Part 22 (1/2)
”I can,” he countered, and moved his hand from her outer thigh to her inner thigh. With just his fingertips,
he lightly caressed her inner thighs in slow circles, from knees almost to her woman's fleece. Up one thigh, down the other, up one thigh, down the other.
Not only was she stiff as a pike now, but she was holding her breath.
”When I caress you here, do your b.r.e.a.s.t.s begin to ache?”
She nodded, to his surprise. He had not-expected such honesty.
”Do you feel a throbbing here... as I do?” He put the heel of his hand against that lowest portion of her belly, just above the pubic bone.
She released her pent-up breath and tried to hold his hand there, through the cloth of her gown, which
still covered her discreetly. But he was already back to finger-brus.h.i.+ng her thighs.
”Adam, I heard about the babe you lost today,” Alinor said in the short break between entertainments.
The lutist was done, and now Ras.h.i.+d was preparing to tell one of his long Arab tales... something about a young man and a magic tapestry. ”I am so sorry you were unable to save the wee one.”
Notnow, Alinor.Oh, please, G.o.d, not now.He hoped his silent nod, accepting her sympathies, would be enough.
But already Tyra was turning in his lap, looking at him over her shoulder. ”I forgot to ask you about Dagma. Oh, nay, don't tell me...”
”Dagma will be fine,” he was quick to a.s.sure her. ”She lost much blood, and is very weak after a full day and a half of labor, but the babe died in the womb.”
”Oh, Adam,” Tyra and Alinor said at the same time.
”It could not be helped; the cord was wrapped around the infant's neck. It must have been dead for days now.”
”Oh, Adam,” they repeated.
”Sometimes things, even bad things, happen for a reason,” Alinor said then. ”She is very young. She can have other children, can't she?”
”Probably.”
”I should go see her,” Tyra suggested.
”Not now!” He immediately realized how shrill his voice sounded. More calmly, he informed her, ”I gave her some healing herbs that will make her sleep deeply through the night.”
Icannot believe I am sitting here with my hand up my lady's gown, about to part her most intimate folds, with an arousal that could scorch the hair off a hog, and I am discussing medical affairs. Can this conversation not wait till the morrow? If Drifa overhears and starts asking me which herbs I used, Ithink I might just weep.
”Adam, you look as if you are about to weep,” Tykir commented. Adam saw the twinkle in Tykir's eyes. He was looking from him to Tyra and back to him, his head c.o.c.ked in question. He might not know exactly what was going on, but his suspicions had been aroused.
”This is the story of Ala Din and his amazing adventures with a magic tapestry.”
Never in all his life had Adam thought he would be relieved to hear Ras.h.i.+d begin one of his never-ending stories. It would probably involve harems in one way or another. The hall went silent as everyone leaned forward and listened intently, not wanting to miss a word of the tale. Vikings ever did love a good story. Adam did, too, but not now. For G.o.d's sake, not now!
Alinor turned forward.
And Adam said a silent prayer of thanks.
”Thank you for staying with Dagma,” Tyra whispered over her shoulder at him, then turned to stare at Ras.h.i.+d, who sat on a high stool, surrounded by candles and torches, which gave an eerie cast to his Eastern features. Then, for the first time since he'd pulled her onto his lap, she relaxed and let her head loll back onto his shoulder.
Well, h.e.l.l, if I'd known a little sympathy or a little thankfulness would gain me this result, I could have told her about the old crone with the pus-oozing eyes I helped today. Or the little, boy's broken leg I set. Orthe burnI soothed with ointment on Alrek's palm from picking up hot kindling.
Tyra squirmed on his lap to get more comfortable, and Adam saw stars before him, so intense was the pleasure-pain in his groin. Good thing she could not feel him pressing against her b.u.t.tocks! He did not want to shock her.
”You may resume now,” Tyra said.
”Huh? Are you speaking to me?” he asked.Shemust be addressing me, because Alinor is not even looking in our direction, and there has been no break in Ras.h.i.+d's talking. The only thing she could be referring to is...oh, my G.o.d!
”Of course I'm speaking to you, lackwit,” she said with as much cordiality as a captain addressing a thick-headed soldier. ”You may continue the finger-pleasuring game now.”
Game? She views this as a game? So much for her being shocked!
”Have I shocked you?” she asked, apparently having second thoughts.
Nay, no second thoughts permitted. ”Yea, you shocked me,” he said, ”in the nicest possible way.”
”Shhhh!” Ingrith, Breanne, and Drifa all hissed at the same time. They were engrossed in Ras.h.i.+d's tale and wanted no chatter to distract their hearing.
And so, while Ras.h.i.+d told his tales of magic in an Eastern land, Adam began to weave his own form of magic.
He teased the hairs of her woman's nest with fluttering fingers, then palmed her, rotating the heel of his hand against her. She arched her back and whimpered softly. He would have liked to touch her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but that would be too open a demonstration in front of an audience. Instead, he whispered into her ear, ”Open more,” and when she did, he dipped his fingers into the honey of her arousal and spread it up and down over her slick folds till he came to that bud which was the essence of a woman's pleasure. When he touched her there, she jerked and moaned aloud.
”Is something wrong?” Alinor inquired.
He was strumming Tyrathere now, and at first she was unable to speak.
”Nay, just a little indigestion,” Tyra said.
Tykir snorted his disbelief.
”You should chew on mint leaves,” Drifa offered. ”That is the best thing for cramps in the abdomen.”