“Vera…”
“She ran from me when I spotted her. She looked mad. I’ll send some people back to see to her. Perhaps after a few days, she’ll be ready for help.”
“She loved them.”
“Who?”
“She loved Slawomir, and she loved her Ponga.”
“And she lost them both.”
All the way home, whenever Lake drove the wagon, she kept her eyes open. The images she saw when she shut them were too much for her to bear. Only when Lake halted the wagon and climbed into the back, taking her into his arms, did she dare close her eyes to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It took nearly three weeks for Lake’s family, most notably his mother, to soften toward her. The fact that she carried Lake’s babe had a lot to do with it, she knew, but she’d take what she could get.
Lake’s people were now her people. She’d apologized to his mother and made sure not to back down or show her apprehension when the older woman came toward her with glare and hammer. She wouldn’t have put it past the woman to give her a good knock on the head if she thought she could get by with it but also knew that she wouldn’t dare. Lake had made it plain that Mila was not to be harassed, or bullied, or bothered.
“What shall I call you, ma’am?” Mila had asked her, a week after their return. “Mother? May I call you Mother?”
“No, you may not. You may call me Daisy.” She turned up her nose, marching off, and only today had she finally relented on the name.
“Daisy,” Mila had said, “would you help me think on names for the babe?”
Lake had stood at the fire with his father and brothers, watching her with a half-smile on his face and eyes so hot they made her forget, for a moment, that she was trying to get his mother to forgive her.
“Don’t be silly,” Daisy said, patting her on the hand. “You should call me Mother Caution.”
And it was as though she’d never been angry with Mila at all.
Considering it was her fault that Slawomir was dead and she’d given Lake a sleeping potion, three weeks was a very short time. Yet all was forgiven, just like that.
Mila stood and went to Daisy, pulling her into a long hug. “Thank you,” she’d whispered. “Thank you, Mother Caution.”
Daisy had shooed her away, but her cheeks were red and her eyes pleased.
Everything was going smoothly, except for the fact that Lake refused, once again, to touch her. That was just pissing her off.
Her injuries had long since healed, and she needed him. She needed his body. Tonight, she was going to have it. One way or the other. Somehow, she was going to convince him to stop being afraid to touch her every time she fell ill, or pregnant, or hurt the tiniest little bit. No more. She was done suffering. Her need was great, her desire was taking over her every thought, and whether he knew it or not, Lake was going to fuck her. Tonight.
At evening meal, the house was, as usual, overflowing with noisy, boisterous people. Impatient, she could barely get down a few swallows of food as she waited for Lake to eat.
At long last, he sat back and picked up his glass, shooting a grin her way as some of the dinner guests held his attention.
She didn’t know how they could eat. They never stopped talking. Finally, she figured it was as good a time as any to get Lake to herself.
She leaned toward him, plucking at his sleeve. “Lake.”
He glanced at her, his head still tilted toward the nonstop chatterer on his left. “Hmmm?”
“Can we go upstairs?”
“Of course,” he said. “Go on. I’ll be up shortly.”
She narrowed her eyes as he went back to talking. “Lake!”
“Yes?”
“I need you to take me upstairs.”
He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel sick.”
He scooted his chair back, his face paling. “Is it the baby? Is something wrong?”
Gods! “No, Lake! Of course not!”
Mother Caution leaned forward to peer at them, a hand to her chest. “What’s wrong? Did you say something about the baby?”
Mila groaned.
“Fetch the midwife,” Lake’s father shouted. “Something is wrong with Lake’s baby.”
Mila stood. “Shut up and listen to me!”
Everyone quieted at once, looking at her expectantly, poised to run for help.
She put her palms on the table, feeling Lake’s confused presence at her back. Leaning forward, she looked at them. “There is nothing wrong with the baby. Nothing. I am going upstairs to be alone with my mate. Is that all right?”
She turned to Lake before the guffaws had died down. “Take me upstairs,” she said, her teeth clenched.
Lake stood with arms akimbo, staring down at her with a stern frown. “You are not ill?”
“I’ll tell you upstairs. Else the family might overhear, misunderstand, and have me buried before I can convince them I’m alive.” She glared at him, and glared hard. “I need to tell you something. Upstairs. Please.”
Finally. Once in their room, he closed the door behind him and stared at her. “What’s this about, Mila?”
She pulled back the covers on the huge bed and motioned him toward her. “Lie down with me, Lake. I need you to hold me.”
Still frowning, he kicked off his boots and stripped off his clothes, always willing to hold her. He’d held her through many long, nightmare-filled nights, and he promised her he’d never stop. “What’s wrong, sweet?” He hastily climbed into bed, averting his eyes when she began to undress.
He’d made her wear a shift to bed these last three weeks, unable to hold her bare body. “It’s bad enough with your clothes on, but naked…” He’d shuddered and refused to give an inch. Now, he expected her to know the rules, to take off her dinner dress and put on her sleeping shift. And that was just what she wanted him to think.
From behind her, she heard the sound of a key turning in the lock on the heavy door, then sounds of fleeing footsteps running back down the hall. She smiled.
Lake sat up. “What was that?”
She looked at him with wide eyes. “Probably just someone falling into the door. Drunken idiots,” she added.
She shrugged off her dress, giving him an eyeful of naked female flesh before his gaze darted away. “Look at me, Lake.”
“You’re too tempting. I can’t look or I’ll be likely to fail in my mission.”
“What mission?” This was a first. “You know I’m well, Lake.”
“Yes.”
“Then what? You no longer want me? You are still angry over what happened?”
“That’s not it.”
She climbed onto the high bed and crawled close enough to rub her nipples on his arm. “Tell me. This is to punish me?”
He groaned and started to push her away but grabbed a handful of large, soft breast. “Mila!”
“Tell me.”
He sighed but didn’t drop her breast. “I wanted to make things perfect for you, my sweet.”
“Things are perfect. You are perfect. We’re perfect together. I need you, Lake. I hate that you don’t seem to need me as much. I throw myself at you, and you push me away.” She sniffed.
“I want to have the ceremony with you, Mila.” He looked into her eyes. “I am building us a private home even now. When my mother and the girls have readied everything for our marriage, we will have the ceremony, and it will be right. Then I will bed you.” He shook his head, resolute. “But not until then. You are to be the mother to my children. My mate for life. I would make this proper.”
“Oh, Lake.” She flung her arms around his neck, sobbing hard. “That is the sweetest, loveliest thing I have ever heard.”
He laughed and patted her bare back. “Mila.”
She sobbed harder.
“Mila!”
“What?”
“Will you be my life mate?”
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “Yes.”
&
nbsp; He whooped, as enthusiastically as if he’d expected her to turn him down, and pulled her back into his arms, where he nearly crushed her against his massive chest.
“On one condition,” she said.
His body stilled. “What condition?”
“You should speak the words. You’ve never spoken the words.”
“Oh sweet. My Mila.” He pushed her back so he could look into her eyes.
“Do you feel them? Because if you don’t—”
“I love you, Mila. More than anything. I’ve never held such a feeling before, and at times, I don’t know what to do with it. I love you. How could you not have known that?”
“You never said.”
“Do you love me?”
“Of course! So very much!”
“You never said.”
They looked at each for a long minute then burst into laughter at the same time.
“We’re silly, aren’t we?” she said, and lifted his hand to her breast.
“Mila. I’m not going to have you until after the ceremony.”
“Lake, while sweet, that is not what I want. Not even close.”
“Our beginnings were not good. You wanted me for a child, and I…I forced you to come to my people without caring for your feelings on the matter. I did not care about your feelings for me, then, either. I do now. For you, I will do this properly. Had you not been afraid to sleep without me these past weeks, I would have taken myself to a different room.” He encircled her upper arms and shook her, gently. “Do you not know what I suffered, holding you, unable to touch you…”
“That time is over, Lake. Touch me now. Fucking will not change anything, except maybe the tension in my body.” She smiled. He’d said the words. The only thing that could make this better was his big body thrusting into hers.
She rose up on her knees and rubbed a nipple along his lips. “Take me, Lake. Touch me. Love me.” She felt for his hand and skimmed it over the mound between her legs. “Lake, I need you.”
But he was adamant. And stubborn. Leaping from the bed, he scooped his pants from the floor and headed for the door. “No, love. Not until…” His words drifted off as he tried, and failed, to open the door. He looked at her with eyes so shocked she couldn’t help but laugh.
“The door is locked. You’ve had someone lock us in?”
“You left me no choice. I’m really sorry.” She tried to sound sympathetic but was quite sure she failed miserably.
He gave the door an experimental tug, then turned to her and crossed his arms. He knew how thick and heavy the door was and wasn’t stupid enough to waste energy trying to kick it down.
He shook his head, sighing. “I want to do what’s right for you. Why must you fight me?”
“Because I need you now, Lake. I long for you. I go to sleep dreaming of you inside me. I wake up with hands on my body, only to find it is not real.” She lay back on the bed and cupped her breasts. “I cannot, I will not, wait any longer for something you think is right for me. I know what’s right for me, Lake. So if that’s all you’re worried about, worry no more.” She opened her legs and ran her fingers over her lips before sliding them over her clit.
His gaze followed the movement and clung to her fingers, as though helpless to do otherwise. “Damn you, Mila.”
She only opened her legs farther, unrepentant, and shivered as she stroked her sex. “It’s so much better when you do it.”
“Do you remember,” he asked her, his gaze glued to her pussy, “a few weeks ago when I promised you a spanking?”
Her fingers froze. “You’re not really angry, are you? Strict instructions have been given for that door to remain locked until dawn.”
He stalked toward her, his eyes dark, dangerous.
“Lake?”
Uh oh.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he said.
She couldn’t detect a single note of humor in his voice and realized she should have perhaps had a backup plan. “Now, Lake, don’t be mad, honey.” She scooted off the bed, her gaze darting for a place to escape to. There was no such place.
She’d locked him in with her, but the bad thing was she’d locked herself in with him. “I take it back. We don’t have to do anything. We’ll just go to sleep and wait for morning.”
“Too late.” He dropped the pants that had been hiding his dick, and his erection sprang free, huge, terrifying, and so sexy she could only stare with her mouth agape. Liquid heat gathered between her legs and her mouth watered. She swallowed, hard.
He snatched her to him as she came out of her cock-induced coma, ignoring her squeals. He sat down on the bed and dragged her across his legs. “You’ve had this coming, Mila.”
His palm came down on her bare bottom, surprisingly hard. “Ow,” she said. “Lake, stop it!”
He wasn’t about to stop. “This is for running away.” Whack! “This is for drugging me.” Smack! “This is for putting yourself in danger.” Slap! “This is for—”
“Lake, that hurts!” She wiggled and struggled but could not break his hold. He was too strong, too big. So male…so very, very hard.
He stopped spanking her and began caressing her ass, easing away the sting. “Have you learned your lesson, Mila?”
“Oh, I don’t think so. I’ve been naughtier than that. I did lock us in, after all.”
But he didn’t spank her again. He was silent for so long she twisted around to look at him. His eyes were on her ass, and slowly, he slipped his fingers into the crevice there.
She opened her legs, breathless.
He rubbed her clit carefully, gently, slowly, and the only sound in the room was his light breathing.
She hung limply over his legs, moaning with her need for release. “Faster, Lake. I’m almost there…”
At her words, he lifted her and plopped her down on the bed. She lay there, legs open, heart beating in time with the vibrations of her clit, and she was so close to finding her release, so close that as he stood staring down at her, she inched her fingers over her belly…
“No,” he said.
He crawled between her legs, sitting on his knees, eyes raking her body. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
She took a deep breath, and it went straight to her pussy, almost sending her over the edge.
He leaned over and, with agonizing slowness, started at her hole and licked her with a long, slow stroke. When he reached her clit, he surrounded it with his firm lips, flicked it with his tongue, then nipped it gently, quick, hard little nips that pinched and pressed on the little bit of swollen flesh until she arched her back and let her orgasm take her.
His mouth was at her breast before her climax had ended, and he rubbed her nipples into stiff points, watching her face. His expression was serious and proud, his masculine beauty so extraordinary she could have stared at him all night.
“I love you so,” she gasped, wondering if he would understand the depth of her feelings, something she barely grasped herself.
His smile and the soft look in his eyes told her all she needed to know. He understood. “I feel the same, my Mila.”
He lay beside her and lifted her atop him, holding her poised for one breathless moment before he pushed his probing cock into her.
She sank down on his erection, screwing her eyes shut as it filled her up. She sat still, her pussy squeezing him, clenching his body with her thighs, her hands on his chest. She’d never felt anything as good as she felt at that moment.
He was hers, this man. He belonged to her, as she belonged to him. Forever. She opened her eyes and met his, and slowly, she began to move.
The heat in his gaze warmed her soul and her sex, icy heat making her shiver as she pumped her hips, rising and falling on his rigid, satiny erection.
He lay unmoving and let her control the rhythm and the depth, and she gladly took that freedom. He raised his hands to massage her heavy breasts, and connected by touch, stare, and sex, she
bounced as fast and hard as she could and collapsed on his body as the fire of her climax lit her insides.
He rolled on top of her and took over, pumping with a strength and speed she could not have matched and buried his face in her neck.
Wrapping her legs around him, she held on and let her pleasure consume her, his pumping hips driving her toward yet another consuming orgasm.
“Lake, Lake!” She had to see his face.
He lifted his face, and his glittery gaze met hers, and then as she teetered and fell over the sharp cliff of bliss, he lowered his lips to hers.
She lay on his chest later, strangely near tears.
“What’s wrong, sweet?”
She shook her head. “This feels like First Night. Such a glorious first night.” And then she realized why making love to him this night was better than any time she’d been with him. “Because we love each other.”
She smiled then, secure in his arms and in his love. She could face the future with arms wide open and a happy heart.
“Yes, love,” he agreed.
“I wish I hadn’t had us locked in.”
“Oh?”
“I’m hungry. Starving.”
He grunted.
She poked his ribs. “Lake!”
“Do you want me to go to the windows and call for help, Mila?”
“No!”
“I see no alternative,” he said, and slipped from her arms to stand beside the bed, grinning down at her. “I will yell for help, tell anyone who cares to listen that my beloved, pregnant lady has locked me in and forced me to satisfy her, but that she forgot to prepare for all her appetites, and is now in need of dinner.”
“Don’t you dare!” The horror! If his mother chanced to their room and found them locked in, found that Mila had locked them in…no, that would not be good.
He threw back his head and laughed, laughed until she rose to her knees and punched him in the stomach. Even then, he held his sore middle and guffawed.
She crossed her arms and glared, failing to see what was so funny about the situation. “Well?”
He leaned over, giving her quite a nice view of his backside, and scooped his pants from the floor. While pulling them on, he hopped to the bureau and, from the top drawer, pulled a ring of keys. “I’ll just go down and fetch you a tray, my lady love.”
First Night Page 13
