The Ward's Bride (Border Series Prequel Novella)

by Cecelia Mecca

  This night was for his wife. His pleasure would come later.

  “Good eve, Cora.”

  She didn’t turn to him but whispered, “Good eve, Adam.”

  It would be a long night indeed.

  His wife began to stand.

  “Nay, remain where you are.” He poured himself a goblet of wine and sat opposite her, just as he’d done that first night they were together.

  “But our arrangement—”

  “Can wait.”

  She finally looked at him, and Adam had to rely on years of training to school his thoughts away from picturing her full lips on his—

  “How did you manage that shot?”

  The look in her eyes, a mixture of curiosity and affront—she was not used to losing with her bow—tipped his lips into a smile. “Richard,” he said simply.

  Her brows furrowed.

  “I’m passing fair with the bow, but it was Richard’s tutelage these past few days that allowed me to win today.”

  “I see.”

  Cora’s forlorn expression nearly made him change his mind about claiming his reward. “You’re disappointed to have lost.”

  She shrugged. “To have done so with the longbow, aye. Very few have bested me with it.”

  So she was saddened more by her hurt pride than having to give herself to him. That was encouraging.

  “Are you nervous, Cora?”

  She didn’t appear to be. Bedding virgins was not something he was accustomed to, so this would be new for both of them.

  “Nay.” She glanced at the canopied bed.

  He stood and refilled his cup. Cora inclined her head and he refilled hers as well.

  “Will you go home?” He tried to sound casual.

  She had the decency to look embarrassed. “Aye. Though my father will be furious.”

  If she were actually leaving. He could have easily made his reward that she not leave. Had considered it. But Adam wanted her to stay on her own accord.

  “But you believe he will allow you to remain in your home.”

  Her sharp glance was his only answer.

  “And what of you? Will the earl be as furious?”

  He considered it seriously. Before his discussion with Richard in the storeroom, he would have expected the earl to be disappointed in him, if not furious. Now, he considered all he knew of the man. Of their relationship. Of the many years he’d spent trying to prove his worth to him. And Richard.

  Perhaps he’d been wrong.

  “I would have thought so, aye. But now I’m unsure.”

  He understood Cora’s confused expression and could hardly reconcile it himself.

  “I’ve been indebted to him my whole life and always thought “son” and “brother” were merely words. But I wonder now if they were not much more.”

  That Cora listened intently encouraged him.

  “It may not be as necessary to prove myself to Spencer,” he finished, unable to explain properly.

  “It may not ever have been necessary,” Cora whispered.

  She was right.

  But it was too painful to think of the earl now. “You asked about my ability to shoot, but what of yours, my lady?”

  His wife’s shoulders relaxed. She took a sip of wine and smiled for the first time since he’d entered the bedchamber.

  “My father did not approve at first. But I’d heard tales of the Welsh longbow and begged to be trained. Along the border, the Englishman’s tactics are our own—”

  “And the reverse is true,” he allowed.

  “Aye. So it was not unknown to the soldiers with whom I trained. One man in particular is responsible for my skill.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Alan Maxwell, my father’s cousin. He lived in Northumbria for a time. Was married to an Englishwoman.”

  “Was?”

  “She left him.”

  She said it with such resentment that Adam immediately knew it was partly this English woman who was to blame for his current predicament.

  While he waited for her to continue, he tended to the fire, adding a log and allowing the flames to breath.

  “Their marriage was an arrangement, not unlike our own, made in a failed attempt at peace with a border family who raided our land mercilessly.”

  A common occurrence along either side of the border.

  “When the small demesne she inherited was attacked and burnt to the ground by English reivers, Alan brought her north, to Scotland. But as he tells it, the woman hated everything about us—always did.”

  “As he tells it?”

  “I was but a babe.”

  Did she speak so freely because she thought to leave the next day?

  “And your cousin?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “He let her go. The woman died less than two years later in a raid.”

  “I’m surprised her family remained along the border. Many have fled the marches to safer ground.”

  “We have not retreated.”

  She said it with such pride that Adam was reminded his bride was a border maiden. A woman raised in one of the most dangerous places in England or Scotland. How could he have ever thought her meek?

  “Nay, you have not retreated.”

  And neither would he.

  9

  It was time.

  Cora tried to remain calm. Appear unaffected. She was anything but.

  By the time her husband appeared, she’d worked herself into such a state that even two goblets of wine had not calmed her. Unbelievably, she wasn’t sure if it was nerves or anticipation that caused her turmoil.

  Cora wanted this. She’d be a fool to deny it.

  May God forgive her, she wanted to feel the way she had that other night. It would be a memory of him that she could carry away…

  He reached for her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed each fingertip. His lips moved to her palm, the sleeves of her scandalous chemise shifting upward as he trailed a path toward her wrist.

  “Cora.” His voice was so deep. Her insides tingled the way they did every time he looked at her with a hint of a smile on his lips.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. She was so nervous, she hardly knew what words came out of her mouth.

  “I’m kissing your wrist. And before the night is over, I will have kissed every inch of your beautiful body.”

  “Every—”

  “Shhh…”

  He stood and pulled her up to join him, wasting no time before he lowered his head and began fulfilling his promise by trailing kisses across her neck and her ear. She could feel his breath as he paused and whispered, “Yes, everywhere.”

  She held onto his shoulders then, unsure if she could stand otherwise.

  His warm lips lowered again to her neck, and she lifted her head to give him better access. She was so focused on the feeling of his lips that she didn’t react when he lifted her chemise until the cold crept up her legs.

  “What—”

  He pulled it up so quickly, she had no other choice than to raise her arms and allow it.

  She wore nothing underneath it this night, as her husband had just discovered.

  He stared at her, and Cora wanted to grab the garment from his hands and cover herself. But as she watched his face, she felt something else. Something dangerous.

  “My God, you are perfect.”

  Before she had time to be embarrassed once more, he’d dropped the shift into a pool on the floor and resumed his ministrations. But this time his lips moved more freely, without hindrance. His hands rested on her hips as he knelt before her and continued to deliver on his promise. He kissed her everywhere…her arms, her stomach. Cora’s hands lay on his shoulders, still covered in a clean linen shirt. She ached to pull it off him the way he’d disrobed her. Memories of those hard muscles in his chest and back had haunted her these many nights.

  Suddenly, he stopped. Cora looked down as Adam watched her.

  “I said every inch, and I meant it, wife.”r />
  What did he—

  He kissed her breast, and a moan ripped out of her. Cupping them with both hands, he moved his mouth over her nipple and kissed that, too. But he didn’t move on as he’d done everywhere else. He took the tip into his mouth and teased it with his tongue.

  She could not stand it a moment longer.

  “Your shirt,” she managed to croak.

  Adam lifted his head for the briefest of moments, long enough to pull the shirt off and toss it to the ground. His lips found her other nipple, but now her hands were touching his bare flesh, too. The muscles of his shoulders tensed beneath her fingers.

  Enraptured by the feel of him, the look of his flexing muscles, she had not realized his intent. Ever so gently he kissed her…there!

  “Adam, you can’t!”

  “Everywhere.”

  He stood and lifted her with one easy movement, carrying her to the bed as if she was a babe.

  “But surely not—”

  Oh God, that was exactly what he intended. Laying her down on the soft feather mattress, he moved so quickly Cora didn’t have time to protest. He knelt beneath her, pulled her legs apart, and actually moved to kiss the most intimate part of her body.

  She had to stop him. This could not be…

  He didn’t kiss her, precisely. Instead, his tongue touched the most sensitive spot and she immediately lifted her buttocks off the bed. Toward him, not away.

  Her moan mingled with his own sound of pleasure. The crackling of the distant fire was so clear to her, Cora could imagine they were sitting right next to it. She felt and heard everything. As his tongue explored her, all the muscles in her body tensed as one.

  “Relax, my love.”

  His hot breath against her thigh reminded her of his position. She opened her eyes and watched as he lowered his head once again. The sight of her powerful husband in such a vulnerable position gave her as much pleasure, as much excitement, as the exquisite sensations sent through her by the flicking and prodding of his tongue.

  That same feeling, the building of sensation… She grasped the cloth beneath her fingers and attempted to hold on, but it was not possible. The wave of pleasure built until it washed over her.

  “Now, Cora.”

  She exploded, moaning and writhing under him. She opened her eyes again, not even aware she’d shut them, and looked into that piercing gaze that never failed to quicken her heartbeat. She could hear the pounding of it as the wave of pleasure began to ebb.

  He’d given her fulfillment, twice, yet taken none of his own.

  Unselfish.

  “What of you?” she asked.

  His low, guttural groan was all the answer she needed.

  “Yes.” She gave him permission he already had. Cora sensed he had been waiting for it nonetheless.

  He stood and tore off every remaining item of clothing until he stood, naked, before her. She dared not look away.

  “I…there is no way…”

  He was going to kill her.

  “Aye, there is.” He positioned himself above her, and Cora thought twice about their agreement. The haze of passion lifted and reality took its place.

  “Cora, listen to me.”

  She tried, but the thought of that…

  She knew what happened next. Or had some vague notion of what was to happen next. It was not possible.

  Adam ran his hands from her outer thighs to her waist. They continued upward until they once again found her breasts.

  “Close your eyes.”

  “Adam, I don’t believe—”

  “Close your eyes, Cora.”

  She squeezed them shut. Mayhap if she didn’t look…

  He laughed, a chuckle that made her think, unaccountably, of the first kiss they had shared. Even then, he’d been exquisitely gentle. He would not hurt her.

  His fingers teased the peaks that seemed to harden every time he touched them. And then his hands were gone and the mattress sank under his weight. She startled when his lips found hers.

  With her eyes still closed, she opened for him. His kiss was gentle, coaxing. His tongue touched and circled, and the kiss deepened. She sighed and wrapped her hands around his neck, pulling him closer.

  Unfortunately, when she did so, she felt that part of him on her stomach. Hard and heavy, it was a reminder of the pain that was to come. Her sister, though equally as inexperienced as Cora in the arts of love, had never been shy about gossiping with the servant girls, and she’d told her the first time would be extremely painful.

  But the deepening of his kiss brought her back to the present moment, to him. His mouth was so incredibly warm and insistent, and his tongue teased as it swirled around her own. She groaned and lifted herself to him.

  And then she felt it. Adam had positioned himself so that the tip of his manhood pressed against her. She was still worried, but her desire for him pulsed more strongly than her fear of the pain. “Please, Adam.”

  He slipped inside her easily. Slowly and steadily until he stopped and tore his mouth from hers.

  His hands held him above her, enough that she could barely feel the hardness of his chest against her own. She wanted more and pulled him toward her.

  “I will not take what isn’t freely given.”

  He was inside her, the fullness teasing. Cora wanted to give him the same pleasure she’d found. She wanted to feel the entire length of him inside her.

  “Take what is yours,” she said breathlessly.

  And he did.

  Adam thrust inside her and Cora nearly screamed. It felt heavenly for a moment, but then the pain intruded.

  He stilled and watched her.

  She was naked, lying beneath the man who was her husband. Her innocence, gone. But she wasn’t sorry for it—nay, she wanted more. The pain faded, replaced with a feeling that was indescribable. She began to move against him.

  It seemed that was the signal he’d been waiting for.

  Holding himself on his hands above her, Adam drew in and out. She watched as his expression changed from an almost pained look to something softer. He groaned with pleasure, and the knowledge that she did this to him made her want even more. She met him with each movement until they both panted with exertion.

  “Oh God, Cora, you are so damn tight.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant, but Cora knew it was a good thing. That she could bring him so much pleasure made her feel powerful.

  She opened her mouth and he took the invitation. He leaned down and captured her mouth as he continued to move, more quickly now. Circling and thrusting, he mimicked the movements with his mouth. She clawed at his back, desperately trying to hold on. But she could not.

  She tore her mouth away to ask. To plead. “Adam…”

  “Come on, sweetheart.”

  Cora pulled him even closer to her. The spasms took her by surprise. They intensified, moving throughout her entire body.

  She could hear the deep, guttural sound of a man who had claimed her well and truly. It was a primitive sound. A sensual one. With a final thrust, he collapsed on top of her, and Cora held him tight, not wanting the glorious sensations to end.

  Breathing heavily, Cora pulled the coverlet to her neck as Adam finally rolled onto the bed beside her.

  He chuckled. “A bit late for modesty.”

  She supposed he was right. But it felt…odd…to be lying in this state next to a man. Her husband.

  “I didn’t know what to expect, but that…”

  “Was perfect,” he finished.

  She remained silent.

  Adam turned to her, leaning on one elbow so casually it was as if he belonged there next to her. She turned away.

  “Why, Cora?” he asked softly.

  Somehow, she had known this was coming. And after what had happened between them, she owed him this at least.

  “It was my fault. I should have taken a guard.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “But it was a fine day, and there had not been a raid or attack for over a
year.”

  Cora turned away. She couldn’t look at her husband.

  “The English reivers were bold. They knew who I was, knew who my father was.”

  She felt Adam’s hand grasp her own and finally turned to him. His eyes were filled with worry. Not condemnation.

  “They did not hurt me. But they would have had my cousin not followed me, worried for my safety.”

  “My God, Cora. I’m so sorry.”

  She rushed to continue, not wanting to discuss the vile men any further.

  “And my parents. Their marriage was arranged, which of course was not unusual. But, well, you’ve met my father. He loves his daughters, his clan, his country. The idea of peace after so many years of war. But my mother?”

  How could she say such an awful thing aloud? Her father did not love her mother. And she likely felt the same. It was an arrangement, nothing more.

  “That is not unusual, Cora.” Adam’s voice was hesitant. But he did not deny it.

  “Aye, but my mother.” She sighed. “She is not like me.”

  His eyebrows drew together.

  “She is timid, quite unlike some of the women of our clan. And now that I am wed, Lily will likely do so as well.” She shrugged. “She has no other family.”

  A loud pounding at the door interrupted them.

  “My lord, come quickly,” Charles yelled from the other side.

  In an instant Adam had leapt from the bed, pulled on his braies, and grabbed his sword.

  “Don’t move,” he instructed.

  And then he was gone.

  While the steward had done a fair job of maintaining the castle, the small demesne had become a target for unsavory characters in the absence of a lord. Adam had ordered his men to send for him in the event of any crimes in the village, which was why Charles had summoned him after the farmer’s cows were stolen.

  He’d managed to hunt down those responsible, but it had taken all night—a night he’d hoped to spend showing Cora the pleasures he could bring her. The sun was already rising by the time he rode through the gatehouse, and though he’d sent a message to Cora, telling her he would return as soon as possible, a feeling of unease stole over him.