Unconquered (14 page)

“Please what?” he muttered thickly.

She smelled the brandy on his breath, and was surprised. “You’ve been drinking!” she accused, feeling braver, and pushing him away.

He gazed up at her, and she started at the look in his eyes. “Yes, I’ve been drinking, wildcat! Dutch courage, they call it.”

“Why?”

“So I won’t lose my nerve with you, my bride. So your pretty protestations followed by your quick temper will not deter me from my purpose. Oh, I’m not drunk, Miranda, far from it. I’ve had only one snifter, just enough to harden my heart against your pleas.”

“How can you want me, knowing that I don’t want you?” she demanded.

“My dear, you don’t know what you want. Virgins, it has been my experience, are at best a capricious lot. Let us rid you of that disadvantage, and then we’ll see!”

He stood up, pulling her after him, and the loosened gown fell to her feet. Then he swept her up and carried her to the bed, where he dumped her unceremoniously. She scrambled to get up, and he, half out of his dressing gown, was caught at a disadvantage. She looked around frantically, but there was no refuge. Warily, they faced each other across the bed, she on one side clutching at the coverlet to cover her nakedness, he on the other, massive and nude.

She eyed him defiantly and he was entranced by her beautiful little breasts with their big nipples. They heaved with outraged passion, and to possess them once more he was tempted to mayhem. Miranda, seeing his preoccupation, sneaked her first hard, close look at a masculine body. His shoulders and chest were quite wide, tapering to a flat belly and slim hips. His legs were very long, as were his narrow feet. His chest was lightly furred in dark hair which turned into a narrow strip running down from his navel to the darkened triangle between his legs. She pulled her eyes quickly away, avoiding his sex, and looked up into his cool, level gaze.

She stood rigidly as he walked around the bed and pulled her into his strong arms. His mouth found hers, and when he felt the first measure of response he gently forced her lips apart and tenderly took her mouth. His silken tongue caressed hers with an ardor that left her faint.

She was weakened by her own passion. Feeling it, he fell with her back onto the bed, never taking his lips from hers. She lay atop him and, shocked, felt his hard, masculine body beneath hers. His muscled thighs were covered sparingly in soft, dark hair, and she swore she coud feel the blood pumping in his legs. The softness of her belly lay atop the hardness of his. His hand caressed her long back, her rounded buttocks, and she struggled to escape his touch, tearing her head away from him with a sobbing, “
No!
”

In answer he rolled over onto his side, pinioning her beneath him. He kissed her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her breasts, his lips traveling to her belly. She caught at his dark head with frantic fingers, and he groaned with frustration, but moved
upward again to nurse on her lovely breasts as his fingers searched for her. When those elegant fingers found what they sought, she bit her lip to keep from crying out.

“Easy, wildcat,” he soothed. “Easy, my little love.”

“Oh don’t! Please don’t!” she begged, half sobbing.

“Shh, shh, wildcat, I won’t hurt you, but I must know.” His fingers gently probed her.

“Kn-kn-know w-what?” Oh God! She was beginning to ache so terribly. “No!” A finger thrust into her, and gently moved back and forth with a tantalizing motion that she imitated with her hips, involuntarily pushing up to meet him.

He kissed her mouth, tasting the salty blood where she’d bitten her lips. “I must know,” he answered her, “how tightly lodged your virginity is, Miranda. I don’t want to hurt you any more than I have to, my love.”

“H-hurt me?” Her voice was edged in hysteria, and Jared heard it.

Gently he withdrew his finger from her trembling body. “Did your mother speak to you of a wife’s duties, Miranda?”

“No. She said only that when Amanda and I wed, our husbands would tell us all we need to know.”

He swore softly. His bubbled-headed mother-in-law might have eased the way. And then his bride said:

“Amanda has told me some of the facts of life.”

“What has she told you?” he asked, prepared to hear a babble of nonsense, and when she repeated her sister’s tale, he nodded, surprised. “Amanda’s story is basically correct, wildcat. One thing I do want to tell you now is that the first time is hard, for the shield of your virginity must be broken and it will hurt you.” She trembled, and he reassured her, “Only for a moment, my love, just a moment. Here, my darling, touch me as sweetly as you did a few weeks ago.” He guided her hand to his manroot, and she caressed him, brave again.

He was already hard, and her soft touch brought a groan from him. “I want you to look at it,” he said. “Only the unknown is fearful, my darling. I want to love you, not frighten you.”

She raised her head, and her eyes traveled fearfully downward, widening as they reached their goal. The banner of his manhood stood tall, a pale tower of ivory, veined in blue. “It’s so big,” she whispered, and he smiled in the dimness of the firelit
room. In her innocence she was unaware of the truth of her words, for he was bigger than most men.

He reached up and caressed her face. “I want to love you,” he said in a deep passionate voice that sent a thrill through her. “Let me love you, my darling.” The hand slipped down to her shoulder, her arm, to the curve of her hip. Gently he pressed her back among the pillows, and placed tender little kisses on her lips and quivering breasts. “Don’t be afraid of me, Miranda.”

She found her resistance weakening. At that very moment she couldn’t understand why she was fighting him. She wanted to be done with her damned virginity, and have the mystery solved. Once it was, she would surely be free forever of this hunger that raged in her. Placing her palms flat on his chest, her sea-green eyes gazed into his bottle-green ones, and she was amazed by the intensity of passion she saw there. She realized with surprise how great his restraint actually was just then, and the realization touched her.

“Love me,” she whispered to him, “I want you to love me.”

As he swung over her his eyes glittered in the reflecting firelight. He sat back on his heels, letting his hands wander over her, and Miranda grew warm and languorous at his touch. She watched as if her mind were separated from her body, and he smiled at her curiosity. His fingers teased her nipples, and they grew small and tight, and hard. His hands continued to caress her, moving constantly over her excited body. Her breathing began to quicken as did his hunger to possess her. Still, he restrained himself.

Her long, pale-gold hair was tangled now, and a fine moist sheen covered her body. Very gently, his hand slipped between her thighs, and she cried out softly. “Easy, my love,” he gentled her, and his fingers sought to again part her nether lips. She was trembling, and he knew that to delay any longer would be cruel. Guiding himself to the portal of her innocence, he gently thrust forward. She cried out in pain and he stopped, giving her body a chance to grow used to his invasion.

“Oh, my love,” he whispered hungrily, “just a little more pain, only a little more and afterward I swear it will be only sweet.” And then his mouth covered hers, absorbing her sob of pain as he drove through her maidenhead, sinking his manhood to its hilt into her tender body. He kissed the tears from her cheeks,
gently moving back and forth until, to his intense delight, she began to imitate his movements, pushing her slender hips up to meet his downward motion.

The pain had been terrible, and when his great shaft first invaded her, she did not think she could bear it. But the pain began to fade, and in its place grew a delicious, stormy passion. It overtook her. Suddenly she wanted him.
She wanted him!
She wanted this proud and tender man who rode her so gently. She wanted to pleasure him, she wanted to be pleasured.

She sank her little teeth into the fleshy part of his shoulder, and he laughed softly and increased the pace of his thrusts. Her nails raked his back, and he teased, “So you bite and scratch, eh, wildcat? I can see I must tame you into a house kitten.”

“Never!” she whispered fiercely.

“Yes!” he said, and his body took control of hers, thrusting deeply, quickly, until she surrendered with a little cry and slid rapidly away into a shining, whirling world.

He had meant to hold back at her first climax, meant to double the delight for her, but it was too much for even such a skilled lover as Jared Dunham. The look on her face, a look of disbelief and wonderment followed by total joy, destroyed his control, and his warm seed flooded her. “Oh, wildcat!” he groaned.

His recovery was far quicker than hers, and as he rolled away from her she lay half-conscious, barely breathing, her lovely body still vibrating. Plumping the big goose-down pillows, he moved himself into a sitting position, drew her into the protective circle of his arms, and pulled the bedclothes over them, noticing as he did the blood on her ivory thighs. Oh wildcat, he thought, I’ve taken your innocence, and your girlhood is really gone. You must be a woman, now, and I wonder if you’ll ever forgive me. I tried to be gentle, for, God help me, I love you.

She stirred against him, and her sea-green eyes slowly opened. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then she reached up and caressed his cheek. He shuddered slightly, and she said softly, “Do I really do that to you?” He nodded, and although her face remained unchanged, a tiny look of triumph flickered in her eyes. “Did I please you, Jared?”

“I wasn’t aware you wanted to, Miranda.”

“Not until the end,” she admitted candidly. “Not until I began
to see how wonderful it could be, and then I wanted it to be wonderful for you, too! Oh, Jared!”

“You pleased me, Miranda. You pleased me very much, but it’s only the beginning. There is more … much more, my love.”

“Show me!”

He laughed. “I’m afraid, madam, that you’ll have to give me a few moments to recover. Besides,” and he became serious, “you’re but newly opened, my darling, and may yet be tender.”

She had already forgotten the pain of her deflowering. Hot passion racing through her veins, she was eager for more love. Pulling back the bedclothes, she playfully reached for his manhood, but suddenly a look of horror crossed her face. “Jared! You’re bleeding!”

He swallowed his laughter, silently cursing her mother again, and said, “No, sweetheart, I am not bleeding. It was you, but it won’t happen again. It was only the proof of your virginity.”

She looked down at her thighs, blushed furiously, and said, “Oh, I forgot!” and then: “Dammit, Jared, I am weary of all this innocence! What else don’t I know? Are all girls my age such ninnies on their wedding nights?”

“You are more innocent than some women your age, Miranda, but as your husband my vanity is better served by it than by too great a knowledge. From now on you may ask me anything that puzzles you and I will do my best to teach you all I know, my darling.” He kissed the tip of her nose, and was flattered when she returned his kiss, her ripe mouth pressing against his mouth, tasting him, nibbling at the corners of his lips. He let her have her way, thinking as he lay back what a daughter of Eve she really was.

Her newly awakened ardor increased until he could no longer ignore it, and he quickly shifted so that she found herself beneath him. He teasingly nuzzled at her breasts, and was surprised when she drew his head down, murmuring, “Please.” He willingly obliged her, suckling on the sweet fruits until she moaned and writhed against him, pulling him atop her, spreading her slim legs in invitation.

“Oh, wildcat,” he murmured, touched by her eagerness, caressing her tenderly in an effort to take the edge off her highly excited state.

“Take me, Jared,” she said urgently. “Oh God, I burn!”

She was not to be denied. Amazed by her passion, he drove deep into her eager body, reveling in the softness of her. He gloried in her tight sheath, which enclosed his pulsing shaft in a passionate embrace. Then through the fires of his lust he heard her cry out. Her body arched and, for a moment, their eyes met and he saw the dawning of knowledge in those sea-green depths before she fainted with the force of her orgasm.

Passionlessly he released his seed, and withdrew from her. He was stunned, amazed by the woman who lay so motionless, barely breathing, caught in the throes of
la petite morte
. An hour ago she had been a trembling virgin, and now she lay unconscious as a result of intense desire. A desire that she might not truly understand yet.

Again he took her in his arms, holding her close, warming her fragile body with his own. She was so young, so new to passion, but when she woke it would be in the tender safety of his love.

She moaned softly, and he brushed a tangle of hair back from her forehead. The sea-green eyes opened, and as the memory of her recent passion returned she flushed pink. Jared laughed softly, reassuring her, “Miranda, my sweet and passionate little wife, I fall at your feet in rapt admiration.”

“Don’t mock me,” she said shyly, hiding her burning face in his chest.

“I’m not, love.”

“What happened to me?”

“
La petite morte.
”

“The little death? Yes, it was like dying. It did not happen the first time.”

“It doesn’t always happen, my love. You were overwrought with desire. I am quite impressed with you.”

“You are laughing at me!”

“No, no,” he hastened to reassure her. “I am simply astounded by your reaction tonight.”

“Then it was wrong?”

“No, Miranda, my love, it was very right.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I want you to go to sleep now. When you awake we will have a late supper, and afterward, perhaps we shall work on refining your marvelous natural talent.”

“I think you are very wicked,” she said softly.

“I think you are very delicious,” he returned, laying her back against the pillows and tucking the bedclothes around her.

She fell asleep almost immediately, as he had known she would. He lay next to her, and shortly joined her.