Captain Gareth's Mates (6 page)

The two of them released Izbal and withdrew. Izbal’s hands moved to cover herself. Flames of humiliation blazed across her face and chest.

Gareth jumped up from the bed and wrapped a blanket around her.

“I am sorry,” she wept, pressing herself against his chest. “I did not expect this, or I would have warned you. The details of the bonding ceremony are kept secret from the unmarried. I never meant to cause you such discomfort.”

“No, Izbal. I’m the one who should apologize to you. I would have forbidden them to treat you this way had I known. Come and sit down.” Wrapping an arm around her now blanketed shoulders, Gareth turned to guide her to a seat and paused. The only suitable place was the enormous bed he’d just left. He settled her on the pillows and then stepped back to give her some privacy.

“So what is this place?”

Izbal shrugged. “My father had it built some time ago. He has brought each of his wives here. I was likely conceived in this very bed. My mother and stepmothers described the basic features of the structure to me as they prepared me for our wedding. They did not, however, tell me everything.” She looked down at her body, now discreetly covered, and the color returned to her face.

“No wonder your father has taken so many wives. I can see how it would be enjoyable to stay here,” he admitted, looking around. His attempt to make her smile succeeded at least partially. Her body seemed to relax a little under the blanket, and the stress faded from her voice.

“We are fortunate, of course. Each couple’s family is responsible for preparing their own refuge. This one is far nicer than most, befitting the household of a grand potentate. I hope you enjoy yourself here, my lord.”

“I’ve asked you not to call me that. Especially now that I am your husband.”

Izbal frowned. “Do you have another name besides Gareth? I have wondered.”

“Yes. Krys. I’ve never liked it, though, and after so long in the military I’ve just stopped using it in my daily life. Everyone calls me Gareth now.”

“If that is what you prefer.”

“It is, and I have no title where you are concerned.”

“On the contrary. You are now the son-in-law of the grand potentate, and a powerful Anubian lord in your own right. My father expects you to rule this world one day, as he has no legitimate son. Only daughters.”

He couldn’t hide his troubled expression in time.
 
Izbal dabbed tears of guilt from her eyes with the edge of the blanket. “Traditionally, the couple is expected to do no work other than, well, be together during this first week. We’re to be left completely alone for the next six moons. Not even the servants will disturb us. I hope you’ll find it...and me...tolerable.”

Touched by the sadness in her voice, Gareth moved to the edge of the bed and sat down beside her. “I find your company more than tolerable, Izbal.” His thumb lifted to stroke her cheek, brushing away the remnants of her tears. “And though I don’t understand or approve of all your customs, I will never dishonor you. I promise.”

“No one would blame you if you did. You have been saddled with a wife you neither love nor find attractive. The fact that you have stayed even this long fills me with wonder.”

Gareth’s brows rose. “What makes you think I don’t find you attractive?”

“A woman knows, my lo—I mean, my husband. I have never known love, but I have observed such emotion in others. I see no desire in your eyes when we speak or touch. I see no pleasure when I approach you.” With a resigned sigh, she straightened her shoulders. “No matter. I have lived without love until now, and I will continue to do so. We will be kind to each other and pass the time as best we can, both now and in the future. Soon enough, you will return to your other life. It is not unusual on my world for husbands and wives to lead separate existences. No one will suspect that anything is amiss.”

His thumb slid down her cheek as he cradled her face in his hand. “Izbal, I do find you beautiful. The problem is...well, there’s a complication. You wouldn’t understand.”

She looked up at him with dawning comprehension. “Your heart belongs to another, perhaps?”

“Yes.” His shoulders sagged in relief that she had spared him the necessity of going into detail. “Yes, exactly. My heart belongs to another. It happened before we met. I tried to tell your father, but he insisted it didn’t matter.”

“It wouldn’t to him. That is not his way. My mother and his other wives accept his varied interests...and I can, too, my l—Gareth. Can you not make a little space in your heart for me as well? I have no desire to push the other woman out.”

“You are amazing, Izbal,” he said sincerely. “I am proud to call you my wife.”

“Thank you, my lord. I am honored to call you my husband.”

Her words had caused something to tighten in his chest and make his heart thud a little faster. His hand remained on her face, tilting her chin until their faces were only inches apart. He smelled the sweetness of the perfumes her servants had adorned her with, as they had him. Was it possible those oils contained some type of pheromone or aphrodisiac? Something about her certainly had a strong physical effect on him.

Leaning in to kiss her seemed the most natural thing in the world.

So he did.

She responded with an enthusiasm he hadn’t expected. Her mouth gripped his in a warm, moist embrace, tasting and caressing. Gareth let his tongue skim over her bottom lip and then prod further until it touched her teeth. Izbal murmured with enjoyment, parrying his tongue’s incursion with a playful thrust of her own.

As the kiss deepened, Gareth shifted on the bed and caught his robe between his thigh and the mattress. The front parted accidentally, revealing a sliver of the entire length of his body. Izbal went still against him, and he heard her suck in a nervous breath. When he broke the kiss and leaned back to study her, the longing on her face was palpable.

He couldn’t help but enjoy the strength of her desire for him. Thoughts of Brennar warred with the intense physical reaction racking his body. He and his male lover suited each other, without question, and Brennar had made his approval of the marriage plain. Surely he had no objection to Gareth finding pleasure elsewhere, just as Gareth would not object to Brennar doing the same. Among the three, only Izbal had not yet experienced the transcendent delights of humanoid sexuality. He wanted her to know them. As her husband, was it not his duty to show her?

When she spoke again, her voice had deepened with arousal. “Would you like to look at me?” she asked.

“Yes, I would,” he admitted, “and you can look at me as well.”

Izbal tugged away the blanket that covered her at the same time Gareth shed his robe, leaving him even more exposed than she. He saw her eyes widen as he lay back on the bed in a submissive pose.

“Go ahead,” he coaxed. “Touch me anywhere, and in any way, you like. After all, this is our wedding night.”

With growing confidence, she brushed a palm over the center of his chest and then moved lower. Her fingers hesitated when they reached the hard-muscled plane of his groin.

“Are you sure?” she asked shyly.

His arousal was plain, the veins up and down his cock throbbing with need and the skin a dark, mottled red. His shaft and tight sac still glistened with the unguents the matron had applied earlier. Small wonder Izbal found his erection intimidating. He could only dimly recall his reaction the first time he’d seen a full, hard cock waiting for his own ministrations.

“Yes,” he said. “I think continuing would give us both pleasure. Don’t you?”

“I’ve...never been with a man before, but I’ve dreamed of what sex would be like. I long to discover if my dreams were accurate.”

“I have a hunch you’ll know soon.”

Her fingers slid lower, trailing over the scruff of dark hair between his legs, and gingerly encircled his cock. Gareth gasped as a bead of hot fluid seeped from the head and trickled onto her skin. She didn’t pull back, as he’d half expected.

“Does that mean you are pleased?” she asked.

“Yes. Your touch is gentle. Arousing.”

“I am glad. What would you like me to do next?”

“Well...you could take it into your mouth.”

Izbal’s brows lifted in surprise. “Very well.”

Had she never heard of this particular act? Still, her determination both to shed her virgin status and to satisfy him seemed to override any qualms.

Lowering herself onto the bed beside him, she used her fingers to tilt his straining erection toward her. Gareth caught his breath when her wet tongue tip flicked against his tender flesh and then withdrew just as fast. A moment later, however, she was back again, this time cradling his shaft on the flat of her tongue. Her lips tickled him when she closed them and rubbed him up and down a few times.

“Yes,” he moaned in encouragement. “Just like that. Wonderful, Izbal.”

His words inspired her to work harder. Opening her mouth wider, she eased him in another inch or so and began a steady up-and-down motion with her tongue flat against his shaft. The sensation was so intense that, for a moment, it took him to another place entirely. He seemed to float far away from Anubis, and the
Wayfarer
, and everything that weighed down his mind and conscience. Nothing mattered now but her, and him, and the beautiful stroke of her mouth against his cockflesh. When an orgasm bubbled up into his groin, he gave himself over to complete physical bliss, bucking and thrashing in total abandon.

Izbal sensed when the time came to stop and let him rest. She pulled away, stretching out alongside him with her head on his chest, and waited for him to stop shaking.

“Did that make you happy, my lord?”

His arms reached out to encircle her. “Extremely. You are very talented, Izbal.”

“I’m sure I am not. Your excellent tutelage is the reason for my success.”

“I doubt that, but I’m glad you liked it. You did, didn’t you?”

A naughty smile stole across her lips. “Extremely. Is it now your turn to pleasure me?”

“I think so, yes.”

Though he could have taken her while she still wore the specially tailored dress, considering that all the relevant areas lay open to siege, he nonetheless took the time to peel the garment off her. In the amber light of the fireplace, now crackling steadily beside the bed, her body looked lovely, so pale and clean and untouched. The scent of perfume and her arousal tantalized his senses, making him hard all over again.

“I’ll need to get you ready first. I have to warn you that you may experience some discomfort.”

“I trust you.”

She didn’t resist as he parted her legs and positioned himself between them, his fingers stroking her feminine cleft. She writhed with enjoyment, and her moans deepened when he replaced his hand with his tongue. He hadn’t tasted a woman in a long time, and he was glad to find that he still enjoyed that particular act. The way the female body yielded and melted when touched just right was, in his opinion at least, something that couldn’t be replicated with another man.

When he felt she was ready, he laid on top of her and positioned his cock at her entrance. Using his fingers to pave the way, he guided himself in, an inch or so at a time. Izbal gasped and shuddered as he reached the halfway point. Her inner muscles pulsed around him, exquisitely tight and wet, as though her body didn’t quite know how to react to the sudden intrusion.

“Should I stop?” he whispered.

“No.” She swallowed hard, fighting the discomfort. “Please continue.”

It took a little effort to push in the rest of the way, and he gritted his teeth with the strain. Finally, he was fully encased in her soft, hot flesh. Izbal was grimacing, obviously in some pain. But he sensed she wanted him to go on.

Slowly, cautiously, he began to slide in and out. The friction aroused him, but he still feared hurting her. In an effort to ease her acceptance of his full length, he reached between their bodies and began to massage her swollen bud.

She seemed frightened at first, and Gareth knew she was struggling to reconcile the excitement she felt with the ache of losing her innocence in the rawest physical sense. Presently, though, he saw her eyes darken and her mouth open as the pain turned to an obvious and fulfilling pleasure.

Almost too soon, her body spasmed and then clamped down and pulled him all the way inside. Gareth knew the feeling of the two of them exploding together would be something she would never forget, whatever might happen to either or both of them before this whole bizarre adventure concluded. And, in truth, he wanted to lose himself one more time tonight, to experience that heady whirlwind of consciousness-blotting gratification.

Just when he began to fear it wouldn’t happen, it did. Grunting with release, he unleashed a bolt of fire that left him slumped over her, exhausted. Unable to do much else, he cuddled her against his sweat-slicked chest.

“Well? Was it the way you had dreamed?” he asked.

Izbal considered his question. “In some ways,” she decided. “Only much, much better.”

They laid in silence for a while.

“My lord—er, Gareth—do you think I’ll be with child now?”

He shifted his weight and slid down beside her, stuffing a pillow under his head. “No. The men on my ship, along with the women, consume a substance every month to prevent unwanted births.” The flash of disappointment in her eyes made him marvel again at how different their cultures and expectations were. “Is that a problem for you?”