Page 24 of Fletcher

Although he hadn’t offered her any reason why he believed he was cursed, she certainly understood what he meant. He also could not have said anything more perfect. For a moment she sensed she stood on an unseen precipice, about to jump into the unknown. She had never been a jumper; the old Lark had always hidden herself away from everything she couldn’t control.

The new Lark answered him with, “Yes, please.”

Fletcher pulled her to him, lifting her up as he came into the room and kicked the door shut. They kissed from there to the bed, and his hungry mouth made Lark forget everything but him. He stopped to put her back on her feet, looking all over her face before he knelt down and removed her slippers.

“If I dinnae slow now, ’twill end in another moment.” He sounded almost disgusted with himself.

“I don’t mind.” Lark reached down to touch his hair, which was rough and smooth all at once. It amazed her that she could do such a thing when she had always waited for things to happen to her. What else could she do? “We can spend the whole night together, can’t we?”

“Aye.” He watched her face as he swept his thumb over her arches, grazing them with the edge of his nail in a strangely erotic caress. “I’m yours until dawn.”

Those words sent such a welling of desire through her she sat down on the edge of the bed to keep from falling on top of him.

Fletcher braced his hands on either side of her, coming up to capture her lips again as he cradled her with his arms and eased her back onto the coverlet. He reached for the hem of her chemise, and then said, “I wish see you bare. Might I undress you, then?”

Lark wished she had more to show him as she sat up and lifted her arms. Her small breasts had a nice shape, and pretty pink nipples, but her hips didn’t curve at all. She even wondered if the dark red curls covering her sex would turn him off. Could she do this terribly intimate thing with him? If she told him she had never been with anyone, would he be patient with her? Or would he walk out?

I’m not that girl anymore, and he’s not leaving me like this.

He slowly pulled the smock up and over her head, and then dropped it as he straightened and looked down at her naked body. With gratifying speed he tore off his tunic, and unlaced the back of his trousers before stepping out of them.

In that moment Lark forgot to be worried about her virginal inexperience. The man looked like someone had chiseled him out of the same golden stone as the castle, and flocked him with a fine pelt of light golden velvet. The lines of his muscles made her want to run her hands all over him, and then follow that with her mouth so she could kiss and lick each curve and bulge. The thick, swollen shaft of his penis jutted straight up from the thatch of gilded brown curls over his sex, the heavy crown already beaded with a drop of cream. For some reason that made her want to taste him there, too.

“I know I’m not much to look at, but oh, Fletcher.” She reached out to move her palm over the tight, hard muscles of his abdomen. “I never imagined a naked man could be so gorgeous.”

“You’re the beauty, uiseag.” He came onto the bed beside her, and stretched them both out so they faced each other. “I like how you look upon me, as if you’ve never once seen a man undressed.”

“I’ve seen plenty of men half-dressed during fittings, but none of them naked. You’re the first.” As he drew back a little she took a deep breath and told him the rest. “I’ve never done this, either. You’re going to be my first lover.”

Fletcher’s expression shifted from fierce and determined to almost regretful.

“Now you wish drive me crazed.” He stroked her arm with his fingers. “A maiden night, ’tis a precious and singular gift. I should bid you keep yourself for the man you’ll wed.” He didn’t sound as if he wanted to.

“I’m never going to marry, so you should kiss me again,” she suggested. “And more touching would be nice, too.”

Lark curled her arms around his neck as he put his mouth to hers. For a moment the kiss seemed almost reverent, and that made her eyes sting, so she closed them. Then he tasted her, deeply and thoroughly, igniting a torrent of heat and wanting that burned through the last of her doubts. Everything she did with him seemed natural and right, as if she’d existed for this purpose alone. Despite the difference in their height, together their bodies fit, male to female, with her little breasts cushioning his chest and her narrow hips supporting his.

Fletcher’s hands moved over her, comforting and exciting her all at once. He watched her eyes as he stroked her breasts and belly, and then slid his fingertips along her outer thigh.

“Shall you permit me pet you, my pretty Lark?”

She knew how wet she’d grown down there from the sensation of slickness on the inside of her thighs. Yet she didn’t suffer any embarrassment as she parted her legs for him. She wanted him to know what he’d done to her, to have it on his fingers, to mark him with her own excitement.

“I’m all wet, but that’s your fault. Oh.” The press of his palm against her pussy sent a jolt of something like bright, hot light into her belly. “That’s so good.”

“You’re so soft.” Fletcher rubbed her slowly, allowing her to grow accustomed to being caressed so intimately, and then delicately explored her with his fingers. “Do you like seeing my hand on you, my lady?”

She was watching him touch her without blinking, Lark realized, and her cheeks burned. “I’m not much of a maiden, I guess.”

He bent down to brush his lips over hers, and then murmured against her ear, “’Tis all I may do no’ come into you this very moment.” He slid down. “But first I’ll kiss your pretty quim a proper greeting.”

Watching him make a place for himself between her thighs made her heart pound so fast she was sure he could hear it. Did he really intend to… She bit her lip as he moved her legs a little wider apart, and then pressed his mouth in between them. Seeing him kiss her down there made a moan come from her lips, and then he parted her with his tongue and began licking the seam of her sex, tasting her and caressing her.

Lark watched him through half-closed eyes, entranced. He didn’t seem to care that the fluid of her arousal was getting all over his mouth; from the way he licked at her he apparently relished the taste. He slid his tongue inside her, and the rough velvet of it made her hips roll and her clit pound. Then he laved that hard nub, giving it slow, soft strokes that made her whimper with longing.

What is he doing to me?

Half of her muscles wanted to tie themselves into knots, the rest had begun shaking. Lark didn’t know what to do with her hands, which kept clutching at the coverlet under her as he tongued her with such skill. She wanted to grab his hair in her fists and rub herself against his mouth, a shocking urge that she almost gave into. He behaved as if she were something luscious, and by the time he shifted up and began rubbing and sucking at her breasts her spine bowed off the bed, pushing her little mounds against his hungry mouth.