"I don't know what to do. What I should do," she admitted.

He smiled warmly into her hazel eyes. "You will do what your body desires," he said, "and you will let me guide you into the paths of passion, Alix. And you will not be fearful of telling me if something displeases you. Now, let us rid you of this garment you wear and then we will begin."

"You want me naked?" she said nervously.

"I am naked," he replied.

Alix's eyes widened. What was the matter with her? Of course he was naked. Could she not see his smooth chest, his broad shoulders, and his sinewy arms? "Aye," she nodded, feeling foolish, "you are, aren't you?" Alix pulled her little night chemise off over her head and dropped it to the floor.

"Now," he said, "we will become familiar with each other's bodies."

"How?" Her voice trembled.

He drew the coverlet that shielded them back. "Like this," he said as his eyes swept over her fair young body. The sweet breasts he had earlier caressed were even fuller, more beautiful, he thought to himself. Her waist was slender, but her hips were broader than he had imagined. Her plump mons was free of growth, to his surprise. Garbed she gave the appearance of being delicate, but seeing her naked he realized she was quite a sturdy lass. She would not break beneath his desire, which was beginning to exert itself. Her thighs were rounded and firm, as were the calves on her slim legs. "You are quite the loveliest lass I have ever beheld," he told her.

While he had perused her so thoughtfully Alix had examined a male form for the first time. The chest, the strong arms, his shoulders she had previously noted. His torso was long, his belly flat, and beneath it a tangle of thick black curls that surrounded his manhood. Alix swallowed as she beheld it. It was pale in color, veined in blue, and long. But it lay quietly, seemingly innocent of any wickedness. She forced her eyes away from it to view his long hairy legs and large feet.

"Am I pleasing in your sight?" he asked her mischievously.

"I think I am prettier in form," she answered him and he laughed.

"Aye, a woman's form is fairer I will agree, lambkin," the laird said.

"What do we do now?" Alix asked him shyly.

"Sit up," he said, "and undo your hair for me. When you are alone the plait will do, but when we are together as lovers I would enjoy your long hair."

Alix sat up against the pillows and began to unbraid her honey-colored curls.

"Why is your mons like a little girl's?" he asked her.

"The women of the court are taught to keep that part of their bodies hairless," Alix explained to him. "Only peasant women have bushes to tend. I did not know men did."

When she had finished undoing her long hair, he inquired of her, "Where is your hairbrush, lambkin?" and when she told him, he fetched it. Then, climbing back into the bed, he began to brush her hair with long, slow strokes of the brush.

She had not had anyone brush her hair since she had been a child, Alix thought. She had quite forgotten how pleasant it was and found herself almost purring. She did not see his smile as he finally laid the brush aside. Pressing her back, he spread her hair over the pillows, admiring it for a moment, then kissing her soft mouth slowly, deeply. Alix's lips parted beneath his. Immediately his tongue darted into her mouth, sweeping about it, seeking her tongue to tease it with his. Alix was so mesmerized by the two intertwining digits she didn't notice at first that one of his hands was caressing her belly until his fingers touched her mons and began to play with her nether lips.

"What are you doing?" she cried, breaking off their kiss, her head spinning with the sweetness she had been receiving.

"I want to touch you there," he told her. "You need to be prepared to take my manhood within your sheath, lambkin."

"Prepared?" Now she was puzzled. Hayle simply had her assume the position he desired and thrust himself inside of her. What preparation could the laird possibly mean? "I don't understand," Alix told him.

"You are a tender creature, and you cannot easily receive my manhood until you are ready to receive it. Your husband used you like one animal would use another. He wished to harm you because you had wed him. I will not do that to you. Men do not, lambkin. You have love juices, and they must be encouraged to flow for me. Now be quiet, Alix, and trust me to give you pleasure. Can you do that, lambkin?"

Alix nodded. It was suddenly all very exciting, and it was certainly very new for her. He began to kiss her again, slowly, slowly, their mouths almost melting into each other's. She sighed with delight when his mouth went to her breasts again as they had that afternoon. When he tugged upon her nipple, she felt a corresponding throb in the secret place between her legs. "Yes!" she heard her own voice whispering. She struggled with herself not to cry out and leap from the bed when his fingers gently played with her nether lips, when one finger pressed between them. To her great surprise she seemed to be wet. She flushed. Had she peed in her excitement? But no. As his finger played between her nether lips the moisture felt almost creamy in its consistency. And the finger suddenly touching a most sensitive spot, teasing at it, made her feel wonderful, not fearful at all. She sighed audibly.

He was hard. God help him! His cock was as firm as he could ever remember it being. He kept the sight of it from her, for he didn't wish her to panic, which she surely would have. He was longer than he had been earlier and far thicker. Gently he moved his finger to the opening of her sheath and pressed it forward into her. He felt her stiffen and murmured against her ear, "Nah, nah, lassie, 'tis all right. Do I hurt you?"

Alix thought a moment. No. He was not hurting her. "Nay," she whispered.

He moved the finger back and forth so that she would get used to the rhythm, and after a few moments she gave a little cry of surprise as she experienced a first burst of sweet pleasure from that finger.

"Oh!" Alix exclaimed softly.

He laughed quietly. "You see?" he told her, and he withdrew the single finger, quickly replacing it with two fingers, which he moved back and forth once again.

"Oh!Oh!" Alix cried out.

She was ready and while she tensed as he covered her body with his own, he soothed her with little kisses as he prepared to sheathe her. The laird positioned himself and pushed his cock forward. The portal gave way as he slid deep. Beneath him Alix was hardly breathing as she waited for the pain to engulf her. But there was no pain.

"Put your legs about me," he instructed her.

Then she gasped, for when she did he moved deeper into her. And there was still no pain. He filled her full, but there was no pain even when he began to move upon her. The fingers of their hands were intertwining as his rhythm grew faster and faster. Alix's eyes closed and pure instinct arched her body up to his every downward thrust. She found herself reveling in the sensations he was engendering within her. Her breath was coming in short hard pants, and she suddenly realized that she was experiencing pleasure. She had never before enjoyed such feelings as were now sweeping over her.

Alix cried out. "Don't stop," she begged him. "Oh, please don't stop, my lord! I am in heaven!" And then, as the hard core within her began to burst, she sobbed, "Oh, sweet Holy Mother, I die!" And she shook with her pent-up release as his love juices exploded within her exciting body.

The laird roiled off of his lover, panting with his exertions. For a moment he couldn't catch his breath, but then he did. Reaching out, he gathered the girl who had just given him such pleasure into his strong arms. To his distress Alix began to weep. She huddled against his chest, sobbing and sobbing and sobbing. Disturbed, he asked, "Did I hurt you? You should have told me! I said I would not harm you, lambkin."

Hearing the distress in his voice, Alix quickly reassured him. "Nay, my lord. It was wonderful! I did not know! I never imagined! Now at last I am beginning to understand my mother's love for my father, the queen's devotion to the king." She hiccupped, and her sobs began to abate.

He kissed the top of her head, relieved, and stroked her long hair as much to soothe himself as to soothe her. There was that elusive fragrance of hers again teasing at his nostrils. "I gave you pleasure," he said simply. "I am glad."

"Will we lie together every night now?" Alix asked him shyly.

"Except those nights when your moonlink is broken," he told her. "I am going to move you into the bedchamber next to mine. It is larger, and there is a connecting door to my chamber. We are less apt to attract my daughter's attention that way. You must be no less attentive to Fiona now that you are mine," he said.

"Never, my lord! I love the child," Alix answered him.

"Colm," he said. "I am not your lord when we lay together. I am Colm, and you are my Alix," the laird responded. "Let me hear my name upon your lips, sweet Alix."

"Malcolm, my dear lord," she said softly. "Colm! And again, Colm!"

He laughed joyously, and Alix realized that she had never before heard him utter such a happy sound. In fact, he was laughing and smiling more of late than anytime since she had come to Dunglais. "I will leave you now, my lambkin," he said. "And you will no longer be afraid of the coupling, will you?"

"Nay, I will not, Colm," she promised him.

He arose from her bed and wrapped the length of plaid about him. Then, bending, the laird kissed her and bid her a good night. Unbarring the door, he departed, and Alix lay awake for some minutes reliving the first passion she had ever known. The passion she had shared with Malcolm Scott. She had been so afraid although she had concealed it well, she knew. While she had enjoyed his kisses and his hands upon her body when he had mounted her, she had waited in silent terror for the cruel pain that would shortly tear into her. But there had been no pain. None at all! He had used her gently and he had given her the first pleasure she had ever received from a man.

She wept again briefly as she considered how sad it was that her husband could not have given her that pleasure. That he could not have loved her as sweetly as Malcolm Scott had made love to her.

And Alix wondered if Hayle Watteson had not hated her for not being his beloved Maida, would their marriage have been a fruitful and happy one? But he had hated her, and there was no changing the past.

But there was the future to consider. She was lying with a man not her husband. She had agreed to be his mistress. Alix knew that both her mother and the queen would have been shocked, would have been disappointed by her behavior. But if she had not allowed the laird to become her lover she would have never known the delights of passion. And tonight, Alix suspected, was but the beginning of her education in the amatory arts. Tonight the laird had opened the door for her, and Alix found that despite the less than suitable situation in which she found herself, she was eager to know what else lay on the other side of that wonderful door. Had Hayle Watteson been an exception to the rule? Were all men like Malcolm Scott? She didn't care as long as she might be in his arms, his delicious kisses rendering her dizzy with delight.

The following day the servants moved her few small belongings into the bedchamber next to the laird's. When Fiona asked why, for she was a curious child, the laird told her it was because then Alix would be closer to her, for Fiona's bedchamber was on the other side of the laird's.

"We shall be like three little buglets all in a snug row," Alix added.

"I like that!" Fiona enthused and Alix actually felt a tiny twinge of guilt for beguiling her small charge.

The border was quiet that year, and as the summer waned the Laird of Dunglais found his lust for Alix Givet burning brighter with each day. It was not enough that he shared her bed each night now. They rode out one day alone while Fiona remained behind with Fenella, learning how to stuff a mattress, an absolute necessity for any lady, Alix assured her, and the housekeeper agreed.

On a hillside Alix and the laird sat watching his cattle grazing peacefully. She lay back and looked up at the sky, where clouds scudded back and forth sometimes blocking the sunlight, sometimes letting it blaze bright down upon them. She saw the lust in his eyes as he looked down upon her and held open her arms to him. In no time at all Alix found her skirts about her waist and her lover vigorously fucking her. Her legs about his torso, she ran her nails down his broad back as he brought her quickly to pleasure and then did it again as her cries echoed about them.