A Year & a Day

by Virginia Henley

  Lynx took her hand. “Come,” he urged.

  Incredibly, Jane realized he was taking her outside onto the parapets into the cold winter night. She followed him, knowing that whatever Lynx wanted, she would give him. Her body and her will were his for the taking.

  He led her across the parapets to the high crenellated wall, then he lifted her so that she sat upon it. His hands slipped inside the fur to explore her body and he murmured, “Your stolen moments beneath the mistletoe have made you imagine you know something about kisses. You are mistaken. I intend to teach you everything there is to know on the subject of kissing.”

  Because she was elevated, their mouths were on the same level. When he pressed his lips against hers for their first full, frontal kiss, their mouths became ravenous. He deepened the kiss and at the same time explored the lush secrets of her body beneath the fox fur. What he was doing to her was shocking and primal and more intimate than anything she’d ever dreamed of. The hot sliding friction of his thrusting tongue and his insistent hands played in concert over her silken body, luring her to be splendidly uninhibited.

  Jane slid her hands inside his robe and felt his heat leap into her fingers and spread up her arms. Without volition she opened her thighs to his questing hands and arched with pleasure at the sensations his knowing fingers aroused in her. She tore her mouth from his, opened his robe, and set her lips against his corded throat, then she slid her tongue down the muscles of his chest until her mouth fastened on a diamond-hard, male nipple.

  They had an unquenchable thirst for each other that made them feel as if the night exploded about them. What began as tiny sensual tremors soon grew to full-blown shudders. Lynx traced the outline of her lips with the tip of his tongue. “I think that’s enough cold air, are you ready to go back inside and let me warm you?”

  “I’m hot,” Jane panted, moving against him sensually.

  “You are indeed, and I thank God for it.” He lifted her from the wall, but did not set her feet to the cold stones. Instead, he lifted her high against his heart and carried her inside. He set her feet to the warm carpet only long enough to lift off her fur, then he removed his own robe and lifted her once more.

  He carried her before the fire and after the coldness of the night, the heat of the flames felt delicious against her sensitized skin. “This chair served us well in the past and will again tonight,” he murmured huskily. He sat down, holding her facing him on his lap. He did not have to tell her to put her legs around him.

  Jane straddled him and looked down at his long, hard phallus that rose up between them. Her fingers could not resist exploring him and he covered her hand with his as he had done the night they first became intimate. Lynx was a big man and his size momentarily frightened her as she recalled the pain when he had first thrust through her hymen. But her mounting desire soon overcame her fear, so that even the memory of it was wiped away forever.

  Lynx slipped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her onto his engorged shaft. Then he pulled out until just the swollen head was inside her. “I don’t want to give you another child just yet. It is too soon, I don’t want to hurt you. I only want to give you pleasure.”

  Jane thought if he gave her any more pleasure, she would surely die of it.

  Very gently his hands raised and lowered her on his shafthead until she caught the rhythm and began to move up and down herself, riding him as if he were a great stallion. When she took over, he removed his right hand from beneath her bottom and reached out with roughened fingertips to massage the tiny bud of her sex until he could feel it pulsing.

  The sensations he aroused were so exquisite that she arched backward giving him a splendid view of her pink cleft as it became love-slick and her cries of pleasure began to mount with her passion. Suddenly, a throbbing began deep inside her and then she imploded, drawing him deeply inside her as if she would devour him. She moved rapidly up and down his long shaft until he was seated to the hilt.

  Lynx held on to his seed with dogged determination as her hot and hungry body caressed him. He was anchored deep and it took an act of iron-hard willpower to withdraw without climaxing.

  “Lynx, Lynx,” she panted, overcome with the raw carnality of her first orgasmic experience. She unwound her legs from about his torso and slipped down on her knees between his hard thighs. Then she was kissing and tonguing the object of her adoration that had brought her such untold pleasure.

  “Jane, sweet, you don’t have to do that.”

  She stopped, mid-kiss, to murmer “Lynx, I must.”

  He groaned and gave in to her. She opened her mouth and took him inside the hot, wet cave.

  After her wild exertions, he held her possessively cradled in his arms until their fever cooled. Strangely enough it did not cool and almost immediately Lynx wanted to pleasure her again. Because she had tasted him, he now craved the taste of her on his own tongue. But he wanted her to see him make love to her with his mouth. So once again he carried her to the mirror and set her down before it.

  He took her fingers in his and lifted them to her cheek. He bent his head and bit down gently on her earlobe. Then he began to whisper. “I want to show you how to touch yourself. When I’m away from you and the night is long, I want you to know how to pleasure yourself.”

  He stroked her cheek with her own fingers, then slowly drew them across her lips. When he saw the corners lift with delight, he trailed her fingertips down her throat, over her delicate collarbone, and across the swell of her breast. He brushed her fingers around its lush, full roundness, then circled the nipple until she moaned with pleasure. As his tongue came out to trace the shape of her ear, he drew her hand across her belly and heard the swift intake of her breath. He felt her fingers stiffen as he approached her mons.

  “Lynx, I can’t,” she whispered, shocked for the first time since she had come upstairs to him.

  He nuzzled her neck. “Repeat after me, I will and I shall!”

  Jane’s objection dissolved in soft laughter. “I am so bad.”

  “What you are is innocent, and it is bringing me more pleasure than anything I’ve ever experienced with a woman.”

  With her fingers held firmly in his, he placed her fingertip at the top of her woman’s cleft. “Just here is a tiny rosebud that blooms with the slightest stimulation. Let me prove it to you.” He bent his head to cover her mouth with his.

  She felt her rosebud begin to unfurl. Then his lips forced her mouth open and he thrust his tongue inside to taste her sweetness. Jane felt her rosebud throb and hot threads of desire shot up inside her. Lynx separated one of her fingers from the others and slipped it up inside her sheath.

  “There now, does that feel bad?” “No, it feels good, but Lynx, I need more, I need you!”

  He withdrew her finger from her trembling body and kissed her eyelids. “Trust me to know just what you need.” He went down on his knees before her and as she breathlessly watched in the mirror, she saw him separate her tiny folds and make delicious love to her with his mouth.

  Jane threaded her fingers through his tawny mane of hair to hold his head at her woman’s center. The act was so intimate, she knew that Lynx had breached all her defenses. She was a timid girl no longer, but a woman who was fast learning the power of her own sexuality.

  This time her climax was quite different. A dozen small spasms strung together, yet were somehow separate in their intensity. The last one left her limp and languorous, and when Lynx picked her up and carried her to the bed, she marveled that he knew exactly the right thing to do.

  Lynx reclined and drew her down to him. To Jane, he felt like a solid wall of muscle. He was the most powerful force she had ever known and she felt completely safe and secure for the first time in her life.

  His fingers gently cupped beneath her lush breast, lifting it so that its pale curve swelled up from his calloused palm. His other hand stroked her back, going lower each time until his fingers splayed over her soft bottom, making her shiver, then burn
. The last barriers that had stood between them had tumbled down tonight. She had never experienced such closeness with anyone, ever. She felt as if she were a part of him. She knew his scent had mingled with her own and would stay with her forever.

  Jane loved him with all her heart and longed to tell him. Her lips opened to utter her fervent declaration, but Jory’s words floated to her through the love-scented air. Never tell a man that you love him until he has declared his undying love for you! Jane caught back her words and instead yielded up her body to him, rubbing herself against his delicious hardness.

  He crushed her against him and she felt his body’s savage heat leap into her own, scalding her wherever they touched, Jane realized this was the way it was supposed to be between a man and a woman. When they shared their bodies, the male grew strong and powerful, while the female grew weak with love.

  She felt his need become rough and elemental as he rolled with her to take the dominant position. Suddenly he had the ferocity of a lynx and she reveled in the fierce desire he unleashed as he lost control and lust consumed him.

  As Jane floated in and out of slumber, she was vaguely aware that she lay sprawled across his magnificent body. Her cheek rested on the soft tawny pelt that covered his chest and the steady beat of his heart lulled her back to the edge of sleep whenever she stirred. She was completely happy. She dropped a kiss upon his heart and sighed with contentment.

  Jane was confident that Lynx de Warenne had developed a burning desire for her and in her wisdom realized that this might be as close to love as a warrior like Lynx would ever come. Was she being foolish in holding back from marrying him when he had almost begged her? The thought of Lynx becoming her husband made her weak with love. No, she wasn’t being foolish, she was being extremely clever, and enjoying every moment of his ardent wooing. Jane decided to let the passionate courtship continue for the present. A smile of pure bliss lingered on her face long after she drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  26

  When the parapet door opened with a loud thud, Jane awoke with a start and bolted upright in the bed. A pair of powerful arms came about her and she realized she was sitting in Lynx’s lap.

  “Splendor of God, are you going to keep her abed ail day?” Robert demanded with a straight face.

  “You uncouth lout, the blush will never leave her face now,” Lynx said, winking at his friend.

  “Ha! Tis not I who put the blush there. I know what you’re hiding under the covers!”

  Jane gasped and her blush deepened as the evidence of what Lynx was hiding rose up beneath her. Then to her further dismay, the other door opened and Grace Murray marched in with their son. The nursemaid fixed de Warenne with a piercing glance and declared, “The young lordling will wait no longer. He’s decided you’ve had her long enough and it’s his turn now!”

  “I know a Scots conspiracy when I see one,” Lynx said with resignation, as he lifted Jane from his lap and set his feet to the floor.

  Blushing down to the tips of her breasts, Jane lifted her arms and gathered her son to her heart. Grace Murray didn’t bat an eye at Lynx’s naked torso as he selected fresh clothes from his wardrobe and began to dress.

  “I forgot you were leaving today,” Lynx told Robert.

  “Your lass is enough to make a man forget his own name,” Robert said with unconcealed envy.

  Before he left, Lynx rubbed the back of his fingers across his son’s cheek and touched his mouth to Jane’s. “Thank you, sweet lady.” His green eyes held a promise that he would return and thank her more appropriately in private.

  Lynx, with his sister, Jory, at his side, bade the Bruces farewell. He had received no firm commitment from Robert about quelling trouble in the Lowlands once it started again. Lynx could clearly see that the Bruce had divided loyalties. He took no pleasure in beating his own people into submission for the benefit of the English crown. Robert Bruce promised only to do what he had pledged and that was to keep open the western marches.

  Within the hour Lynx was cursing the fact that for a week he had inadvertently kept the Bruces from their vigilance. Out of the six men he had sent to Carlisle for extra provisions, only four returned alive; two of the packhorses carried corpses instead of supplies.

  When his knights reported that they had been set upon close-by at the foot of the Annandale Valley, Lynx knew immediately whoever had lain in wait had known that supplies were coming to Dumfries, and had also known that the Bruces were away from their castles of Lochmaben and Caerlaverock.

  Lynx instantly made a mental connection between the missing supplies and the missing weapons, and his suspicions fell on the Leslie brothers. Without hesitation he summoned Jock and ordered him to have all seven of his sons attend him at once.

  The small chamber off the hall where Lynx conducted castle business rang with denials as Jock’s sons defended themselves. Lynx curbed his temper as he interrogated them over and over, asking questions about the missing weapons and the stolen supplies.

  The only man in the room whom Lynx de Warenne trusted completely was Jock Leslie. The steward stood beside his sons, grim-faced, offering no excuses for them. After two interminable hours, Jock asked for permission to address his sons.

  “Be my guest,” Lynx invited in a deceptively quiet tone.

  “If by word or deed ye have any involvement in this, get it off yer chests now. His lordship has two dead knights in the bailey and I know he will get to the bottom of this, no matter what it costs him or Dumfries.”

  Lynx de Warenne paced the chamber. Occasionally he stopped before one of the brothers and pierced him with an icy green stare, then moved to the next. He stopped abruptly before David Leslie, who was in charge of the stores. Lynx reasoned that David had the most to lose if aught happened to food supplies, since suspicion would fall on him immediately. “Do you have any coffins in your stores?”

  David Leslie swallowed hard, wondering if he would soon be occupying one. “I do, my lord.”

  Lynx turned to Jock. “Would you and David see that my knights are prepared for decent burial?”

  “Aye, my lord,” Jock replied, heaving a great sigh of relief that at least one of his sons had been exonerated in de Warenne’s eyes.

  After another hour of questioning, Lynx dismissed Andrew Leslie, the steward-in-training. Jock had brought him up in his own image and Lynx doubted Andrew would bring shame upon his father or Dumfries.

  The hour of noon came and passed with no sign of food or drink being provided for the occupants inside the small chamber. After another round of questions and denials, Lord de Warenne addressed himself to the redheaded Keith. “I know you are not involved in this, but you have knowledge of it.” He turned to the other four. “I could have him tortured, but the young fool would likely die before he would inform on any of you.” Lynx jerked his head toward the door. “Go!” he bade Keith Leslie.

  The four who remained exchanged quick glances. James and Alex, the two blacksmiths, wondered if de Warenne would punish the innocent with the guilty. Ben and Sim, the shepherds, hardened their resolve. They were Celts; there was no way they were going to knuckle under and confess their involvement with the rebels to this conquering Norman.

  A knock on the chamber door interrupted the interrogation. When Lynx opened the door, he found Thomas, accompanied by a messenger from John de Warenne. Lynx stepped outside the room and closed the door, then he took the dispatch from the courier and broke the seal. The message was short; terse almost.

  Return to Edinburgh immediately with full mesne.

  Lynx frowned and swallowed a curse. John’s timing was damned inconvenient. Besides this matter with the Leslie brothers that required his attention, there was Jane and his son. Lynx wanted to be at Dumfries to enjoy his child, aye and to enjoy Jane too, now that they had become lovers. The last thing in the world he wanted was to run off to Edinburgh.

  Frustrated, Lynx raked a hand through his hair. Trouble, it was rumored, came in threes or was it mu
ltitudes? He glanced down at the dispatch again and by its very tone he knew that he could not ignore it. He handed the paper to his squire and said with resignation, “Inform our knights that we are needed in Edinburgh and get the word to the Welsh lieutenants immediately so they can be ready to leave tomorrow. See that the messenger gets food and drink.”

  “You haven’t eaten today, my lord,” Thomas reminded him.

  Lynx waved a dismissive hand. “My instincts are keener on an empty stomach. I should be finished in here shortly. Prepare one of the castle dungeons, I am about to place some of the Leslies under arrest.”

  Lynx returned to the chamber, paced its length once and began to think aloud. “The tension in this room is so thick I could cut it with my knife. That tells me only one pair is guilty or you would not be glowering at each other. The obvious pair is the blacksmiths, since weapons are missing, but I’ve taught myself to look beyond the obvious. So I ask myself, who had the opportunity to ally themselves with rebels? Only the shepherds, I’m afraid. Only the shepherds leave Dumfries every day to traverse the dales. The very same shepherds who were a month late returning from the Uplands.”

  Lynx’s shrewd glance fell on James and Alex, and when he jerked his head toward the door, they bolted through it. Lynx gave Sim and Ben his undivided attention. He scrutinized them for a full minute before he spoke. “I once told you I would hang any man who lifted Dumfries’ sheep. Did you not believe me?” Lynx demanded. “Did you not understand that lifting weapons and supplies was also a hanging offense?” When their faces remained stony, Lynx threw open the door and shouted, “Guard!” Montgomery was there in less than a minute. “Arrest these men.”

  Blissfully unaware of the drama being played out elsewhere in the castle, Jane spent the morning in a state of euphoria. After she fed and bathed the baby, she carried him down to her chamber below and rocked him to sleep in the lovely carved cradle that Lynx had brought from Edinburgh.