Lord Tristram’s Love Match: Her Stern Husband Book Three Page 3

  Tristram was indeed there, and by his wet, darkened hair, and by the tub which still lay in the chamber, she understood he’d already taken his bath. He was now dressed in a fresh undyed undertunic, and one of his squires was already taking away the clothes his lord had worn today.

  “I bid the servants to empty the tub and bring fresh warm water for you,” Tristram said, not looking at her.

  “Oh, so now you’re to command me even when I should have a bath?” Judith couldn’t help saying.

  He still didn’t look at her when he spoke again, in a voice which was hard and dispassionate, and Judith recalled that, until today, she’d never thought Tristram’s beautiful voice could ever sound hard.

  “The water will soothe your sore bottom.”

  Judith felt like strangling him.

  “I thank you for your tender care. Would it that you had shown the same tender care when you were attending to the same bottom earlier in the bailey!”

  “That was indeed tender care,” Tristram retorted with a cocked eyebrow. “The tender care of a husband for his miscreant wife.”

  He’d always had a way with words, the fiend, Judith mused to herself, but she decided to take his advice. A warm bath was a gift which should never be refused, and perchance he was right, and it might soothe her reddened skin.

  Yet she recalled he was in the chamber, and he had no plan of leaving it. She also distinctly recalled he’d told her he now expected her to share his bed. And she had said aye to the bargain which he’d offered. Still, after the servants fulfilled their duties and made their retreat, Judith lingered in front of the tub. A serving girl had untied the laces at the back of her bliaut, and had helped her remove both her cors and her long girone. She was now standing only in her underdress in front of the bathtub, knowing that once she removed it, she would be naked in a chamber where she was now alone with her husband. Perchance she should strive to bathe in this garment, as she knew some of the ladies of her acquaintance usually did.

  Tristram must have perceived her hesitation. He tossed out at her in a mocking voice, “I’ve never known water to bite anyone. But by the way you’re now staring at it, I’m certain you believe it can bite you.”

  She didn’t dignify his mocking comment with an answer, but decided she had sealed her own fate when she’d agreed to stay on as Tristram de Brunne’s wife. There was no point in playing the shrinking, modest maiden now, so she decided not to care for modesty and to remove the shift. After she’d done so, she cast a furtive glance in Tristram’s direction to see if he was looking upon her, but Tristram seemed busy with the task of sorting out the bundle of his belongings which one of his squires had brought, and of settling them in one of the chests in her chamber. Judith told herself she should feel relieved he wasn’t looking upon her, but after a while she began to feel simply irked he was so pointedly ignoring her.

  In all fairness though, Judith soon discovered the fiend had had the right of it. The warm water, which was tepid and not hot, was like a balm upon her scorched bottom, and after she was done bathing and drying herself, and slipped into a fur-lined robe, she started feeling better than she had the whole day. Once the servants took the tub away, she and Tristram were once again left alone in the bedchamber, and Judith became even more keenly aware of what he’d told her about their marriage.

  She waited for a while for him to look upon her, but as he didn’t, she sighed and decided to break the silence. “What now?” she asked in a weary voice.

  Tristram at last deigned to glance upon her. He said nothing though, just staring at her with those dark eyes of his. He strode to the bed and sat himself on it, but he made no other gesture.

  “You said you now expect me to share your bed,” Judith said bluntly, knowing there was no return from what she’d agreed to. “I vowed to do so. And here I am.”

  Still, Tristram said nothing and he did not make a single move to come to where she was.

  “Fine,” Judith said in a relieved voice. “Then I shall sleep if you want none of me.”

  It was perchance best he meant to spurn her. She did feel weary. And, in spite of the warm bath, her bottom still felt quite sore from his spanking.

  “So,” Tristram said softly. “I see you’re still foresworn.”

  Judith instantly bristled at the word.

  “I mean to keep my word! As for betraying you before, I…”

  He halted her with a gesture.

  “I do not care to hear your prattle. You promised to lie with me as my wife. Or have you changed your mind?”

  Deep heat clung to Judith’s cheeks.

  “I haven’t!” she vowed, squaring her shoulders.

  Silence fell between them, yet Tristram seemed in no hurry to stride to her and do what he professed he wanted.

  “Just claim me then! I will not fight you!” Judith flung at him, now at the end of her tether.

  Tristram smiled mockingly and did not make a single gesture, simply cocking a dark eyebrow at her. And Judith suppressed a deep sigh within herself. She now knew how things stood. They stood exactly as her husband wanted them. He would not woo her. And he would not ravish her. This meant she had only one course left if she wanted to have this marriage stand.

  She strode to him, pausing in front of him uncertainly. He didn’t move. It was plain he wished to humiliate her, by leaving her no choice but to woo him.

  “How should I do this?” she asked, attempting to make her voice calm and dispassionate. “Will you not help me in that at least?”

  “Why should I help you? Were you of any help when I attempted to woo you?” he countered pointedly.

  Judith’s cheeks blushed fiercely, because she recalled only too well the last time they’d shared this chamber and this bed. Tristram had courted her with tantalizing kisses and caresses and she’d been sinfully tempted to lie with him, her lawful husband, but at the last moment she’d rejected him. And, chivalrously, he hadn’t pressed on, although she understood it must have been hard for him to restrain himself.

  “Fine,” she muttered between gritted teeth. “I suppose I should undress you first.”

  She attempted to reach for his long undertunic, but he pushed her hand away.

  “No need of it. This tunic stays on. It’s just my cock you need to tend to.”

  Judith blushed to the roots of her hair. The Tristram she’d known would never have used coarse words like this. It was plain she’d not known the true Tristram. Her mother had then been right in her advice. And Judith herself had been right to want to put an end to their marriage. Yet now she had agreed to have it stand.

  “If you care for my advice in this, I think it best you should undress,” Tristram further taunted her, with the same mocking smile on his sinfully beautiful lips.

  “Fine, then I will,” Judith found herself retorting. “No longer am I the shy, tongue-tied and simple girl I was when we first wed!”

  “So then you must have already perceived I am no longer the soft, foolish man I was,” Tristram said in return, looking at her levelly.

  Judith decided to pay him no mind. She angrily peeled off her robe, and went to stand in front of her husband fully naked.

  “There. I have complied with your command. What next?” she asked in a vexed voice, but found herself blushing more fiercely than before as Tristram’s dark eyes roamed unashamedly over the curves of her body.

  She struggled to still her thumping heart and withstand his perusal, and she bit hard into her lip at his next words.

  “Your breasts and hips are fuller than last time we met,” he told her and his voice no longer sounded harsh or mocking.

  Judith knew herself not to be beautiful, and now she assumed she might appear to him even less so than she’d been years ago. And he might wish to humiliate her by disparaging her appearance. Yet the way he’d spoken the words, and his dark, liquid eyes which were now staring upon her seemed to hold lust rather than contempt.

  “You are to touch yourself for me,�
� Tristram now commanded, but his voice was full of heat and it didn’t sound like a harsh command at all.

  His voice had always been compelling, and Judith found herself unwittingly reaching to touch the peaks of her breasts, which, she found, had already stirred under the cool air of the room.

  “Like so?” she muttered questioningly, because, in truth, she’d never touched herself like this even when she was alone in her chamber, and now she was doing it in front of the man she’d always lusted after.

  “Aye,” Tristram acquiesced watching with avid eyes as Judith’s palms brushed over her nipples in slow circles.

  And soon Judith began to feel a sweet ache not only in her nipples, but also in her quim. It was a stab of piercing desire which made her half-close her eyes and bite even deeper into her plump lower lip. Tristram, the fiend, seemed to sense what it was that she now fiercely craved to do.

  “Now touch your quim, wife. Stroke the secret spot of it until it begins to blossom.”

  How did he already know of that hidden part of her body? Judith had never imagined a man might know of the secret place within a woman’s quim. It was a place she’d often touched when she’d thought of him in her lonely bed, feeling shameful and sinful each time after she’d done so, but unable to stop herself from doing it. And now as she obeyed Tristram’s command, she found it did not feel at all shameful to do it in front of him.

  “Good,” Tristram said softly after a long while, when Judith understood she was already gushing wet and burning to touch him.

  He simply pulled at his long undertunic, to release a long cock which stood perfectly erect in front of her.

  “Ah,” Judith said, biting even harder into her bottom lip. “This… How do I…”

  Blushing fiercely, she drew close to him and stroked the length of him rather artlessly. She’d heard men liked it when a woman touched their rod. But her mother had kept her mostly sheltered from servants’ talk, so she didn’t know much more than this. Still, she loved the feel of him as she began to stroke him – all soft velvety skin sheathing hard muscle. When she looked upon Tristram’s face, she found his dark eyes even darker than before. His own teeth were digging into his bottom lip and his breathing was laboured. He most certainly liked this. And Judith suppressed a triumphant smile as she decided to become even bolder than she’d been. She did what she had always pictured in her mind she would do. She straddled him and she simply rubbed herself against him, allowing him to feel the hot wetness of her quim as she did so.

  Yet, lightning fast, Tristram now switched positions. Judith soon found herself lying on her back as he pinned her arms above her head with one of his battle-calloused hands. His other hand came between them, to stroke her quim with clever fingers. And it was not long before Judith’s nether parts began to feel even wetter. Now she was gushing and she felt deeply ashamed he was for certain able to see her sheer want of him.

  Tristram’s beautifully sculpted lips twisted in a cruel smile.

  “So wet, wife. Wet for my thrust,” he said softly.

  Judith squirmed in both pleasure and pain beneath his body. She frantically wished him to thrust inside her. And her well spanked, red behind could hardly bear the touch of the bed beneath her. So it was both in pain and anticipated pleasure that she now raised her hips to him, but the fiend wouldn’t do the deed. Instead he perused her with his dark, brooding eyes.

  “Tell me this, wife mine,” he said in a silky voice. “How come that when we last shared the bed you flinched from me and now you’re so wet and eager for my cock?”

  He rubbed himself against her, letting his hard cock brush against her wetness, and the heat in both her sex and her sore bottom became maddening.

  “I…” Judith muttered, with her cheeks turning crimson at the words he’d uttered, although he’d stated the plain truth.

  “I’ll have no more deceit from you. So tell me how this strange thing came to be. Why are you so wet and eager now when years before you were fearful of my touch?”

  “I…”

  Judith knew there was now no return from it. She had resolved to be truthful to him. And it would only make things worse if she attempted to deceive him as she had years ago.

  “I lied,” she muttered, as pain as sharp as a splinter began to pierce her heart.

  It was a truth she’d vainly tried to push away from her mind in this past year. It was a pain which had lingered inside her and which she’d attempted to ignore. She’d always wanted Tristram fiercely, in spite of everything and in spite of her mother’s dire warnings.

  “Lied?” Tristram echoed in that voice of his, which was just as beautiful as the rest of him.

  “Lied. Yes. I lied to you. I never was uneager,” Judith muttered in sheer misery.

  “Lying should never go unpunished,” Tristram said and his voice held both heat and menace in it. “Don’t you think?”

  Then he did something which drove Judith even more frantic than before. He licked the side of her neck, trailing his hot breath upon her skin as he did so, and stroking the scorched lips of her quim with clever fingers. She nearly swooned with longing, and muttered in incoherent acquiescence, “Y-yes…”

  “Good. And what do you think the punishment for lying should be, wife?” he asked, as his free hand had now begun to rub the sweet spot between her legs which had already swollen with deep desire.

  “Ah...” Judith had a hard time speaking coherently.

  He stopped his ministrations.

  “So?” he asked cruelly.

  “S-spank me?” Judith made herself say, although her poor scorched bottom tingled fiercely just upon uttering the words.

  “A worthy thought,” Tristram acquiesced, as he brought back his hand to tend to her quim.

  The pleasure returned, fierce, yet the sting in her bottom reminded her how soundly Tristram had chastened her. Did he mean to spank her now, even when her bottom was still blazing from his earlier spanking? As if in echo of her thoughts, Tristram said softly, “Never fear, I shall chasten you. But later. Now I have other things upon my mind.”

  He thrust one finger inside her, gently probing her wet folds.

  “A maiden, still?” he asked after a while, and his voice was incredulous.

  Judith’s eyebrows rose in sheer surprise. Surely, he knew he was the only man she’d wed, and she’d not let him bed her.

  Tristram’s finger was soon replaced with his long cock which simply slid inside her, causing her to wince in pain. The pain was fleeting though, and she soon found herself becoming accustomed to his hard length stretching her wet passage.

  “A maiden now no longer,” Tristram muttered, as he began to move inside her.

  At first he slid in and out of her slowly and gently, as if wanting her to get used to him. Then Judith came to welcome his thrusts and wanted more of them. She raised her hips to him eagerly, spurred not only by the soreness in her bottom, but by the fierce ache in her sex. She wanted so much more of him, but she noted in deep surprise, Tristram’s hard cock had now withdrawn from her body. He sat up with a firm, determined look in his dark eyes.

  “Wife, I now want you to beg me for it,” he said in a voice which was both hard and hot.

  Judith suppressed a curse on her lips. She’d never felt this way. The mixture of pain and pleasure was simply maddening. And now he was set on torturing her.

  “Beg me to thrust inside you, wife,” Tristram commanded.

  He was obviously more master of himself than she was, Judith thought, fiercely hating both him and herself for what she uttered next.

  “Please, husband,” she muttered, despising the pleading in her voice.

  “Please, what?” her tormentor echoed softly, coming to rub his stiff cock against her wet, inflamed sex.

  “Please, come inside me,” Judith begged.

  He cursed under his breath, as he grabbed her hips and plunged himself inside her, deeper and fiercer than before. The world seemed to melt around Judith, and there was onl
y him and the hard length of his cock. She lost all sense of time, and it seemed to her it was her wedding night, that night long ago when she’d become bound to Tristram. At the time, she’d been incredulous a man like Tristram would ever want to bind himself to a woman like her. And now he was inside her – closer to her than any being in this world had ever been. He was and for a moment she came to believe he was entirely hers, but she understood it was not so and it could never be so.

  Judith came back to herself only when she felt Tristram’s hot, sticky seed between her legs. He collapsed next to her, and she sat up, no longer caring for the pain in her spanked bottom as she did so. There was an ache now throbbing between her legs, but Judith understood this was because he’d taken her maidenhead tonight. The ache was bearable, and far less uncomfortable than the sting in her behind.

  “You should clean yourself,” Tristram said coldly, now propping himself on one elbow, and raking his hand through his tousled fair hair.

  Judith did as he’d told her, soon making use of the cloth and bowl of fresh water which lay on the table in the chamber. She was aware that as she did so, Tristram’s dark eyes roamed upon her form, resting upon her bottom, which must be still striped with red from his belt. She strived to ignore his bold, masterful gaze, reasoning she’d have to brace herself for her new life with a man who now despised her.

  “Come here,” Tristram ordered her, patting the bed. She chafed under the command, but she obeyed him because there was no choice for her any longer.

  He made her lie on her belly, and Judith thought she’d die of mortification when he began to slide his palm against her well chastened behind.

  “Still red, and warm to the touch,” he said in his silky, melodious voice. “A job well done, wife, don’t you think?” he added mockingly.

  Judith stifled a curse on her lips. Strangely, the touch of his rough, warrior’s hand on her bottom didn’t bring pain, but, rather, a peculiar, delicious ache. When she tarried to answer his mocking question, he gave her bottom a swat, and she bit her lip, stunned by the way the faint sting of his touch mingled with hot pleasure. He’d given her the belt today. Hard. And now she should resent both his touch and his talk of punishment.