot and wet, his tongue danced with hers, thrusting in and out in a now familiar rhythm.

He trailed kisses down her neck, past her collarbone to her breast, leaving a wake of sparkling fire spreading over her skin. She felt herself grow moist as his teeth grazed her nipples, sending a jolt of delight down to her to her already throbbing core. Leaving one breast only to turn to the other, he suckled at her peaked flesh until she thought she would ignite.

As he shifted, she reached down to touch him. Smooth and hot and hard as steel. She rubbed her thumb over the moist purple tip. He groaned and covered her hand with his own, stilling her motion.

“Don’t you like this?”

“Oh yes, pet. Too much. I just don’t want to finish before we begin.”

Delight that she could affect him so tickled her soul. Then his kisses traveled downward.

His hands kneaded her buttocks while he laved her navel with his tongue. Then he began kissing the curls at the apex of her thighs. She stiffened in surprise when she realized what he meant to do, but he tickled the back of her knees, and she drew them up.

Garth laughed and pulled her legs further apart, kissing the inside of her thighs as he did. His breath caressed her, sending warm tremors of desire through her body.

He spread her with two fingers, exposing her aching nub. “So beautiful.”

She let her legs fall open. She wasn’t sure what she was asking for, but she wanted it.

Garth lowered his head and kissed her. “Mmmm. So sweet.” Then he nibbled and licked her inner lips, circling around and around the point of her pleasure with his tongue. His breath was hot on her swollen flesh.

Bliss stabbed through her, building and building until she was blind with it, but the pinnacle remained out of reach. “Please,” she moaned. “I need… “

Garth lifted his head. “This?” he asked as he pushed two fingers deep into her.

“Yes.” She groaned. Her hips bucked, trying to take him deeper.

He dropped his head again, fastening his mouth directly on the center of her desire, sucking and pulling at it, all while his fingers thrust in and out of her.

All sensation, the whole world, centered between her thighs. Then a blazing fire exploded, sweeping everything away. She was helpless as it rolled through her. There was nothing else, only the raging, convulsing, consuming reflection of paradise.

When awareness returned, Garth was holding her. She floated awhile outside herself, awash in the aftermath of torrential ecstasy. Then he teased her nipple, sending a sharp aftershock of pleasure rippling through her. She batted his hand away.

“No more. I can’t take it.”

“No?” Garth kissed her, then pushed the damp tendrils of her hair away from her face. His hand moved to her breast again, and he pressed a thigh between hers. Her body answered and she pressed back. He chuckled, and she laughed too. Apparently she wasn’t as sated as she thought.

He kissed her again, more urgently this time, and she returned his ardor. Her skin felt each kiss like a brand. His hands were everywhere, setting her aflame a second time. When he moved between her legs, she opened eagerly for him.

He slid into her with a powerful thrust, but she was so wet, so hungry for him she felt like she could swallow him whole. Grunting with each urgent stroke, his body hammered into hers. She arched, tilting her hips to welcome him still deeper.

Delight colored her rising passion. He wanted her. It was for her that his passion rose, for her that his hunger flared. Then all thought was lost as his pace quickened and he carried her toward heaven.

*

As the sky darkened, the clouds that had been building finally let go of their gathered treasure, a little at a time at first, a merest spattering. Elise smiled as the small drops whispered their promise on and around them. Larger drops followed the little ones, with bolder, stronger voices, until suddenly, the cloud released its full-throated song. Garth grasped her hand and they moved deeper into the forest while the earth sang its gratitude for the cloud’s gift.

The dense canopy sheltered them from the worst of the storm. They moved surely, even though they could barely see in the dim light. The wood was theirs now, entwining its melody with their own. No unexpected rock or root would trip them. Elise smiled. Some folk might think the grove gloomy and forbidding on such a day, but she knew this dark aspect was only one of its many faces, and she loved them all.