Page 41 of Veiled Flames
Sixteen
Saxon
My rod pounds with the fury of a hundred stags stampeding across an open field.
My linen chemise continues to brush over the sensitive skin on my cock’s head, and it’s almost too much to tolerate. But I don’t dare remove the garment. Not yet.
If I reveal my manhood too soon, she might grow fearful and change her mind. It’s beyond clear she has absolutely no knowledge or experience of what happens between a man and a woman. And as desperate as I am to rut inside this girl, I would never force her.
“Is it time?” She raises one of her hands to her chest. “Are you going to drill me now?”
“Is that what you want?” I’m alarmed by the hoarseness of my voice. It makes me sound like a villain.
“I…” She casts her eyes down.
Iama villain.
For so many reasons, I am a villain. If I do this, I’ll ruin her future. Eventually, she’ll return to her father, hopefully after the King of Khotor has taken another wife, or better yet crossed to the Great Beyond. And when she does return home, her father will seek to make her a suitable match. A match that will be rejected should I burst her flower tonight.
Before I touch her again, she must understand what’s at stake.
“Please sit,” I say.
She drops to the cot as if her legs melted.
I draw my hands in front of me, hoping to mask my obvious protrusion. “Before you give your consent to this, you must understand the consequences.”
She nods, stiffly. Fear is tainting her beautiful features, making me want to downplay what I plan to tell her. I’d avoid it altogether, but my honor won’t allow it.
“Copulation—” I pause. “Do you know what that word means?”
She shakes her head.
“Copulation is one word for the act when a man stabs his cock in a woman’s cleft.”
She winces at the word stab, and I instantly think of better words. It’s too late now.
“Amongst the nobility—" I use the same tone I use to instruct rider candidates “—copulation, also called sex, or more crudely drilling or fucking, is an act typically performed exclusively between wedded couples.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widen, and even more worry sullies her expression. “Yes. You said that the other night.”
“Well, it’s not alwaysexclusive.” I clear my throat. “Noblemen often take lovers outside their marriage beds, as do some noblewomen.” I shake my head. I want to keep this simple, to get to the point. “But noblemaidens, such as yourself,nevertake lovers before they are married.”
She swallows hard. “Does that mean…” Her pale eyebrows draw together as confusion fills her eyes. Along with what I read as disappointment. “Do we need to…” Clasping her hands on her lap, she looks down. “I’m not certain I want to marry you.”
“Of course.” I restrain my impulse to chuckle. She thinks I was asking for her hand. “What I meant is, if we do this, if we have sex, it will destroy your chance of making a good marriage—ever.”
She looks up, relief flooding her eyes and her posture. “Is that all?”
“This is not a small thing, ma chérie. Your future?—”
“I don’t want a husband.” Her chin rises.
“But your father will want?—”
“Iespeciallydon’t want any husband my father selects.”
I nod, my admiration for her growing yet again. Beyond her bravery, I’ve never met a maiden so strong, so independent of thought. From that first moment in the forest, I’ve held her in the highest esteem, even when I assumed she worked in the stables and had stolen that horse. Her simple beauty—her pink hair, her bright eyes, her trim body, and the way hernose crinkles when she’s thinking—those attributes were all an immediate siren call to my cock.
