A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 15

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Vadya stared at Tashka, sitting on her grey horse Jewel. Her hand was still clutched on his sleeve, her face was softened out, staring at the shaking branches the bear had brushed past. Around their horses' hooves, ten hounds crept and crawled, whining with puzzlement.

They had chosen to follow an off-shoot of the pack, riding together at the front, so far ahead that the others did not see them take a diversion through the trees. They had not said or looked anything to each other about it. They simply rode after the hounds as if they had only one mind, fixed on riding side by side through the trees and the falling leaves, fixed on the animal they were hunting down.

Tashka had looked fiercely happy, cantering after the baying pack on the scent. They had found the bear backed against a bank of earth, growling and clawing out at the ring of hounds around it. Suddenly she put a strong hand on Vadya's arm and cried: "Call them off!" so urgently that he lowered his spear and did it without question.

Tashka let go of Vadya's arm, slid off Jewel and sat down under a tree, putting her head in her hands. Vadya caught Jewel's reins and watched her, waiting to see if she would become fierce and hard again and insist they ride off after fresh game.

Tashka lifted her head, her slanted blue eyes had a soft warm glow in them. "He blessed me," she said. "He said: 'Angels bless, el Maien'." Her face twitched. Vadya got off Loyalty and looped the two horses' reins over a branch. He knelt down by Tashka, took her in his arms and held her close.

She pressed her face into his neck and sniffed at the lightly scented oil Batren used for his hair. Her lean tanned fingers threaded through his curling hair. Vadya took her head in his hands and looked deep into her eyes. She smiled at him, letting her head lie heavy in his hands. She said softly: "Vadya, how beautiful you are."

Vadya pulled her head close to him, bent to kiss her, her long lashes fluttered shut as she lifted her mouth to his. He had missed the wet caress of her rose-petal mouth; his lips lingered in their kiss. He lifted his mouth from hers and began to kiss her closed eyes.

"I am beautiful," he repeated in a trembling voice as he kissed the delicate skin of her eyelids. "My darling! I cannot say how lovely you are."

He sat down beside her on the ground under the tree, she snuggled her head into his shoulder. There was no one else to consider, they could hold each other and caress each other's faces and whisper a silly quarrel about who was the most beautiful -- and kiss.

As they were riding back, it began to rain in long hard sweeping curtains. Tashka laughed and tipped her face to feel the kiss of the rain on it but Vadya frowned. They were a long way from the farmhouse and not wearing cloaks.

"We have a cabin near here," he said. "Let us shelter there until the rain passes."

Tashka reined up Jewel to stand by Loyalty and turned her face down from the rain to look into his eyes. Her eyes were very clear and such a soft dark blue. He felt as if she could read his dreams in his eyes, even the ones he had not yet dreamt. She smiled and said: "It is good."

The simple log cabin was in a clearing. It had one window, a cupboard of dried food, a heap of blankets in one corner and the luxury of a wooden floor. There was a bothy on the edge of the clearing where a forester lived.

They lit a big fire in the fireplace. Vadya made some feeble excuse and went out to the porch to get out of his wet clothes. Tashka did not even look at him as he went. She was carelessly pulling the buttons of her jacket undone, so carelessly that Vadya felt how silly he was to be shy of his body with his junior officer who had seen him swimming and bathing. Even so he spent as long as he dared outside, checking that the dogs and horses were comfortably settled in a lean-to full of straw.

They wrapped themselves in the blankets and sat in front of the fire, drinking brandy and remembering funny things that had happened in the troop as if they were just a Commander and a Captain. They had been sitting quietly for a while, staring into the flickering heat of the fire, when Tashka said: "It is still raining and there is food in the cupboard. Why do we not stay the night here?"

Vadya looked quickly up at her, suddenly conscious that she was a woman who had slung her blanket up over her chest and one shoulder rather than just wrap it around her hips. She was staring meditatively into the fire, her cheeks ruddy with heat and her rose-petal mouth curved in a sleepy smile. Her hair was cropped short but the poise of her head had a feminine grace to it.

"The dogs have to be fed," he said.

"Maybe the forester will feed them," she suggested. "Shall I go and ask?"

"I will go," he said, getting up. He awkwardly pulled his riding boots on, trying to keep his blanket tucked in around his lean waist. She turned her head to watch him and her face was suddenly lit up by her wickedest grin. Vadya blushed.

When he knocked on the door of the bothy, the forester looked at him with wild light-coloured eyes and said: "I have fed them. And the horses," in a hesitant rusty voice as if he had almost forgotten how to speak. "Will you take some stew?"

'What shall I tell Tashka?' Vadya thought gloomily as he walked back in the beating rods of rain that still streamed down. The rough clay bowl of stew he carried with a plate balanced on top of it was hot in his hands. 'If I tell her the truth we will stay. If I lie about it we can go back to the farmhouse but it will be dark before we get there and we will be soaked through.'

When he came in she had got out some biscuits and some red wine she had found. She was cross-legged in front of the fire with her face so soft and warm in the firelight that his heart turned over.

"Are you cold?" she enquired in a gentle voice. "I have found some dry clothes." She fetched them from the cupboard: big shirts, too big even for him, that his father must have left there.

They ate the food together out of the one bowl, scooping the stew up with biscuits and their fingers. They drank the wine, passing the bottle to each other in a casual disregard for the occasional dreg that came up as they got towards the bottom of the bottle. They lay in front of the fire and argued about a new manoeuvre Tashka had thought up.

"What a butterfly-witted idea!" Vadya snorted. "Why, the enemy would break straight through the centre of your line."

"They would not!" she declared. "They would be distracted by the wings."

"They would!"

"Would not!"

Tashka sat up and pushed Vadya. He grinned at her and pushed her back. She jumped at him and grabbed the blanket he had wrapped around his hips. He squealed and tugged back on it, laughing up at her and grabbing at her hands if he got the chance to do so. Her strong tanned hands came darting at the fold of his blanket round his slim hips, she grinned and he laughed. He suddenly managed to catch both her hands, gave them a sharp tug and Tashka fell into his arms and pressed her mouth to his.

Vadya caught her close to him, drawing kisses from her lips into his eager mouth. Her hands were pressing his shoulders, her teeth bit guardedly at his upper lip. Vadya rolled her over onto her back and pulled at her shirt with trembling fingers till he could rub his hands over her ribs to her small breasts.

Tashka let out a gasp, half a laugh. Her nipples were hardening already under the rough gentle warmth of his hands. Her hands clutched on his back. He was kissing her throat, his fingers still eagerly exploring the extraordinary round rise of her breasts. He lifted his head from her throat, tugged at her shirt again to lift it away and stared at her muscular white body in his arms, the beautiful small round breasts she had, the flat stomach going down to the bush of dark hair between her legs. He bent his head to one of her breasts and began to mouth at it, licking the hardening nipple and suckling at her soft flesh.

"Sweet Heaven!" Tashka gasped. Her fingers tucked into the curls of his hair, she pressed his head hard into her breast. She reached down and began pulling on his shirt, he let her pull it off, lifting his head away from her body for her to do so. He could not think, his head was dizzy with passion. The firelight was warm on his brown skin. Tashka saw it ruddy on his bare ribs and drew in her breath, sharply, then pressed close to him, kissing the scars on his ribs and pushing her hand slowly, slowly across his waist and down to his belly. Her fingers brushed over his penis. Vadya hissed and squirmed suddenly. He pressed her down with his weight. She put one light firm hand on the back of his neck. He turned his head to one side.

"Tashka," he whispered hoarsely, staring away from her at the darkening window. "Wait. Wait a minute!"

He had seen her risk her life in the hazard. He could not bear to refuse her favour if she were offering it with her whole heart. But if she hesitated, if she were the least bit unsure, he would stop. Somehow he would find the strength to drag his trembling body from hers.

Tashka was not interested in giving him even the chance to hesitate, she was licking at his ear. She chewed gently on his earlobe, trailed her warm wet tongue round the curves of his ear and into his ear. Vadya's mouth opened in a smile. He took a firmer hold on her waist and brought his head round to stare into her eyes.

Tashka smiled softly into his eyes. She pushed gently at his shoulder so she could reach beyond him for her breeches lying out to dry by the fire.

He was an el Gaiel van H'las and had made a commitment to a chaste respect for the honour of his betrothed, but Vadya was not so foolish as not to carry some protection in case his will was not sufficient to keep him from her body. She knew, however, that he only carried the one condom. She had carried three or four ever since she was nearly caught out with the sweetheart Captain from Thiel. Ever since she had admitted to a passion for the body of el Gaiel van H'las, she had carried larger sized ones.

Her heart started beating faster only to look at that big cock, thick and rigid with desire for her. A vein ran coiling down the length of his shaft, standing out in a curving line in the brown skin as if to lure your tongue to run caressingly down it. Already there was a glistening drop of pre-cum at the tip of his cock.

She looked back into his nervous desperately eager brown eyes and grinned the wicked smile that he had so often seen lifted from the campfire at night when he went round to check the night-sentry duty. He would hear the tail-end of some outrageous story and cough artificially so they knew he was within earshot. That wicked glinting grin would flash up at him and he would frown sternly because his cock would be filling out -- back then he would pretend it was just because of the story he had overheard.

She stooped and licked the drop of pre-cum from the slit in his penis' end before taking the condom to unroll it gently down the length of his cock. She brushed his balls, tight now in the darker skin, in a tickling caress. He moaned and twitched with lust.

Tashka took hold of his shoulders and knelt over his body. He reached up to put his shaky big hands about her back and she turned in his hands, she rolled as he rolled, under him, submitting to his hands as she had never submitted on the wrestling mats, smiling into his eyes as she went over with her hands still lightly clasped on his shoulders.

He drew in a shuddering breath. Her hands came stroking slowly down from his shoulders -- a long firm caress down towards his buttocks.

He breathed shakily again. He felt he was trembling on the brink of laughter or tears, he did not know which would break from him. Tashka's strong fingers clenched on his buttocks, his face smoothed out, he reached forward and pressed his mouth to hers. She parted her lips for his kiss, his tongue came caressing in her mouth, her head was going back, her hips were opening out to his legs. His fingers were stroking her hips, stroking in towards the hair curling around her sex. Tashka was catching her breath in excited sounds, her arms clasped tighter around his shoulders. His fingers explored the tender soft flesh of her clitoris, labia and vulva. She started to make little moans of excitement as she felt the big gentle exploring fingers poking at her sex. She was more than ready for him, the muscles of her cunt wet and loose. He lifted himself to her vulva and pressed that big cock deep into her with a single sliding thrust and a long shuddering gasp of passion.

"Maien!" he said.

She gave an ecstatic cry of pleasure and raised her deep dark blue eyes to his gentle brown eyes. She gripped her arms more firmly around his body, her moans calling him on into her. Vadya began to draw and to press himself in and out of her cunt, Tashka lifted herself up to him, making soft breathy noises. He was so big, he filled her so completely and he had hit her sweet spot already. She was gone in his arms, urgently opening her legs to the exultant joy of his cock going deep and coming back, going deep and hitting her on her sweet spot to send the tingling pleasure quivering up through her whole body.

Vadya was so aware of her body against him, his ears full of the sexy noises she was making. He gripped his fingers on her buttocks, pulling her legs wider open, pressing himself deep into her warm soft wet cunt with her hips opening out and her cries and her body writhing and thrusting up to him. Passion was singing along his veins and in his muscles. He was enthralled, enslaved by the splendour of the warm muscular body he pressed his body to and pressed himself hard down into. Love had become a physical sensation, rolling through him, through her. He was no longer sure what was the boundary of skin between them. Was it her feeling, were those noises him, was that great shout of rich dark passion her?

When it was over, they lay quiet and still in each other's arms. Vadya's head was tucked in Tashka's shoulder. Tashka stared up at the roof without seeing it then had to stoop her head and push Vadya's aside to look in his eyes. His face was full of tenderness, his eyes dark and soft. He smiled at her, stroking the scar on her arm. Reluctantly he lifted his heavy frame off her and took the condom from his softening penis to put it to one side. He pulled the blankets closer around them.

Tashka rolled softly in his arms, her face turned to him full of wonder, her eyes never moving from his. She put a hand to his cheek, reached and touched her mouth to his, too tired even to put her lips together to kiss. They fell asleep with their heads on his shirt.

When they woke it was the middle of the night and still raining hard outside. The fire had died to a red and gold glow, hissing when raindrops fell down the chimney into it. Vadya made them a bed of the rest of the blankets. When he turned round, Tashka had taken her shirt off and was standing pale and tall in front of the fireplace, the firelight casting red and gold flickers over her shapely body.

"I hurt," she said in a small voice. He crossed to her and knelt and kissed the inside of her thigh. "No, stop it," she said, moving to knock the fire back into flame.

She lay down on the blankets on her face and Vadya trailed his fingers over her scarred back. Tashka turned over. She had no scars on her front, no one had ever got near enough to her. He put his head on her shoulder, cupping one of her breasts in his hand and rubbing her nipple with his thumb. It filled him with a strange glorious wonder that she had beautiful small breasts.

"Ooh no," Tashka moaned, wriggling in his arms. His fingering her nipple made her juices start flowing again, stinging her sore vulva. "I hurt."

"Is it bad?" he asked.

"No-o," she grumbled.

"D-did it hurt when we made love?" he looked anxiously into her face.

"Angels, no," she said with a warm smile.

He smiled back to her and lay down turned away from her.

"Even if I look at you I will want you," he said.

"What, so soon?" her voice had a self-satisfied purr in it. She came snuggling up to his back, he laughed and she felt the laughter quivering out in his shoulders and back.

"Yes," he said. "I have desired you for so long! Do you hurt bad?"

"No, I said not," she answered. "It is only ... you are quite big, you know." She considered telling him that even Arianna had noticed his natural advantages but she decided it would only make him conceited.

He gave an embarrassed laugh and said, "am I?" in surprise, turning to lie facing her.

"What," she said scornfully. "You have never measured yours against any other's while swimming in the river."

He sniggered shyly and said, "no I do not customarily inspect my junior officers' equipment while swimming," and she laughed and said, "well, you are bigger than anyone I have known." He was secretly pleased to be better endowed than that scum el V'lair van Athagine. "It has been a long time since I lay with anyone," she added. "I suppose you become unaccustomed. I feel like I did the first time, a bit."

He propped himself up on his elbow to look at her, aware of the tinge of sadness in her voice. She was staring away from him, her mouth pouted up.

"You said you liked it with el V'lair," he reminded her, putting a gentle hand out to caress her short dark hair. She turned her head and looked into his eyes.

"Yes, I liked it," she said.

"Did he hurt you?" Vadya asked softly.

She did not want to give him any more cause to think he should offer el V'lair a glove; el V'lair was a wicked blade in the duel. With his dishonourable ways, he needed to be. But it was too good a story not to finally share with someone.

"Not as much as I hurt him," she said with an evil snigger.

"What do you mean?" he asked in surprise, caressing her cropped short hair.

"Oh well," she said cautiously. "el V'lair likes to play, you know." He looked at her in puzzled inquiry, she sighed and said, "he is always after some new experience to tickle his jaded fancy," but he was still looking at her to say, What do you mean?

"I gave el V'lair strict discipline," Tashka said with another husky evil snigger. Vadya's eyes bulged and the snigger spurted from the corner of her mouth. "He had tried it with some fancy ladies of his acquaintance and he said it got him going. He wanted to try it with a proper officer. They never beat him as a junior officer, of course. They spoilt him in the Athagine army, they were that pleased he wanted to go into a field troop instead of First Athagine. So he asked me to give him a b-b-beating," she started rolling around with laughter. Vadya was still pop-eyed with astonishment that anyone would imagine being beaten like a trooper who had committed some grave fault was a piece of sexual fun. "H-h-he sent out to his t-t-troop for a proper baton! Angels! What must they have thought! Well, only the truth I suppose," she became incoherent with laughter.

Vadya smiled doubtfully, saying, "and so you gave him the beating?"

Through her laughter she said, "what, a man who had taken my virgin favour while I was out to sea on his brandy? Oh yes. I gave him a bloody good beating! stupid fool, to imagine proper army discipline would get him on the go. After only three blows he cried on the Angel of Mercy! what a dis-disappointment!" She wriggled with laughter and then said, "ooh," with a grimace, "I hurt." He looked guiltily at her. She smiled and reached to take his big hand and press it to her head again, running his fingers over her short hair, down to her rose-petal mouth which opened to suck softly on one of them.