Kivdar glanced across the sitting room to the woman who was to be his wife. His wife. That concept was peculiar to him. He had sworn he would never marry, and then he had become the king's confidant. After a week, the King had demanded he pick himself a wife from the available maidens. Casts offs really. The king had chosen his own bride from their numbers and left him to pick one of the others. Rape was an everyday occurrence in this land. Even amongst the noble families. Yet somehow, Kivdar had managed to choose a girl that was not only a virgin, but from a very good family. A family that was well above his own status.
The King of course had been more then generous when he had informed the girl's father that his eldest daughter would be marrying his confidant. He had given the man twice the bride price that he would have otherwise received. Still, the lord had been angry. So angry that he had marched to the castle with his daughter in hand on the king's own wedding night. After the ceremony had concluded, he had handed Kivdar the keys to the girls' ankle chains and informed him that the girl was his problem now. He could do what he wished with her.
Ankle chains. That is probably how the girl had managed to keep her virginity. They were a common sight in Varecht. Those men who wanted to insure the safety of their women often chained their ankles together in such a way that it was near impossible for the girl to do anything but walk. It also made it almost impossible to rape her. Unless of course you wanted to take the time to cut the chains, But who wanted to do that?
Kivdar sighed. The poor girl had not said much of anything to him all night. She sat next to him at the Kings table and ate only when he asked her why she was not. When it came time to escort the King and his new bride to their bedchamber she had followed him. His duty to the king ended in the hall outside his rooms, and he had watched that door close with mixed emotions. With a sigh and a quickly muttered prayer that his king did not seriously harm his new bride, he had turned to his own lady.
She was staring at him in shock. Apparently, his little prayer had startled his bride to be. She was surprised to find that he had the capacity to care about the well-being of others. No doubt, she had expected the worst from him, and when he had told her, she was wrong she began to open up. They had made light conversation all the way back to his rooms. Only ending once they had stepped inside.
Here is where it became awkward. This girl was his he could do whatever he wished with her, but he did not want to frighten her overmuch on their first evening together. In silence he leaned himself up against the wall near the hearth and watched her slowly take in her surroundings. She was exquisite, a lovely young woman in her early twenties. She had her auburn hair pulled up onto her head in a style popular among the court ladies. However, the dress she wore was quite simple, a single piece item sewn from silk the color of the night sky. Despite its simple cut, it fit her like a glove accentuating all the lovely curves of her lithe frame perfectly.
A small voice in the back of his head told him he should probably offer her one of the two unused bedrooms in his suite to sleep in for the evening. However, as his eyes roamed over her smooth desert sand colored skin, and settled upon those sparkling sea blue eyes he knew he could never do that. She belonged to him, would become his wife and bear his children... And he wanted her. He wanted her bad.
With a gentle smile, Kivdar walked over to his bride to be and took her by the hand. "Come Tavia. We can't stand about in the sitting room all night."
His touch had startled her. She had not been looking at him when he approached, and he instantly saw fear enter her eyes. No doubt, she wanted to flee, but she could not. So instead, she followed him and allowed her to lead her into his bedroom. With the utmost care, he coaxed her over to the bed and sat her down upon the edge.
By now she was trembling, so he decided to let her be while he began to remove his own clothing first. "I promise you that I will go slowly. I will cause you no pain. No harm at all." He looked her directly in the eyes. "All I ask of you is that you try to convince yourself to trust me."
At once, he began undoing the buttons on the front of his tunic, his eyes never once leaving hers. She was trying to be brave, trying not to turn her gaze away from him, but she was failing. Soon he had his tunic completely undone and set it down on a near by chair. Following the tunic, he removed his cotton undershirt, setting it on the same chair. Since he was now bare from the waist up, he brought his fingers to the clasp of his belt, unfastening it. A quick tug had his belt, and scabbard sliding off his waist and he set both down on top of his shirt and tunic.
When his fingers went to the top of his breeches he stopped. It was probably best to leave those on, for now anyway. So instead, he sat himself down on the chair he had been piling things, being mindful of his scabbard and removed his boots and socks. Once he had them set neatly beside the chair he removed the keys to the girl's ankle chains from his pants pocket. Almost instantly, the girl's eyes went wide. Yeah, it was going to take a lot of work for him to calm her down.
With slow, careful motions, he made his way to where she sat on the edge of the bed and knelt down in front of her. "Whatever you have heard," he reached out to claim those offensive chains, quickly unlocking each shackle. "I want you to forget it." He set the chains down on the ground, his fingers lightly brushing the skin of her ankles. "I'm not just going to rip off your dress and have at you like most men would probably do." His fingers slid lower as he casually removed her shoes and set them aside.
She did not speak, barely even dared to breathe. His words seemed to do little to help calm her, so he lifted himself up and brought his lips a hairsbreadth away from hers. He lingered there, judging her reaction to his close proximity before he leaned in further and kissed her. "Can you bring yourself to trust me?"
She was trembling, her eyes sparkling with barely suppressed fear but so far, she had not pulled away. Eventually she swallowed and nodded just once. "I... I will... try."
Instantly he smiled. "That is all I'm asking for." He leaned in to kiss her once again as he slid his arms around her waist and began gently running his hands over her back. As he caressed her he casually and delicately began to undo the lacing that served to hold her dress closed. Some men found the multitude of little crisscross sections of the lacing troublesome but for him it was no problem at all. Within a few minutes, he had the entire backside of her dress wide open, his hands gently roaming over her silky smooth skin.
The moment she felt his hands on the bare skin of her back, she tensed slightly. Had she even realized he had been working to unfasten her dress as he kissed her? With steadfast determination, he allowed his fingers to begin working that fabric forward pushing it first off, her shoulders and then casually edging it down her arms. He could tell that fear was returning, but so far, she did nothing to stop him. When he finally slid the fabric over her hands, he kissed her once again.
The kiss did little to help calm her this time however, especially not when he slid his hands to her hips and pushed the dress down past the curve of her buttocks. From here, it was simply a matter of getting all the fabric off the bed, over her legs before gravity took over, and settled the whole thing on the ground around his knees.
Now that he had her completely nude, he leaned back a little bit to admire her. "Mm, you simply are lovely," he murmured quietly. "Absolutely stunning." He reached out to run his hands gently over her shoulders and down her arms, before capturing her hands and bringing them to his lips for a couple of light kisses. "You deserve to be worshipped." A quick tug sent her tumbling forward into him, and he caught her up as he finally pushed himself off his knees. The cold, hard stone floor simply was not comfortable for him any more; he needed to get her into the middle of the bed.
With careful movements, he crawled up onto the bed and gently settled her down somewhere near the center, sliding a couple of pillows beneath her head before he settled down beside her. Even trembling as she was he found her completely and breathtakingly beautiful. How did he manage to come into possession of a woman as marvelous as this? It was if she had been plucked right out of some fantasy and laid out before him, ripe for the taking. And he had every intention of taking her.
Rolling himself onto his side, he propped his head up with one hand while the other began to slowly run over her body. He kept his touch light and teasing, tracing fingers idly down her neck, her shoulder, over her arms. His desire for her was growing more and more unbearable with every second that passed. Would he be able to continue with his plans?