A Love for All Time (60 page)

He was throbbing inside her! She could actually feel him pulsing, and it excited her terribly. She considered, perhaps just the tiniest bit shocked, that it was she who in this amorous bout of theirs had the upper hand. She controlled him this time! It was he who would writhe between her thighs this night! It was an incredible thought. The most thrilling she had ever experienced. An almost primitive look came into her silvery-gray eyes, and as she looked down upon him they narrowed. Leaning down over him she began a sensual movement with her hips, and his own hips pushed up to meet her thrusts.

She caught his head between her hands, and pressed her lips to his, pushing her tongue into his mouth to swirl around teasingly for just a minute. Then her tongue found his ear, and with the feathery movement of just the tip she licked that shell of flesh. Next her tongue licked the side of his face, and his neck while with her firm thighs gripping him she continued to plunge her lower body up and down upon his rigid manhood.

He watched her through half-closed eyes, very much enjoying her performance, and rather delighted by the way she had so easily taken him over, obviously liking this switch in their roles. He had had other women ride him before, but none of them had ever actually savored the encounter as Marjallah was doing. Now, however, he felt the need to reestablish his position as her husband and her master. He forced his upper body into a half-seated position effectively pushing her into a full seated pose. His arm wrapped itself tightly about her narrow waist while his other hand reached out, and grasping her breast in a firm grip he took the nipple into his mouth, sucking hard upon it as their bodies moved rhythmically.

The effect upon Aidan was incredible. Her body stiffened briefly, and then suddenly she began to moan wildly, her head starting to thrash. He was so big and hard within her. His mouth was so hot and insistent upon her sensitive nipple. She felt her body beginning to soar, but as it did she also felt a burst of fiery sweetness enveloping both her body and her brain. His thrusts came faster and faster, and suddenly she was falling backward, still impaled upon his mighty manhood as he now towered over her, pounding into her willing and eager body.

“Ahh, houri! Ahh! I can’t stop with you! I don’t want to stop with you! Ahhhhh, Mar-jallaaaah!” and he shuddered his release.

Beneath him Aidan didn’t know if she was even still alive. Her heart was pounding violently, her entire body was drenched in wetness, and her mind had become a vast blur. All she knew was that the words he spoke to her were precisely how she herself felt. She couldn’t stop the frantic movement of her hips. She didn’t want to stop! She wanted him to go and on and on forever loving her, but when she felt his love juices flooding her secret garden it was suddenly perfect, and she wrapped her arms about him to cradle him against her breasts as he fell forward, exhausted with their passion.

Aidan suddenly began to weep. It had all been too much for her. Javid Khan reversed their position so it was he who was holding her against his chest. He felt the wet heat of her tears, but he said nothing. The sounds she made were of deep sorrow, and what could he possibly say to alleviate that sorrow? All his wife needed to know was that he loved her which he hoped his act of comfort indicated. Women were such wonderfully emotional creatures. Perhaps she might even be breeding. Whatever it was that had distressed her he knew from his experience with her sex would pass. As her sobs turned to sniffles he said quietly, “You know that I love you.”

She raised her head to look up at him, and her sandy lashes were gathered in damp, spiky clumps. “I know,” she whispered. “It’s just that it was so wonderful!”

“Yes,” he agreed with her. “It was wonderful! Ah, houri, may you and I always be able to make it that wonderful!” Then he stroked her coppery hair with a gentle hand.

During the remainder of the autumn Aidan worked with her Portuguese gardeners at preparing and planting the large garden of the palace. It was very irregular, Jinji told her somewhat disapprovingly, that a princess such as herself should stoop to even associating with such barbaric infidels. They were uncircumcised, and worse, they had not even been deprived of their functional abilities. It was scandalous that the prince had whole men working in his gardens while his precious wife and her women were about.

“But they are old men,” Aidan protested. “They are toothless, old men, all of them! Most of them were impressed into their country’s service, convinced that they were fighting a great holy crusade that would assure them a place in heaven, Jinji. It is a tragedy that these poor old men cannot spend their remaining days in their own villages with their wives, and their grandchildren. My lord Javid chose them for their ability to work the land, and from the kindness of his heart.”

Jinji sniffed. He still did not approve either his mistress or his master’s actions, but what could he do? He was but a slave himself. He had had such high hopes when he had been assigned to be the lady Marjallah’s eunuch in Algiers. He had known from the beginning that they were coming to the sultan’s seraglio, and had she remained there, he thought, what a miracle could he not have worked! She might have been a favorite, even a kadin! Still when she was presented to the prince his hopes had soared once more. She would become the prince’s favorite, and he, Jinji, would rebuild Javid Khan’s harem. In a smaller way he would be like the mighty agha kislar, Ilban Bey. Now even that, too, appeared unlikely.

Prince Javid Khan was in love with his princess Marjallah. He wanted no other woman. He would not even consider allowing Jinji to purchase a few beauties for him. The prince’s palace had become like the house of a wealthy merchant. One wife, and boring little daily duties consumed their lives. There was no excitement. The prince and his wife were totally wrapped up in each other. Each day the prince went to the city. Marjallah, in good weather to her garden; on an inclement day she oversaw the running of the house which beneath her competent hand needed little care. They ate their evening meal together, and spent their evenings making love, playing chess, simply talking. If only Marjallah would conceive a child, the eunuch thought, then he might have an opportunity to enlarge the population of the harem.

The winter passed uneventfully, and spring slipped slowly into the gardens of the prince’s little palace. Each day Aidan, in the company of Marta and her two daughters, walked lingeringly along the carefully raked marble chip paths inspecting each bed for the progress of the tiny green shoots which every day grew taller and bigger. As Aidan had had each plot of ground planted in a pattern, she now checked on each area to make certain that the patterns would be totally perfect. Outside the garden shed in a sunny space sat rows of pots, their green shoots awaiting the failure of any of their brothers in the patterns, that they might replace them.

During the winter Aidan had broken the routine of her days to frequently go into the city to visit with the sultan valideh and Safiye. She had learned from them during the course of her many conversations that Turks prized their gardens, even going as far as to write poetry to them. Each sultan was, by custom, taught a trade, and the conqueror of Istanbul had been a gardener as was Sultan Murad. It was very important to Aidan, therefore, that her gardens be as perfect as possible when the sultan came to see them. There must be symmetry, purity of design, and glorious color, all to please the eye of the beholder. It was to this end she worked, filling her days, blotting out her memories of her beloved Conn, and of her home in England.

Sometimes it was easy, especially when Javid Khan made such exquisite love to her. She had come to realize that what her body experienced in pleasure had nothing to do with the way her heart felt. She loved Conn. He was the only man she would ever love; but her fate was obviously with Javid Khan, who was a good and kind man. It was true that his look did not make her heart leap as had Conn’s, but he loved her, and if only a child would come, she convinced herself, all would be well.

Toward the end of April Aidan could see that her gardens would, in two days’ time, be at their peak. She consulted Miguel, the eldest of her gardeners, for he was an absolute marvel at knowing the weather. He stood before her, eyes lowered, for it was not right that he gaze directly upon the prince’s wife. She was a great lady.

“What do your bones tell you, Miguel?” Aidan asked him. “I want to invite the sultan to come and enjoy the gardens in two days’ time. Will the skies be fair? Will it be warm?”

“Answer carefully, infidel dog!” snarled Jinji. “If you are wrong I will personally flay the gristle from your miserable bones.”

Miguel shot the eunuch a black look. He and his companions disliked Jinji, who was always bullying them when Aidan was not looking. “The weather, my lady princess, will be fair and quite warm for the next four days at least. You may have the sultan without any fear of rain.”

“Thank you, Miguel,” Aidan replied. “There will be wine for you all tonight. Just a little though for I would not offend my lord Javid.”

The gardener nodded, and gave her a shy smile. He and his fellows all wished that they were safely home in Portugal, but it could have been a lot worse than it was. “Thank you, my lady princess. You are kind to us, and we bless you for it.”

Aidan sent Jinji with a note to the sultan valideh inviting the sultan’s mother, her son, Safiye, Fahrusha Sultan, Janfeda, and whatever ladies of the sultan’s court she felt should come. It was politely and formally worded, and came as no surprise to Nur-U-Banu who had been expecting it. Aidan would not presume to direct her invitation to the sultan himself. It would have been considered an appalling breach of good manners.

On the morning of the visit Aidan arose early, and pulling a silken robe about herself hurried out to check on both the weather and the gardens. The morning was cloudless and quite warm. As she moved along the pathways Aidan was delighted to see that virtually every blossom was in bloom. She couldn’t believe it, and she thought to herself that she must bring Esther Kira to see how her bulbs had fared. She would do it tomorrow before the weather changed, and before the flowers were past their peak.

Javid Khan was stirring when she reentered her chamber for he had spent the entire night with her. Pulling her down into the bed he slipped his hand between the halves of her silken garment, opening it, and buried his face between her fragrant breasts. She felt his warm tongue moving up the valley between the hills, and she laughed softly scolding him, “My lord! Fie! The sultan will be here, and we shall not be ready.”

“I am already ready,” he chuckled, and turning her onto her back he was quickly atop her. His hand was between her thighs teasing at her little pearl, and finding her responsive to his passion he said softly, breathing warmly into her ear, “Ahh, my jewel, you, too, are ready for love,” and then he entered her in a smooth motion.

Aidan’s laughter was low as she received him. He was a very skilled and persuasive lover, and he had never failed to bring her to that crisis that gives such extra pleasure to a husband and a wife. “You are a wicked man,” she teased him, but he was not in the least fooled.

“You have a glow after I have loved you,” he said. “I want the sultan to see that glow, and envy me! I want him to see how happy we both are!”

His words were so thrilling, she thought. He was an extremely different man from what she would have expected of a Tartar prince. Perhaps it was the influence of his French mother, but whatever it was it made him a kind and gentle man to live with. Reaching up she drew his head down so that their lips just barely touched. “I glow,” she whispered against his mouth, “because you make me happy, my husband!” and then she kissed him passionately, her mouth fiercely pressing against his, her little teeth nibbling at his lips, her tongue running swiftly over his mouth.

Slowly, and with deliberately exaggerated motion he moved upon her body, pressing deeply into her tight sheath, withdrawing almost to the tip of his manhood before plunging back again. She had the power to arouse him as no woman in his memory had ever done, and this morning unable to satisfy his desire for her, he drew her legs over his shoulders so he might drive deeper into her.

Aidan cried out for she could never remember having been penetrated so deeply before. His large and lengthy shaft felt as if it were pushing into the very mouth of her womb itself. His ardor kindled within her an inferno of passion so great that Aidan believed that she was dying. She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes would not focus. Her blood thundered like boiling liquid through her veins. Strangely she felt no fear for whatever was happening to her also left her with a feeling of total acceptance. She never even heard her own voice as she cried out, and then she sank into a warm velvet darkness.

Although she was certain she lay unconscious for hours it was only a few minutes, and as she regained her senses she became aware of the fact that he was raining kisses upon her face. She had never felt more wonderful in her entire life, and she didn’t want to let go of the feeling. She had always enjoyed lovemaking from the first time Conn had taken her virginity. She had always floated away on a cloud of delight, but
never
had she experienced what had just happened to her now.

“Marjallah!” His voice sounded slightly frantic. “Oh, my beloved jewel, awake! Tell me I have not hurt you!”

Slowly, reluctantly, she opened her eyes to view his handsome anxious face. “I am all right, my lord Javid,” she said.

“You are magnificent!” was his response.

“It . . . it was never like that before,” she said puzzled. “What happened to me?”

“It is called
la petite morte,
the little death,” he answered her, and then he said, “I love you, my darling wife. I can never forget what happened to my family, but each day that goes by I realize how fortunate I am to have you; to have the chance to begin anew, my jewel.”