Rituals of Passion (4 page)

“No,” Lavonia said. “It was a vast society—vaster than we know even now—and all of them died. All of them, except  for those few who  must have escaped underground, later giving rise to
 
our
 
society. Most believe it was a disease spread by man, purposely.”

Maven swallowed. “So men in the Before Times were given to battle, too.”

Lavonia nodded somberly.

“And I’m being given to
 
prevent
 
battle.” She  couldn’t help  sighing.  “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps it wasn’t so grand  then. Perhaps not much has changed.”

Slowly, another smile spread across her maid’s face.

“Why are you smiling at something so grim?”

“Because I choose not to think of it anymore.  This is no time for sadness—it’s timefor you to learn the secrets you want to know  so very  badly. And don’t deny it—I know you’re  curious,  Maven.  I’ve  seen  it  in  your  eyes. So push away your worries and let meenlighten  you.”

Maven took  a deep breath and attempted to  do as Lavonia instructed. It was hard to rekindle her interest in the ways of marriage without suffering the dread of who she’d be married
 
to
, but she tried. She looked Lavonia squarely in the eye.

“Tell me something, Lavonia. How is it for the rest of society? How do
 
they
 
marry?”  It was embarrassing to admit she didn’t know, but life for a royal girl was too sheltered—she knew little about how others lived.

“Well, only for the  royal—and sometimes the wealthy—is a  girl’s virginity such a

sacred thing. The lower classes have no need of a bride price.”

“Go on.”

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“And in the lower classes some marry, but many do not,” Lavonia said. “Although  those who
 
do
 
generally live long,  happy lives  together—those who find real love make  it last.”

“And the rest?”

Lavonia chuckled. “We just do as we feel and enjoy it.”

Maven pursed her lips, trying to  piece together the little bits of life she’d witnessed outside the  fortress walls. “And those who marry have  children, but those who do not

have none?  How does that work?”

“Very carefully,” Lavonia said in a teasing tone, then grew more serious.  “Occasionally, an unmarried woman
 
will
 
have a child,  and that child is generally raised with help  from the father, but more often,  the child ends up feeling as if  he’s been  reared by the entire village or community where he lives. All of which is to  say, such children are usually accidents, but not ill-treated because of it.”

Maven barely knew how to decipher Lavonia’s explanation. “Um, accidents?” She  couldn’t help feeling her own ignorance.

“Well, we’re  getting ahead of ourselves here, but…women can take  steps to prevent  children from being born. There are special salves—I’ve used them myself, since I was a  young girl.  However, you need not concern yourselves with that  aspect of things, dear girl, for you are to be a married woman,  with no need to prevent children.”

Maven let out a long sigh, almost sorry she’d begun the line of  questioning. She hadn’t even  yet thought about the prospect of having
 
children
 
with Dane! Suppressing a  shiver, she decided it was best to  keep a stiff upper lip and move on.

“How do we begin?”

“Ah, now that’s the strong Maven I know  and love,” Lavonia said, lounging back on Maven’s bed a bit more. “First, sweet Maven, I will teach you about your body.”

The very suggestion made the region between  her legs tighten, and she bit her lip.  “Go on. Teach me.”

Lavonia laughed. “Suddenly impatient, are  we? Very well, then.” Without warning she placed her hand between her thighs, cupping herself through her thin leather dress.  “This is called your pussy.”

“Pussy,” Maven repeated, trying out the word. “Why is  it called that?”

Lavonia let out a  tired sigh.  “Why is anything  called  anything? Who can say? Ibelieve it’s an archaic term from the Before Times.” She warmed to her subject  then.  “We live very different lives than those who went before us, but I feel confident one thing hasn’t  changed. Sex.”

Sex.
 
A word Maven had heard whispered about the fortress, and spoken louder in the village —until, of course, the speaker realized a royal daughter was listening. “Andwhat is sex?”

Her maid laughed, almost sympathetically, then shook her head. “Poor me. I

suppose I hadn’t realized just how difficult this job would be.”

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“Sex,” Maven snapped. “What is it?”

“Sex is what a man and woman do together. Sometimes, in marriage, to make  babies, like  we just discussed. But more often for sheer pleasure. Once you have sex,  you are no longer a virgin.”

Her mind flashed back to Senya and the gardener in the kitchen. “Is sex ever…well,  both a pleasure and a pain?”

Lavonia raised her eyebrows, looking impressed. “As a  matter of fact, it sometimes  is. A most
 
delicious
 
pain.” When Maven scrunched her nose in confusion, Lavonia  waved a hand through the air. “But again,  we’re getting far, far ahead of ourselves.  What you need to know right now, my dear,  are the basics. Another archaic term for the pussy is ‘cunt’. There is an opening there,  between your legs, where the man inserts his  cock.”

Maven drew back slightly, her confusion escalating. “He puts his
 
rooster
 
between your
 
legs
?”

Lavonia broke into wild peals of laughter  that succeeded in making Maven feel like a dolt. Her face warmed with embarrassment  as she waited for her maid to go on.

“A ‘cock’ is the name used for the lovely, long, hard rod that  juts from between
 
his

legs.”

Maven’s first inclination was to say she’d  never noticed any such rod jutting from between any man’s legs, but then she remembered odd occasions when she had witnessed something  beneath men’s leather  pants. A bulge of sorts. A bulge which she’d sometimes felt oddly drawn to. She bit her lip.

“When a man is excited and wants to have sex, his cock gets very big and hard. It’sa sight to behold.”

Maven could barely imagine.

“When you’re being fucked,  you will feel the most glorious sensation—a sensation of…being well-filled by your man.”

“Fucked?”

Lavonia waved her arms absently downward. “Another archaic term. It means to

have sex.”

Maven drew in her breath, daring to ask  another question. “Is sex the reason I sometimes feel all tingly and wet in my  pussy? The reason my nipples get hard?”

Lavonia smiled. “Exactly. That’s your body’s way of telling you it’s ready for sex.”

“It’s been…nearly unbearable.”

The maid lifted a hand to stroke  the drawn-back hair at Maven’s temple. “I don’t envy you that, dear. Must be torture having to wait and wonder about it all.”

Maven nodded.

“But your wait is nearly over.”

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She swallowed, again remembering her fate.  “I wish I could look forward to it,  Lavonia, but how can I, knowing the one man I’m destined to fuck is Dane the  Dreadful?”

“Look, he’s  said to be a brute, yes. But it’s as I told you  before. You, more than any  other royal girl, must  pay close attention  to all you hear and see during this, your  Orientation. You must learn to please him and please him well. I’m convinced this is the  way to an amicable marriage with him.”

“Hear and see?” she asked.

Lavonia tilted her head at a coquettish angle and grinned. “Yes. Since discovering I would be your Orienter, I have thought about how best to teach you the ways of sex, and I’ve decided the easiest method is to simply demonstrate.”

So Lavonia  was going to have sex with a man while Maven watched? An unbidden but familiar pulse of excitement began to  beat in her pussy, just as when she’d witnessed Senya and Arleck in the kitchen.

Without another word, Lavonia rose from  the bed and walked to the door of the chamber. Opening it, she admitted three  boys Maven knew from the fortress, all handsome young men around her own age, although considerably younger than  Lavonia.

Maven’s jaw dropped in surprise. “You need three?”

Her maid’s mouth curved into  a coy smile. “It’s going to be a very long and

arduous lesson, my dear.”

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Rituals of Passion

Chapter Three

A forbidden thrill raced through Maven’s  body. She wasn’t sure why—this was her  Orientation, after all, so  there was hardly  anything forbidden about it. Everyone knewthe Orienter could use whatever means she deemed suitable to prepare a royal daughter for her marriage bed. Even so, the  pulse of excitement throbbing in Maven’scunt increased wildly as she looked at  the three strapping young men and began anticipating what was about to happen.

“You know  Anglen, Ragan and Donnell,” Lavonia said.

Certainly she did. She’d just never before realized how attractive she found them.  Anglen sported sandy blond hair and a rugged  look—he worked in her father’s stables.  Ragan was darker in both hair and complexion, with a lean but  muscular build, and  Donnell possessed a long brown mane, lengthier  than the hair of most men, pulled back in a tail at his nape. The first two boys were  among the ranks of her father’s army, beingtrained to lead his forces should Caralon ever come under attack—the latter served as a

fortress guard.

Without planning, Maven let her eyes drop  from the  young men’s faces to their  crotches, where she spied the bulges she remembered seeing on  men before. Her pussy  spasmed with fresh curiosity.

“Should you wish to touch yourself  in any fashion while we demonstrate—”  Lavonia said, drawing Maven’s gaze back to  her, “—feel free. Although you’ve been  taught to suppress your urges, the time for  that is nearly past. It’s important that you learn to
 
embrace
 
those urges now.”

Maven only  nodded, beginning to  feel a bit  entranced, as if she’d been transported to some other place and time. In one sense,  it was all happening too fast—her betrothal to a barbarian and now
 
this
, her maid preparing to…what was the word? Fuck, yes, that was it. Her maid was preparing  to fuck three of her father’s young men right here in her room while she watched! On the other hand,  though, it felt as if a new energy, a raw power unlike any sensation she’d ever known, was  gathering in her middle—as if  Lavonia was right and the time for innocence  was done. Despite herself, she burned to see the boys’ cocks, burned to see every intimate part of this act between  man and

woman.

As if reading her mind, Lavonia dropped to  her knees before the broad-shouldered Anglen and began working at the lacing of  his pants. A moment  later, she parted the leather and the crisscrossed cording to  reveal—oh my! What a peculiar-looking appendage!

Maven bit her lip, studying it. Lavonia had described it  as a rod, and that it was, butstill… Maven couldn’t have envisioned the odd feelings of hunger she experienced at

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the sight.  Anglen’s shaft seemed to grow even longer  as the maid’s hand closed around it. The whole length looked flushed with  heat as Anglen drew in his breath, his expression instantly reminding Maven of  the strange pleasure-pain she’d discussed  with Lavonia.

“This is a cock,” Lavonia said, turning  to  Maven while running  her fingertips gingerly down the front of the pole-like protrusion. “Lovely, isn’t it?”

Oddly, Maven agreed, although she couldn’t  understand  quite why.  She moved  on to something that suddenly seemed more important than its appearance. “This is to go
 
inside
 
me?”

Lavonia let out a cackling laugh. “No, my dear,
 
this
 
is to go inside
 
me
.” She shifted her gaze upward to Anglen, her voice going low  and  husky. “Very soon, my handsomeboy. Very soon.”

“But I mean—” Maven persisted, “—my  husband’s cock…” She grimaced  then, remembering Dane of Rawley, and concluded with a profound sigh.

“Yes, your husband’s cock will enter your pussy.”

“But…how? It’s so large.”

Lavonia chuckled. “If the rumors are true, Dane’s cock is even larger and more majestic than this.” She glanced upward again. “No offense, dear boy.” Then she looked back to Maven. “But as  you will soon see, the female body has a way of accepting a  big, beautiful cock.”

Maven glanced downward toward her tingling cunt, feeling bereft. “It seemsimpossible, Lavonia.” Even given the  blatant desire that hummed there.

Still, her maid just laughed. “Trust me, dear, by the time Dane sinks his cock  into you, you will love it, and you will crave it when it’s gone.”