Thirty-Seven

 

Gods, Chase looked as nervous as she felt.

"So, we should maybe start with a drink, like in the story?" Chase suggested, pouring two cups brimful.

Rosa sniffed hers. "Which mead is this?"

Chase shrugged. "You're the expert, not me."

She took a cautious sip. "This is the medicinal mead. There's precious little left, and no knowing if I'll be able to make it as well as my grandmother. Best pour it back in the jug and put it somewhere safe. I'll go down to the cellar and find us something more suitable to drink." Clumsily, she wrapped a blanket around herself and headed down the stairs.

"Right. I'll...stoke the fire, so it's warmer up here, for when you come back," he called after her.

Definitely as nervous as she was. She considered backing out of the deal altogether, but she knew she couldn't. She had to complete the rites, so she could serve the gods as priestess. Nothing else mattered now.

She found last year's Midwinter Night mead sitting untouched, where she'd left it a year ago. The goddess runes on the barrels were wonky on some of them, as it had been the first year she'd made it. If she'd known a year ago that she would be using the brew in her own rite of passage...Rosa shook her head.

In her haste, she'd forgotten to bring a jug with her, so she decided to float the whole barrel up the stairs to the cottage. Probably for the best, as they might need more than one jug of mead to calm both of their nerves before the night was over.

She set the cask on the table, then knelt down to tap the barrel. Her blanket kept slipping down, forcing her to yank it back up again, until she bunched it up in her fist to keep it in place. Try as she might, she could not tap a barrel with only one hand.

"Let me do it," Chase said, placing a second blanket around her shoulders. "You get back into bed, and warm. Unless half freezing to death is part of the ritual?"

Rosa shook her head. "I've never seen the ritual performed before. I know only the story, and how there must be mead, and sex."

Chase looked alarmed. "I'll...I'll get the mead, then, and you get into bed, ready for...the other stuff."

She felt the uncontrollable urge to laugh, but one look at Chase's face told her that might not be the best idea.

This was a mistake. Curse the gods for placing her in this position.

"If you don't want to, we don't have to," she said in a rush. "We can – "

He slammed the jug of mead on the table. "I want to."

"Oh." It was the tiniest sound, barely a word at all, escaping without permission as she tried to assemble her scrambled thoughts.

He wanted...her?

Chase poured these cups more carefully than the first, not spilling a drop.

But when he handed a cup to her, Rosa's hands shook so badly she spilled it down her chest. She swore.

"Here, let me." Somehow, he'd found a cloth and a bowl of water, and he squeezed the water out of the cloth as if he'd been a healer all his life.

Rosa released the blanket, baring herself to the waist.

With the cloth, he traced the line of stickiness between her breasts and down her belly, then back up again, as if he couldn't decide which breast to wash first. His hand went right, but then he leaned over, peering at her left breast. The cloth rasped over one nipple as he took the other in his mouth, sucking hard.

She tangled her fingers in his hair. "Gods, Chase!"

He looked up, and his eyes were full of mischief as they met hers. He let go, tracing a circle around her nipple with his tongue. "I'm not sure what tastes sweeter, you or the mead."

And then he kissed her mouth again, his arms around her, as he climbed into the bed beside her. She helped him undress, still kissing him, except when they had to stop to pull some item of clothing over his head.

Once he was naked, she could run her hands over his chest, stroking the firm muscles like she wanted to. Down his chest, his belly, and the hard length of him...

"Don't," Chase groaned, pulling away again.

"But...I thought...you wanted..."

He tipped her onto her back. "I want, all right, but if you get your hands on me like that, I won't last more than a moment, and I think for us to have sex, I must at least make it inside you."

She thought for a moment. "If you're so sensitive, then perhaps we should leave off on the stroking and sucking and move onto the sex."

"Are you sure? Are you ready for me?"

Before she could answer or even nod her head, he'd slipped a finger inside her.

"Not yet." He knelt between her thighs, pushing them open wider, before he traced her lower lips with his finger, as if he was trying to memorise them. Then he touched a place that left her gasping, and she opened her eyes to see him grin. "That's the spot." He rubbed harder, and she thought she swooned, unable to focus on anything but his finger and what it was doing to her.

Her breath came in great, ragged gasps, as his finger sent ripples of desire rolling through her body. Bigger, and bigger...until she arched her back, digging her fingers into the mattress as she exploded at his touch.

She was still panting by the time her vision cleared enough to see his face. Still grinning.

"Rosa, I want you more than any other woman I've ever known. But I need to know if you're ready for me. If you want me."

He had his cock in one hand, ready to enter her, while his finger still stroked her lightly, sending small ripples through her.

Rosa swallowed. "If you're going to do that to me again, I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for it." When he frowned, she hurried to add, "But if you're asking if I want you to do that again, and to make love to me...then yes. As many times as you like."

He slid a finger inside her again. "You're wet enough, that's for sure. Tell me if I hurt you, Rosa, and I'll stop."

She nodded. The first time with Alard had hurt, but that had been mercifully quick, and from what Chase had said, this would be, too. Then he could back to doing the thing he did with his fingers.

Except...his fingers hadn't stopped, still rubbing her until her vision started to cloud again. Then she felt him enter her, in one slow, smooth stroke, stretching her but not hurting her.

But the ripples were getting bigger again, as she panted faster, clenching her muscles hard like she had before, only with Chase inside her that set off more ripples. Caught between the two, she was lost in love for him.

He started sliding in and out of her, no longer slow, and she lifted her hips to meet him, keeping pace as he sped up, until each frenzied thrust pushed her closer and closer to what felt like it would be an even bigger explosion and she couldn't stop but she wasn't sure if she could bear it when it did come and...

"Oh gods, Chase, Chase!"

Some time later, she opened her eyes to find him grinning at her again. She could still feel him inside her, but he'd stopped moving and somehow, she didn't feel quite so full any more. And she was shaking. Couldn't stop shaking. Didn't know why. And yet...

"That was amazing. I want to do it again," she said, her voice hoarse from...had she truly screamed his name?

He reached for the bowl and cloth. "First, let's get cleaned up. Then, I want to spend some time stroking and sucking, as you called it, before we find out if I'm even capable of making you scream like that again."

She winced as he eased out of her, hating how empty she felt without him. "My first time was nowhere near as good as that," she said, to distract herself from the way he stroked the cloth down his own length, before using it on her. "Are you a very experienced lover, or is that what royalty require from their husbands?"

He dropped the cloth in the bowl, then stared at her. "Well, I guess that explains why there wasn't any blood, and why I didn't hurt you, if I wasn't your first. But I wouldn't know anything about what royalty require from their husbands or their lovers. That was the first time I've ever made love to a woman, and it was better than I dreamed it would be." He filled the cups, and held out hers. "If you spill it this time, I promise you, I'll use my tongue to clean every drop that lands on your skin."

Rosa drank deeply, her hands no longer shaking. Oh, there was a little shiver of pleasure at his words, but not enough to shake the warm glow that suffused her whole body. She drank until only a few drops remained at the bottom of her cup, which she dribbled across the top of her breasts, meeting his gaze squarely with a challenge of her own.

Chase laughed. "If you hadn't done it, I was going to pour my cup over you. By all that's holy, I could spend all night just worshipping those breasts." He drained his cup and set it on the table. Then he pushed her down on the bed, touching his tongue to her nipple once more. "So sweet." A finger slid inside her, stroking, as his other hand closed on her breast. "And I want you wet for later, too, when we see if I can earn a better adjective than amazing."

"Yes. Oh, yes." Rosa wanted to say something more articulate, but with his hands, his lips and his tongue on her, she soon struggled to say anything coherent at all.