The Chevalier (27 page)

“What do you want?” she folded her arms over her breasts.

“Were you really going to stab Emily?” That was the first thing that came to mind. He saw that his bluntness made her flinch.

“I don’t know what I would have done. I wasn’t myself at all. In fact, so much has happened since my mother’s death that I hardly know who or what I am anymore. I feel very troubled and confused. I act without thinking.” She sat down heavily on the edge of the bed.

He came and sat down beside her, taking her hands in his own. He looked down at her fingers, running his callused digits over the slender, tapered ones that she presented. His hands looked darkly tanned next to the whiteness of her skin. They were sensitive, artistic fingers, delicate and lovely, he thought, just like Madeline. He began kissing each finger in turn, sucking each tip.

“Oh, don’t do that!” she cried out, trying to pull her hands free of his.

“Why not? I am simply paying homage to the beauty of these fingers.”

“You cloud my reason.”

Their eyes met, vivid blue against moonbeam gray.

“I sent Emily away,” he said. “There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“There’s everything to concern me.”

“Then I must reassure you the only way I know how.”

With that, he drew her tightly into his arms. He began kissing her lips as his hands caressed her body and his fingertips made swirling motions around her nipples. He continued to kiss her, drinking deeply of her nectar, his hands touching everywhere, moving until they found that special place where massaging brought so much pleasure to her.

He was not wrong; she trembled and moaned in his arms, her body writhing, her back arching. His mouth moved downward to her breasts. He wanted to give her great pleasure, to let her know that she need not worry; he was very much attracted to her.

Their lovemaking took on an urgency and they were both swept away into a world totally defined by their expressions of passion. There were no thoughts, only their bodies, only their physical beings and the ecstasy that they provided for each other. Her hands moved over his body as well, her legs tightening around his muscular thighs with a wild abandon. When he finally entered her, she undulated with a frantic excitement that drove him mad with delight.

After they had taken their pleasure of each other, Gareth lay in bed beside Madeline stroking the long, black curtain of her hair which had come completely undone during their lovemaking. She kissed his cheek, his sweaty, brow and hugged him tightly. She glowed radiantly from her exertion.

“Please, tell me, Gareth, tell me at last!”

He stared at her in surprise. What was she talking about? Tell her what? How he felt? Hadn’t he shown her? He did not like those sort of words; he felt uncomfortable with them. If he let her dictate to him now, then he would always be at a disadvantage.

“There’s nothing to say. It’s deeds that matter surely, not men’s words. People prove what they feel by their actions.”

“That’s not entirely so,” she argued. “An action is interpreted many ways by many different people. Aren’t people always arguing about how to regard certain events in history? If actions were really clear-cut, then there would be no need to analyze them, would there? And then everyone would agree as to what they meant, wouldn’t they?”

He began to laugh deeply. “So you’ll not merely accept me as I am? You think too much, love; that’s clearly your problem.”

He began dressing again rather quickly. “Come downstairs and take some nourishment. You had nothing at all for tea.”

“I didn’t think you were aware of me at all.”

He smiled teasingly. “Pouting definitely does not become you. Shall I dress you myself? I warn you, I’m a bit awkward with those tiny buttons.”

She tossed a pillow at him with a scowl, and he laughed deeply as he went toward the door. He was feeling better now and knew that she was as well. She simply needed the reassurance of his lovemaking, he told himself, then everything would be all right between them.

“Please don’t leave yet. Hold me,” she said, “just for a moment more.”

He could hardly refuse her imploring eyes. He came back to her. She pressed her fingers against his and placed her head against his shoulder. “We haven’t had an easy time of it, have we? It isn’t all your fault.”

“That is nice to know,” he said, smiling again.

“Perhaps I have expected too much. You’ve shared your body with me but never your heart. I’ve been petty and jealous because I was unsure of your affections.” She rubbed her cheek against his hand like a kitten.

“What do you want of me, Madeline? I’m a blunt, practical man, not a courtier who’ll practice pretty speeches on you.”

“I understand that, and I won’t ask you again to say words you don’t feel to me. I dreamt once that you were my chevalier, my knight in shining armor. It was a childish dream, an infatuation. I’ve been selfish. I won’t be small-minded again. I’m not a child anymore. I’m a woman. And I love you. There, I’ve finally admitted it.” Her eyes welled with fresh tears.

“I love you very, very much. I’ve been too proud, not wishing to tell you how much I cared because it hurt me to think you did not love me in the same way. Now I realize how foolish I have been. I love you Gareth, more than anyone or anything in this world. I love you just the way you are. And even if you can never love me in the same way, I will never stop loving you or desiring you.”

He felt his heart swell. No one had ever offered him such unconditional devotion, given him so much trust. His throat was so choked he could hardly speak. “I have been disillusioned more than once in my life. I don’t deny that it has soured me, left me distrustful and unsure. Perhaps I was never the innocent, yet I have come to believe in you and in us, in our love together. If you need the words then I will say them. I love you, Madeline. There is no other woman for me and has not been since the moment I laid eyes upon you.”

He brought her tightly to him now, kissing her with all the unleashed passion and hunger in his being. He felt a burning in his loins so intense that it caused him pain. Only she could move him so. Never had he experienced such want, such wild desire and need for a woman as he did with Madeline.

She looked up and smiled at him, a smile endowed with passionate feeling, her lips red as berries, her cheeks vivid roses. He pushed his fingers through her ebon tresses that fell like waves of midnight silk cascading down her back. He took the sweet smile from her sensuous, full lips with another kiss that deepened as it continued.

Madeline looked at her husband and saw the love in his eyes. No, he would never have to say the words to her again if he chose not to do so. She didn’t really care. It no longer mattered. She simply knew how he felt.

She pulled away for just a breathless moment. “I shall always love you, and I know that the life we share and make together will be wonderful.”

He brought his body down against hers and then there were no more words and no more need for them. The only sounds in the room were the mingling of their breath as they slowly made love.

 
Jacqueline Seewald

Multiple-award winning author Jacqueline Seewald has taught creative, expository and technical writing at the university level as well as high school and middle school English. She also worked as an academic librarian and an educational media specialist/school librarian. Fourteen of her books of fiction have been published. Her short stories, poems, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in hundreds of publications and anthologies. She particularly loves reading and writing romance fiction.

You can read more about Jacqueline at the following:

https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.seewald

Read more about Jacqueline at the Steam eReads blog:

http://steamereads.com.au/2013/08/meet-author-jacqueline-seewald/

 
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