AN: Things are going to be kind of peaceful over the next few chapters, but that's mostly to set the stage for the excitement later. Hopefully I can keep the 'calm' chapters interesting:-)
AN2: I added on an extra part to the end of chapter 4. It's not essential to the plot, but I thought it helped smooth the transitions a little bit. It might be fun to check out.
Normally Danen would've protested a feast in his house. It would've felt too much like his days at court. However, tasting food prepared by his new wife's sisters-in-law, and drinking wine for the first time in ages quickly put his doubts to rest. He ate more than his fill, and always found his cup full when he drank.
Leda, his young bride, had been unveiled to him only hours before, during the ceremony at her father's house. She wasn't a ravishing beauty, but her features were pleasing. She had large green eyes that betrayed both her youth and a mischievous nature. She giggled often with the younger members of her female kin, casting quick, mysterious glances in Dane's direction—yet she never strayed far from his elbow all through the night.
Danen suspected she was the reason he never saw the bottom of his wine glass. He wondered if the thought of getting him obscenely drunk amused her. From what he'd seen of her personality thus far, the thought did seem to fit her character.
Good thing she didn't know he had an exceptional tolerance for alcohol. Achilles had seen to that.
It wasn't too late in the evening when Dane's new relatives at last gave the four of them their peace. After three days of preparing for, and participating in ceremonies, it was time for the new couples to have the privacy necessary to consummate their marriages.
Patroclus and his shy wife slipped away to their bedroom soon after the guests left. Danen remained seated at the table, considering the girl cleaning up after him.
She couldn't have been much older than sixteen. They weren't as far apart in age as was custom, but there was a definite gap separating them.
At last his dark-haired bride approached him, taking both his hands in hers. "Come, my husband. The dishes are done, and it's time to get you out of that chair," she said, grinning wickedly at him.
"Aren't you all vibrant, glowing energy," he commented sardonically, his head fuzzy, in spite of his tolerance.
She pulled him to his feet with some difficulty. Dane nearly sank back down into his chair, feeling light-headed at getting up after sitting so long. Leda's small arms wrapped about his waist, and she gripped tight to balance him.
"You're bigger than my brothers," she admitted, getting under his arm to help him along once he regained his balance, and smiling at the thought. "Perhaps that's why you were able to drink so much, and remain conscious."
Dane raised one eyebrow at her, letting some of his weight lean on her shoulders, even though he didn't need the help in walking. "Was it a contest then? A dare your brothers put you up to, seeing how much I could hold?"
Leda smirked. "No. I wanted to see what kind of a drunk you were. My father can still take me back if you prove unfit."
A lazy smile touched Dane's features, and he chuckled at his bride's wiles. "I will have to be careful with you, Leda. You're not so innocent as you appear. Hopefully, you're not as vicious, either."
They entered Dane's bedroom together, and sat down on the edge of his bed. Leda got up to latch the door, leaving him to sit alone. He used the opportunity to remove his shoes, tossing them into some dark corner of the room where the soft lamplight didn't extend.
Slow, measured steps brought his young wife before him. Through the fog in his head, he recognized she'd changed clothes without him noticing. The robe she wore was made of a lighter cotton, and it nicely accented her body's curves. She stood before him prepared to become his, totally and completely.
"Do you require anything?" she asked, running her fingers through his hair.
He shook his head, glancing up at her face. She was beautiful, standing over him. Her cool hands caressed his neck, and the warm sides of his face. She smiled, blushing slightly in reponse to his hungry gaze, appearing shy for the first time that night.
"Much of this is new to me," Dane admitted, reaching out to take hold of one of her hips. He liked the feel of the thin robe covering her body, so he reached out to grasp her other hip as well.
Her small hands squeezed his shoulders in return. Leda smirked at him. "Are you saying you're a virgin too, my love? If that's true we should cure each other immediately, or else we might cower in fear of the unknown for the rest of our lives."
Dane smiled. The girl amused him. Beyond that, she made him feel things he'd only experienced in moderation before. All evening, her short teasing looks, and the way she'd stayed by his side had invited him to like her. Now, sitting on his bed, with her scent all around him, he felt the intensity of his need growing by the second.
"I have only one request of you, Danen," she said softly, moving closer so she could place a knee on each side of him, straddling his lap. Her buttocks fit perfectly in his hands, and he squeezed without conscious thought, pleased when he felt a shiver go through her.
"Name it," he whispered, kissing the side of her right breast through her robe. The animal inside him surprised him with its knowledge of how to make his young wife tremble.
"Please, kiss me, before anything else," she said softly. "I would like to know what it is to be kissed before I become entirely yours."
The alcohol must've taken away his doubt in his ability, because Dane didn't hesitate in placing a hand at the base of her skull, and bringing her down for a warm, passionate lip-lock. Completely forgetting he had limited experience at kissing, he wasn't even surprised when he managed to please her, making her gasp and sigh against his mouth.
When he could stand it no more, Dane got up, setting Leda on her feet so he could shrug off the blue shirt he wore, baring his upper body and powerful shoulders. She came back to him the second the cloth hit the floor, jumping so he could catch her, and kiss her again.
He dropped her onto his bed on her back, untying her robe and letting it spread beneath her, exposing her entire body to him in the low lamplight. She squirmed away from him, farther up onto the bed, pulling her arms free from the robe, and beckoning him to join her.
He untied the rope around his waist, letting the last of his clothing fall to the ground before crawling after her, bringing his body up over hers, his weight still on his hands and knees when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.
"Gods, you are handsome," she whispered, her eyes half lidded. She ran a hand down one of his thickly muscled arms, then back up it and across his toned chest.
Achilles had told him the first time was often hard for a woman. There would be blood, and no matter how he tried, he probably wouldn't be able to please her.
Dane eased into a gentle rhythm, hating every pained look on his wife's face. He thought about stopping when tears ran down her cheeks, but she urged him on. Soon he felt he wouldn't have been able to stop if she'd requested it.
He laid beside her afterward, holding her to his chest. She cried a little, and smiled too. Leda told him she'd been afraid of marrying, afraid to leave her father's house. She'd also been afraid no man would want her after all the trouble her older sister caused. Dane kissed her a number of times, too pacified to know what else to do.
She promised he'd always be happy with her, right before she fell asleep, exhausted. Dane joined her a few short minutes later, still holding her close.
He woke early, in spite of the late hours he'd kept. Dane's head pounded, and his mouth felt stuffed with cotton. He couldn't remember the last time he'd experienced such a severe hangover.
A full bucket of water waited for him beside his bed, and he took a long drink from it. The clothes he'd worn the night before had disappeared, and a fresh, folded set lay at the ready.
Danen dressed slowly—too groggy to fully appreciate the benefits he'd already wrought from having married.
He found Leda and her sister bustling about the kitchen area, preparing food for the morning meal. A bucket of milk sat near the door, evidence the goats had already been milked.
His wife didn't hear his entrance into the kitchen. She was too preoccupied with stretching toward a bowl on a high shelf, mildly cursing her lack of height under her breath.
"Could you help me, Bela?" she asked, stretching on tip-toe before falling back to stand flat-footed on the floor.
Her repeated attempts, and the language she used, made him smirk, in spite of his headache. Dane silently walked up behind her, easily reaching up and fetching the bowl for her.
She gasped, jumping back in fright at seeing him. He laughed, and even her older sister, who spoke rarely in his presence, chuckled softly.
"You startled me," Leda scolded, one hand clutching at her chest.
Dane offered her the bowl, still smiling through the pounding in his head. She took it from him, her look softening. One of her small hands came to rest against his stomach, and she moved close enough to kiss him, just as two pans her sister carried clanged together loudly enough to make him wince.
When he reached to rub at his temple, Leda quickly turned away, scurrying back to her work as if she'd been slapped. It seemed in her older sister's presence, Leda had become shy of him. She even blushed when he touched her shoulder in passing, on his way to sit down at the table.
The girl was a walking contradiction. The night before she'd wanting nothing but his touch. This morning she seemed content to pretend he didn't sit in the kitchen, watching her.
Dane wondered if he'd scared her; perhaps hurt her worse than he'd known when he'd taken her virginity the night before. Then again, Achilles did always say the moods of women changed more frequently than winds in a storm. Perhaps later he would ask Patroclus about Leda's strange behavior. Until then, he would nurse his hangover, and hope to gain a better understanding of women soon.