Page 90 of Knight School Chronicles Box Set

Chapter

A lden had no intention, coming here tonight, to say such a thing.

However, when Elara looked at Alden as if he were the next course, not hiding her desire despite being a woman who was very skilled at masking her emotions, everything changed.

Remembering clearly their conversation the last time they had spoken, he also remembered something his father once told him.

When you’re working with metal, there comes a moment when it’s at just the right temperature—pliable, ready to be shaped.

Hesitate too long, and it cools, becomes unyielding, and you miss your chance.

Life is the same. There’s a time to act, a moment when everything aligns just right, and if you let fear or doubt hold you back, that moment may pass you by.

Following this advice, Alden had asked a man well above his station, a renowned swordsman, to train him. A man who became Alden’s mentor even though he had no claim to his time or training.

It had led him here, to Castle Blackwood.

A step closer to his dream of becoming a knight. And yet, Alden was clearly flawed too. The very chivalric code he would live by would prevent him from holding out his hand, as he did now.

Elara looked at it.

Then up at him.

Do not allow fear or doubt hold you back, son.

He had both in equal measure as the moment stretched on. She would deny him, but Alden could not regret his question, mostly because . . . he already knew the answer. But would Elara admit as much to him?

She pushed her chair back.

Stood.

Took his hand.

Alden pulled his instructor to him and grasped the back of her head with both hands, weaving his fingers through her hair. Groaning at the silkiness of it, at her scent, at the look she gave him as Alden’s head descended toward hers, it hit him.

He was about to kiss her.

Lady Elara Wycliff. His instructor. The woman he’d thought of like this, in his arms, since the moment they met.

Nay, he was not going to simply kiss her.

She is mine, from this moment on.

Their lips crashed together, and though he did not know how much experience she had in kissing, Alden was determined to consume her anyway. His tongue ran across the crease of her lips, demanding entry.

Elara opened for him, and he took advantage. Holding her head still, his lips moved over hers, his tongue demanding more than she’d likely been prepared to give him. If she had never kissed this way before, Elara was a quick learner.

When she touched her tongue to his, Alden did not even attempt to stop the sound that escaped, a groan filled with such longing that there was no mistaking how he felt about this kiss.

Her hands lay on his shoulders, more tentative than he’d expected from Elara.

Breaking the kiss momentarily, he looked down, into her eyes. “You’ve yet to answer my question,” he said, aware she’d done so by taking his hand.

But Alden wanted more.

Needed more.

“Possessed. ’Tis a strong word.”

“Aye. Lest there be no doubt, I mean to completely captivate you. I want you to think of me when you wake, and before you sleep, as I do you. This is not simply a kiss, Elara.”

“What is it, then?”

Was it wise to push aside the consequences of them being discovered? Nay. But he did so anyway.

“A claiming.”

Her nose flared.

This was no ordinary woman, nor one who wished to be controlled. Neither would Alden wish to do so, but he did want Elara to understand that she possessed him just as completely.

“If we are caught?—”

“We cannot be.”

“By its very definition, the word implies very little control over such a consequence.”

“There is a risk, aye. But I will take every precaution when coming to you. Like last eve, if I deem it unsafe, I will not come.”

His hands relaxed, moved to cup her cheeks. Alden’s thumbs rubbed circles there, the smoothness of her face, those full lips still glistening with his kiss . . .

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever beheld, Elara.

I’ve dreaded your lessons from the very first time we met, knowing I would be forced to sit before you, look at you, listen to your voice, and watch as each and every recruit stared up at you the same way as me .

. . ’tis been a type of torture I’ve never known. ”

“I’ve never wished to be claimed by anyone before . . . until now.”

Alden kissed her again. He memorized her lips, the feel of her tongue tentatively, and then more urgently, pressing against his. Knowing he’d not forget this kiss for the rest of his days, he took in every scent and sensation so he could recreate it over and over again.

He would recreate it as she instructed him. As he trained. As he went into battle.

This kiss, this moment, would never leave him.

It was only as she pressed up against him, Alden remembering what she wore, that he stepped away once again.

“If we continue down this path . . .” He looked her up and down.

Elara raised her chin. “Finish your thought, Alden.”

She was a saucy minx, this woman.

He loved it.

“I will ruin your lovely bed gown, remembering how little you have beneath it. My claim will be so much more than a kiss. It would require us to marry.”

Elara’s smile, though not easily won for a woman so serious, was all the more precious because of it. “You assume I am a maiden.”

He cared little either way, but indeed had made that assumption.

“I am,” she added.

He wanted to stay. Alden wanted to kiss her again, remove that gown, and make Elara moan as he explored every inch of her body. He was between giving in to yet more of his desires and not pushing Elara even more than he had already.

“And I am also very much aware that there are acts between a man and woman that do not result in a loss of a woman’s maidenhood.”

Sometimes he forgot Elara was raised at court. She was not some village girl in Shirsten St. Mary. “There are indeed.” He closed the distance between them once again. “Elara, have you participated in any such . . . acts?”

Her lips parted, as if to speak.

He lifted her chin, mesmerized by those intelligent eyes of hers.

“Besides kissing? Nay. But have known many women who have.”

“You are curious?” he guessed.

“Who would not be?”

“Who indeed?” he mused. “Why have you not appeased your curiosity before? Surely there have been many men who offered to do so?”

“There have. But I’ve not been compelled to appease my curiosity before.”

“Before?” he prompted, knowing the answer but, perversely, wanting to hear her say it.

“Before you.”

Goddammit, he was powerless in her presence. Nothing else mattered.

Nothing.

He reached down and grabbed the hem of her thin dressing gown. She gasped as his other hand reached between them.

“Alden,” she said, breathless, as he cupped her.

Touching the most intimate part of her, Alden continued to stare into her eyes.

Watching, maybe for her to stop him? Or for her to find pleasure for the first time.

Either way, those eyes compelled him even more than his desire to see the bare skin of her exposed leg.

His hand buried beneath layers of gathered fabric, he dared even more.

Parting her with his fingers, he gently moved one inside her.

Elara’s mouth was open, her eyes wide. Her hands, back on his shoulders, gripped his linen shirt.

A second finger, and she gasped again.

And then, he moved them. “You are so very ready for me. If I were to possess you to the level I desired,” he said, moving his fingers in and out, back and forth, his palm pressing into her, “it would not be my fingers bringing you to release this eve.”

“Alden,” she said again. “Your words. Your hand.”

“Scandalous, is it not?”

She nodded, Elara’s breathing becoming more and more erratic.

“I remember something else you said during a lesson.” Since Elara did not seem to be inclined to speak, Alden continued. “That strength sometimes manifests in strange ways. Sometimes, you said, the strongest thing a person can do is to trust and give up control. Do you remember that?”

“Aye.” She leaned into his hand as he circled, Alden’s thumb pressing into her as his fingers moved. She was close. “I did not mean . . .”

He smiled. “You did not mean this? You are one of the strongest people I know, Elara, and so I wondered, that day, if you would be willing to give up control. And now I know.”

She gasped.

“I know now,” he said, moving his fingers just the right way. “You will give it to me.”

At his words, Elara tossed back her head and cried out.

She pulsed around his fingers, her release coming quickly.

He pressed into her and held there, allowing her to completely lose herself in the feeling.

She murmured his name over and over again, the sound one he wished to hear every day of his life from this moment on.

Dear lord, this woman . . .

She finally opened her eyes, and in response, Alden reluctantly pulled his fingers from her as Elara fixed her gown.

Alden’s gaze went toward the tub. “Did you think of me when you were in there earlier?”

She swallowed. “I did.”

“Good. I want you to think of me, of this, every time you’re in there. I want you to touch yourself, like I just did, imagining your fingers are mine. Will you do that for me, Elara?”

“Alden, you are not at all what I expected.”

“Perhaps we are both not what we seem to others. Answer my question,” he pressed.

“I am unused to taking orders.”

“Neither would I dare give them to you. Outside the bedchamber,” he clarified. “Is that agreeable to you?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He reached for her, pulling Elara into him once more. “Will you do that for me?” he asked again.

“I will.”

A bargain had been struck. Alden sealed it with one final kiss.