by Starla Kaye
When Thomas would have bit out a response, Gloriana forced a smile and shook her head. “All is fine, Sir Gerald.” She didn’t want the two important men in her life to come to blows. She had caused the problem. She needed to stop fearing a man who didn’t deserve it. “Do not worry,” she added and forced her nerves under control.
Gerald appeared to calm down at her insistence. But Thomas remained rigid and said grimly, “I am not Geoffrey Stewart. Your lady will never suffer at my hands.”
Gerald nodded acceptance before moving away, but Gloriana sensed there was an underlying message to Thomas that he would hold her new husband to what he’d said.
“Tis the truth, Gloriana. I will never harm you.” He touched the side of her face, thumbed at a tear that had trickled down her cheek. “And you will not fail me as a wife. Nor do I believe you failed Stewart.”
“But…” She started to protest, thinking of the many times Geoffrey had tried to have sex with her and hadn’t been able to get his cock hard enough to thrust it into her. He’d been furious, blamed her. She’d suffered dearly for the failures each time.
Thomas leaned down, cupped her face, and kissed her. She was so surprised that she sucked in a breath. He hadn’t smashed his lips into hers. It didn’t cause her pain. No, his lips settled quite nicely against hers. And then she felt his tongue sliding along her lips until they parted almost of their own accord. His tongue eased into her mouth, dancing lightly against hers. Her entire body tingled, yearned for more. She felt the hardness of the ridge of his cock beneath his braies as he pressed against her. Her pulse raced.
After a minute, he eased back and she heard him laugh. It was a rusty sound, as if he hadn’t laughed in a very long time and was out of practice. She blinked at him, a bit irritated. “Did I do something wrong?” To her shock, he laughed again and then scooped her into his arms. “Nay, wife, you did nothing wrong. Your innocence surprises me, amuses me, and draws me.”
She squirmed in his arms and nearly made them both fall as he started up the stairs. “I’m not innocent!”
He continued moving upward. “After your reaction to that kiss, I’ve a feeling you’re nearly as innocent as a virgin bride. I’m quite pleased with that.”
The kiss had been something new to her; Geoffrey’s kisses had never been pleasurable. They’d only caused her pain, and led to even more pain. Yet she found herself looking up at Thomas’s full lips and remembering how they’d felt against hers. Heat curled through her. She really wanted to ask him to do it again.
“I’m not a virgin,” she said instead, beginning to worry a bit about going to bed with him. She thought about the great length of him that she’d seen and that she’d felt pressed against her. “What if I can’t…”
They were almost to the bedchamber now and he stopped to look down at her. “What if you can’t what?”
Her face felt hot, and she glanced quickly down his body and up again. “What if that doesn’t fit inside me? It seemed awfully big.”
His chest appeared to puff out. “I appreciate the compliment, my lady, but you need not worry.”
“I am worried, though.”
“Believe me, every inch will fit inside you. And you will enjoy it.”
She wasn’t so sure about enjoying it. “I did not enjoy it when Geoffrey…” She didn’t finish the thought, embarrassed, ashamed.
He set her down, pulled her to him, and kissed her so hard, so passionately that she was lost in a whirlwind of sensations.
Then he eased away and looked serious. “After tonight, I can promise you that you will no longer even think about Stewart. I have much to teach you about how exquisite the sex act can be.”
When she continued to look doubtful, he sighed. “All I ask, Gloriana, is that you trust in me.”
She let him nudge her into their bedchamber, but her legs turned wobbly. Her gaze landed on the bed, with the fur and linens already turned down. Her heart pounded as horrible memories raced through her mind. She thought again of how big Thomas was, everywhere. Panic made her breaths come in short spurts, her hands twisted anxiously at the sides of her gown. Staring at the bed, a sickening wave of terror swelled within her.
No! She couldn’t do this! What if… Her vision blurred and she swayed. “I can’t…” and then she crumpled to the floor.
Chapter Three
Turning, Thomas closed and locked the chamber’s door. He heard an odd rustling sound followed by a thump. The long-time warrior in him immediately reached for a weapon he wasn’t carrying. His first thought was that someone had hidden in their room and stepped out to attack them. When he spun around, he found his new wife lying unconscious on the hard stone floor. What could have caused this?
His gaze darted around the chamber even as his heart pounded. He would kill with his bare hands anyone who had dared to harm her.
He hurried toward her and swept his gaze again around the room. No one. They were alone. The knowledge didn’t lessen his fear for her. “Gloriana!” He bent over her to gently touch her face with a shaking hand. Already he could see a sizable lump forming on the side of her forehead. She looked so pale, so still. Too still. Yet he saw the weak rise and fall of her chest. He ever so carefully stroked her cheek again.
“Gloriana,” he coaxed, but received no response.
Heart pounding in worry, he climbed to his feet. Help. He needed to get help. The desperate words rolled over and over in his mind as he strode back to the door and impatiently unlocked it, jerked it open.
With a last glance at Gloriana’s still form, he raced down the hallway toward the stairs, yelling, “Rowan! Gerald! Someone find Marie! Gloriana has been hurt!”
Immediately the happy raised voices in the great hall quieted. Tension replaced the celebration. He yelled once more, “Rowan! Gerald! Marie!”
He didn’t wait a second more, ignoring the questions shot back at him. As he sped back to the chamber, he barely noted footsteps hurrying toward him. His heart raced. He could not lose her! He could not! He would not!
Tearing back into the chamber, he realized she hadn’t moved at all. Panic curled deeper into him. He threw himself down on his knees next to her and patted her face once more. “Gloriana. Dear God, Gloriana, wake up,” he begged, hearing the husky fear in his voice.
“What have you done?” Gerald questioned in a growl. His eyes were cold, hard when he stormed next to Thomas and shoved him away. “I’ll kill you for this!”
Thomas lunged to his feet and shoved him back. “I did nothing,” he roared. He bunched his fists, prepared to defend himself with blows if it was necessary. “I am not responsible for this.”
But Gerald looked down at Gloriana and fury sparked in his narrowed eyes. “She did not want this marriage. She feared it. And now…”
He lunged for Thomas, his muscled arms outstretched and reaching for Thomas’s throat.
Thomas shifted to the side enough that he took charge. He didn’t want to fight with this man he knew was only concerned for his lady, defending her as a warrior would when he had no weapons on him. He grabbed hold of Gerald’s arm and held tight. “I. Did. Not. Do. This,” he gritted out.
Rowan tore into the room and wedged between them. He shoved them apart, causing Thomas to stagger back at the same time Gerald did. The soldiers who had rushed in behind Rowan caught the older man, and Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. Gerald seemed to calm down, yet wariness remained in his eyes.
Now that the situation was diffused, Thomas returned his focus to Gloriana. She was still not moving. His heart hammered in worry and he moved next to his wife.
Rowan stepped to Thomas’s side. “What happened?” he asked in a voice echoing his concern.
Before he could answer, Thomas watched Marie jostle her way into the room. She wiggled her way through the men who dwarfed her, all looking worriedly down at their lady.
Marie looked pointedly at him and repeated Rowan’s question, “What happened?”
He didn’t want to
answer questions. He wanted someone to help his wife. Yet he called on his fading patience and said, “I don’t know. I turned to close the door, then I heard a sound.” He thought about his moment of panic, his need to defend his wife if necessary. His palms were sweating and his patience almost gone.
“I thought someone had waited in here to attack us. I had no weapon. I…” He blew out a frustrated breath. “I turned around and found Gloriana on the floor.”
Marie knelt beside his wife and gently examined the bump on Gloriana’s head. “My poor sweet lady,” she crooned.
“She was terrified of you bedding her,” Gerald snapped in disgust. “She didn’t want this marriage. Not after…”
Thomas looked over his shoulder at the angry, distraught man. Although disliking the comments, he understood them. He might not know exactly what had gone on between Gloriana and Stewart, but he sensed enough to be sickened by it. And he admired the way her bailiff was determined to stand by her now. Still, he had to defend himself. “She didn’t appear terrified when I kissed her. She never once told me she didn’t want this marriage.”
Gerald snorted, his face growing nearly as red as his hair. “There was nothing she could do about it. The King decreed you were to take her for a wife. She could not refuse.”
“Enough!” Rowan snarled. “This is your new lord you are speaking to. He is nothing like Stewart. You would be wise to understand that now.”
The tension was thick in the room. Thomas watched Rowan and Gerald glare in challenge at each other; tempers were on edge. All here were worried about the beauty lying at their feet. Thomas especially.
And then a small, quiet moan drew everyone’s attention.
“She awakens, my lord,” Marie stated abruptly, relief in her tone.
Thomas forgot everyone else and focused solely on his wife. His pulse hammered at how pale she seemed, how fragile. Gloriana’s eyelids fluttered open and then closed as she winced and reached to touch her head. Tears misted his eyes, a lump formed in his throat. He barely knew this woman he’d just married. Yet he was drawn to her for far more than her beauty. He wanted time, years, to learn all of her secrets, to release the passion he sensed laying guarded inside her. He did not want her to be scared of him.
With all of those thoughts tumbling around in him, he leaned over her and tried to look comforting. His hand shook as he smoothed a strand of hair from her pale, strained face. He didn’t care who saw that small weakness in him. “Are you all right?” She shifted to stretch out her bent legs, groaning. “My head hurts.” Pain pinched her face and she noticed the people gazing down at her. “Why am I on the floor?” She looked up at him in confusion.
“You fainted, for some reason.” He stroked her cheek, unable to keep from touching her in some way. He drew in a steadying breath and scowled out of worry. “You will not do this again. Do you hear me? You will not frighten me like this again.” He knew how ridiculous that sounded, but the words had tumbled out.
Rowan’s hand settled on his shoulder and Thomas drew comfort by the touch. It helped settle his nerves.
“I doubt she planned this simply to annoy you, my lord,” Rowan said with amusement lacing his tone. Thomas suspected he made the comment to further ease his fears.
Gloriana huffed. “You cannot order me not to faint, husband.” Then her face softened and she studied his expression. She asked in surprise, “You were frightened? Because of me?”
He decided he’d appeared weak enough in front of his men. He chose not to answer, although he gave her a slight nod. Then he shifted so he could scoop her from the floor. But, because of the awkward way in which she lay and having both Rowan and Marie standing so close, lifting her was difficult. Once he had her in his arms and was on his feet, he frowned down at her. “Mayhap you should eat less bread in the morn.” She gasped in shock. Marie giggled. And Rowan chuckled.
Thomas carried her toward the bed, wondering what insanity had taken over his mind to say such a thing.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Mayhap I should have married a man not so feeble.” She glanced around him, smiling devilishly. “A well-muscled, hearty man like Sir Rowan.”
Now he did growl. “I’m just as muscled, if not more so.” He lay her down a little less gently than he should have on the bed.
She hissed in reaction and squeezed her eyes shut in pain.
He immediately regretted letting his temper get the best of him even for a mere second. “I’m sorry, wife. Forgive me.”
“I shouldn’t have teased you.” Suddenly she grabbed at her stomach and shot up in bed. “I’m going to be sick!”
Marie must have anticipated this for she pushed him aside to thrust a chamber pot in front of Gloriana. “You will be fine, my lady.”
Thomas watched helplessly as his young wife retched into the pot. Behind him he heard the other men quickly leaving the room, apparently relieved she would be okay and preferring not to witness her heaving up what little she’d eaten at the wedding feast. But he would not leave her side, even if observing her made his stomach feel queasy. Rowan had not left the room and moved around him. He stood next to the bed to carefully smooth Gloriana’s hair back as she retched a final time. He glanced back at Thomas, his eyes worried, but his tone was reassuring. “She’ll be all right. I’ve had such a head wound myself.”
He held her long hair to the side as she gingerly lay back. “Her head will be wickedly sore for a few days. She’ll probably be rather dazed for the rest of today and want to sleep a lot.” He eased away from the bed and let Marie wipe Gloriana’s face with a cloth she’d soaked in a basin of water on the nearby trunk. “You should watch over her. She needs rest, but awaken her every couple of hours.”
Thomas studied his friend and recognized nearly the same worry in his expression that Thomas felt. He’d witnessed the tender way he’d touched her hair. Rowan, too, was developing strong feelings for this woman. If Thomas hadn’t been ordered to marry her, would Rowan have pursued her? He preferred making love to men, to him in particular…or so Rowan had told him. But he occasionally had sex with women, including Marie, who now watched them both curiously. Yet Gloriana seemed to have captured his attention, and Thomas had seen the way she looked at Rowan at times. He should feel jealous, and he did, but only slightly. He’d felt her response, her desire for him, when he’d kissed her. They were all three in a difficult situation. He loved Rowan, needed him. And he felt the beginnings of tenderness for Gloriana.
“I’d like to get out of this gown,” Gloriana said weakly, snaring his attention once more.
Marie instantly said, “I’ll help you.” Then she handed Thomas the chamber pot and smiled in mischief at him. “Mayhap you can see to this while I attend your wife.”
***
By the time both Rowan and Thomas had left the chamber and Marie finished undressing her, Gloriana was exhausted and mortified. Lying naked beneath the linen, she patiently waited for Marie to bring her a fresh chemise. Instead her friend headed for the door.
In a panic, Gloriana called out, “My chemise.”
Marie simply stopped at the door and smiled. “Tis your wedding day, my lady.” “But…” Dear Lord! Now Gloriana remembered the thoughts that had gone through her mind before she’d apparently fainted. “But Thomas… he’s so… so big!”
Marie gave a lilting laugh and her eyes danced with amusement, envy, too. “Aye, he’s a brawny man, your husband.” She giggled. “I’m suspecting he’s big in many ways. You lucky woman.”
Gloriana knew for a fact just how big Thomas was in the particular way she sensed her friend was talking about. It still amazed her that Rowan had been able to… No! She shouldn’t be thinking of what she’d witnessed. It wasn’t her business. Well, maybe it was in a way. No! That was between her husband and his first knight.
Evidently Marie saw something in her expression that caused her concern for she stopped smiling. She said gently, “He’s nothing like Geoffrey. You can see it in Lord Thoma
s’s eyes, especially when he looks at you. You should trust him. Give him a chance.”
Gloriana forced aside the other thoughts. She remembered what Thomas had said to her as they entered the bedchamber, when she’d first started to panic. “Tis what he told me,” she said in a whisper. “I just…I don’t know if I can.”
“You can,” Marie stated at the same time Thomas stepped into the doorway beside her and said the same words.
He looked down at Marie. “You can leave us now. Your lady will be safe in my hands.”
With a smile of encouragement, Marie walked by him, but not away until she boldly said, “Be gentle with her, my lord. She’s known far too little of such treatment.” Her heart beating wildly, Gloriana watched Thomas close and lock the door. He was such a large man. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his tunic. His legs were long and muscled as well, and his arms bulged with the strength to wave a broadsword with little effort. He could crush her with no trouble at all. Yet instinctively she didn’t fear him in that way. When he faced her, he frowned. “I will never use my size against you, little one. Nor my strength.” “Stop calling me ‘little one.’” She saw amusement flicker in his eyes and wondered if he hadn’t used the term to irritate her, to refocus her thoughts. “Never mistake me for being weak because of my size.”
He cocked an eyebrow and walked closer. “Yet you fainted at the thought of my bedding you? At the knowledge that I’m far bigger than you?”
“Wedding nerves,” she protested, not wanting to admit he was probably right. He kept walking closer. The room seemed to shrink, making her tense. She put a hand to her throbbing head. “I’m tired, hurting.” The wretched, stubborn man didn’t stop moving. He stared down at her and calmly pulled his tunic off. She gaped at the hard chest, at the sinewy muscles, at the light spattering of dark hair. Then she saw the jagged scar across his lower abdomen and glanced up at the one on his face. He’d been seriously hurt at some point. Her tender woman’s heart ached for him.
