The Captive - By Joanne Rock Page 0,33
The coiling tension started again, but this time the release hit her like a thunderstorm, drenching her in lush pleasure so intense she arched like a bow.
The pulsing bliss lasted longer this time, and when the last remnants of sweet contractions undulated through her, Wulf lifted his dark head and aligned his body with hers.
Tremors still rocked her and Gwen buried her face in his shoulder. She could remain here forever, wrapped in his arms and discovering new facets of this fulfillment.
But Wulf’s body was not replete with the same pleasure. If anything, his staff had grown all the more impressive in the time it had taken him to ready her. He nudged her swollen sex and teased yet another wave of shivery response from her. While she clung to him, he forged his way inside her.
The raw perfection of the union made her body weep with need even as her spirit mourned the way she’d been treated by another man as a new bride. She had deserved this and gotten so much less. So much worse.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her mouth pressed to Wulf’s ear as she held on to him. “Thank you.”
They were the only words that came to mind, her thoughts so overcome by feeling that it was difficult to hold an idea in her head. Gwen gasped as he responded by withdrawing a short way from her body and then returned in a charge of slick heat. He found a rhythm in this way, retreating and returning, drawing out the pleasure for him and her at the same time. Who knew a woman could feel such a wealth of bliss?
She wrapped her legs tight about his hips and held him to her. She knew what would come next, since this part was one of the few marital rites of passage she’d traveled. Still, even this part held surprises since his charge and retreat renewed her breathless want of him. When the tension wound within her yet again, she began to move, her hips meeting his with each stroke. As she arched up beneath him, she felt his body tense and tighten, his shoulders stiffening under her grip.
He shouted with his release, his fist gripping the blanket beneath her head and his muscles flexing all around her. In that moment, she found her own peak, her body clenching his tighter as the sensation seized her over and over.
Long, silent minutes passed and Gwen wondered if Wulf had had experiences like this before. He knew that she’d never felt anything like it, but she had no idea if their night had been as amazing for him, or if this had been another idle pastime for a man well versed in the language of pleasure.
She hoped for some reassurance on that score, her heart as tender as the rest of her sensitized body. But Wulf remained quiet beside her, his hand rubbing soothingly along her back and over her hair.
As much as she wished to simply focus on the discovery of joys she never imagined, she couldn’t help but think about how those joys came with inevitable expectations and hopes.
Before she’d met Wulf, she’d been content with her status as a widow, never knowing what she missed. While she did not long for a husband, a future groom could hardly disappoint when she had such a low standard as Gerald to measure him against.
Now, she resented her time spent in the dark, oblivious to all that lacked in her marriage. And how would a future husband stack up to the level of bliss that Wulf had shown her?
As his breathing settled into the steady rhythm of sleep, Gwendolyn’s heart ached with new hurts and she wondered if she would have been better off not knowing what had been missing in her life. As much as she had enjoyed herself this night, a future without such delights sounded bleak indeed.
WULF CAME AWAKE INSTANTLY.
He did not know what had roused him, but he stood with his blade in hand near the door of the dilapidated cabin. Gwendolyn still lay on the pallet they’d shared the past few hours, her dark hair spilling in every direction over the blanket below her. Even now, he wanted to tuck her close and pillow her head with his arm while she slept. But if he was sweating across the forehead and holding his sword in the middle of the night, he must have heard something to put him on guard.
Someone must be near the church