He growled and circled his large arm around her wrist. "Release me!"
She tightened her grip and pumped. He groaned again, but louder. She felt excited but even more compelled to see it through.
"Please, one night and I'll never return."
His blue eyes shot open and the intensity of desire and anger in them made her shiver.
"One night!" he growled then collapsed his full weight on her small frame.
When he pulled her thighs apart and pushed her hips up, she quickly whispered in his ear, "Be gentle. I may be bold but I am fragile."
When he rose up and their eyes met again, she saw the anger slip away and all that was left was pure desire. He pressed his hungry lips on hers, and as the kiss progressed to one full of need and want. Lydia arched up, separating her legs further.
It had begun as a painful duty, and she saw it hold a promise of pleasure and satisfaction.
She fastened her hands on his thick shoulders when she felt his hands slide under her to cup her bottom cheeks. She tried to breathe through the anxiety as she prepared herself for the pain that she knew would come. She could not cry and allow him discover that she was a virgin; there was no explanation she could give.
She held her breath when she felt him at her entrance and turned her head into his thick neck. If she did cry, his neck…
"Arrgh!" she cried out, when his fullness drove hard and deep inside her. Her entire body became stiff at the immense pain as he broke through and stretched her wider to accommodate him.
"Damn it to hell!" he cursed loudly in her ear. He stopped and pressed his forehead on hers. She felt him tremble, his laboured hot breath fanning her face and his muscles tightening with each passing second he stayed still inside her.
She tightened her hold on him, willing the pain to end.
He slipped his hands from under her and rested his elbows close to her shoulders. When his head inched up to look at her, she closed her eyes turning her head away. She felt too embarrassed to look him in the eye.
"Why did you not tell me?" he panted. She could hear the anger in his voice.
She stayed silent as warm tears slide down her face. She then felt his lips and nose trace a tingling path along her face, his lips pressed gently down close to her eye.
"The pain will not last."
She shivered when his warm breath touched her cheek. Her hands moved down to his biceps and she moved her head to lie on the back of his hand. The pain was gone, and all that was left, was the wonderful feeling of him possessing her.
His hand turned and his palm cradled her cheek. He stroked her lips with his thumb, seducing a smile from her. She kissed it and rubbed her cheek against his soft palm. She felt him turn her head, and she followed with no resistance.
"Little girl, open your eyes," he ordered in a gentle tone. She did and met his beautiful deep blue eyes that no longer held anger, just gentleness. "Why did you not tell me?"
She moved her hand to his cheek, her other hand shifted to caress his back lightly, "I told you to be gentle," she whispered, keeping her voice sweet and seductive.
"Why me?"
She heard the earnestness in his voice and saw the confusion in his eyes. She felt a slight pang of guilt. This man did not deserve what she was doing to him. Her head told her to apologise and leave, but her body cried for him to finish what he began.
Because right from the start it was always you, she thought with an ache in her heart.
"Better you than an old lustful fool who'll only ruin the fantasy I dreamed up for my first time." She spoke the first truth since she arrived. "We've already begun, do not stop. Let me keep this memory in my mind every time I am forced to lay with that pervert."
He laughed. "Little girl you are bold. But unless you intend on passing the night in my bed, I cannot promise I will be gentle the first... or the second time."
His threat made her shiver but when he kissed her the fear evaded her. "Well then, I hope you don't have any pressing business in the morning, for I intend on holding you to your promise."
He laughed again and the vibrations made her moan with pleasure. She felt his body tighten over her, the laughter coming to an abrupt stop.
"Wrap your legs around my waist," he ordered hoarsely. She saw the dangerous gleam in his eyes and quickly did as instructed. He sank deeper making her gasp.
"Will this make it more pleasurable?" She bit her lower lip, wishing she had done that before the naive question slipped out.
He lowered his head and nibbled on her jaw, and she arched her head back exposing her neck. He took the invitation and pressed his lips against her pulse. "Yes, but most importantly it will make it easier on you."
She swallowed hard as the tickle of his breath on her neck aroused her even more. She nodded but her nature wouldn't let that comment go unchallenged.
"I came to a lord's bed, and seduced him to usher me into womanhood. The easier route would have been to seduce the footman. But I do doubt he possesses the skills I'm sure you have—"
He chuckled, cutting her off. "You do not have to placate my ego; I will see this through! If not for your fantasy, for the need you've stirred inside me!"
She buried her hand in his hair and pulled him down until his lips were a hair width away from hers. "Then do not assume that I need coddling. Easier is not a term I'm familiar with—hard is."
She gasped when he pulled back and thrust deep. She was sure his entire length was inside her. His arm moved under her, circling her and pressing her soft breasts against his hard chest. The other held on tightly to her thigh and pushed her trembling leg up.
"Little girl, hold on..."
She'd barely gotten a hold of his broad shoulders before he began rocking hard, deep and fast inside her. And before long she was sailing in the clouds in pleasure she never thought could surpass their first encounter.
*****
Lydia could barely keep her legs together, excusing her limp as a twisted ankle. Every part of her body hurt and she had bruises in places only riding a horse could inflict.
True to his threat, he wasn't gentle the first or the second time. But the third time, he did try keeping his thrusts slow and gentle adorning her with kisses on every inch of her skin, paying attention to her ecstasy like a man in love would. She enjoyed that, and that her screams sounded more like a woman in pleasure and not that of a woman being tortured to death. But she preferred being ravished; there was no pretence of care in it.
He laughed when she demanded that he take her hard and fast, and warned her of the discomfort she would feel in the morning, but she didn't care. Several times he'd had to drown her cries of pleasure with his hungry mouth. And each time he took her, he changed the positions, promising more until exhaustion took over them both.
He cuddled her against his chest which surprised her. She wasn't expecting an adulterous man to be so tender, and she cried at her betrayal against him and his wife, and the fact he would never be hers. He held her tighter, soothing her like he would his babe until she fell asleep, still in his arms. She woke up an hour later, her back pressed against his chest, fitted comfortably in the arc his body created. She hated leaving him, but she had to remind herself that he did not belong to her and she was only in his arms to fulfil a task.
She went to the barn, seeking a hiding place away from Lincoln to take a nap and ease the pressure on her sore body. She slept on the hay in the stable, covering herself with the horse's blanket. She had slept in worse places than this.
She'd barely slept twenty minutes when she felt the lips on hers. She jumped pressing her hands on the assailant's chest and pushing