The Marechal Chronicles: Volume V, The Tower of the Alchemist Read Free

she whispered, “Go slowly, my sweet Jacq.”
    He nodded, then moved gently with an exquisite slowness that left her breathless.
    Their mouths found one another again.  Their hands were clasped as they rocked against one another until Jacq began to tremble once again.
    Suddenly he was outside of Catherine and she understood why.  She reached for him and felt her own juices that had rendered his cock slick upon her palm.
    Jacq shuddered and arched his neck back, then Catherine felt the heat of him as he released to spill himself in powerful thrusts while still held in her grasp.
    He sagged and took a deep breath, then lowered himself down upon her once more.
    Then it was his hand that found its way between Catherine's legs to touch the tender kernel at her apex.
    Her hips bucked as he did it.  Her breath caught, then a low moan escaped her.
    Taking confidence in her reaction, Jacq continued to stroke her there, ever so gently, until Catherine was rising up to meet him with a rhythm that matched his own.
    Catherine felt the approach of something that was at once agonizing and delicious.  She felt herself become like a wild animal under his hand and all shame washed away as she rose up and up and up, then cried out and clamped her legs together hard with his hand trapped between them.
    Every muscle in her body answered the call of his fingers as she wrapped herself around him.  Every part of her trembled and clenched over and over and with a fleeting, wild thought, she had time to think that it was like being born into a bonfire only to die an instant death before being born to die again in the next moment.
    And, it was lovely.
    Together, they fell down in one another's arms and held each other for a long moment.  The sun shone down upon them and their lovemaking as if giving its blessing to the young couple lying among the ferns in the meadow.
     
    And now they ran under dark skies.
    His hand was just as warm as it had been that first time in the meadow, and Catherine smiled as she thought of the strawberries that day and of the irony that they were not the best fruit she had tasted with the boy who had become her man.
    The wind rustled the leaves overhead, and she risked a few whispered words in the darkness as they ran.
    “Jacq.  Is it much further?  I can't tell where we are or how far we've come.”
    The young man drew up short and closed the distance between them, the firm grip of his hand still upon her own.
    “We're almost there, my darling.  Everything is prepared as I promised you.  We've provisions enough to last us several weeks on the road at least.”
    Despite her excitement for the adventure they were about to undertake, Catherine shivered.
    “My family will think I was spirited away,” she said.
    Jacq chuckled.
    “Look, they're not like the old folk who blame everything on old tales of monsters who steal away children in the night … “
    “But what about the Boar?” she said, interrupting him.
    “Never mind about the Boar.  There is no such creature carrying off young lovers from Urrune.  The whole idea of it is ridiculous.”
    She did not have to remind him that it had been less than a month since another young couple had disappeared from the village.
    François and Heloise.  The two had been inseparable since the debut of summer and so much in love that it brought a smile to everyone's faces when they passed them by in the street.
    The woodcutter's son had beamed with pride for the young woman who held his arm, and Heloise, the eldest of the town baker's brood, had simply glowed with adoration for François.
    The sight of them had been in stark contrast to the tales that were being told of young people in the neighboring towns disappearing and that it would only be a matter of time before Urrune would be stricken as well.
    “Look, Catherine.  I knew François well enough and I know just as well that he would have never let some pig running around at night come between him and