Page 24 of Traitor Son

“Oh…” A crease appeared between her eyebrows. Her hands gripped the boulders of his biceps, very white against his brown hide.

“Don’t…move,” he warned, struggling to restrain himself. She was so tight inside, he couldn’t see how he would fit, and the sight of his shaft sinking into her was making it very hard to think.

“Oh…oh, oh,ow,”she whimpered, reminding him that this might not feel good toher.Miche had said it depended. Slow, slow, he had to go slow, but Remin had never done this before either and she wasthrobbingon him, delightful spasms that ricocheted all the way from his balls to the back of his skull. Something gave way inside her and she yelped as he slid suddenly deeper, a white wave of pleasure that hit him like a hammer to the face. “Oh! Oh, Your Grace, it hurts!”

“I know, I know,” he gasped, kissing her lips, her eyes, half out of his mind. “Shhh, shhh…”

He was trying to go slow. Trying to be gentle. Trying to give her time to get used to him, crooning to her, soothing her, but he could barely think past the exquisite, blinding pleasure of being inside her, feeling her tightness clinging to him. It feltincredible.

“Deep…deep breath,ahhh…”A moan escaped him and he bowed his head, his shoulders bunching with the effort not to thrust directly into her, all at once. “Breathe…with me…”

Wet eyes met his as she obeyed, breathing with him as he pushed steadily into her. She was so hot inside. Remin’s shoulders jerked and shivers raced the length of his body. Even when he wasn’t doing anything, even when he was perfectly still, he could feel her body quivering on him, waves of sensation rolling over and over him and there was a big one cresting, crushing, irresistible.

“Ahhh…”The noise burst from his chest, a deep groan as he went over the edge. “Ah…ah, ah,stars…”

Miche had warned him that this might happen.It’s your first time too,he had said.But don’t you move a fucking inch if it does, even if it kills you. Hold still, let it happen, then continue.

Remin thought he might be dying.

He understood now why it was imperative that henotdo what his body wanted to do, which was pound into her as hard and fast as he could. His huge body rattled and his hips flexed, quivering with eagerness. But no. Even as his voice rose and he gasped and panted and spent himself inside her, even as he gripped and crushed the sheets in his hands, hemustnotcrush her. Stars. Stars. He was seeing stars. Static filled his brain, fizzing against the inside of his skull.

When he finally came back to himself, she was looking at him with big, sad eyes.

“It feels good?” she asked tearfully.

“Stars. Yes,” he said, and kissed her. “You feelsogood, wife. That’s the hard part, I promise…”

Technically, they were finished. Marriage consummated; virginity taken. But though he could have rolled over and gone to sleep right there, Miche had said that on no account should she be crying when he was done.

Propping himself on his elbows, Remin kissed her again, careful not to withdraw from her. It would only be harder to get back inside her again, and with patience and persistence, her pained whimpers turned into soft cries as he stroked slowly into her, her body rocking beneath his. Her climax was notquiteas loud as the first one, but her arms still went about his neck as she shuddered again, and he filled her a few moments later.

“Good?” he asked, winning a breathless nod, her head lolling on her neck. She didn’t lookunhappy, and he drew back carefully, feeling a curious tenderness as he saw the droplets of red spattered between her thighs. They had been each other’s first.

Now he understood why men made fools of themselves over women.

Lying beside her, he had all the time he wanted to look at her, her delicate profile limned with gold from the fire. A smooth, rounded forehead, little snub nose, and curving pink lips, like some exotic species of flower. Thick lashes curved over her cheeks, and his huge fist lay beside her upturned hand, the silver of her wedding band shining. She was small, and soft, and dangerous in ways he couldn’t begin to articulate.

Remin sat up.

“Stay here,” he murmured as her eyes blinked open. Padding over to the washstand, he rinsed their shared fluids from his body, enduring the cold without flinching. “It’s cold,” he told her as he set a shallow basin of water on the table beside the bed. “You must bear it.”

It was another new intimacy between them, but he was very gentle as he washed her body. Ophele had to turn her face away as he washedher between her legs, wondering if this was really happening. Remin Grimjaw, the greatest hero in the Empire, was washing her. She had read extensively on the habits of ladies, hoping to educate herself, but no book she had ever read prescribed etiquette for this scenario. She had a lunatic urge to giggle and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Did I hurt you?” The duke paused in his washing.

“Oh, no,” she said, guilty and embarrassed.

“Good.” He set the basin aside and surveyed her through narrowed eyes, as if she were a puzzle he had not yet solved to his satisfaction. “I can do better,” he said abruptly, and his long fingers trailed suggestively up her side. “Do you want to try?”

A shiver ran through her. Ophele was quite sure that whatever her virginity was, he had taken it very thoroughly, but there didn’t seem any harm in letting him make sure.

“All right,” she whispered, little dreaming of the night that would follow.

* * *

When Ophele slid out of bed the next morning, she kept going straight down to the floor.

“Ow,” she rasped, squinting up at the unfamiliar ceiling and wondering where she was and why her legs wouldn’t work. With the irregularity of life in Aldeburke, she hadn’t kept a normal sleep schedule since she was a little girl, and she was never at her most intelligent first thing in the morning.

---