Aristocrat | Âœ“ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

     The Lord got better over the course of a week. He started sitting up by himself, and soon he was walking about the castle and going for walks with Troy like he used to.

     With his recovery came his duty to start preparing for the campaign he was supposed to hold up north. The castle that was once lonely except for a few humans was soon buzzing with young men in the afternoons. They came to offer up themselves as soldiers, and some came in to drop their supplies with Lord Evenus in preparation.

     The stables became busy with the influx of horses and donkeys. Sometimes I would watch as young men tended to their animals as I took Bessa for a walk or a ride around the Castle’s manor.

     I tried not to let it get to me. I practiced riding, and Lord Evenus showed me how to hold a gun. He also read with me in the common room a lot. It all felt like he could sense my anxiety around me leaving and wanted to give me comfort. Nevertheless, the days went by, and soon it was a day before Lord Evenus and his crew of one hundred men had to march up north.

     “How does it look?” Lord Evenus asked, making me look up at him. He was doing a small turn around in his armor.

     “I’m not sure,” I muttered, sitting up in his armchair. I was in his bed-chamber, helping him do last-minute checks so that he didn’t forget anything. “I’ve never seen armor up close before,” I added, watching him stare at me with a raised brow.

     Like most things in Barcombe, the armor was dark—pitch black without a tint of color. I wasn’t a fan of the way the armor bulked around his stomach and shoulders, but they had to be that way to provide space between their bodies and any weapon that might pierce through.

     “The more so learn about you, the more I wonder if you were born a boy,” Lord Evenus said, looking away from me to adjust his belt. I smiled at that, knowing that my upbringing was strange. Most boys learned to hunt and fight, but I had been sickly and had spent most of my days beside my mother, helping her when I could.

     “Speaking of which,” the Lord started, catching my attention. “Are you going to go visit home when I’m away?” He asked, taking off his armor and setting the sheets of metal aside before strolling over to his bed.

     “Well?” he asked, throwing on his top before moving his fingers to button up his shirt. I blinked, scratching my neck before shrugging my shoulders. I had no idea. I hadn’t made any plans at all. When my family had been contacted there hadn’t been an indication that I would have any holidays. “Manfred you can’t just stare at me.” My head snapped up, and my eyes widened when I noticed I had spaced out again.

     “I’m sorry…” I trailed, watching as Lord Evenus sat down at the end of his bed. “I never thought of going home, so it’s a hard question to answer,” I admitted, and watched as Lord Evenus’ gaze narrowed at me.

     “Don’t you want to visit home?” he asked, and I stared down at my lap. I was wearing breeches and a loose top today. The clothes were part of the set that the Count had sent to me on Lord Evenus’ request.

     “I do,” I said after a while of thinking of the Lord’s question. Sometimes I thought of my parents and my siblings, but I had pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind since I didn’t think I would get the opportunity to see them again until my service at the Barcombe castle was over. “I miss my mother,” I mouthed under my breath, looking up to see the Lord staring at me with knowing eyes.

     “Then I’ll prepare for your departure after I’m gone. Marie will arrange things for you,” he said, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt before smiling at me. I smiled back as a wave of excitement filled me. “I’ll also have you go back with some things for them.”

     My eyes widened. “I haven’t really done anything to deserve that—”

     “You absolutely have,” the Lord said, staring at me. I didn’t want to argue with him, so I looked away from him again.

     We both sat in silence, listening to the sound of horses being walked around the courtyard from the window as owls hooted in the distance. I heard the bedsheets rustle, and I looked up to find the Lord tapping his lap.

     “Come and sit here,” he said. I stared at his lap before getting up and strolling over. I sat on him, letting my hands rest on his arms when he hugged me to himself. We had gotten comfortable with each other again after the Lord got better and his spirits went up.

     I shivered, feeling a wet kiss on my neck.

     “Your skin has gotten softer, don’t you think?” The Lord whispered against my ear. Yes, my skin had. Back home I would do farm labor or help my mother do her tasks. I wasn’t out in the sun much anymore, and my tasks were easy to follow and far from strenuous.

     “Turn,” Lord Evenus said as his hands traveled under my shirt. I did as he said, turning my face to his and getting pulled into a kiss right away. His tongue found its way between my lips and inside my mouth, and his hands palmed my sides, gliding up and down my back before moving to touch my stomach.

     Lord Evenus broke the kiss, and I sighed, watching as he took off his shirt before helping me with mine. He took my hand in his, giving it a squeeze before placing it over his breeches.

     My breathing hiked, knowing what he expected me to do. I wasn’t good at it, but it made me happy when he moaned from my attempts. I fumbled with the buttons, before reaching into his drawers to touch him. I slid out of his lap, kneeling on the floor so that my face was in line with his manhood.

     Then my face drained of blood. It was easy to forget things when I was with the Lord, but graphic things like this—things that reminded me that our sexual urges were not normal—made all my self-loathing from religiosity pour over my head like ice water.

     My eyes flickered away, and Lord Evenus reached out to run his fingers through my hair. “It’s okay if you don’t want to.” His voice was husky—labored.

     I shut my eyes, shaking my head before I continued stroking him. He groaned, moving his hips, and thrusting into my touch. The action made me feel powerful—amazed that I could do that to him, of course, the lingering feelings of degeneracy lingered, they became easy to ignore as I choose human pleasure over God.

     The Lord’s shaft got harder with time, and I realized I couldn’t stop stalling when the first sight of precum leaking between the slit appeared. I leaned forward, wrapping the tip of him with my lips before licking over it with a swift motion. He moaned, gripping my head as I took him in my mouth, sucking as I slip my lips up and down.

     He was moaning and making low sighs and he held on to my face, helping me increase and reduce the pace depending on how he was feeling. Eventually, he pulled me away from him, letting a dribble of saliva string from his taunt manhood to my mouth.

     “Up.” His voice was firm like he didn’t want to waste time. I stood up, only to be grabbed by the waist and laid out on the bed. The lord unfasted the buttons of my breeches, pulling them off along with my drawers before doing the same for himself.

     “Some olive oil I leftover from when I was sick should be in here somewhere,” he said, crawling to the bedside table as I covered my privates with my hands. I didn’t get it at first, but when he dug at the jar with his fingers and pulled my legs apart before pulling me closer it dawned on me what was happening.

     I was going to get embraced.

     Sure, this was something I had always dreamed about, but it wasn’t something that I thought with materialize.

     I didn’t have the chance to ask him to wait, or pause, because his fingers had found themselves inside my hole. He teased me, pushing them further down before making to stroke me at a steady pace. My head was spinning, so I held on to a pillow as I tried to hold in my moans and sighs. The room smelled like burning candles, which came from the chandelier above, mixed with the smell of olive oil and sweaty skin.

     My legs felt numb, and my head got light at the feel of him stroking me at a certain angle.

     “Do you like that?” he asked, hovering over my private before using his free hand to push mine away. He took hold of my shaft, stroking it before giving it a small kiss on the tip. I squirmed, and he chuckled a bit as he sucked on me as I had sucked on him. I allowed my hands to reach out for his head, staring down at him as he took the whole length of me in his mouth.

     He pulled away, staring up at me with a look of achievement on his face before crawling over me and aligning himself between my thighs. He reached down between us and a gasp left my lips at the feeling of his hardness brushing my entrance. My toes curled up as he pushed into me, moving to hold on to my waist as he eased himself in.

     “You’re so tight…” he trailed. I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or if it was a complaint at my rigidness—it could be either. The shock of having the man I loved inside me was overwhelming me with emotion. I reached to hold his face between my hands and kissed him and he began to move, masking the pain I felt by letting him swallow them in his kisses. My eyes watered at the confusing feeling of pain mixed with pleasure.

     “It’ll pass,” he muttered into my mouth, thrusting into me deeper before staying still for a while. My thighs were slippery from the oil. My lips were tired from all the kissing and sucking. The sweat from our bodies was making our skins stick together. I should have felt disgusted, but I didn’t. Was this what Alistair meant when he said some sins were gentle—almost bordering on heavenly, even.

     The hairs on my skin stood up when a breeze came in from the window. Lord Evenus leaned in to kiss me again, before moving inside me again. I took the initiative and wrapped my legs around his waist, moving against his thrusts as I felt a liquid feel me. The Lord shook under my grip, and I felt dizzy, feeling my body spasm as a warm liquid left me to stain both our stomachs.

     Lord Evenus hugged me, not pulling out long after the aftermath of our actions. When he eventually did, he pulled me to his chest, cradling me before pulling the blankets over us.

     I shut my eyes, willing sleep. I wasn’t going to let memories of sermons against acts like ours ruin the moment for me. I loved Lord Evenus, and it seemed Lord Evenus likes me enough to embrace me in such an intimate way. It was all that mattered.