Tell Me You Love Me 11
Willing Possession
Kyuzo stood in front of his door as the village elder stood in front of his house. "How is the princess?" Chief Li asked trying to peer around the heavy canvas clad samurai.
"The lady sleeps..." Kyuzo began but was cut off as Kureha stirred behind him.
"Kyuzo, don't leave me... alone,"Kyuzo turned away from the door leaving the village elder and the town staring at his back as he went to Kureha's side. "They will take me again," She began to sob.
"I fear the trauma may have upset her." Kambei said as he stood to his feet from his position of standing guard at the door.
"We come in support of the Princess of Dawn. These two couples were set to be married next week." Chief Li indicated two young couples.
One of the young men stepped forward and looked past Kambei to Kyuzo who sat beside Kureha stroking her hand as she drifted back to sleep. Once she was immobile in slumber he came to Kambei's side. He along with the other young man and their intended got to their knees. "In respect of the Princess of Dawn, we will postpone our weddings until she is well enough to perform the dawn rites." Kyuzo stood still as the young man got to his feet. "You have earned the town's deepest gratitude for not only rescuing us from the tyranny of the Nobuseri, but also in rescuing the Princess. We hope that you will honor us soon in making her the Queen of Dawn."
Kyuzo frowned and his eyes searched the crowd for Gorobei. He found the other samurai smiling at him and nodding. "She is a princess until she bears her fist child... then she will be a queen." Gorobei explained. "You married her because you love her, I allowed it because she loves you." Gorobei stepped aside to thank the couples for their support as well as Chief Li when Shichiroji and Katsushiro went to him.
"Yes," Kyuzo said when the two simply stood.
"It is only after the report from our wives, after they checked her out, that the village showed support. Despite what you and Gorobei said, they believed she had been tainted."
"I checked her," Kyuzo reiterated.
"We know, but the town is superstitious about the purity of their Priestesses. It is only because Kirara is a priestess as well that they believed her so readily." Shichiroji explained, "On the bright side of this very weird picture, they now hold you...us...but mostly you in the highest regard. Too bad we have to leave soon."
"Leave?" Kyuzo said aiming a worried frown inside the house where his wife slept while Kambei and Gorobei lead the townspeople away.
"Still a man of few words," Shichiroji said when Katsushiro looked to where Kirara was holding her small tummy and stirring dinner. "We are putting them all in danger. The sooner we go take care of the remnant the better off they will all be."
Kyuzo nodded his amber eyes aglow with the sad thought of leaving his bride. "How soon?"
"Two words, you are on a roll friend," Shichiroji's smile faded as Kyuzo merely raised a brow at him. "We can stay maybe a few more weeks, to give you time with her, to settle her fears, but even that is pushing the limit."
"Hardly seems fair," Kikuchiyo said in his whining rattle. "He has barely been married more than a month and he's got to leave her."
"Shut up Kikuchiyo," Shichiroji said as he left the area leaving the house under the singular guard of Kambei once again.
-
Kureha sat up in bed feeling her heart sink as she realized that she was alone. They had been home for over a week and every night, she was in bed long before her husband and awake after he had gone. Kureha moved slow as she gathered her things to leave the futon. Lady Yukina, the wife of the other samurai, had assured her that with time they would return to normal. Kureha sighed, tomorrow she would be performing the Dawn Rites for two of her dearest friends and their future husbands. All of her wounds had healed, she had only a few scratches left. Kureha bathed and dressed looking out to see Kyuzo on the beach practicing with his sword. As soon as her foot left the house, he turned and met her somber stare.
Kyuzo's heart wept for the delicate beauty of his wife as she stood wearing only a white sheath and an overlarge covering that had been made to fit him. "Why do you wear that?" Kyuzo asked as she approached him. He sheathed his swords so that he could take her hands in his own.
"Lately," Kureha forced herself to meet his gaze. "It is the only way I can feel you surrounding me." Kyuzo gasped when he saw the tears brim and overflow in her deep brown eyes. "I... I mean... Almost all of my wounds are gone, yet still you do not..."
Kyuzo pressed his lips to Kureha's silencing any more she could have said. In that moment Kureha got a taste of just the amount of passion he held inside for so long. "Not a day passes that I do not desire to kill him once more. This violence that lives within me could harm you."
"These hands," Kureha looked down and traced the lines on Kyuzo's palm. "Have shown me much. I know there is violence here, you would not now be alive otherwise. But there is also gentleness here, and love and passion and pleasure." Kureha felt her cheeks heat, but she continued. "All I seem to recall is pain, show me pleasure before you are again taken from me."
"You know?" Kyuzo said still resisting the urge to devour her while they yet stood on the beach. Correctly reading the banked fire in Kyuzo's eyes, Kureha smiled at him then turned her back to walk into their home the ends of his white coat trailing in the sand behind her. Kyuzo swore in self-disgust as he followed like a devoted canine.
"Lady Kirara and her husband were discussing it while they thought I slept." Kureha admitted with a grin as she entered the house. "I would rather you leave for a short time, than have a war here that would endanger our home. I know you will return," Kureha said wrapping her arms around herself she closed her eyes as the scent of Kyuzo wafted from his clothes that she had worn.
"How? It is a perilous battle, we barely survived the first one with the Nobuseri. Now this remnant does not have the cocky assurance of their predecessors, but a raw determination that stems from desperation. I think Kambei realizes this, but the others have not. Especially Katsushiro."
"You realizing it, lets me know that you will come home to me. But first, before you leave, remind me that I am yours." Kureha stood before him swathed in white and bathed in the bright golden rays of the sun.
"You have always been mine, you just did not know it," Kyuzo said as he took her into his arms his lips stealing her breath in the wild possession he claimed. Kureha melted into his arms a fragrant flower wilting in the power of his mighty heat her dulcet sighs spurring him to ravage her, yet his love encouraging his hands to gentleness. Kureha sighed into his mouth as firm hands gripped her hips in a gentle kneading pulling the sheath up. As her body was exposed Kureha placed her hands on the heavy red canvas coat. Without a word Kyuzo pulled the sheath completely away from his wife and tossed it to the other side of the room. He shrugged out of the coat as soon as her nimble fingers had worked the buttons loose.
"Kyosuke, I love you," Kureha whispered under the fall of fluffy golden hair. Kyuzo trembled at the breathy words sitting his nude wife upon the bed, he began to remove his black clothing allowing them to fall where they landed. Kureha drank in the vision of him standing proud before her. He took a step and her body warmed watching the corded muscles under his smooth skin. "You are truly beautiful."
"No, it is you lady, that is the beauty," Kyuzo sat beside her taking Kureha into his arms he stroked her sides. Kyuzo felt her body tremble under his hands as he listened to her breath catch. His hands stilled as their eyes collided.
"Do not stop," Kureha moaned. "I love your hands." Kyuzo smiled and reached up to cup a firm bosom marveling at its plump tenderness. Kureha closed her eyes as her husband pinched the rosy peak. As her head dropped back Kyuzo licked a burning trail up her neck to her ear, over her cheek and finally he claimed her lips drinking in her sighs. "Kyo-Chan," Kureha moaned the endearment sitting snug against Kyuzo with his arm around her and his free hand tormenting the sensitive bud of flesh she gasped feeling heat pool in her belly and lower. Kyuzo thought he would die of pleasure as the scent of her arousal traveled to his nose. Kyuzo lowered his head to her bosom drinking in the rapture of her cries of pleasure as he suckled the delicious morsels that stood on end after his ministrations.
Kureha did not know when Kyuzo had laid her back, but she looked up at his face as he lay over her kissing her lips with wild abandon. Kureha spread her legs for his weight to nestle in and gasped as he pushed her knees up. "You will taste me again?" She asked panting with the need to feel him touch her.
"I can not help this strange addiction to you," Kyuzo muttered slipping between her spread legs. He took a moment to appreciate the glorious sight of her glistening as her body wept with need. He inhaled deeply sucking in her scent commiting the sweet musk to memory so that he could savor it on the long, cold nights ahead. Kureha yelped at the first feel of his agile tongue along the outer rim of her weeping womanhood. With a smile Kyuzo parted her with his fingers then trailed his tongue over every inch of her tasting her. Kureha squirmed, bringing her hips up and then down silently begging him to touch her more. With a smirk Kyuzo ceased using just the tip of his tongue and began braid licks that had his wife crying his name in surrender. He felt her wetness increase and inserted a finger into the tight heat of her and was rewarded with her body contracting tightly around the slim digit. Kureha cried out loudly as her body tumbled off the edge of ecstasy.
Kureha was still trembling when he entered her body with one smooth thrust impaling her on his passion. Kyuzo groaned wrapping her legs tighter around his waist he began deep thrusting that left them both panting. Kureha cried out his name as her body was driven to release again. Feeling the contractions of her pleasure massage his engorged member Kyuzo gasped and buried himself deep spilling his seed within her womb. Kyuzo held his wife as she shuddered underneath him pleasure leaving her senses swamped she burst in sobs holding him close. "I know you must leave," Kureha sobbed. "I would that you would stay by my side, but you are a samurai and I knew it when we wed... but... I will miss your presence. I beg of you to come back to me."
"You had to make this difficult for me," Kyuzo said kindly as he wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Smile for me beautiful dancer. I want to take your smile with me when I go."
"Only if you promise to return it," Kureha said at his nod a tremulous smile graced her lips. Kyuzo kissed her mouth and the smile was forgotten as they both became lost in the joy of each other's body knowing that soon they would be apart.
-
Damn it... he missed her. Katsushiro was not making it any better with his sighs as he lamented the fact that Kirara would be doing fabulous things with her pregnancy and he would see none of it. Heihachi sighed as well holding onto a letter from Shino one of the girls from Kanna village. Who would have thought that Monzo, the greatest coward of them all would have such a beautiful daughter. He was still opposed to her being with a samurai, so their letters were in secret. Passed off as correspondence to the water priestess. How would they continue this farce? Kyuzo wondered, considering they had left Lonnieu over a week ago. Which brought him back to his original thought. Damn it... He missed her.
Even in the midst of the drizzle that had left them all damp and cranky he thought of his wife and his heart warmed. Kyuzo frowned causing Kambei to look at the younger man. That fierceness, Kambei thought, he had hoped that Kyuzo would relax some with a lady of his own. Kambei had seen some gentleness in the man when he was with her, but as soon as they had left the village, the aura of a hardened criminal settled over him like a cloak. More confining than his heavy canvas coat.
"How long til we find them," Kikuchiyo grumbled folding his arms. "Any more of this damn drizzling weather and I am going to rust."
"Quiet, you great lummox," Kambei said with a smirk. "If you were any kind of tracker, you would realize that we had already found them, or rather, they have found us." Kikuchiyo paused and looked around. He saw Heihachi sitting in tense readiness, while Shichiroji leaned back with his eyes closed feigning sleep.
"How many Sensei?" Katsushiro asked not embarrassed to admit that he was unaware of the number.
"This is a small scouting party," Kambei said. "Just about fifteen."
"Not one should be allowed to make it back to camp," Katsushiro said readying himself for battle even as the sound of metal leaving leather could be heard and the remnant of the Nobuseri attacked. Kyuzo felt the explosion of his blood in his veins as his weapons began to clash with the enemy. Their screams meant nothing to him. A sword came dangerously close to his leg and he jumped up, flipping over, he touched down on a rock, only to use it as a launch point to take the would-be murderer's arm. As the man screamed Kyuzo shoved one of his blades in through the man's chin and ripped forward splitting his face in half. Blood covered him, but he moved on. Yanking his arm around he used his other weapon to take a man's head.
Kambei ducked as a pole was launched at him bringing his sword up, he plunged the weapon into an assailants chest. Twisting he liquefied the man's heart and yanked his sword out not waiting to hear the sickening thud of his body falling to the ground. Moving on Kambei sliced into another bandit taking this one's hand, he moved on to his leg and finally his head was taken.
Katsushiro took a deep breath. He had to end this quick and return home. Kirara would not deliver his child without him. The sooner this was over, the sooner he would return to her. Those thoughts spurred his hands as he delivered death swiftly to the men that attacked him. They were all breathing great gasps of air as the last man fell in a heap of his own flesh dead on the bloody ground before them.
"We should move," Kyuzo said cleaning his blades before sliding them home in their sheath. "They came from the north, so it is safe to head in that direction."
"Eager to slay them in their nest?" Gorobei asked flexing his new arm. He had been pleasantly surprised to find that he could fight as well as he ever could. "Or are you eager to return to your lovely wife?" Kyuzo said nothing, but Gorobei grinned when he saw the great samurai lower his head to hide his reddened cheeks. The corner of Kambei's lips lifted when Katsushiro nodded his agreement to wanting to be with his own wife.
"We should finish what we started," Kyuzo said with his back to the group.
"Oh come on now," Kikuchiyo laughed loudly stomping in the direction of the Nobuseri encampment stepping over the large metal machines and corpses of unfortunate men not given any protection from the samurai's blades. "Just admit that you miss your wife." Kyuzo unsheathed one of his blades and threw it at Kikuchiyo. The hulking machine samurai dropped to the ground and stared behind him at the blade quivering where it stood on end in the breast plate of a bright pink machine. Kyuzo gave Kikuchiyo a bland look then headed off to finish the job. Taking his blade back he smirked over at Kikuchiyo where he was getting slowly to his feet. Kikuchiyo was silent for a least fifteen minutes afterward as they continued their journey.
-
Kureha sighed as she watched Kirara stir the soup with Lady Yukina. Both of them were unconcerned as their men still did not return. It would be a month tomorrow since they had left. "You need to rest now," Yukina said to Kureha just as Kirara sat on a chair. "You especially need your strength." Kureha nodded as she looked out of her window. Now, she was not only waiting for her brother, but her husband as well. With a heavy sigh Kureha swallowed bile and went to find a chamber pot while Yukina and Kirara looked on. Oh Kyuzo, Kureha thought with tears. Do come home soon.
To Be Continued.
