Page 77 of Lord of the Hollow Court
“You don’t seem so tired anymore,” Katrina teased, arching her back away and covering her breasts shyly. “Maybe you didn’t need my help.”
“Oh, I need it. This has to be all your effort, Katrina. My hip will murder me in my sleep if I try to move.”
Her brows rose. “What? Then how—”
“I told you, my little fox,” he murmured, drawing her toward him, touching her lightly so that her back arched and she opened her body to him, allowing him the view of her breasts he so desired. “I’ll teach you. I’ll teach you everywhere you’ll want to touch me, and you will tell me of every place and everything that delights you, within this room and without it.”
She raked her hand down his chest, careful to avoid the scratches left by his fight. “And how do you know where I’ll want to touch you?”
“Because you, my sweet fox, take pleasure in giving it to me. And I in giving it to you.”
Her nose crinkled once again, a blush warming her pale cheeks. “You can tell that?”
He urged her closer still, grasping her leg behind the knee. “There are no secrets between us now,” he murmured as his hand traveled up the line of her thigh. “Only confidences.” His eyes darkened. “I’d like you to straddle me now.”
She could not help being shocked. Katrina’s hand flew to her mouth. “You’re going to have to teach me to be that direct.”
“You’ll learn, Katrina. You’ll learn it all. Everything about the world of faerie, everything about these lands. In time, you’ll come to understand magic as well as I do.”
She laughed dryly. “I already know never to make fae bargains.”
“Then you’re well on your way. Now, my bride.”
As Katrina Braam perched over him with his guidance, he found he had a little use left in his hip after all. He met her soft and welcoming body with his, slowing his entrance when a spark of discomfort tightened her jaw. He gave her all the time she required, kissing her and massaging where he gripped her hips. Once her discomfort had been replaced by impatience and her hand curled in the hair on his chest, he embraced her tightly, guiding her through her inexperience, his fingers finding purchase in her ample buttocks. He delighted in the way she gasped, the way her own hands urged him to hurry.
As their two bodies met at last, an ache Braam hadn’t known he carried eased. And he swore the feeling was mirrored by her—her expression so similar to his, he dared to hope they were as kindred as he believed. When Katrina’s head tipped back, he knew it to be true. Her face relaxed in unmistakable relief as she tightened around him, as if the day they’d been apart was far too long. There was a joy in their togetherness, layered atop the waves of pleasure—a feeling of safeness, of belonging, that Adrianus Braam now saw he’d been all his life without.
Out of necessity, their coupling did not last long this time. Katrina folded forward with a sigh of frustration, unable to go on, their lust for one another not yet sated but neither of them complaining. As her chest settled onto his, the sticky heat between them was far from unpleasant. There was an easiness in the way their bodies rested together, a gentle familiarity beyond what they had earned.
Braam made a promise to himself right then that he would make it up to her. Over and over again, as often as she allowed. When they finally fell apart from each other, Katty issued a grateful sigh, hands still roving over his muscles, his still in her hair and on her rump. As if they could not stand not to touch.
They fell asleep this way, half coiled together, the trials of their first full day of marriage left behind them.
With both awe and dread, he wondered, as he dozed off, what the second day would bring.
Katrina Braam woke sometime around midday, her stomach rumbling.
She sat up suddenly, as if surprised all over again that she would be naked with a man. A man with a glorious body that made her mind turn toward things other than food, even as her stomach urged her in another direction.
“Adrianus,” she said, waking him, blushing as her eyes flitted toward those parts of him she still was not used to. She was too embarrassed to ask what it was called, and resolved to borrow that book of Bibi’s. “I think it’s time for lunch.”
“Or,” he replied, eyes still closed and voice sounding dreamy, “we could continue to sleep.”
She thought on this for longer than was necessary. When she flopped beside him again it was with a yawn. Shifting until her hand rested on his chest again, she curled her fingers into the hollow of his chest until it felt as though they belonged there.
“Braam,” she said, waking him again. “I think, for the first time, I feel truly content.”
He smiled, eyes still firmly closed. “Then everything is going according to design.”
“Whose design?” she challenged. “Yours?”
“Mm-hmm.” His eyes fluttered open, luring her attention with their rich emerald green. “I’m going to keep making youcontent, Lady Katrina Braam, until the end of all things—or at least until you’re sick of me.”
Katrina did not wish to be coquettish with her reply. It was the truth, after all. “You don’t seem like the sort of person I could tire of.”
“Then that is very good news.” He yawned, proving she liked him a great deal more than she’d ever liked anyone. Even his foul breath was not so offensive to her. “I nearly forgot. There’s something you’re owed.”
“Me?” Katty’s hand touched her chest.
