“Of wine?” She swallowed, determined to try to keep her wits about her. “Mayhap I was over-hasty when I drank after hawking.”
“No, it’s of the grass you sucked. But it tastes more than grass now. Something like cinnamon, apples and heather. Not sweet, not sour, but spicy, delicious.”
“I know not what you mean.”
“It tastes of you, Rowena.”
She gasped as his head dipped down to hers but there was no kiss. “Come, my lady, I will take you away from such sorrowful memories.”
Somehow her mind had drifted into a sensory haze once more and her usually strong limbs felt weak. He must have sensed it because, before she knew what he was doing, he’d lifted her onto her horse and they’d begun the descent to Gresham castle, away from the spectre of the decaying tower and its constant reminder of her need for independence.
There was no need now, to fret about how she would be free of Saher to get her silver to safety. There was no need to try to rid her body of the lazy torpor of arousal. His words and understanding had soothed her fears. And now both of her needs could be satisfied in the one act. Seduction. Tonight.
* * *
The Hall was less festive that night. There was a sense of expectation in the air. Saher’s knights had made themselves at home and her ladies and others of the household had become accustomed to their presence. The minstrels played an ancient air, languid and sensual. It was fitting. Tonight was the night she would sleep with Saher. Because he had to be gone by the morrow. And, if there were to be another chaste night, he would not leave and her schemes would be discovered. She could not risk the King being informed of her illegal gains, and she did not relish Saher discovering her deceit. She had to have him—she wanted to have him.
“You look pensive, lady.”
He inclined his head into her line of vision and plucked a piece of the most tender lamb from the trencher and offered it to her. The aroma of roasted meat and spices would have made her mouth water alone, if it weren’t for the look in his eyes—dark, passionate, full of humor and kindness. So many things, all at the same time.
She opened her mouth and he touched her lips with the meat, teasing her a few times before she opened her mouth further and he laid it on her tongue. She closed her lips around it and looked up into eyes that had darkened with desire. Gone was her initial apprehension. Within a few short days she’d gained the measure of the man. They were drawn to each other—body to body—and she did not look upon coupling with displeasure. But ’twas not easy to dismiss a lifetime’s apprehension so quickly.
“So, tell me, why the lack of talk, why the lack of eating. You sit there like a nun, your hands folded on your lap, your eyes far away. What is it you’re dwelling on?”
How could she begin to voice her fears, her doubts, her longing? She shook her head as she chewed the meat slowly. “I am thinking of my sisters. My sister Melisende could always sense when a change was coming.”
“And you think there is a change on its way now?”
She nodded.
“Tell me about your younger sister. Where is she?”
“Melisende is within the convent attached to Blakesthorpe Priory. I cannot contact her. She’s preparing to be a novice.”
“And your other sister, Angelique, the one with the husband you suspect of being cruel?”
“She is away at present at one of her husband’s manors. She is kept a virtual prisoner.”
“I can release her for you if you’d like me to?”
For a moment a surge of hope shot up, only to be slammed down. “She’s about to have a baby and is hoping this will make things right between them.”
“So your sisters’ lives will be unchanging for the forseeable future. Is it yours where you sense a change?”
She looked at him levelly. “Of course. I am married now and, if you have your way, will soon be bedded.”
“My way? Come, do not tell me that you do not wish it also?”
How could she deny it? She not only wanted the feelings that he engendered within her, but she needed to be bedded so he would leave her for a few days. “Yes. I do.”
“Tonight, then, my lady?”
She bit her lip, turned away and nodded. She’d thought she’d be transferring the power to this man when he’d arrived only days before. She couldn’t have had any idea as to how she’d feel now. Empowered, able to hold this man at bay, able to draw him in when she wanted to. He wanted her. And he would have her tonight because she had no choice—not for the demands of her body, but because she needed to take the silver to Blakesmere Priory for safekeeping as soon as possible. With each passing day the danger that her silver would be discovered, heightened. She could not delay.
His hand slid across her thigh. No-one could see. And immediately her body reacted, a low throbbing where she wanted him. She turned to him slowly, gripping his hand. One more nod was all it took and he rose.
Everyone turned around and watched as she rose. There were a few quiet cheers and murmurs of approval. Such a small thing she thought, as she walked with him, hand in hand, through the crowded hall to his bed chamber. But it signalled to everyone that their future was together. The massive candles flickered through the great hall and the fire roared. Everything was as it always had been but now everyone knew they were sealing their betrothal vows. She was married in their eyes and her future was forever changed.
She stepped into the stairwell and he closed the door and drew her to him in a deep kiss. All thought of the people on the other side of the wall vanished under the power of his kiss. Breathless they pulled apart and he took her hand and they ran up the stairs and into the solar.
Chapter 9
Saher opened the solar door and Rowena paused. The candles had already been lit and the bed lay ready. She pulled her hand away from his and walked to the window. There was no light from the moon or stars. The trees and pastures lay clothed and unrevealed. She shivered under the chill of the night air and pulled the wooden shutters closed.
“Cold?” His hands swept up her arms and enclosed her. She shut her eyes as she felt the shivers subside, giving way to a liquid heat inside. She leaned back against his hard body, breathing him in. She felt his groan travel through her skin, sending tingling sensations to the tips of her fingers and toes, heightening her own arousal. His hands slid from her arms, to her waist, and spanned her flat stomach before moving up to cup her breasts that felt heavy with need, desperate for the wet heat of his mouth over them.
Impelled by the desires of her body, she slid her hands down the front of his thighs, which tensed under her searching fingers. She shifted them further up his legs and felt his sharp intake of breath as her palms cupped around his hard shaft. She drew back, alarmed both by her own audacity and his response. But he turned her in his arms and kissed her until her fears were submerged under the onslaught of sensation that his tongue set in train all over her body.
He drove his hand into her hair and held her face against his as first his lips gently moved, caressed and open her mouth. She’d never been kissed like this before. Stolen kisses at parties, maybe, and then with the boy she’d thought she’d loved years before, but not in such a passionate way, not in such a way as if he were sensing every movement and taste of her own, savouring it as if it were the most exquisite food—a food he needed and would not be without. A food he was hungry for.
The thought cast away the last remaining shreds of fear and she slid her hand around his neck, intensifying the kiss, building that coiling and broiling flutter of sensations that charged throughout her body. She felt the wet heat of her desire, throbbing between her legs.
“You are beautiful, my lady.” His hand caressed her skin, the curve of her waist and the plump contours of her bottom. His other hand joined it in its exploration and they tucked under her and pulled her up to rub against his hard erection.
She shook her head. “Do not flatter me, sir. I am here, with you now. We both know I am not beauti
ful.”
“Oh, Rowena,” he breathed as he kissed her lips, the tip of her nose and each of her closed eye lids. “Do not bother denying it. Because I will surely not bother defending such an obvious thing. You are beautiful, whether you gainsay it or not. And do you not feel how ready I am for you, how my body needs you? I wanted you from that first moment I saw you.”
She bit her lip, searching his eyes and saw nothing but the same honest gaze that had struck her when she’d first seen him. For all his strength and command, his honesty and integrity never left him. Perhaps she was beautiful to his eyes.
He pulled her tight against him and she felt his hard cock rub against that sensitive part of her that needed the contact, over and over again. Her breathing became ragged and she gasped against his lips.
He pulled away and for one moment she thought he was going to leave. But he deftly untied the laces of her dress and pulled it off. She was left only in her under-dress. He slid it from her shoulders, somehow sensing that she didn’t want to be totally naked in front of him. Then he kissed her again and she whimpered against his lips. He gripped her bottom, as if the small noise that she’d uttered had acted as a sign, and lifted her at the same time as he sat down. She found herself astride his lap, her sex pressed against his arousal.
She angled her breasts, heavy and aching with need, so that his mouth could give her the pleasure she sought. Greedily, he suckled her, while at the same time, his hands smoothed over the soft flesh of her bottom. She jerked in his arms as his fingers found the place where she most needed to be touched. She moaned louder as his teeth nipped her breast and sucked further her nipple into his mouth. She sank into his lap harder, and the sudden contact with his long hard shaft that was barely contained by his hose, sent her over the edge and she cried out as her body exploded, her mind numbed and a weightless sensation entered her limbs. She fell against him, panting, in awe of the strength of the feeling—a feeling she was used to but had never managed to produce by herself on such a scale.
Laughing, he kissed the side of her face as she slumped against him, her hands beginning to caress his body, just as he’d caressed hers.
“I’d imagined, well, my lady Rowena. You were made for loving. Strong, passionate, honest, you are everything I could want in a woman.”
His words filled her with a low spreading warmth that was both sex and something more. She’d never thought that anyone would say such things to her. Tears sprang to her eyes, tears that had been held back by her practical nature that had thoroughly ignored the part of her that needed love.
“Saher, I… never thought…”
“Hush, don’t speak.” He kissed away her tears, and set her to her feet and withdrew her robe from over her head. Suddenly she felt unsure. She’d never been naked before a man. What if, after all his hot pursuit, Saher didn’t like what he saw? Where would that leave her?
He must have sensed her hesitation because he lifted her chin with his finger and kissed her lips.
She felt a deep gratitude which took her by surprise. She hadn’t known what she was missing from a man’s touch and would never have known if it hadn’t been for him. Because she knew, deep down, that this feeling wouldn’t have been the same with anyone else. She might not need to speak, but she could act.
She pushed her hands down his hose and caressed the length of his erection. It shifted beneath her hands and she pulled down his hose. She stepped back, suddenly doubtful as to how she could take such a size inside of her.
“What is the matter my lady?”
“How will that ever fit inside me?”
He grinned. “Do not worry, I will take my time and you will enjoy how I fill you.” He kissed her again. “I promise.”
He picked her up in his arms and took her to the bed. The light from four sconces cast a steady rosy hue over the bed, transforming it from a place of sleep to a magical place of pleasure.
She lay back on it, watching him strip off the last of his clothes, feeling like a wanton. She tried to touch him, but he was having none of it.
“Do that,” he growled, “and I’ll take you any way I can.” He stroked her arms, pressing them up above her head. “No, we’ll do this my way, we’ll do this slowly, as I’d described to you earlier.” A slow smile lit his face as he reached over for the strip of silk she used to bind her hair. Swiftly he tied her wrists together, tethering them to the bed posts behind.
“You think that will stop me? I can easily wriggle my hands from these loose bindings.”
“No. It won’t stop you. ’Tis nothing but a reminder for you not to tease me. I never want to restrain you. Not totally, only if it gives you pleasure too.” He grinned as he knelt above her and closed his mouth over her breasts as his hands pinned her hips to the soft bed. Any further thought fled from her mind as she succumbed to the devastating delights of pure sensation.
His mouth and tongue played wickedly with her breasts, teasing out the nipple, straining the tension within until it threatened to break. She wanted to reach out to him, to touch the smooth length of his erect cock. It was magnificent and she wanted to explore it. But the tug of the silk bindings around her wrists checked her movement. She smiled as she suddenly understood what he was doing.
But… if she couldn’t use her hands, she had the rest of her body. She raised her leg until the inside of her calf gently slid along the length of where she wanted to touch. It was silky smooth. He raised his head from her and growled. “Lady, I won’t be going slow if you keep that up.” His hands replaced his mouth on her breasts, leaving her hips free from constraint.
A flare of devilment ignited in her. She grinned and lifted her hips, angling them until she could feel the tip of his thick shaft, glistening with a pearl-like drop on its end, connecting with her wet quim. She quivered with anticipation. He closed his eyes, his expression tense with restraint, as she pulled him against her, moving and spreading that pearl drop against her, shifting it until it rubbed against that nub that still held tight and needy. She could feel the shivers of excitement begin to course through her body but before she could do anything further, he growled, lifted her legs and slid his length slowly into her waiting body. She cried out in surprise as she pulled him into her, her hands fisting within their restraints as her body struggled to accustom itself to his size. But he held himself there and kissed her and her body relaxed around the heft and length of him, centring her.
He pulled away from the kiss and their eyes met in the steady amber light of the candles and she saw, for the first time, a tenderness in his eyes that she’d sensed, but never seen before.
Then suddenly he shifted slightly and the exquisite friction inside and against her caused her eyes to open wide and a soft sigh to expel the tension. Slowly he pulled out of her. There was no friction now, only a slick warmth as he pushed back inside. The look of both tension and pleasure combined on his face gave her more confidence, and she shifted slightly and gasped as sensation—pure and vivid—coursed through her body.
She felt the tug of the silk against her skin and she arched her body up toward him. Slowly, with each sign she gave him, each gasp, each wriggle of her hips against his, his rhythm quickened and the sensations increased, tumbling, tightening until she raised her hips in abandon as he tensed, gasped and pumped his seed into the very heart of her. It was all she needed, this thought of the intense intimacy of the act, to allow her body to plunge headlong into the oblivion of bliss, fluttering and pulling around his cock, as if to massage every creamy drop from him.
Carefully he pulled himself out and rolled onto his back, loosening the silk and pulling her into his arms as he went.
They lay silent, one of his hands stroking her hair, the other her breast, as their breathing slowly returned to normal.
“I liked that.” She pushed herself up to look at him, unable to prevent a grin. “Is it always like that?”
“Only with me.” His grin widened. “But are you not sore?”
“I
’m sore.” Tentatively she reached down to herself. “And sticky.” She touched herself and her legs gave an involuntary jump as her fingers discovered just how sensitive she still was.
She lifted her eyes to see him watching her, touching herself.
“Do you touch yourself there often?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
He lifted his head back and roared with laughter. “You, Lady Rowena, wife of mine, my love, hold surprises. I would watch you touch yourself. See what you do.”
“Only…” she rolled back with assumed nonchalance. “Only if I can tie your hands this time.”
He reached out for her and drew her on top of him. “You ask too much wench. I will do many things for you, I can see, but I will always be in control, no matter what your demands.”
Saher didn’t know what made Rowena roll away from him and withdraw her gaze from his, for the first time since they’d entered the chamber.
She stood up and pulled on her robe. “So you will be away tomorrow for Norwich?”
“You wish me gone so soon, my lady?”
She shrugged as she pulled it tight around her and stoked the brazier, releasing a burst of heat. Where was the wanton intimacy of only moments before? He stood up and went to her. He had to know. He turned her and kissed her thoroughly and felt her respond with a heat and growing desire that reassured him. But as soon as he pulled away he saw the veil of distance once more fall over her eyes. He had her physically, but her eyes told him there was a breach between them he had yet to mend.
“’Tis just that you said you had pressing business and…”
“And you wish me away. I wonder why?”
She looked at him sharply but didn’t respond.
“What are you hiding from me, Rowena? I’ve had enough deceit played upon me all my life to not want it in my home. I need honesty. Can you give it to me?”
“I…” She looked away.
He grabbed his clothes. “I think I have my answer.” He pulled on his shirt. “Yes, I’ll be away. One week. And then I’ll return for good.”
Claiming His Lady: Novella (Norfolk Knights Book 1) Page 6
