A Tale of Fur and Flesh (10 page)

Why had she been brought here?  Was somebody coming
for her?  Or perhaps this was her dungeon.  For Allerleirauh, prison was a
softer place.  Yes, that seemed plausible.  The king favoured her after all,
and so had her imprisoned her in a comfortable bedchamber rather than a dank
cell.  Lally’s heart fluttered with excitement.  The king loved her!  Of course
he did!

Acclimatizing herself to her cell, Lally sauntered to
the window.  The room overlooked mountains to her left, and the vast forest
straight ahead. If she were to walk through them, she would find herself in her
father’s kingdom once again.  Lally shuddered.  She would rather live in a
dungeon than that castle to the south.

Chapter Nine

A metal click alerted Allerleirauh to the key turning
in her chamber door.  It opened slowly to reveal the good king.  Lally couldn’t
conceal her delight at his arrival. She ran to him with a smile on her lips and
in her heart.  “Oh, my dearest Aelwyn!” she cried, jumping into his arms and
wrapping her legs around his waist.  “I knew you would not lock me away in a
dungeon.”

When the king’s strong hands clutched Lally’s body,
she realized how many months it had been since she last touched a man.  The
smell of him, of frankincense and greatness, sent a wave of warmth along her
front.  “I apologize for the charade downstairs,” he began.  “You know all
about inter-kingdom politics.  The Ambassador insisted we imprison his
assailant.  As far as he knows, we have.” 

“I knew it!” Allerleirauh replied, planting kiss
after kiss against King Aelwyn’s soft cheeks.  “I knew you could not imprison
me, even if I have done wrong.  From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I
knew you would be my saviour.” 

As she gazed into the warm pools of his eyes,  a
tender affinity overtook her.  Aelwyn set her down on the bed.  “You said you
were a Northerner,” the king began.  “I can’t help wondering why, then, you
speak with a Southern accent.”

Lally swallowed hard, chuckling nervously.  “Southern
accent?  I…”  She chuckled again, tossing her hair behind her shoulders in
hopes of drawing the king’s attention down to her cleavage.  Against the white
of her skin, her brilliant dress sparkled like diamonds.

For a brief moment, the king appeared distracted.  He
recovered too soon.  “Yes.  Your speech is pointed and refined.”

How to explain her formal diction?  “I was schooled
by a Southern tutor.” 
Excellent excuse!
  Allerleirauh slid closer to
King Aelwyn on the bed, placing a tempting hand on his thigh.  How badly she
desired to kiss his plump pink lips!

“I see,” he replied with a sly grin.  “Well, your
tutor must have told you a great deal about Princess Lally of the South.  Is
that why you went to the extreme of smacking a foreign dignitary in defence of
her honour?”

“No, no, no.  I know nothing of this Princess Lally,”
Allerleirauh replied without reflection.  Why, then, had she punched the
Ambassador?  “I was offended in a general sense by that horrid man’s
assertion.  Perhaps I ought not assault your guests, King Aelwyn, but he made
my blood boil.”  Lally could not bear to repeat the words, or even reflect upon
them.  The very thought made her ill.

“I understand,” said the king, placing an arm around
Allerleirauh’s bare shoulders.  The heat emanating from his body drew her
close.  She felt at home in his arms.  Before now, Lally’s only desire in
relation to men was dominance over them.  What she felt for the king was so
very different.  This was love, it had to be.  What else could cause a person’s
stomach to quake, mind to reel, and heart to tremble all at once?

“When I first heard the rumour about Princess Lally’s
troubles, I felt the same way,” King Aelwyn continued.  “Outraged, angered,
protective of the young woman.  In fact, when I first received intelligence
suggesting King Galyn wanted to wed his own daughter, I didn’t believe it could
be true.  But my most reliable sources in the South were all telling me the
same thing. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief any longer.  That’s when I sent
troops to the South to take control of the Kingdom.  Galyn fled to his
chambers, ordering his councillor, Offal, out of prison to take the reigns. 
Offal conceded on condition the king remained incarcerated within his private
room where he couldn’t harm anyone but himself.  Since Princess Lally’s
whereabouts remain unknown, it’s possible she might return home.  If she does,
she’ll be safe.”

A gush of warmth flooded Lally’s breast as her sides
trembled with eager affection.  Aelwyn was not aware he had met Princess Lally,
and still he cared enough to save her from her wretched lot.  What a perfect
man!  When Aelwyn gazed down at Allerleirauh nestled against his strong chest,
she saw herself melting into a puddle of desire on the marble floor.  She had
kissed him one time before, but that seemed different.  Lally was always the
kisser, the seductress, the temptress.  She wanted King Aelwyn to kissed
her.

His warm gaze shone over her.  Aelwyn leaned down
until his soft, full lips met hers.  The heat of his body consumed Allerleirauh
like fire.  Their tongues coiled in slow, serpentine motion.  It had been so
long, so very long, since she had…
since she had bathed! 

Springing up and
away from Aelwyn, Allerleirauh cried, “You did not tell me I am rank!”

“What?” chuckled King Aelwyn.  He rose from the bed
and came to her.  Setting his hands on her shoulders, he breathed in the scent
of her neck.  Her knees buckled.  “To me, your aroma is earthy and pure.  I
derive little pleasure from the false scents of perfume.  Your natural cologne
doesn’t deny your animal side.”

Entranced by Aelwyn’s velvet voice, Allerleirauh
nearly forgot to be embarrassed.  “I must bathe,” she whispered, though she did
not want to leave his grasp.

“I must watch,” the king replied, his breath hot
against her ear.

Chapter Ten

A hot bath was
prepared for the king while Allerleirauh hid behind the bed curtains. She sat
very quietly and listened.  She recognized the voice chattering out there. It
was Liam’s, directing the king’s servants to roll a wooden bathing tub before
the fire.  A series of footfalls sounded against the marble floors as they
heaved.  Water splashed into the tub until the wet heat of the room turned to a
tropical fog.  The humid air smelled of rosemary and peppermint.

When the last of his servants left the room, King
Aelwyn drew back the bed curtain.  His nakedness was hid under a robe velvety
as the king’s deep voice.  “I thought you might be more comfortable undressing
if I did so first,” Aelwyn explained, his smiling mouth gleaming with white
teeth.  Hers must seem yellow and offensive…and yet, he had kissed her without
complaint.

“I am so wretchedly foul,” Allerleirauh despaired.

“Don’t say that,” the king persuaded her.  “There’s
nothing foul about you.  I only ordered up the bath so you could feel
completely at ease.  There’s nothing like the rejuvenating aromas of mint and
rosemary.  This bath will be as peaceful as mother’s womb.”

Mother
.  That word plucked at Lally’s heartstrings.  It was
mother’s dress as brilliant as starlight that allowed Allerleirauh to find this
place, this moment, and now she fumbled with the back buttons to remove it. 
Her fingers slipped.  They sabotaged each attempt. 

“Let me help you,” Aelwyn offered, his voice soothing
as warm milk.

Lally turned her back to the king and folded her
golden hair over her shoulder as he deftly unbuttoned her dress.  Sparkling
like diamonds, it fell to the floor.

“Thank you,” she whispered, turning to face him.  All
she wore were her black boots, which Aelwyn knelt to remove.  The putrid aroma
of hard-working feet filled the air, even overwhelming the rosemary and mint of
the bathwater.  Allerleirauh’s throat clenched with embarrassment, but the king
made no mention of it.  He only moved nearer to her, his nose hovering by the
gossamer hair below her navel.  Inching closer, he pressed his lips against her
pulsing mound.

Allerleirauh backed away.  What had transpired since
her last bath?  She had taken a skunk, a bear, a wolf, a beaver, and she
remembered not what else, inside her cunt.  How could she allow this beautiful
man, this love of her heart, into the same unwashed pit?

“My apologies,” offered the king.  “I ought to have
asked first.”

He took her reluctance for rejection.  Lally ached
for the dear man.  “I must bathe first.”  Lally ascended small wooden stairs
and balanced on the edge of the high wooden tub.  “You shall be mine and I
shall be yours, but I must first wash away the unpleasantness of my past.”

“Let me help you,” he said.

 “This I must do on my own,” she sighed, slipping
into the warm bath.  The water cleansed her.  She submerged her whole self down
into it.  The scent of peppermint eased unrest, and rosemary prompted
rejuvenation.  Underwater, she could smell nothing, see nothing but the light
above, feel nothing but the surrounding water, taste nothing but the herbs
saturating her bathwater, hear nothing but her own heart beating.  Lally tried
to stay at the bottom of the tub, but her body’s effervescence propelled her
upwards.  The mysterious force drew her up to firelight and new life, until she
ran out of breath and sprang from the water.

Her first sight was Aelwyn, a naked vision standing
before her.  Her first word was his name, her first step towards him.  Sopping
golden hair dripped against Allerleirauh’s shoulders as her breast floated on
the surface of the water.

“May I enter your bath now?” asked the naked king,
his eyes and penis both pointing helplessly at Allerleirauh’s coasting breasts.

Lally hesitated.  “I am not yet clean and already the
water is filthy.”

“I can wash your hands and feet with soap and crushed
walnut shells, and your lovely face and tender parts with fine soap from
abroad.”

The idea of those powerful hands, slick with soap,
touching her skin was too tempting to resist.  When she stood at full height in
the tub, her breasts hit the cool air and her nipples hardened
instantaneously.  Allerleirauh could hardly blame the king for staring at her
chest when her eyes were fixed on his straining cock.  “If all this dirt cannot
dissuade you, neither shall I,” she told him.

Her smile grew as King Aelwyn ascended the wooden
stairs, cloth in one hand and soaps in the other.  Half swimming, half walking,
she went to him, pressing her palms to his cheeks.  They must have been
clean-shaven in the morning.  Now they sprouted the slightest prickles of a beard.

Taking her hands in his, Aelwyn tsk’ed playfully at
the dirt under her fingernails.  “Answer me this, Allerleirauh,” he began,
scrubbing her fingers with a rough soap.  “How did a such a fair maiden ever
get her hands so dirty?”

Sliding her arms around Aelwyn’s broad shoulders,
Lally teased, “Who calls me a maiden?”

Lally waited for a look of surprise to appear on the
king’s face, but he only smirked.  “I’ll have to scrub you until your
maidenhood returns,” he replied.  Before she knew what was happening, Aelwyn
was at the bottom of the basin, scrubbing her left foot.  The shards of walnut
shell in the king’s special soap tickled her sole.  After coming up for air, he
sank underwater and grabbed hold of Lally’s right ankle.  In a fit of ticklish
laughter, she grabbed the side of the tub to steady herself until the king
emerged.  “Your feet are now perfectly clean,” he said, with beads of water
glimmering over his dark chest.  “What part of this magnificent body should I
wash next?”

Taking the fine soap and cloth from the basin stairs,
Allerleirauh rubbed the two together until a rich lather consumed the fabric. 
“My face.”

Their fingers brushed as Aelwyn took the cloth from
Lally’s hand.  Like a magnet, her form was attracted to his: her hand to his
hand, her body to his body, her self to his self.  With soft strokes, Aelwyn
washed Lally’s forehead, her cheeks, her nose and chin.  Lally splashed her
face with water.

Tossing her head to the side, Allerleirauh offered
her slender neck to the king. “Clean here.”  Alewyn slid his hand through her
golden locks to steady her as he scrubbed the soot built up behind her ears. 
She stole the cloth away from him, hoping he hadn’t noticed how black it had
become.  Lifting her breasts from the water, she tempted, “These orbs require
special attention.  You must use your hands to clean them.”

Lally spun herself around, pressing her back against
Aelwyn’s broad chest.  His stiff penis pressed like a tree branch against her
bottom.  Slathering his hands with soap bubbles, she guided them around the
periphery of her proud breasts.  How long had it been since she’d looked at her
body?  The soap on her chest turned grey, and she quickly splashed the bubbles
away.

“Start again,” she bid.

Aelwyn did as she requested, running his thumbs over
Allerleirauh’s breasts.  His cock seemed to harden along with her nipples.  She
had to touch it. Sliding a hand up the king’s muscular thigh as he squeezed her
soapy breasts, Lally found his eager cock.  She wanted to feel his
rock-hardness deep inside her body.