A Love for All Time (54 page)

“But it is not,” he answered. “Still it is a power to be reckoned with, my jewel. The storms upon it can be fierce beyond belief. It has been a major waterway since the beginning of time. The great empire that controlled Istanbul before the Ottomen claimed it, and there are great cities built upon it that date back to ancient times.”

“It looks so beautiful in the moonlight,” she said.

“As do you,” he answered quickly, and catching her to him looked down in her face saying softly, “I want you, Marjallah! It is not simply my need for a woman for since the death of my wives I have not felt that need; but there is something about you, my jewel, that intrigues me, and ensorcells me so that I must have you! How have you captivated me so completely and so quickly? Was it only last night that the sultan gave you to me? It cannot be for surely we have known each other since the beginning of time.”

His words seemed almost like poetry to her, and Aidan’s heart fluttered madly at these romantic utterances. “My lord,” she whispered, “you attribute to me powers that I can never before remember having.”

“You are so fair, Marjallah,” he replied. “I can never again look upon the fullness of the moon without thinking of the fullness of your beauty.”

“I am not beautiful,” she said. “I am big and almost plain.”

“You
are
beautiful, my jewel!” he insisted, “and it is your radiance that reflects upon the moon to light it!” He cupped her oval face in his hands, his thumbs smoothing across her cheekbones. “Your skin is like heavy cream washed with roses. Your stormy eyes and your burnished copper hair ravish me. I am,” he continued, kissing the very tip of her nose, “going to fall in love with you.”

Her eyes widened just slightly at his words, and she again was overcome with that breathless feeling that had assailed her earlier. She swayed, and put out a hand to steady herself. Loosing her face he wrapped his arms tightly about her drawing her hard against him so that he might feel the fullness of her breasts, so that she might feel the urgency of his need for her. Lowering his head he nibbled on her lips sending little shivers down her spine. Slowly her eyes closed, and she gave herself up to his kisses, returning the homage of his lips one for one. For a long time they stood there, their mouths hungrily exploring each other, their bodies pressed against each other.

She liked his kisses, Aidan decided. Although she felt him in complete control of the situation he also allowed her the freedom to express her budding passion. Her palms pressed against the silk of his robe and felt the hardness of his body beneath. Slowly she moved her hands up the smoothness to finally wrap about his neck. This had the effect of wedging her even more tightly against him, and Javid Khan groaned against her mouth breaking off their desperate embrace.

Startled Aidan asked, “Have I displeased you, my lord?”

“
Displeased me?
Nay, my jewel, you have not displeased me. You please me very much in fact. So much that did I not cease kissing you just then I should have next taken you upon the very ground where we now stand. I do not want to do that, Marjallah. You are not a honeyed confection to be greedily gobbled up, and I am not a green boy unable to control his desires. Passion must be shared if it is to be savored to the fullest. Come! You are ready to be loved now. Let us return to my chamber where I may pay my full tribute to your exquisite loveliness.” Taking her by the hand he led her back into his apartments. Once they had regained the salon he commanded her gently, “Remove your garments now, my love.”

Her heart was hammering, and suddenly she felt shy of him again, but when she looked at him his bright blue eyes were warm, and filled with encouragement. Aidan slipped off the little sleeveless bolero, and laying it aside stood to meet his gaze. His eyes were filled with admiration as they swept over her round breasts. They were, he thought, probably the most perfect breasts he had ever seen. Zoe and Ayesha could certainly not match Marjallah’s perfection of form which even without her removing the rest of her garments he could see. With great restraint he forced himself not to touch her.
Not yet.

Undoing her belt Aidan let it drop to the floor, and pushed the full dark blue pantaloons over her hips so that they too slipped down about her feet. Undoing the tight anklebands she stepped from the trousers to stand nude before him, and it was precisely as he had anticipated. She was flawless. There was nothing, he considered as he walked slowly around her, that he would change. Reaching up he removed the ribbons from her hair, and then without a word he picked her up and carried her into his bedchamber to lay her gently upon his couch.

Now he stood before her, and raising the long embroidered robe he wore he drew it over his head, and tossed it aside. Curiously Aidan gazed upon the second naked man she had ever seen in her life, and found that although men like women were basically the same, each had his differences. Where Conn had had a great growth of dark hair covering his arms, his legs, and his chest and torso, Javid Khan’s well-muscled and tanned body was smooth, and devoid of hair. He stood quietly for a long minute giving her the same privilege that he had so recently taken. The time to view him as he had viewed her. He was not as tall as Conn, nor as finely made, but he stood six feet, and was sturdily built. Where Conn had a bush of dark hair to encircle and pillow his manhood, Javid Khan’s groin was as smooth as the rest of his body giving his manhood the appearance of being larger. It thrust straight out from his body, and she was somewhat taken aback to see that at its tip was a fiery knob that Conn had not possessed, but then she realized that he was circumcised which Conn had not been. How strange, she thought, and she almost giggled for it had been Skye who had told her the differences between the two types of manhood, but she had certainly never expected to see such a thing or encounter any other man but her husband.

“Do I please you?” he asked her as he lay down upon the bed next to her.

“You are very handsome, and very different from . . . from Conn,” she said softly.

He reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze, and then raising himself up he looked down into her face.

“You have little experience, I know, but I promise you that I shall be kind to you, my jewel.” Then his lips brushed tenderly over her lips and her chin moving down her slender throat and around to the sensitive little hollow beneath her earlobe that Conn always liked to kiss. For a moment his warm mouth tickled her there, and then slipped downward to trail kisses over her graceful shoulders, and down a long arm. Taking her hand he turned it, and placed a hot kiss in the center of her palm. A hard shudder rocked her for it was as if a streak of lightning had pierced her vitals.

Javid Khan rested upon one elbow now, his head in his hand while his other hand touched her in earnest for the very first time. Tenderly his long fingers traced the shape of her breast following the swell and the curve of her flesh in a manner far more provocative than if he had simply fondled her. Teasingly he lingered about her sensitive nipple, encircling it slowly and in a deliberate manner several times until she squirmed ever so slightly under his ministrations. She could not help but watch him, but when he lowered his head to take her nipple within his mouth her eyes grew suddenly heavy, and closed. Now the hand that had so lately caressed her first breast moved to the second while his mouth greedily loved her nipple. She could feel both her breasts growing tight, and the nipples began to ache with what she knew was a longing for far more than the prince was now giving her.

He transferred his attentions to the second nipple, and when he had contented himself he raised his head to her saying, “Sweetness seems to pour from your beautiful breasts, my jewel. I can never remember a woman’s breasts giving me such incredible pleasure. Tell me that I have given you pleasure, too?”

“Oh, yes!” The sound was breathless, and he smiled well satisfied.

His hand smoothed over her belly, and slipped downward to push between her soft thighs that his fingers might insinuate themselves between the tender folds of sensitive flesh to quest for the sentient little pearl of her womanhood. Finding what he sought he lowered his tawny head, and loved her with his mouth.

Aidan stiffened, and gasped with shock. What was he doing to her? Conn had never done such a thing! “No! No!” she cried even though her body was beginning to melt with sweet rapture.

He raised his head up, and looked at her. “Did your husband not do this?” he asked frankly.

“No! Never!”

“Then he deprived you of great pleasure, Marjallah, and I will not.” The tawny head lowered itself again as his mouth found her once more.

For a moment she was simply stunned. He wasn’t hurting her, yet she wondered about the rightness of what he was doing. Surely it couldn’t be right, and yet . . . ? An ache was beginning to rise in her loins, and she could not help the little sob that slipped through her lips. She could feel his tongue teasing at her flesh, and unexpected heat raced through her veins to overwhelm her. He was making her fly with the wind as happened to her when Conn took her. She hadn’t known that it could happen so strongly without having a man pulse within her, then he was to her dismay stopping, but before she could protest he was swinging over her, and thrusting himself totally within her.

Her arms, one above her head, the other at her side, raised themselves, and clasped him to her. Her rounded nails dug half-moons into the hard flesh of his shoulders, and she groaned aloud at his sudden entry. The walls of her hidden passage were being stretched to their capacity, and she realized that he had only been half-roused when he had disrobed himself. He was enormous, and she could actually feel his bigness within the tightness of her body.

He had almost shouted with exultation at his possession of her. She lay pinioned between his two strong arms,
his,
now totally his! Slowly he withdrew his great shaft almost to its tip, and then plunged back within her. She cried out, and the sound was one of utter passion. He repeated the motion over and over again, slowly delving within her honeyed flesh, pushing as deep as he could possibly go only to withdraw slowly and as tantalizingly. Soon, however, he began to tire of the game as his own passion began to boil, and so his movements became quicker and quicker as he moved back and forth within her tight passage.

Aidan was sobbing now with unconcealed pleasure as Javid Khan made tender love to her. Her body, passionate in its nature as Conn had quickly discovered, could not help but respond to the handsome prince; and yet her mind struggled against what she believed was a betrayal of everything her love for Conn O’Malley had been. She was enjoying his lovemaking, and yet how could she? She had given him her body without a struggle because she had believed she could not possibly enjoy the attentions of any man but her husband. She had had no real choice but to yield herself to him, but she had never expected to savor the prince’s attentions, and yet she was. How could it be? she tried to question herself, but the rapture was much too great for her to do naught but obey its commands, and so she gave herself over to it, sliding helplessly into the maelstrom of white-hot desire that he had woven so tightly about them.

Aidan remembered nothing more until she awoke sometime later. Beside her Javid Khan slept, if not sated, at least contented for the time being. What had happened? She had obviously lost consciousness, and for a moment Aidan was filled with admiration for her lover. Gingerly she sat up, and turned to look at him. His strong features were only slightly softened in sleep, and she felt a sudden tenderness for him. He had been kind where perhaps another would not have been. She had seen the look that Sultan Murad had given her before he had lifted the prince with her. It had been a look so full of lust that it had taken all her willpower not to shiver openly. The sultan, she knew, would not have been kind. He would have ravished her without a thought or care for her body or her emotions. She now knew how very fortunate she was to have been given to Javid Khan.

Reaching out she gently caressed his face, and was startled when, eyes still closed, his voice said, “Oh, Moon of my Delight, I am fast learning to adore you!” And then his blue eyes opened, and he smiled up at her with love.

A
night in Aidan’s arms had told Javid Khan a great deal about the woman called Marjallah. He had never been a man to hide his feelings, nor had he been slow at making a decision. That single night had told him that although he could never be totally relieved of the pain of his household’s slaughter, at least Allah had given him another woman he might love. She was as painfully vulnerable as he himself was, and it was that weakness that endeared her to him. They had each suffered a tragic loss, and now together they would build a new life.

To Jinji’s delight he gifted her with exquisite jewelry that he traveled to Istanbul to personally purchase for her. Emeralds for constancy, he told her smiling down into her eyes, and when she smiled back the eunuch saw she was less guarded, and knew that his lady was also beginning to love again even if she didn’t know it yet. He bought her gossamer fabrics of pale mauve, springtime lilac, apple green, tawny orange, and a carved silver belt studded with moonstones and lapis lazuli from Persia. There were a full dozen slaves (the market was simply flooded with Portuguese captives from the battle of Alcazarquivir) to tend to the gardens, and whose purchase Javid Khan smilingly explained by saying,