“My lord,” Summer gasped, drowning in his kisses, “Humphrey, stop, please stop.” She couldn’t stop herself kissing him back, pressing close to him, body yearning into his arms. “Humphrey, slow down.” It wasn’t that she didn’t want him, in the least, but being ravished up against a wall with haste was not her idea of a good time. She wanted the luxury of exploration, to tease and play and experiment.
“Slow down, as stop and wait for you?” he asked, looking at her. “If you wish me to I would, tho I tell you it would be hard… but I would try my best.” He kissed her again, deeply, “or do you mean to take this to a more convenient place?” he murmured. “That is certainly much easier to arrange.” He kissed her, pulling her close once more, holding her tightly pressed against his body. “Anything you want, my love.”
She pulled away from his insistent kisses. “I wish to take my time with you, my lord. Not in haste, but in leisure.” Stretching up to his ear, she murmured, “This is my demand for your long absence. I’ll not be taken like the wenches you tumble in alehouse and hayloft, but as the lady you treasure.” Summer slipped out of his arms deftly, leaving only her fingertips in his. “Do those pretty words mean anything, my lord? I’ll have you prove it so.” Very deliberately, she lowered her eyelashes, looking up at him through them. “Come, are there yet no pillows we might lie on, since you have returned?”
“Oh love, believe me I want to take my sweet time with you as well…” He pulled her close once more, raising her chin with his hand to face him. “I do not take wenches in alehouses pushed against the wall, and I took no one since I met you. I want no other but you.” He placed a light kiss on her lips. “Come, darling Summer.” He held her hand firmly. Leaving the room, the squire still stood there, waiting. “Tell the sirs not to wait for us, we shall catch up if we wish to,” he told him and the squire was gone. He said nothing to her all the way up the stairs but held her hand firm, walking down the corridor as he led her into his chamber.
He opened the door and let her in, closing the door behind them. The house was empty and silent, the loud riders making their way out on the other side. They were in what appeared to be a sitting room, with benches, table and pillows on the floor by the window to lay on, bookshelves and even a harp though Humphrey regarded himself rubbish at playing it and thus never did. The walls were covered by silk tapestries and the windows adorned with rich velvet curtains, as they offered the view of the river. One of the walls had a large two sided door now open to his bedchamber, his bed all made and covered with blankets and pillows. “As you see, pillows I have plenty,” he whispered in her ear, as he placed arms around her waist and pulled her close to himself from behind while she stood looking around. “I have none to share them with unless you share them with me, for I will not share with any other.”
“Mmm, I like this much better indeed.” Summer leaned back into his hold, into the warmth of his body. “It must be so hard for you, to wait for a lady to succumb to the persuasion of your mouth and tongue. Denying yourself even the slightest pleasure but holding out only for her … ” She laughed, low in her throat, and linked her fingers in with his hands around her body, drawing them upward over her stomach and to her breasts.
“What wilt thee, now that my wish is so near to fulfilled, love? Shalt kiss me breathless til I swoon, as did downstairs? Shalt give thyself over to my hands for pleasure?” A half-turn of hips let her reach up to draw light fingertips down his throat, a sly smile curving her lips. “Sweet lord, if thou sought a maid, thine arrow has missed the mark.”