Forty-One

“ARE you sure you’re ready for me, mon amour?” he asked softly as he went back to her side naked.
“Do you love me, my lord?”
He grinned, his eyes feverish with heat and happiness before he kissed her again.
He was careful to undress her, his eyes on her as he took the last cloth that covered her to his eyes.
He closed his eyes for a moment when he saw the bandage around her chest again.
And then he lowered his head to her breast and reverently kissed each peak, erasing with his loving lips the loathsome memory of the time they were despoiled, the dirty and sour smell of that thief by the natural smell of his body, of his clean hair, of the clean sweat on his skin.
“Why haven’t we been making love since we arrived here, my lord?”
He raised his face to look at her. “Why are you back to calling me that?”
“It’s arousing to me,” she confessed as she raised her right thigh so she could rub the inner skin against the side of his body.
He moaned like he was in pain, then he kissed her as if he was most hungry.
Oh, she was hungry, too.
They kissed as if they were drinking each other’s souls. They couldn’t have enough.
“I need you inside me, Fabian. Please…” she begged as he rubbed his hard cock against the part of her that wanted him the most.
And she gasped when he obeyed her without hesitation, withdrawing his torso, only to come back piercing her with that shaft of his, filling her tightness, stretching her of his thickness, until she could feel him nudging at her womb’s opening.
And then he pulled back, only to thrust back in slowly, that had her going crazy and yet understanding that his careful thrusts were to protect her.
She couldn’t complain, as she was so grateful. So thankful that she could feel him moving inside her again.
“Oh…. Fabian… Fabian…” she moaned, rocking her hips against him.
He watched her, lowered his head to kiss her, but then would raise himself up again as he continued his long, slow thrusts, teeth gritted and jaws clenched, his eyes hazy with pleasure, muscles moving on his shoulders as he supported his weight with his arms on either side of her because he couldn’t press at the bandages on her chest.
She moaned again as his thrusts started to move more quickly, his breathing more rugged.
But she was already throwing her head back, clutching at him as she felt her first orgasm hitting her like a wave of liquid fire, washing over every minuscule part of her body…
He was smiling a little when she was able to open her eyes. Her eyelids were so heavy. He’d watched her while she came.
“You are the most beautiful sight I have ever encountered in my whole life, *ma bichette*.”
She reached up to caress a chiseled jaw. “And you are the most beautiful man I have ever met,” she said truthfully, breathlessly. “I can’t believe you love me this much. That there's a man who can love a woman like this. I feel I'm the most special woman in the world!”
“Believe it, because not only am I your lover, I’ll be your husband. And you are mine… claimed as my wife…” he rocked himself between her thighs, and she writhed in the bed. She was going to cum again. “Oh, *mon amour*, I’m yours. Do with me as you wish.”
Her nails broke through the skin at her next climax, and he threw himself in the last three thrusts before he, too, was wrecked with his own release.
After a moment, he fell to her side. His arms encircled her, and she threw her arms around his neck so her naked body could be as close to his naked body as possible.
Both of them sweated.
And the smell of sex was permeating the air.
And she smiled.
Because that was how it was, and that was how it should be.

“I CAN’T believe this is happening,” Adalene whispered as she watched the gathering in the gardens from the window of her bed chamber.
“What is hard to believe?”
She whirled to find the Baron there, dressed in his finery as a groom—her groom. Her eyes warmed at the sight of him. She couldn’t believe he was going to be her husband.
From that day they had started making love again, Fabian had earnestly toiled to get the wedding preparations underway.
She had also since then found out that after that terrible night Lady Veronique had instigated—again—Lady Madeleine Clemence Gauvreau traveled back to the castle instead to angrily inform the Duke about the latest schemes of his cousin to hurt her nephew’s future wife.
Fabian’s great-aunt demanded retribution.
Since then, lady Veronique Moranville had been sent to Spain to marry a distant cousin from another family.
And this was because Lady Madeleine and the Baron chose her instead to become part of their family.
It felt like the world had tumbled down and was now upside down.
However preposterous she thought everything was, it was stupid to let the opportunity to be with Fabian with no opposition and no other women to get jealous of go.
She had endured the worst of it—or at least she thought so.
She had already asked the knights to teach her how to use arrows and knives to defend herself, and how to fight when attacked by a man.
As she had convinced the Baron to take her with him on his travels to the silk road, he admitted this would be very helpful.
This was the new task he and the Duke discussed, for Fabian to start vigorously pursuing trade with other countries from which the Qing Dynasty of China and other royal families in Asia were notable.
Adalene was, of course, interested in the trade of silk and other fabrics, while Lady Madeleine wanted to dabble in herbs and spices.
In fact, this was one of the reasons why the Duke was lenient about the Baron marrying a commoner and not his cousin—or any other woman from a royal family.
He really had not cared about Lady Veronique’s penchant for being married to the Baron, except if the Baron wanted to marry her, too.
This was why, when he found out about her schemes, she was sent away easily, as the Baron’s help in what the Duke was planning for the provinces in the future was more important than anything else.
Seemed like Fabian had already proved to the Duke he had a sound mind for trading, evidenced by how he had his wines and other products exchanged with valuables from outside, valuables that were important to other royals who could pay for them here.
The Duke wanted this to continue on a much larger scale, wanting funds coming in through the merchants through Fabian.
This was explained to her somewhat when she recovered enough from her ordeal to ask him more questions.