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upright. She was still breathing. Her green eyes were glassy, her lashes damp. The scarlet in her face was slowly fading now that she was vertical again. Strands of copper hair had stuck to her perspiring brow and the side of her neck. The woman looked exhausted.
    Surely she wasn’t done yet. His balls were full again, his shaft throbbing. He would like very much to try fitting it inside her.
    “What comes next?” he asked, holding her hands.
    “Next?” She exhaled a little chuckle. “Next we have a wedding.” She must have seen the disappointment in his face, for she kissed his cheek with a little peck, like a mother comforting a child. “It’s only a few hours away now, Raedwulf. We should, both of us, get some sleep. Put your tools away,” her gaze drifted downward to the mound in his breeches, “until tonight.”
    “Why?” He moved closer, pushing her back against the bench. “Show me what to do.” He was no longer fearful of mounting his bride. He wanted her now—this funny little woman who talked of pleasing him as if she was a servant meant to obey his every command and have none of her own. He wanted to make her cry out again and lose that tight grip she kept on her control. Had her first husband never made her do that? She appeared shocked by it herself.
    She laid her smooth, trembling hands to his chest. “I’d rather take our time in a comfortable bed. Wouldn’t you?”
    To be perfectly honest he didn’t care in that moment. He was eager to try everything and learn it all, especially if it felt as good as when she sucked his seed out.
    “You’re very big for me,” she explained. “For the consummation, we’ll need to go slowly and spread out on a soft bed—not a hard wooden workbench.” She paused and then added, “Do you rush your work, Raedwulf? No. You are skilled at your craft so I hear, and you take time over it, treat every piece of wood with care. That is how it should be between a man and a woman. The first time.”
    He understood. Still didn’t mean he was happy about it.
    “Very well,” he grumbled, backing away a step. “Until tonight then.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Emma slid into her bed, breathing heavily, amused to see that Joan had not moved an inch while she was gone. So much for the faithful maid at the foot of her bed, ready to protect her from evil that came in the night.
    She drew her hair over one shoulder and hurriedly braided it to keep it off her hot neck. Her fingers were still unsteady, her heart beating too fast. Emma knew she’d only just escaped a frenzied rutting over that workbench by the skin of her teeth and the use of her wits. That man was bone dry wood waiting for a spark. He could very easily have over-powered her in that woodshed. Luckily he relented when she was quick enough to think of comparing their love-making to his carpentry and thus he let her go.
    She hugged her knees, staring out at the moon and stars, so bright and clear in the vast black sky. Raedwulf wasn’t the only one she’d had to rein in tonight, for her own eagerness threatened to sweep all proper considerations aside. But she’d reminded herself that they would be married soon enough. She’d only gone down to that woodshed to be sure he wouldn’t spend their wedding night alone with his tools.
    Emma fell back to her pillow, drained.
    Mission accomplished.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    “I just decided to bathe, that’s all,” he grumbled. “'Tis not a miracle.”
    “Is it not?” his sister replied, amused. “I thought it would certainly take a visit from an angel before you submerged your full body in water.”
    She had burst into the cookhouse that morning and found him soaking in the wooden tub, all the servants sent out while he bathed. Now she teased him without mercy.
    “It seems the lovely Emma has made an impression on you already, brother.”
    He sniffed. “Can’t a man take a bath in peace around here?”
    Perched on the long cookhouse table, Deorwynn grew