3 Thankful

The question of why father would want me in attendance at this meeting meant to be a council of war was beyond me and not knowing the reason filled me with unease. I made my way slowly along the corridors of the palace complex as I was not eager to show my face at court.

Those of the High Court held no love for me and my odd views on a society that functioned without the use of slaves. In general, it was a thing of relief for the whole Empire that I was not an only child.

I had a brother from a different mother that was four years my junior and the most utterly spoiled brat that I had ever come across. No, I alone had inherited the majesty of my fathers before me and my father knew it, which was why for the most part he had allowed me to make my own way in life.

That said I'd gone a little too far this time though. Had Horgan sensed me following him?

If he had and my father had been notified of what I had done he would be furious. What did it matter though?

Ar'mora as it was in its beginning stages of redevelopment stood no chance against the ranked phalanxes of the Ticongan Empire. No enemy ever had.

We ruled with absolute power the inner reaches of this desert paradise as well as into the jungle itself. The farther you got into the jungle the harder to maintain control and so to a large degree, we exerted no interest within the surrounding jungle other than for its resources and abundant water supply to be found there.

The desert with its clear, open vistas and starry night sky was more to our liking anyway. We had once as a people come from a place much like this from across a great ocean and to us this was home.

I cleared the last of the glimmering hallways of overlaid gold and bejeweled artwork and with a court crier heralding my entrance I watched the great hall full of attendees come to an abrupt silence filled hush. I advanced steadily into the Hall with all the bearing of my royal lineage to give me support.

Many of those I gazed my eyes across did not bear the usual hostility for me that was typical of them, which in itself was alarming. Instead, they looked concerned, as if things were out of control and they didn't know what to make of the new situation.

They parted before me like a wave and I made myself regally glide past them with all my usual confidence, but inside I felt like I was trembling. I came to the stairs before the throne and made my customary short bow in inclination to my father before I forced myself to meet his gaze.

Angry wasn't the word for his gaze upon me. He looked insane and my brother sitting off to the left of him had the appearance of a cat that had been feasting on canaries. Father knew!

Fighting for calm I rose my foot to begin ascending up the stairs to my own seat off to the right of father, but his deep voice shook the Hall as he stood up to bellow out, "Stay where you are Haquara!"

I stayed where I was and squaring my shoulders, I met his gaze full on with all the pride of bearing that I could muster. I was not ashamed of what I had done and if I was to be punished for it then so be it!

I was no coward to run from a fight as my brother was. I could tell that my stance of boldness only angered my father more, but so be it.

He stalked down the steps towards me and I braced myself for his words and the humiliation they would bring to me being said in front of all my enemies gathered in this place. I loved my father, but in what he did now I hated him.

No words could prepare me however, as without a word said he slapped me across the face so hard that I stumbled back several steps. It was only pride that gave me the ability to keep my footing and not fall.

Red-hot blood sprayed into my mouth from a split lip and I tasted it with dismay as I stared at my father who showed no sign of remorse for what he had just done. He had never hit me before and by doing so he had just shamed me more than any spoken words ever could have.

Raising an angry pointing finger, he savagely said, "You have gone too far this time Haquara and I can't protect you this time nor will I even try! You have yet once more brought dishonor upon your family's name because of your foolishness of being a slave lover! No more!!! I've allowed you to have your way for far too long and now look at you glaring me in the eye as you stand contemptuously before me fully in the wrong for what you have done! I will not be disrespected like this!"

He looked away and for the first time I thought maybe I saw a glimmer of the father I knew that loved me, but then his eyes were back to mine and all I saw was an empty dispassion for me and within me I felt great fear such as I had never known seize a hold of me even as his next words gave proof to how utterly he must now hate me. Speaking slowly he said, ���You are my daughter, that cannot be changed, but any chance you had at ruling one day is now over. I remove you as a Princess of the realm, which means I must wed you away, but your shame is so great no man of my court would have you. Your fate would to be then locked away in a room for the rest of your life, but others have spoken for you. Indeed, many have stated a wish to claim you and by the use of you create offspring of the Loquanin, our allies in the spirit realm, in this perhaps some good of you can yet be achieved. I hereby proclaim that I as your father have given up all fatherly protection even as I give you as a gift to the gods we serve and who have made us great!"

A gasp ran around the room as everyone looking on gazed among each other in astonishment as such a thing had never been done to the daughter of a king before. To be used as a temple breeder for the purpose of bringing forth those of the demon kind was beyond all punishments.

My father had just sentenced me to the life of a whore at the complete mercy of every temple priest and craven creature of darkness that wished to have at me. My punishment was truly worse than death and hot tears spilled down my face as I gazed at the man who had sired me, laughed with me, and who I had thought loved me, only to now prove otherwise as he turned me over to be a plaything for Darkness and all of its minions.

I looked my father in the eye and then slowly I turned to view the entire court, its generals, venerable scribes, magicians, and assorted aristocracy. Not one of them had spoken up. Not one had sought to counsel my father to do else other than what he just had.

Speaking loudly I said, "You are all cursed! Indeed, I fear our nation has become nothing but a curse! Is there any need for more proof than the fact that you all stand saying nothing as yet one more great wrong is committed before you?"

"That is enough!!! Seize her and prepare her for her marriage to the gods! I want her chained to the high temple altar before nightfall!"

I was seized a hold of abruptly by the guards of the court and drug from the presence of my father and all those I had suddenly come to intensely hate.

I was hustled into a room filled with wide-eyed Ar'morian slave women, even as the guards who had brought me here barked out, "Prepare her for the marriage sacrifice!"

The slave women were at first slow to obey, but as slaves they had no choice. They stripped my clothing off, until I stood bare as the day I had been born, even as the guards who had brought me here looked on with the lust to have me, but refrained from doing so for fear of what one of or all the gods would do if they found me not a virgin upon the altar.

I stood still with my eyes tightly shut as the women worked upon me by snapping on golden bracelets, belly rings, and anklets, while others elaborately manipulated the knotted and brightly beaded strands of my hair into an elaborate coif on the top of my head, even as others massaged ointments into my skin that left me smelling perfumed and ready to be sacrificed in order that I might bare forth monsters the likes of creatures like Horgan. I couldn't help it and with my jaw quivering I felt hot tears escape down my cheeks even as a loud sob threatened to break past my lips.

Cool work worn hands framed my face with gentility and in need of the comfort they offered I opened my eyes to behold a short statured older slave woman standing before me. Her white skin burnt dark brown and wreathed in wrinkles from many years of forced servitude in the hot sun was no detractor from the compassionate love I saw in her eyes for me. Speaking softly the older woman said, "Take heart child. We are praying for you and we have hope that there will be an answer to our prayers."

My gaze went from her to the wet eyed looks of shared compassion I saw upon the faces of the other women gathered about me, who had just finished dressing me in a white flowing skirt and a white halter top encasement of silk that left most of the top of my chest exposed even as the jeweled necklaces of gold and diamonds sparkled about my neck and waist in a display of hedonistic wealth unmatched by few kingdoms on earth. How could these women that my people had oppressed and raped through the years without end have any room in their hearts to pray for me?

And yet they did. Their compassion threatened to undo my resolve to stand strong, even as the guard's heavy-handed grips squeezed about my upper arms and the bracelets of gold that were there.

As the guards drug me away I said, "It's no use. The gods will have me and...."

The old woman holding one finger up called out authoritatively, "There is only one God and there are no others before Him. Take faith child." She said at the last as I was hustled out of the room by the guards.

I tried to, but truly I had no faith in anything right now and so as I was drug within the tall pillared columns of the temple my mind ran and filled itself many times over with all the horror that was about to happen to me in this place. I saw the demon Horgan and baring my teeth I pulled against my restraints in my desire to at least kill him.

The guards held me back and Horgan laughed as he watched me struggle against them. Coming close he said, as he allowed his cat eyed gaze to drift down my form with lust, "I'll have you myself dear, but first the others. Our fathers are coming here tonight and if you think we're bad, then I say you can't even imagine what they will be like. They'll turn you inside out with their passion!" He burst out with laughing in a tone that no human would ever have managed and in revulsion from the darkness of his spirit I allowed myself to be pulled on by the guards.

Far from the shocked countenances of those within the High Court the visages of both demon-men and temple priests gathered here was one of delight. Crying now completely unrestrained, I felt them drag me up the stairs to the altar and then with a heaved shove upward, I found myself lying face up and tied down in position in order to be of the fancy to the forced perversion by the gods of my people.

My crying eyes took in the fact that beyond the tall columns of the temple the sun was setting. When it finally did fall over the horizon, I knew that my tormentors would come.

The enormity of how little time I had left set me to screaming. Then suddenly there was a voice from within my head speaking, "Please stop screaming. I admit to being a bit lost here and I could use some direction."

My eyes flew open to stare upward at the smoke stained ceiling of the temple as my voice fell silent of screams. Swallowing I forced myself to admit that in the fear and stress of this moment I had gone insane.

"You're not insane. Now where are you?" Came the voice from within me again. The voice in my mind had no tone to it, as it was more of a feeling than an audible sound, but there was something familiar about it. It was the man from Arn!

"One and the same. Now would you please tell me your name?" Came the voice in confirmation and then in question.

Speaking out loud and feeling none too sure of my sanity in doing so I said, "Haquara."

"Thank you Haquara. A very beautiful name and one that suits you well, I must say. Now, Haquara, where are you?"

"The tallest hill in the city inside the biggest of the temples located there." I said out loud again drawing the attention of a priest standing nearby.

"Got it." Came the silent response from within that somehow had a wealth of comfort to it in the way it impacted me positively.

Glancing past the suspicious priest I saw the near darkness of the horizon and with my lips quivering I said in as close to a tone of begging as I'd ever come to expressing in my life, "Please hurry!"

"I'm already here."

There was a commotion towards the other end of the temple hall and I flipped my head in that direction and strained to see as to what was going on. In shock, I watched as none other than Horgan was sent flying through the air to crash suddenly against a pillar and then with a dull, heavy sounding thump land face down upon the temple's marble floor.

I blinked as the man I had scarred with my blade strode with confidence across the expanse of the temple in route for me. Demon-men and priests alike that went to lay a hand upon him came only to find themselves hurled about as if caught in a sudden whirlwind. They were then viciously dashed off of pillars to then be discarded and fall like sacks of ripe melons hitting the floor hard.

Who was this man and by what power did he wield the strength of a god? Was he a god?

"No!" came the affirmative, one-word answer into my consciousness in answer to my last question.

In fear approaching that which I had felt for what the gods of my people could do, I gazed at him as he came in leaps and bounds up the stairs to suddenly be standing over me. The priests to my other side fled screaming and I didn't blame them.

There was an aura of power about this man that frightened me to the core of my soul and yet it was not fear of him stealing my soul so much as it was something within him and yet apart from him that was capable of so much more than I fully comprehended. He moved his hand and but touched the locks on my feet and my legs came free and then he was at my head and my hands came free of the altar, but an interlinking chain of gold remained between both of my wrists. This he did not free me from as he helped me sit up.

A bit of the aura of power about him dimmed or at least went out of my focus as I swung my legs over the side of the altar only to behold him gazing at me with all the passion a man could possess for a woman. Swallowing I sucked in my breath as his warm hands came up to frame about my bare waist and pick me up off the altar only to then slide me down his front.

My full breasts pressed upward and threatened to escape containment as he drug me down his front. As my sandaled feet touched down I moved back from him only to be brought up short by the altar at my back and the grasp of his hand upon the golden chain linking my wrists together.

Breathing heavy I watched his gaze rise to mine only to now hear his voice no longer though in my mind, but once more as audible as it had been in our morning encounter say, "It's time we left Princess."

"I am no longer a Princess." I said, not really knowing why I said it.

He shook his head and said, "You are the only true royalty this kingdom knows. Come with me now Princess." He pressed tugging softly on the chain he held.

"Why?" I asked past swollen lips.

"Because I want you and because I love you enough to never abandon you as you have been this night."

There it was as plain as day. This man meant to have me too, and yet surely it was different than the atrocities of this place.

Biting my lip I stayed where I was and nodding, he said as he released the golden chain, "Fine, have it your way." And then proceeded to turn away from me.

Utter and complete panic seized a hold of me and I jumped forward to take his hand with both of mine in a death grip if ever there had been one as I exclaimed, "No, please don't leave me here!"

He nodded and said, "Then take me to your room Haquara."

"Why?" I whispered out with and commandingly he responded back with, "Because I can think of no better place right now to turn a Princess into a Queen."

I felt hot blood rush to my face at the full implication of everything this man was saying. I had no choice, though.

Then again, I did have one. I could stay and be treated as the whore my father had willingly turned me over to become or I could go with this man who yet referred to me as a Princess and be solely his.

I stepped forward and whispering out barely loud enough to be heard I said, "This way."

He followed close behind me as I led him from the temple. We had barely cleared the temple when with a groaning explosion of stone the entire roof of it imploded downward with such force that not one pillar remained standing.

I had spun back around to stare open mouthed at the utter destruction of one of Ticonga's greatest landmarks, but the Ar'morian took my hand and urged me onward down the hill. Looking back over my shoulder at the complete devastation that the whole city was rushing to I couldn't but help wonder at what could have caused such a complete collapse.

Had the one God of the Ar'morians done this? What other explanation was there other than that He had.

In trepidatious fear I glanced to the Ar'morian as he hurried me along through the heavy shadowed landscape of my home city. I directed him up the back way into my quarters and with a shivery sigh of exhaustion from all the emotions spent in full this day that had become night I leaned back against a pillar and watched as the Ar'morian moved on into the room.

He went to the doors of the expansive chamber and locked them securely. At his actions I felt tension break loose within my loins and I came away from the pillar as some dazed part of me came to the realization of what was to come next.

He went about the room, then in an inquisitive exploration of it that was curious to behold as it seemed that he was genuinely interested in what he could find of my preferences. He came to me then and try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to move.

Truly where was there left for me to flee to? Nowhere.

I was without family or country and yet this man called me Princess. His hands picked up the chain that lay strung out between my hands that had risen up in case of the need to repel him. He gazed into my eyes and said, "I've wanted you from the very first moment I saw you this morning. You are the most beautifully exotic woman I have ever met, but you're more than your beauty. Much more. You have a good heart and I want it too, even as I claim you as my wife from this day forward."

"I am not..." I began to interject, but without warning and seemingly a bit out of character for his almost gentle persona he lifted the chain up between us and hooked it over a hook located far up the pillar that gave my upward stretched arms no more slack to move other than to stand as I was.

I felt myself begin to shake as the enormity of being at this man's complete mercy overtook me. The urge to bite him and kick at him rose strongly within me, but I did neither as his large fingers framed my face to hold it still for his kiss.

His kiss was gentle and yet passionate and again, I did nothing to fight this man off. Instead, I stood shaking within his grasp of my face not feeling at all my usual self.

He was gentle, but there was something else about him that completely overwhelmed me and left me standing unresisting as his lips traced down my neck only to then trace down and feast upon the exposed plains of my breasts. I blinked and blinked again as his thumbs rubbed possessively over my cloth covered nipples even as his tongue delved into the sweaty cleft between my breasts.

I looked over his head and closed my eyes as I felt his hands coast around to my back and take a firm anchoring grip on the clasp of my halter top. His strong hands pulled and the clasps gave way. The fabric slipped away and for the first time in my life I felt the sensation of having my breasts supported by the loving grip of a man's hands.

This man was a Prince of Ar'mora and I was a Princess without a home or a people who cared for me. In this moment it made sense to let this man claim me as his Queen as had he not fought for me? He had indeed and so I stood still beneath his touch.

I opened my eyes and felt a tremulous smile come to my lips as I beheld the most undeniably handsome man I'd ever seen, whether black, white, or brown holding my two breasts with his hands in a way that said he was far more than just pleased. His eyes glanced to mine and somewhat choked sounding he said, "You're beautiful!"

I took a deep breath and leaning forward I allowed my breasts to swell into his hands even more. The look of shocked delight on his face was sweet and I asked, "What is your name Prince?"

His glance rose to me as one eyebrow arched up slightly, "I don't quite care for how you asked that. Maybe you could try again." He said with a smile, but his grip tightened ever so slightly upon my chest and biting my tongue I asked in a softer tone, "What's your name?"

"Torin." He responded with obligingly.

Arching my back and pushing my breasts into his grasp even more, I asked, as I shook my wrists stretched up above my head, "Could you let me down please?"

Smiling, he kissed me and thinking became a bit fuzzy then as he extended the kiss until as he broke contact my own lips tried to follow him. Opening my eyes with frustration I was just in time to hear him succinctly say, "No."

Before I could object I found myself gasping instead as his wet mouth closed over one breast in a sucking clasp of its tender nipple. I blinked as his tongue began to press and play upon my nipple exploratively.

Biting my lip again, I tried to whether the extreme sensations he was invoking even as his hands slid down my sides to slip into the waistband of my skirt only to rip it wider so that with the release of his clasp it fell to the floor leaving me naked, except for the many golden bobbles that I was adorned with. I blinked and gasped out loud as his mouth's attentions transferred to my other turgidly tipped mound of aching delight.

I pressed myself back and writhed my bare bottom against the pillar's smoothness as the reality that this Ar'morian Prince intended to take me for the first time up against a pillar within my own room. There was nothing I could really do about it and yet I found myself at a loss to want to stop it.

I closed my eyes as his tongue aggressively licked my one nipple and the soft skin of my breast, even as his hands swept around me to grasp the cheeks of my bottom and stretch them apart with an intimacy of touch I had never experienced by a man upon my body before. In retrospect, there was nothing I really wanted other than to be where I was right now.

This man was no demon or filthy temple priest. No, he'd rescued me from something far worse than both and right now I was very glad to be back within my own room pressed up against one of my own pillars as he discovered all the secrets of my body with gentleness.

I gave up trying to stand and partially allowed myself to hang from my wrists as I felt one of his big fingers come up between my silken black thighs and press into the pink open heart of my womanhood. His questing finger found the tightness of my virginity, even as I moaned at the sensation of having a man's hand upon me and now even within me.

"Torin?" I breathed out passionately.

His lips left my breast as he straightened up before me, but his finger remained within me and was a cause for difficulty in speaking what I felt needed to be said, "I've never been with a man and I... I need to know something."

"And what is that Haquara?"

"Is all this just you using me for pleasure in the here and now or are you serious about me being your wife from this day forward?" I said, as I gazed into his eyes, even as his finger came to a standstill within me.

"Haquara this is for forever. You're my woman and my words were true in saying that I take you for my wife. Beyond this room and the here and now I will tell you this. Things are going to change. My people who have been slaves here are going free and your people are going to let them do so or they will reap the consequences. Tonight I claim you as my bride and tomorrow I will make an audience before your father the King. He will resist, but in the end he will let my people go, but in regards to you I will never let you go!"

There was the noise of something falling and looking down I witnessed that it had been his pants. His shaft now free of containment hung impressively erect before him and I couldn't help but feel unease at the thickness of his shaft.

It was well known that the men of my people were large when it came to their manhoods, but gazing now upon this white man's shaft I had to reflect, as I drug my tongue across suddenly dry lips, that there was simply nothing small about this man. My eyes rose to his even as he stepped close enough to let his shaft full of seed about to explode wet the skin of my belly.

I shook my arms beckoningly and to my surprise, he reached up and unhooked the chain. Gripping the golden chain with both hands before me he pulled with passion and the soft gold links pulled apart.

He let go of the chains and raising my hands, I let them grip down over his shoulders even as I hoisted myself further up the pillar aided by the grip of his hands. My breasts were now mashed up against his chest even as his hands gripped a hold of the halves of my bottom tightly.

I raised my legs and folded them together over his tight rear even as the pressure of his body against mine held me in place against the pillar. The tip of his shaft felt huge as it nuzzled among the folds of my womanhood and gazing into this man's face, who held me suspended above the ground, I breathily said, "Everything you've said sounds good. I accept you as my husband."

His impassioned face quirked slightly into a smile as he said, "Well, that is good to know Princess. Hold on to me."

Nodding, I clamped my thighs around him even as with a gasp of pain escaping my lips, he surged the thick length of his shaft upward into me. He continued to press forward until his shaft was fully to the hilt within me, even as it had torn through my virginity with relative ease.

For a moment, then I fought him as his plunging shaft began to pillage my insides with passionate thrust after thrust of his hips into me that left me feeling beyond overwhelmed. He didn't stop though and there was nothing I could do to escape the plunging hardness of him as I literally hung suspended up against the pillar at his mercy.

As time went on though it really wasn't all that painful. Overwhelming yes!

Crying out as a foreign feeling took place in my body I then screamed as an indescribable pleasure shot through the core of my being to cause me to grip tightly about my husband's shaft. One of his hands left from the support of the back of my thigh, leaving me even more suspended upon his shaft as the unknown waves of delight, so extreme they seemed painful rocketed through my body from the place he'd claimed as his.

Crying out in hysteria of emotion and foreign pleasure never before known to me, I felt myself shiver around his shaft as his big hand freed from the support of me closed down over my bare shoulder and pressed down with a forceful pressure that drove him even deeper up into me. My mouth falling open I cried out in a mixture of both expectation and alarm as I felt the heated thickness of his shaft withdraw most of the way out of me even as I felt the muscles of his buttocks bunch powerfully against the skin of my calves clamped tightly over his rear.

My body shaking in suspension and overcome with desire I admitted my need for him and begged, "Please!"

My eyes opened and stared into his as with shivery alarm I felt his second hand leave from its support of me. My bottom sank lower and as it did I was rooted once more onto his shaft, but not all the way and certainly not as deep as I wanted him and yet gazing into the fire of his eyes as his other hand came up to press down on my shoulder I despaired of being able to survive what was coming next.

Teeth gritted he passionately ground out in a timber a voice that made me shiver, "You're mine!"

I stared full on into his intense gaze as hanging fully suspended upon his shaft I felt his buttocks bunch and snap even as his hips drove forward and up. There was nowhere for my virgin sheath to escape to as with a white knuckled grip upon my shoulders, he held me solidly in place as his shaft went so deep it made me scream with discomfort and yet somehow it made me feel the highest intensity of pleasure that I had so far.

He held still locked within my depths as I shook with the force of his penetration into me and then it was as if a fountain went off in me. A fountain of his seed.

Despite the discomfort of his violence upon me, I felt myself once more engulfed in the grip of an orgasmic wave that left me screaming and saying unintelligible things as I hugged my conqueror's head to me, as his breath bellowed out as loud as a bull's, as he held still and delivered his seed deep into me. He had filled me to the deepest degree imaginable and with an exhaustive sigh, I slumped my head forward against his shoulder as the grip of orgasm released away from me, even as his own came to a full climax.

His hands left their bruising pressure on my shoulders. One swept down to once more help support me as the other swept around my head and hugged me to him tightly.

Not sure why, but feeling the answering pull of emotion I felt evoked by him my arms encircled around him tightly. His shaft slid free of me even as he swept my legs up with his arm to hold me against him.

With my face pressed up against him I could feel the intense throb of his heartbeat as his body shook to the thunderous pound of it. Feeling completely complacent, I conformed myself to this man as I breathed out my own rapid memory of all that had just occurred.

He moved away from the pillar with me cradled in his arms. Opening my eyes, I glanced over his muscled shoulder at the place that marked my transition from that of a Princess to this man's Queen.

The evidence of his possession was clear as with a slightly heady thrill I took in the sight of my virgin blood stained upon the pillar of my room along with the wet stain of my man's excessive amount of seed that I even now felt slipping from me in an erotic declaration of having well and truly been claimed.

He was laying me down and I let go of him as the soft perfumed covers of my bed touched conformingly against my bare skin. Straightening up my man stared down at me with an intensity of emotion that was alluring to behold.

This had been no simple orgasmic relief for this man. I could see that all too clearly written across his face.

What had just happened between us, though rooted in the physical had gone much deeper in terms of significance for him. He was clearly emotional in the face and I didn't think any the less of him for it.

Instead, I felt almost warmed up from within with a feeling of closeness that I had never had with a man before. I smiled and patted the bed beside me.

He glanced away and I saw his gaze take in the pillar that he had conquered me up against. His jaw moved and he looked hard-pressed for words, but he wasn't the type to step away from words needing to be said, that much I could see.

He had humility, which was something many of the men of my people had been without for over a thousand years it seemed. I lifted my hand up and grasped a hold of one of his and his gaze came back to me.

Softly I spoke meaning everything of what I said, "I know you won't be that hard upon me every time. I do hurt inside, but it's a good hurt. I'm glad it was you."

Then, feeling completely overwhelmed at the enormity of how different this night had gone from what it could of been like I said as tears came streaming out of my eyes, "Thank you for saving me! You don't know what you saved me from. I know you're a good man. I saw that this morning when I warned you. I'm glad you came. You're a stranger to me, but I know you care and I... I'll be your wife in every way. I promise that I will. That said, it might not be for long though if you really intend on appearing before my father tomorrow."

A lot of the stirred up emotion in his face left and squeezing my hand, he said, "Let God worry about that. Right now all I want to think about is you. Thank you Haquara for coming to warn us. Thank you for being forgiving of me in how I've been so rough with you. And I thank you most especially for your declaration of wanting to be my woman."

As he'd been speaking something had been happening. His shaft once more was rigid and the look of him down upon me was one of a male desiring possession of his woman yet again.

I was his woman, but the sight of his hard shaft with its thickness to spare had me apprehensive as to how it would feel within me as sore as I already felt. Not again, I silently begged, but I said nothing to indicate any refusal of the man I had just professed myself as belonging to.

His hand curved around my jaw and stroking his fingers along it, he brought my gaze back to his. He smiled kindly and said, "I'm not a monster. I know you need time. Trust me, there are a lot more ways for me to seek my pleasure of you than what we've already done. Do you have any massage oil handy?"

My gaze turned to one of open question and I really didn't want to express the thought of what came to mind at such a request. I glanced once more to his burgeoning desire in evident display right beside me and I felt myself go hollow feeling inside as I contemplated the size of my mate's manhood.

Among my people, it was a common practice, even a tradition, for wives to accept their husband's shaft not only where it had been designed for as a part of procreation, but up there rears as well. Surely he wouldn't force taking me in such a way on our first night together, even though it was the standard practice of my people to do so.

It didn't matter if he did, though. It was his right to if he wished and I knew that should he not have intervened as he had this night my rear entrance would've been used more severely than the rest of me as the temple priests delighted in that practice more so than any natural practice of procreation.

Closing my eyes, I pointed with one hand to a nearby table that had jars on it. I heard him leave to go there and opening my eyes, I stared after him.

My gaze drifted over the muscled planes of his back to his tight muscular rear. I liked his butt.

I closed my eyes again, though as the imagery of him soon spreading my bottom apart to claim it with his shaft became a real fear. I'd rather him take me within my sore sheath again before him doing that to me.

I lay there fiercely wanting to speak up and object. In fact, I wanted to scream. Wasn't one virginity enough for one night?

He was back at the bed and I heard him set the jar of oil down beside it. Mentally, I prepared myself for his command to roll over and present him with my bottom.

Instead, my eyes flared open as I felt the bed depress under the weight of his knee. I looked up at him in surprise as his other knee came down alongside of me.

He was straddling my belly and lightly he let his bottom down to rest against my naval. His erection was right there before me and not knowing what was going on or what to think, I let my hands nervously settle down onto his hard thighs.

Did he want me to pleasure him with my mouth? He was too far away for that though.

Uncertainly, I asked, as he dipped his hand into the perfumed oil of the nearby jar, "What are you doing?"

Giving me a direct look that had a smile in it, he asked, as he slid his large oily hand back and forth over his shaft in a display of self-stimulation that was oddly alluring, "What do you want me to do?"

Feeling choked past the point of speaking, I floundered about as to what to say as the sight of his now very oily shaft really said only one thing was in store for me. I closed my eyes and lips, only to feel his lips kiss me sweetly.

Opening my eyes to gaze into his suddenly close set gaze was only to hear him say with humor, "I'm not a monster Haquara."

The answer was there to be seen in his smiling gaze. It was apparent that he knew what I was afraid of him doing.

He straightened back up and I let my breath ease out softly as some part of me relaxed and trusted him a little more than before. Still the question was what was he going to do to me?

His hand dipped into the jar again and then he brought it up to then drizzle the oil into a pool between my breasts that he now gazed hungrily upon. His hand lowered and massaged the oil about the valley between and then slightly up the rounded slopes of my breasts. That done, he raised his gaze to mine.

I knew what he wanted and with my breath caught in my throat, I raised my hands and pressed my now very engorged breasts together snugly. I'd never heard of a man doing such a thing as this and for some reason it both startled and aroused me.

Breathing heavy he slid up my torso slightly and then leaning forward to rest his hands on the bed above my head, I felt the drag of his heavy balls against my rib cage as the head of his oily shaft penetrated into the pressed together cleft of my breasts. There was a moment of stillness and then on a slow slide he stroked his entire shaft forward and the oily length of it disappeared even as the head of it now reappeared to me.

There was just something about the moment that seemed both very sweet and wildly uninhibited. This man was making love to my breasts!

I stared incredulously about as I watched his abs twitch and flex above me even as the thickness of him made snug passage through my breasts again and again. A consuming thought arose within me that I silently expressed in one unsaid statement, 'I wanted him!'

I wanted this man! He was a complete stranger who'd taken me up against a pillar in my own childhood room and now it felt like he was branding me with his possession of my body and yet I loved it!

Breathing heavy I took in the sounds of his moans, even as my eyes were filled with the erectness of his shaft, as I pressed my breasts together for his pleasure. In no way what he was doing to me hurt and I felt tears slide out of the corners of my eyes as I realized again, as if for perhaps the first time how sweet this man was.

He wasn't a warrior in the sense of the men who filled the ranks of the Empire's army, but he had the strength of a different kind of warrior. He was emotional and kind. He was considerate and thoughtful.

He was totally unlike any of the men who had pressed for my hand in marriage over the years. He didn't want to dominate me into subservience like they had.

Instead, it seemed that he was just more interested in being with me. I'd never had anyone who wanted just me the way I was.

His heavy breathing was deeper now and on a particularly deep instroke through the tightly pressed cleft of my breasts I leaned my head forward and formed the fullness of my lips around the head of his shaft in a wet kiss. He groaned and held still only then to press harder to the point that I almost couldn't hold my breasts together.

Exploratively I penetrated the tip of his shaft with my tongue and had my first taste of a man. He was salty and the taste of him was exotic and somehow I wanted more of it.

With a groan, he pulled back his hips and the head of his shaft popped free of my lips. I let my head fall back to the bed even as he straightened up to look down at me.

His shaft had withdrawn from my cleavage and smiling shyly I let my hands fall away from the mounds of my engorged chest. He was breathing hard and was the epitome of a man in the grip of passion.

That said, he looked as if lost in the moment as to how to express something of importance. That was all right as I already knew what he wanted.

Reaching my hand up to grasp his right arm above the elbow I pulled hard upon the muscled sinews I found there and he willingly toppled over to the side and gave up straddling me on the bed. Raising up over him I looked him in the eye for a long moment before with a smile I closed my hand about the base of his shaft.

He was a handful and I felt a thrill at the feel of him in my hand. Giving him a look of sensual seduction I kept eye contact as I lowered my head and pursed my lips back over the head of his shaft in a wet sucking clasp of his flesh. He closed his eyes and groaned and I felt myself chuckle even as a pleasurable wave of power swept through me.

Squeezing my hand rhythmically I made short up-and-down strokes upon the base of his shaft, as I continued with the assault of my willing mouth upon the head of his shaft, which less than an hour before had held me impaled and suspended up off the floor. Now, as I tasted and played with this man's strength, I found myself both in delightful awe and curiosity of how his manhood worked.

The sight of my black skin and pink palms next to the robustness of his engorged red and brown shaft was beautiful. His hips remained thoughtfully stationary as I sensed him fight against the urge to thrust upward into my mouth. He was very much a gentleman.

I saw his stomach muscles knot up tightly and I knew what was coming. I changed my playful grasp of him to a sucking clasp and instantly he cried out gutturally and began to spurt his seed into my mouth.

I gagged slightly at first, as I received the full taste of him, but I forced the urge to vomit back and continued on sucking his seed down my throat, even as I coaxed it from him with my lips and tongue. The cries of his pleasure were loud and I found myself desirous of yet making them louder still and to that end, I tried until at last his orgasm came to an end.

Squeezing just below the head of his shaft with my hand, I forced out the last milky dribble of his seed and I licked it cleanly away with a flick of my tongue. I let go of his shaft, then and looking upward, I took in his sweaty brow and exhausted demeanor with pride.

I had pleased him greatly and I had enjoyed every moment of doing it. Exhaustion then seemed to hit me and I gave in easily to the beckoning motion of his hand.

Crawling up the bed on my hands and knees, I then slipped down to lay my head on his arm as I lay myself half up against his chest. It only seemed natural to splay my thigh out over top of his, even as I relished the feel of his hand stroking down to press against my back and begin playing with my hair.

Peace, I had never felt so much peace before. I slid my fingers through the curly mat of hair on his chest wonderingly.

His other hand rose up and arrested my fingers by entwining with them and squeezing my hand, he said, "Thank you for doing that! Everything with you is so much better than I ever imagined it would feel like to be with a woman."

I lifted my head up with surprise and stared into his nearby gaze and asked, "Haven't you had that done to you before?"

"No." He said honestly shaking his head.

I blinked and then point blankly asked, "Why not?"

"Because I haven't been married to anyone before you."

Blinking repetitively now I asked out loud in a quiet voice, "You've never been with a woman before me?"

Smiling a bit sheepishly, he said, "I've never so much as kissed a woman before you. You are my first."

I stared at him in shock for a long moment before laying my head back down on his arm as I tried to think out what a possible solution could be for such a handsome studly man like him to never have been with a woman before. Not finding one I raised my head again to look at him.

I'd been his first even as he had been mine. Being in my position as a Princess of the realm it was expected for me to be a virgin, but in all my life I'd never heard of a man being a virgin by the time he claimed a wife for himself let alone a prince in his own right.

"Does it bother you that I was a virgin?" He asked into the stillness of the room.

I shook my head no and let it fall back against his shoulder even as I pressed my nose into the pit of it and breathed in the sweaty essence of him. How very different he was from all other men I had known!

I attempted to snuggle even closer as suddenly all I wanted was to be with the man who I could boast as having only ever been with me. His arm pulled me a little tighter, but with worry in his tone of voice he started saying, "I know I have some skills to learn. Frankly, I feel like I've let you down. I..."

I cut off all further speaking by placing my hand over his mouth. I closed his mouth and for a moment caressed his lips without looking at him before letting my hand drift away to rest splayed out over his stomach.

Feeling on the verge of tears again, I blinked repeatedly to clear them away. This man was a treasure. A treasure that I should never let get away.

My eyes suddenly felt heavy lidded and I closed them and drifted off dreamily to ponder upon the feeling of how happy inside I felt for the first time in a very long time. I fell asleep as I pondered further on just how long of a time that had been.

~~~~~~~

Torin stared up at the shadows of dancing torchlight upon the ceiling of this palatial suite of a Princess that had now witnessed her being claimed as his Queen. Outside the open doorway of the room's balcony he could hear the tumult of a city on edge over the collapse of their greatest temple.

His mind wanted to delve into the running of scenarios as to how tomorrow would go, but he resisted against it. Sufficient were the evils of tomorrow without having to think about them now.

Right now he let the whole focus of his absorption rest upon the naked woman pressed lovingly up against him. How his life had radically changed for the better!

He had felt like a different man when he'd claimed her up against the pillar and made her his. Afterwards he had almost felt embarrassed for the way he had been, but she hadn't seemed to notice.

He had felt it selfish of him to use her for pleasure again so soon after the first time, but there was nothing he regretted about the imagery of her lying there with her graceful hands willingly squeezing her ample sized breasts together for his enjoyment of them. She'd entirely shocked him by what she'd done by taking him into her mouth like she had.

Such an action told him that she must like him despite everything and yet for the life of him, he couldn't imagine what it was as she seemed so far and above anything he could ever deserve.

It was a joy to even be near her. The feel of her soft skin and the rise and fall of her breasts against him as she slept made him achingly erect with the need for release that only she could provide, but he remained still.

He would not disturb her. Instead he took advantage of the moment to feel unhindered the contours of a woman's body that he had been denied the pleasure of experiencing for so long.

Silently, he reveled in the act of letting his free hand softly mold over the fullness of her breast resting against his chest. He kept his touch light as he didn't want to wake her, but it was hard to refrain from doing so.

"Thank you God for this. I.... thank you." He said for lack of better words for what it was like to finally be able to run his hands over the body of his mate.

She'd been worth the wait and yet he worried how he would be able to consistently impress a strong woman like her and yet she seemed to be more than pleased to be where she was. To him that was a very good thing. A miracle really.

Smiling contentedly Torin allowed himself to drift off to the sleep as the city outside continued to tear itself apart with the upheaval of the destruction of something they had elevated in importance to being of higher value than the stones that they had crafted it of.