Let Me Hold You

4- His Patience

"Can I... can I just... let me hold you for a minute." 

Riftan hated how he could feel her fear as she trembled in his arms. Hebaron had said to take it slowly. The Duke could force Riftan to marry Maximillian, he could blackmail him and send him to the frontlines of a campaign that would probably  kill him, but the Duke wasn't there to tell Riftan to hurry. And so Riftan figured that if he could have this one thing, it would be to take his time with Maximillian. 

Her felt her nod. Riftan pulled his trousers off and helped the rest of her dress fall to the floor. He laid back on the bed with Maximillian against his chest and he stroked her back. Her skin was tacky with sweat and murmured against her curly hair as the tremors in her body began to cease. Riftan tried to ignore his throbbing member pressed against her hip— he needed to be patient. 

He didn't know if it would be the last time that they would have together. There was so much he wanted to tell her, so much he wanted to ask. So what if the priest and Duke would be outside of the door to see if there was virgin blood on the bed in the morning. In that candlelit room, in those chambers, Riftan and Maximillian were the only two people who existed. In his desperation, Riftan wondered if his wizard Ruth knew of a spell for making time stand still, or for going back in time. 

He would go back to the moment from not too long ago when he accidentally saw her in the grove reading the poem. Riftan imagined that this time around he'd chase after her and apologize for spying. 

"I don't care about the stutter, I'd pay good money to just hear you say my name," he imagined himself telling her. 

He'd introduce himself and ask if she remembered him. He'd ask her what her favorite poem was. He'd weave her a crown of white flowers and place it on her head. They'd be wed in the meadow of flowers by the trees were he first saw her all those years ago. It would be a real wedding. No nobles. No priests. No leering Duke. The sky above that would be their witness. They'd make love under the trees and caress each other's spent bodies in the afterglow as the would sun set. They'd fall asleep in each other's arms. 

But she wasn't in his imagination anymore. Maximillian was there in his arms. Riftan carefully wove his fingers into her mane and kissed her again. Soft and slow at first so that her scent could linger, but it only fanned the ardor in his body and he devoured her lips and stuck his tongue in her mouth. It slid over her soft tongue that tasted like wine. He kissed her shoulders and let has hands roam to her waist. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and Riftan felt how they both gasped for air. 

He carefully turned and rolled their bodies over so that he and Maximillian could be laying side by side. His calloused hands continued to stroke her body as Riftan kissed her lips again. She timidly kissed back as her nervous breathing warmed his face. One of his hands roamed down to her hip, near her petals. His fingertips painted slow circles on her pale skin. He pulled away from her lips for a second, he felt himself blush as he looked over the curve of her breasts, her waist and her legs. Maximillian's shoulders were sprinkled with small freckles just like her nose and cheeks were.  

"Can I touch you?"

Her face flushed and it reminded Riftan of a peach in the height of summer. Maximillian bit her lip and carefully nodded. His fingertips trailed her mellow skin to her secret place and tried to gently rub against her sensitive nub. She gasped and flinched. 

"Fuck... I'm sorry... did that hurt?" 

Riftan stopped moving his fingers. 

"N-no... it doesn't h-hurt..." 

He nervously leaned his forehead against hers. He felt is groin throb. She was so close. He tried to concentrate on the rhythm of them breathing alongside each other so that his lust would stay in check. He carefully trailed his fingers back, this time he pressed slower and gently made a circle with his fingertips. Maximillian moaned against his lips. 

"I have to do this, or it'll hurt later." 

Riftan felt her petals become wet and he poured kisses all over her face, neck, shoulders and chest as they lay next to each other. He wanted to devour her. To remember her taste, her scent. Come tomorrow he would have to prepare to be sent off to a mission he wasn't even sure he'd come back from. So if it was the last time he'd ever hold Maximillian, ever taste her...he needed to have all of her. 

He pulled Maximillian closer to him by her waist and deepened their kiss. He couldn't wait much longer. He rolled them over and carefully balanced his weight over his forearms and knees as he hovered over Maximillian's slim body. Her soft warm breasts pressed against his chest as he carefully positioned his lower body between her legs. Riftan kissed her again as he slowly pushed himself into her warm entrance. He moaned into her mouth and pushed deeper. Maximillian clutched his forearms and shivered as Riftan pressed the rest of his length inside of her. 

"W-wait... it hurts!"

She whimpered against his lips. Riftan slowed down. He kissed her temples and forehead and stopped moving. His cock throbbed inside her— it was taking all of his strength not to move. 

"Oh god... take a deep breathe and try to relax." 

He felt her shaking breath in against his chest. Maximillian's waist shook and she wriggled, trying to accommodate his weight on top of her. 

"Please... don't move too much right now..." 

He buried his face against the mane of curly red hair and moaned as he began to move again. He tried to slow down so that it wouldn't hurt her so bad. All the lewd songs, all the inappropriate conversations he'd overheard didn't prepare him for how warm she was, for how good it felt to be connected to her in this way. His body melted into hers over and over again. Riftan's movements began to sped up before he could control himself as he kissed Maximillian over and over again. 

He didn't know his body could feel anything other than the gaping want of loneliness or soreness from missions as a mercenary or knight. He didn't know that two bodies together could fill in that want, could feel in that need for connection. Riftan reached his peak and poured his desires into Maximillian.