Chapter 3: Subdued
A half of day into his quest, Athos reluctantly admitted Noelle was fast, but lacked the skills of a wise woodsmen. He was able to track her right up to where a band of outlaws encircled her. Silent as a seer, Athos squatted behind an oak and watched as the bandits threatened their cornered prey with torture and rape. She mocked a brave face, but it was easy to see that she was frightened.
Athos allowed the sadistic threats to continue until the leader made a move. Just as he wrapped his grimy fingers around Noelle's delicate flesh, an arrow impaled the outlaw's back, dropping him like a broken branch. All turned in the direction the arrow had been cast as Athos stepped from the tree line. One glance and the bandits knew exactly who the dark Musketeer was. They fled without haste.
"Your reputation precedes you." Noelle hissed.
Remaining silent, his eyes fathomlessly piercing into hers, he stalked her with feline-like grace.
Her voice a quiver, trying to conceal the brewing fear within, she said "But you do not frighten me."
He stopped only inches from his cornered victim and smiled smugly. "Then why have you backed yourself into the cove of a tree?"
"Not for fear of you, but for the horror you plan to thrust upon me. Like all men do women, you have pursued me only to subdue me."
Athos felt his cock jerk at the last of her words, pursue only to subdue. The statement generating his mind to travel to places it should not travel while in the presence of such an appealing young woman. One he knew to be a virgin. "Do you plan to resist me?" He asked, his question bordering the primitive urge inside.
"I am not ignorant. I know my limitations. No, Athos, the black-hearted Musketeer, I will not fight you."
"You do not know me. You have no reason to call me heartless." His heart was in fact empty, but that was beside the point. She did not know him personally, only repeating what others rumored about him.
"Oh, but I do. I too am from Orleans. I know that you ordered the execution of the woman you vowed to love and protect."
She started to push by and when she did, he seized her wrist. "You know nothing!"
"I know that you follow the orders of the king, but you act upon your chauvinist ideology!"
Athos shoved her toward the horses. "Be silent! You are a foolish child and know naught when to shut your mouth! Perhaps your future husband will teach you some manners."
"How, by beating them into me? I have heard the rumors of Lerfore."
"If that is what it takes." Athos hissed, his low voice a threat, although he really did not mean what he said. He abhorred the idea of a man brutalizing the fair sex.
"I expect no less sentiment coming from a man who killed his own wife!"
The verbal punch hurt. Athos twirled her to face him. Gripping her chin, he threatened. "You will be silent or I swear I will beat you myself."
Seeing her flesh evolve scarlet under his touch, he released her not wanting to render a bruise. Obeying, she remained silent, staring into his haunting glare. There was something about her, something different, almost mesmerizing. Fearing she could read his soul, he quickly captured her waist and hoisted her to mount. He tied her mare to his stallion and led her in the direction of Paris.
Hours outside the city, Athos halted the horses. "We will make camp here tonight."
Athos dismounted and helped the petite girl from her mare. He directed her to collect wood while he set up camp. An hour later just before the moon greeted the sky, he handed her a chunk of bread to eat. She snatched the food from his clutches and turned her back on him to dine. Athos laughed out loud at her childish behavior and sat down beside her.
"If it is any consolation, I do not believe in the institute of marriage."
She turned to face him. "It is not that I do not believe in marriage. I just want the freedom to choose my own destiny. Tell me why you do not support marriage. Is it because you do not believe in love?"
"Love…." He recoiled in disgust. "Love is but an infectious disease that runs its course. It either ends with a cure or the victim's death. Love isn't real. It is a fleeting dream."
Noelle peered into the handsome warrior's face. Their eyes locked. "Your sad eyes tell me otherwise."
He broke eye contact. "You know nothing of the world."
"I know enough to know that love exists."
"How do you know? Have you felt its embrace?"
"I have not, but I have witnessed its touch from a distance. My mother.."
Athos interrupted. "Your mother? Where is she?"
"She died when I was a child, but not before she taught me about love." Her eyes took on a beautiful kind of sadness.
"So she loved your father?" All children liked to believe their parents were really in love.
"Far from it. He killed her, but not by physical wound. She just wilted away and died. You see as a young girl she loved a boy with all her heart and he her, but her father contested the union and forced her to wed my father. Their love never died, but nor could it flow, and it was that very love that caused her demise."
That was not the kind of story he was expecting. Maybe this girl did know a bit of the world. "Your story is indeed grave. It does however prove that love is a terminal illness." It was. It was slowly killing his soul day by day. It had already slayed his heart.
Tears blooming in the corners of her pretty eyes, she caressed his forearm. "And you are sending me down a path to certain death without granting me the chance to find love."
Don't cry, his mind pleaded. Nothing pained him more than a woman's tears. Fighting the urge to stroke her face, he whispered, "Not me, but your father and the king. I am a mere soldier. I only follow orders. It is late. We must sleep." This conversation was taking them too intimately close. It had to end.
She stood, the tears diminishing before they fell. "Allow me to wash off in the river first."
He nodded and followed her to the shore. He placed his back to a tree to grant privacy and said, "You have five minutes."
She only needed a few seconds. Pretending to bathe, she splashed into the icy water heading to the other side. Once across, she turned to see if Athos was following her to find nothing but the glow of the moon upon the steady rapids. Like most men, he had let his guard down over a pretty face. She smiled a sly smile before dashing into the dark forest.
"Ah!" She lamented as Athos cut her off, outwitting her. He was not some young buck to be so easily manipulated. He knew her type. She was too stubborn to give in without a fight.
Lifting the hem of her dress, she sprinted away only to be seized from behind. She struggled for a time before growing limp in his arms with defeat. She, now panting and gasping for air, peered up at Athos, who breathed as if nothing exhilarating had just occurred.
"You deceitful little wench!" He cursed her shoving her back into camp. She whined and struggled the whole way even though he had restrained his strength with every touch. Her father would have already beaten her black and blue by now.
"Enough!" He warned, twirling her around to face him. "Take off your dress."
Wild-eyed, she retreated a few feet shaking her head. "I will not!"
He smirked, almost laughing. She thought he was going to force her to spread her legs for him. Rape was the only thing that she revealed any fear of. He would have to keep this in mind. Such a threat could come in handy when nothing else will quell her tantrums. "Not for that reason, but so you do not catch fever and so that you are disinclined to escape in only your chemise!"
Still she did not obey, distrust flaunting within her opals, and when he stepped forth to shed it from her, she quickly tugged the wet garment over her head. She stood before him wearing nothing but a saintly white chemise, partially wet and exposing every curve of her voluptuous body. Her breasts were firmly perched, nipples exceedingly plump from the frosty night breeze, just begging to be sucked.
Athos swallowed hard, mustering the strength not to stare. He collected the dress from her hands and hung it by the fire. He ordered her to lay down on the blanket where he secured her hands and tied them to his left wrist. She peered up at him with sultry eyes and pouty lips. A dark urge captured his thoughts, bewitching him. How easy it would be to shove her down and thrust himself inside her over and over until there was not a drop of nectar left in him. She was completely helpless. She could not fight him. All she could do is lay there and take every virile inch of him.
"You do not have to bind me!" She pouted, breaking the momentary carnal derangement.
"Be quiet and go to sleep." He laid down to her right, turning his back upon her, not wanting his manhood to grow hard with desire or those sadistic thoughts to return.
As soon as his breathing grew tranquil, she fiddled with the rope until she freed herself. He had not secured the rope tight so not to generate wounds. A mistake on his behalf.
Slow and with precision, she leaned over Athos' sleeping body for his flintlock pistol that rested by his right hand. She knew she did not have it in her to kill him, but hoped he did not know that. It might alter his decision to track her once he woke. An inch from retrieving the weapon, he seized her hand. She squealed and with her spare hand raked her nails across his cheek, scarring him for life.
"Bitch!" He growled, tossing her flat trying to restrain her flaying hands. She screamed, clawed, and mauled with every muscle in her body. He was strong, much stronger than her. She fought him to no avail ending with her breathless and beneath his muscular body, her tiny hands dominated by his large ones and pinned above her head. Somehow he had managed to end up between her legs. She sucked in a frightened breath feeling him hard and threatening against her bare thigh. She had aroused him unintentionally. She knew that look on his face. It was the same with every man. He wanted her.
He read her thoughts and her fear. Still entrapping her with one hand, he shoved her chemise above her abdomen and grinded his erect manhood against her womb. She trembled feeling his intimidating size throb beneath its leather bonds. If he decided to take her as angry as he was he could severely damage her and there was nothing she could do to stop him.
He lowered his mouth to her neck, his breath warming her as he slithered, "You need to be broken." As if she were a feral horse and his cock her captor.
She whimpered faintly beneath his dominating wrath. He could feel her heart pound with the rise and fall of her breasts against his chest. She was petrified. This time she had pushed him too far. Men were known to punish women one of two ways; one physically, one sexually, and since Athos has yet struck her, there was only one method left.
He'd liked to fuck her. He knew from the innocence shimmering within her eyes that she was untouched, and virgins always made a delectable fuck. "Alas, it is not my place to tame you." Although the darkness within his soul was crying out for him to.
Releasing her, he withdrew from her body. He had frightened her into submission. That had been his intention all along, but she did not need to know that.
Any other man would have fucked her raw, but Athos was not just any man. There was a kindness in him. His hands were soft. His heart good. "Athos.." She summoned him and when he turned to face her, she caressed the blood from his cheek. He tranquilized beneath her sensual touch, mesmerized by her fingers. She was intoxicating, melting his anger. Why was she doing this? Did she not know that even self disciplined Musketeers had limits to their toleration? Did she want him to fuck her? Didn't she realize the danger she was in?
Suddenly she sprung forth, capturing his lips with desperation. He broke away. "What the hell are you doing?"
"If my body is to be broken, I want it to be by you; a man who will not break my spirit. Grant me this one request before sending me to my doom. With Lerfore, I will never know mutual ecstasy. Give me this before sentencing me to life beneath his wrath." She did not allow him time to reply before mauling into his mouth again. This time he returned the affection, breaking only to undress. If this was what she wanted, he was going to give it to her.
Trailing down her throat, he cupped a breast and leeched on to a nipple, taking her to climax by finger. She thrashed her head from side to side, moaning and sobbing as she gushed against his flesh. Using his fingers as a spoon, he ladled her honey and licked it from his fingers. She watched the sensual vulgarity with a naughty smile, imagining all the crude and salacious acts he was capable of. It would not be like this with Lerfore. He was the type of man only interested in his pleasure.
Breathlessly, she cooed "take me" while rolling her hips against him, enticing him to fill her. The moisture of her pussy soaked his dick as she rubbed against him. It jerked and wept, eager to be inside her.
He thrust in two fingers, vigorously widening her channel. He felt her intimate muscles fighting the invasion and warned, "This is going to hurt".
"Not as bad as Lerfore would treat me if he would be my first. I want this. I want you, Athos."
He knew better, but did not heed his instincts. Instead he forced his lust deep into her belly tearing through her virginal barrier with one firm impalement, catching her painful wail with his mouth. He stilled inside her, allowing her canal to adapt to his size, relishing every second of her muscles convulsing against his engorged steel. She was tiny and his cock mighty. Come tomorrow she would not be able to walk straight.
She continued to moan against his lips, writhing with each deep-throaty breath. "Do you want me stop?"
"No!" She pleaded, rocking her hips, initiating him to begin thrusting.
He fucked her gently with only half his length for some time before succumbing to carnal delight and impaling himself to the hilt, thrusting deep and rampant until he erupted, splattering her wounded walls with his searing nectar. She whined faintly beneath him, feeling his virile manhood pulsate just below her navel. He was large and hard, surely he had stretched her wide and now her sheath was nonexistent. She smiled a conniving smile. What Athos took, Lerfore never could.
Kissing her, he withdrew and dropped to her side, collecting her into his embrace. She crossed her leg over his in a cuddly embrace, not bothering to clean, allowing their intimate fluids to mingle with the blood on her thighs. Neither spoke a word, remaining silent throughout the next morning where he turned her over to the nuns. She was to wed Lerfore that afternoon and their indiscretion forgotten...or so he thought.
Notes:
I am curious as to how many Athos fans are reading this?