Page 65 of Knight School Chronicles Box Set

A malia paced the extremely large bedchamber she’d been given. As a lady’s maid without a lady, there was no protocol for her since typically she would be housed in an antechamber. Even so, she had not expected a chamber such as this.

After the evening meal, at which there was no sign of Empress Matilda, Amalia had found a hot bath waiting for her.

The saddlebag that contained her few items of clothing had been waiting as well, along with a flagon of wine.

Enough time had passed that she began to wonder if Roland had changed his mind.

He appeared eager to accept Amalia’s offer for him to visit her chamber, yet the bath had been taken away, the wine drunk, and still. ..no Roland.

A knock at her door so startled her, Amalia bumped her foot on the trunk at the foot of her bed. Hobbling to the door, she opened it.

“You should ask who knocks first,” Roland said, coming into her chamber.

Amalia hopped to the bed and sat atop it. “I bumped my toe,” she said, lifting the hem of her shift and preparing to remove her slipper. “On the way to the door.”

Roland appeared almost instantly in front of her. He knelt, held her foot gently, and asked, “This one?”

“Aye.”

Removing the slipper for her, Roland began to massage her toe. The sight of this massive warrior, a man who could fell another easily with one strike of his sword, beneath her this way...did something to her. It was like when they’d kissed, but somehow more intense.

“Better?”

Amalia nodded.

In response, Roland’s hand moved from her foot to her calf. Never taking his eyes from her, his hand moved upward to her thigh, taking the material of her shift with him. “You mentioned,” he said, standing, Roland’s fingers leaving a trail of quivering flesh in his wake. “A kiss.”

Leaning down, he kissed the spot where his hand had been moments before. Amalia’s hands braced her body from behind as she watched. His hand slid upward once again.

“I wonder, Amalia.” His tone was thick with desire. “If this is the sort of kiss you imagined?” He kissed her again, this time on her inner thigh. With his other hand, Roland removed Amalia’s second slipper.

Without warning, he stood fully, grabbed her under each arm, and scooted Amalia farther onto the bed. Then, resuming his ministrations, he lifted her shift even more. Another kiss. And a fourth. Each one higher and higher.

“Roland,” she said, finding her voice. “What are you doing?”

“Kissing you,” he said, as if it was evident. Which, she supposed, it was. But this was not the kind of kiss she envisioned.

Before she could respond, he clasped the material of her shift and pushed it upward, toward her waist. Amalia gasped; she wore nothing beneath it. Completely exposed to him, Amalia watched Roland lick his lower lip as he stared at her.

“Exquisite.” His head raised, Roland’s eyes once again met hers. “I am going to kiss you there, Amalia.”

She attempted to close her legs. “Certainly not. I have never . . . no one has ever . . . ”

“Precisely. I will be your first, and after this eve, there’ll be no question in your mind about our courtship. I would leave you wanting me as much as I want you, Amalia.”

Surely, he would not . . .

Except, he did. Roland’s head lowered, giving her time to object. She would have, the whole thing was not at all what she knew or expected, but something stopped her. Curiosity? The feeling of his lips on her thighs?

Roland used his thumbs to part her, the feel of his fingers on the most intimate part of her was nearly too much to bear.

And then he kissed her there. Amalia’s hips bucked at the feather-light touch.

Her fingers curled around the coverlet, grasping onto it as he licked her.

His tongue swirled and then plunged into her, Amalia calling out his name.

He looked up. Smiled.

The devil. That’s who he appeared as just now, with a smile that told her they were just getting started.

Lowering his head once again, Roland continued to alternatively kiss and lick her, his movements increasing in both speed and urgency.

A strange feeling in her lower stomach moved lower still.

It was nothing like she’d ever experienced.

It built and built, Amalia no longer having any control over her own body.

Her legs began to quiver. Letting go of the coverlet, she grasped Roland’s hair, unwilling for him to stop as the feeling grew and grew.

“Aye, Roland. Please,” she murmured over and over, unknowing what she begged for.

“Roland,” she said again as his tongue continued its magic until she could no longer hold on to any vestiges of control.

Letting go, Amalia cried his name once more as her buttocks tightened.

Closing her eyes, Amalia saw a sky of stars beneath her lids as wave after wave of pleasure ran from between her legs through her entire body.

It continued, as did he, for a few more blissful moments, until the waves began to ebb.

He stopped just as Amalia opened her eyes.

It was unlike any other smile he’d given her. This one was as uninhibited as she’d just been with her reaction to that most delightful of experiences.

“I did not know.”

She sat up. Roland licked his lips again, as if enjoying the taste of her that lingered there.

“Have you ever experienced release, Amalia?”

“I . . . do not believe so.”

That seemed to please him. “That is unexpected.” Without warning, he pulled her ankles so that Amalia sat on the edge of the bed. Cupping both cheeks, he looked into her eyes. “I am going to bring you pleasure each and every time we are alone together.”

“Can I do the same to you?”

He groaned. “You’ve already brought me pleasure this eve, Amalia.”

“But not”—she held her own hands over his—“in the same way as you.”

“In time,” he said. “Tonight is for kisses only.”

With that, he kissed her then, this time on the lips. It continued for what felt like a short time but also an eternity. When Roland did pull away, Amalia immediately felt the loss.

“So this is courting, is it?”

“I would not know. ’Tis my first time.”

“Hmm. Well, Gareth courted Evelina, and I do not believe he did that to her.”

“Did you like it?”

“Very much.”

“Good. I’m pleased you invited me here this eve.”

“I am pleased too,” she said, the understatement not lost on either of them.

“’Tis only the start, Amalia.”

“I look forward to what is next.”

“Do you?” he asked, cheekily. “Then perhaps I should show you.”