Free Covet Not by Arden Aoide

trying not to
spread her legs wider. He loved that by the end, she's panting in his mouth,
with her hands gripping his shoulders tightly. She was his completely, and he
never had to ask. She just gave.
    He
found himself wanting her to want him. Was it fair for him to ask for that when
she hadn't a choice previously? He frowned and stepped back a few inches.
    She
dropped her hands from his shoulders. “Have I done something to...displease
you?”
    He
opened his mouth, then closed it. It took a few moments to speak. “You are my
wife.”
    She
nodded, unsure of his point.
    “We
didn't get to choose, but I was happy at the wedding, unexpected though it
was.” He stepped in close to her again, and her legs spread for him. He pressed
both fists on either side of her hips. “You were my punishment, and I think
it's the grandest cosmic joke ever.”
    “You're
behaving strangely.”
    He
knew that he was, but something about her today...the novelty of having her was
evolving into a near disbelief. He laughed quietly, and moved in slowly. “I am your shepherd,” he whispered close to her ear.
    “My
shepherd? I don't understand.”
    “Do
you know what Shulamith means?” He breathed against her cheek.
    She
shook her head, more to clear it than to exclaim a negative. “Father says that
it was just another woman in Solomon's harem. I tried to read more about it,
but Father kept the Bible under lock and key.”
    Jared
hadn't any sisters, so it was a strange concept to him. “Shulamith was married
to Solomon, but she was in love with a shepherd. I think your mother named you
thus, in protest.”
    A
bit of a weight lifted. “How would she have known?”
    “She
had many brothers, did she not?” Jared asked patiently.
    “Yes,”
Shula breathed. She felt tears prickle her eyes. Her mother wanted her to love.
Of course she did. What mother wouldn't? “Our children. I don't–”
    “Shhh.
We're not having children until my father is dead. There wasn't a child clause
in the contract your father signed with mine, and there wasn't a new one.”
    Shula
breathed out, relieved. It was foolish that this was their first discussion
about it. Then she remembered. “You want to be my shepherd.”
    “Yes,”
he hissed, and pressed his hands against her hips. He slid his denim-clad
erection against her. “Are you fertile, right now?”
    “Oh,”
she gasped and shook her head. She would start in the next seventy-two hours.
Her breasts were already achy.
    She
raised her hand to his face and sucked in a breath when he nuzzled her palm.
“Why?”
    “I
won't lie, Shulamith. You could have me begging for your touch within a second.
I would worship you, if you commanded it.” He kissed her palm.
    Her
body seized with the blasphemy of it all. “Oh, God, why? ”
    He
pressed his forehead to hers. Why wouldn't she just kiss him already. “Is it so
hard to believe that I desire you?”
    She
raised her hand to her hair. She shook her head to deny the possibility.
    “You
think I'm just going through the motions?” He gripped her wrist and pulled her
hand toward his heart. “I fell in love with you on our wedding day. I admired
your beauty before, but it was your blatant disregard for beauty that made me
want you. That makes you beautiful to me. The most beautiful thing that owns me
utterly–”
    She
opened her mouth against his, just to breathe in his breath. Never would she
let herself believe that love would be her fate. Duty had been drilled into her
head since she was a child, but never this. Never something like this. She
understood the significance of her name. She melted completely against him. She
felt his moan before she heard it. She raised her arms as he lifted the shirt
from her. He touched her with fingers and palms everywhere he could reach. Her
bra had five hooks in the back that he pawed at ineffectually, before he
growled and held her still. She felt the cold, blunt metal of the knife against
her back, but before she could