by Pamela Cayne
“You’re not hurt?” she asked. King smiled because he could feel her voice as well as hear it. “You looked like you won the fight without serious injury, but I want to be sure you’re well, that your shoulder is healed.”
“You’re here with me. I feel like I could fly to the stars and bring one back for you.”
She pulled back and looked at him, her arms still circling his shoulders. He drank in the sight of her face, one side lit by the fire, the other left in darkness. Her mouth was slightly parted, like she’d just said “Oh,” and her eyes looked vulnerable yet wary.
He waited, determined not to scare her or rush her. If she wanted to sit like this all night, he would.
“King? What happens after the tournament? What do we do then?”
Her gaze drifted back to the flames, so he pulled her close again, resting his cheek against her heart. “Whatever we want.”
“How can you say that? It’s not that easy.” She sounded defeated and it hurt him worse than a physical blow. “I don’t think Nessie is going to come around, and that’s only the beginning of our problems.” She told him of the way she’d held off Mr. Adams, the worry of what would happen immediately after the fight.
“Okay, we’ll think about how to keep you away from Mr. Adams and how to best convince Nessie to come with us.” The ghost of Nessie’s possible betrayal hung heavy over King, but this wasn’t the time to tell Lady about that. “And it won’t be easy staying ahead of Mr. Adams—staying alive—but we’ll figure out how to do that too. I promise.” He gave her a brief squeeze. “Now let’s go to the easy stuff. What do you want?” She startled, like somebody had given her a little push between her shoulder blades. It was quiet for a few minutes and he wished he could see her face.
“I want to be able to say yes or no, to raise chickens if I want or just sit by a window and quilt, without having to worry about somebody else telling me what I have to do. To be dry and warm and fed and know I’m going to stay that way. To be safe,” she added in a small, faraway voice and he wondered if it was the first time she’d said it out loud.
He continued to hold her, enjoying the feel of her fingers idly stroking up and down his arm. He wished he could take her to the bed and hold her there, watch her while she slept, but that might push her too far tonight.
“What about you?” she asked, breaking the silence. “What do you want?”
“I want to give that to you,” King said. Lady looked at him, her whole body shuddering in some extreme emotion he couldn’t guess at. He held her close with his arm around her waist and gently touched her cheek, his thumb catching the first tear to fall, and poured everything he had, everything she made him, into this one moment. “I want to shelter you, to give you cause to smile the first thing in the morning and happy dreams throughout the night. I want you to go through this life knowing how strong and amazing you are, and bugger how selfish this sounds, but I want to be with you every day so you can see it in my eyes. If I could do that for you, I would die a happy man.”
He watched her face, felt her tremble beneath his hand, and tried to tell her the rest, the things he didn’t know how to say, by letting her look into his eyes and see his love for her. He wanted her to see forever.
With him.
* * *
She lost herself in his eyes, in the warmth of his touch. Unable to hold back from another instant of not bringing him fully into her life, her heart, her body, she reached for him the same time he reached for her, and they came together like wind and rain. He slanted his mouth over hers, lips, teeth and tongue all plundering her with a passion unleashed. He slid one hand to grip the swell of her hip while she ran her hands over the broad planes of his chest. She kissed him back, licking, biting and sucking, the bold sweeps of his tongue causing her to flex her fingers into the meat of his chest as though trying to pull him closer by her fingertips alone.
“I need to touch your skin,” he said, kissing his way to the hollow beneath her ear.
She released her hold on him and started unbuttoning her dress. For every button she slipped free, King did the next, until she reached the last just below the curve of her belly. With a groan, he parted her dress and laid his hand on the bare skin above her corset. Lady knew a part of her would carry his handprint over her heart for the rest of her life.
Giving him one last kiss, Lady pulled away and stood up. She faced him and kept his eye as she slipped the dress off her shoulders and let it bunch at her waist. Pulling free the knot at her waist, she released her petticoats and let them drop along with her dress. She walked backward to the bed, wearing only her corset, drawers, stockings and shoes. When she’d dressed for King tonight, she’d chosen her good satin corset and had left her chemise at home. Feeling the thick, smooth fabric against her skin, she smiled, and it actually felt like one of happiness, not of a character she needed to play.
King smiled back and jerked his shirt off as he stood up. In three huge, hurried steps, he’d crossed the room and stood in front of her. She took his hands and felt him head to head, chest to chest and hip to hip.
“You’re tall for a woman,” he said and she could feel his breath fan her ear.
“Does that mean you don’t want me to take off my shoes?” One side of her mouth curved up in a grin and she felt his laugh sweep down her neck.
“Let me.” He knelt at her feet and took one foot in his hands, running his thumbs up her calf to the sensitive hollow behind her knee. A tremor ran up Lady’s leg and she sat on the bed, suddenly too weak to stand.
One hand cradling her ankle, the other grasping the tie of her boot, King gave her a smile that was half shy boy and half wicked man. With a tug, he pulled the satin ribbon free of its knot and wiggled the lacing so it was loose, then slipped her boot off. He did the same with the other shoe and Lady felt something new inside her open. As he slid his hands up her stockinged calves, Lady cupped his face.
“What’s your name?” she asked in a choked voice. “Your real name, the one you had before this?”
“Honestly?” he asked and she could only nod. “I don’t know. I was on the streets long before Mr. Adams found me, had other men who used me for my fists or my speed or my youth. My first memories are of stealing bread and fighting for the crusts. I remember the name Henry but I don’t know if that was mine or somebody else’s.”
Lady looked into King’s eyes and saw a flash of pain before he hid it behind his wall again. Suddenly she knew that they weren’t King and Lady, a fighter and a whore, but simply a man and a woman who had fallen in love. “Poor man,” she whispered and laid the softest of kisses on each of his cheeks. “I shall simply have to call you mine.”
In a jerky motion, he grabbed her hands and pressed them to his face. Lady spread her fingers and stroked his cheeks, needing to touch him as much as he needed to be touched.
“And you,” he said, his voice a quiet rasp. “What’s your real name?”
“Elizabeth Thornton, no middle name.”
“Elizabeth. It’s beautiful, just like you.” He laid his head in the curve of her neck and Lady wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into her embrace. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she rested her cheek on the side of his head, offering him the solace he’d never received before and taking the same he offered.
When she felt him take a deep, huffing breath, she released him. “Now, man of mine,” she said and brushed her lips across his. “Make love to me.”
* * *
Lady crawled backward on the bed as King climbed onto the mattress and followed her on his hands and knees. As she reclined on her back, her wrists crossed above her head, King slid onto his side beside her with his head propped on his hand, one knee draped over hers.
“I can’t believe you’re here, with me, my beautiful woman.” He brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead wit
h one finger.
She only smiled and lifted her head for his kiss. He touched his lips to hers, trailing his hand down from her head to her waist, and Lady felt every inch burn her, brand her. She grabbed on to the broad shoulders she loved so much, and pulled him against her for a deeper kiss. As her tongue stroked against his, his hand slid to the fullest part of her hip, his rough hands softened by the fine lawn of her drawers. He rubbed against her and she could feel his erection against her other hip.
His hand brushed the skin exposed below her corset, a few inches below her waist yet a few inches above the triangle of her curls. Drawing in a ragged breath, Lady arched against him and rocked her head back against the pillow. He started to kiss her neck and slid his finger into the seam of her corset. Lady wanted it off as badly as he did, desperate to feel him with no barriers between them. She reveled in the feel of his mouth on her neck, the warmth of his cock heavy against her hip, and waited for her corset to be parted. Writhing against King and the soft cotton quilt that now smelled more like him than her, Lady was awash in sensation.
“I can’t do it.” King’s voice was strained.
“Mmm?” Lady rolled her head to look at him.
“I can’t unfasten your bloody corset.” He flattened his hand on her stomach. “And the way you keep rubbing against me isn’t helping.”
Her dexterous fighter was having trouble popping four metal hooks to get to what lay beneath. In a slow, measured beat, Lady sprung each hook.
“Can I go back to rubbing now?” Her voice was almost a purr.
“Oh, God, yes.” He kissed her hot and openmouthed while driving his hand up the open seam of her corset and palming her breast, catching her nipple between his finger and thumb and gently pulling it.
Lady rolled against him and groaned at the head-to-toe contact. He was heat and strength and a promise of better things and she wanted more. He eased her back and slowly pulled out of her arms. She opened her eyes to see what he was doing and watched him jump off the bed.
“King?”
In three sharp, swift movements, he unfastened and pushed off his pants and drawers and stood before her nude, lit only from the firelight behind him. He stood over her, an intense look on his shadowed face. She held out a hand to him. “Make me burn.”
He leaned on one knee by her hip and grabbed her drawers in his hands. He started to pull when she stopped him. “Wait. There’s a tie—”
With a wicked grin on his face, King gave a tug and pulled off her drawers without having to take off anything else. He left her in her spread corset and stockings, the rest of her open to his gaze and his touch.
He lowered himself, gently coming to rest against her, and Lady opened her legs. She could feel his cock against the swollen lips of her pussy and shifted her hips to roll against it. With a low hiss, he dropped his head onto her chest, and Lady wrapped her arms around his shoulders and closed her legs around his flank. He was hers now. His mind was hers, his soul was hers and now his body was hers.
He started to kiss her breast and Lady relaxed her grip enough so he could move. She enjoyed the feeling of his mouth creating a moist path, each kiss closer to the crest, causing her to breathe a little bit faster.
Suddenly, he lowered his mouth over her nipple, causing her to cry out as he suckled on it. With each pull of his mouth, she arched her hips and rocked against him.
He made a sound deep in his throat and braced himself on his arms, then angled his hips until the tip of his cock was parting her folds.
“Lady,” he said, his voice a hoarse promise of everything yet to come. She raised her eyes and met his, then reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, needing to touch him as they fell.
With a flex of his hips, he surged into her. Suddenly there was no more emptiness, no more being alone. Lady could feel the shock and amazement on her face, knew the tears pooling in her eyes would soon start to fall, but she held King’s gaze, watching his face reflect the same emotions she was feeling.
He pulled out and thrust in again, and Lady had to force herself not to throw back her head and cry out to the heavens, but to keep looking at this amazing man making love to her. The third time he pushed into her, he lowered himself to cover her, his elbows braced beside her head. He started to kiss her, plundering her mouth in syncopation with the driving thrusts of his cock. Lady became frantic, wrapping her legs around his hips and running her hands down his side, sliding them up to grasp the swell of his ass. She returned his kiss with equal frenzy, nipping and sucking at his lips and tongue, wanting as much of him in her as she could get.
Soon, Lady started to get a heady sensation where King was pumping into her, different from last time but no less wonderful. It felt like her already pulsing flesh had started a new rhythm, one that rippled up through her body. She wrapped her arms up under King’s and around his back so she was clasping his shoulders. The next time he rocked into her, the sensation made her grip him harder, bowing her back and arching her hips. The next stroke touched a new spot and Lady felt her world start to fly apart. She grabbed King harder and another stroke made the pieces of her burst like bubbles in champagne, and Lady felt like that same wine was pouring up through her throat and cascading down her body.
She cried out as her body clenched, and after a few more strokes that kept her body pulsing in beat with her heart, King gave a hoarse shout and stiffened. He collapsed on her, his head nestled in the curve of her neck, and she could feel his heartbeat racing against her chest.
As her breathing calmed and her own pulse slowed, Lady idly ran her hands up and down his arms. Even with him pressed against her from head to foot, she still wanted to touch more of him. He was warm and sweaty and she had never been so sheltered.
With a groan, King separated from her and rolled to his back. Lady felt the familiar absence of being left after sex, but then King burrowed his arm under her shoulders and roughly pulled her against him, wrapping both arms around her after pulling a blanket over both of them. It wasn’t familiar, but it certainly wasn’t unwelcome.
He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.”
“I noticed.” He chuckled, and she laughed too. “Now we just keep you away from Mr. Adams until the tournament is over, and we’ll be in fine shape.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I don’t know that it’ll work to have you stay here. You certainly could, but this is probably one of the first places Mr. Adams will check. I’m thinking it might be better to put you in some rooms somewhere, safe and hidden away. That way I can come visit you as I need to.” King smiled at the thought. It wasn’t something he’d been planning on, but when it jumped into his head, it felt good. Lady would be protected, he’d be able to be with her and it’d only be for a few days at most. Sure, there’d be a few details to work out, but they could do it. It would solve the problem of keeping her away from Mr. Adams after the final fight, so it was just Nessie and how to run. They were practically there.
She pulled out of his arms and sat up, holding the blanket to her chest. He was grinning like a fool, but the world had just been handed to him on a platter. How could he not smile?
“What do you mean, keep me away from Mr. Adams?” she asked, and he searched her face to see if he was imagining her apprehensive tone or if there was truly something wrong. Her eyes were wary and direct and her lips were no longer swollen and rosy, but tight and drained of color. He’d been around women enough to know there was a storm brewing, but he’d never be around them enough to know what could bring the clouds in.
“Exactly that. We’ve got to figure out how to keep you away from him now that...you know,” King waved his hand across the bed, words suddenly failing him as the tension grew. “This.”
“This? This?” Her voice rose and her brow furrowed with each word. “What d
oes this have to do with today, when this happened before and you never said anything? And what exactly do you mean by this? Since we’ve had sex? Since I’ve been with you? Since you fucked me?”
“Since I fell in love with you,” King shouted and all of the crackling tension became even more charged by the silence. He could only bear the look of shock on her face for a second before scrambling off the bed, the sheet tangling around his legs. He kicked it away and had to take three short steps to regain his balance, which only made him angrier. He whirled to face her, determined to fight for her, but her expression hadn’t changed, nor had she said anything in return, and he felt all of his anger disappear.
He didn’t move for a few seconds, then slowly leaned over and grabbed his pants. He dressed, then sat down in the leather chair off to the side and rubbed his hands over his face and head. Christ, what had just happened?
He heard Lady rustling, could see movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t look up. He didn’t think he could stand seeing that look on her face again. He simply sat there, looking at the floor and feeling the jagged edge of her stare rip through his guts like knives.
“King?” Her voice was soft, but not weak. This was it, then. This was when she told him thanks for a nice evening but bugger off. He closed his eyes and let his head drop into his cupped hands.
“King, please look at me.”
He jumped out of his chair and headed straight for the back door. “I’ll get you a hansom, one of the fellows I know. He’ll take you straight to your place or answer to me.” He reached into the corner of his cupboard for his stash of coins. He had to push aside some crockery and didn’t hear her come up behind him. She laid her hand on his shoulder and he flinched. She pulled her hand away and suddenly King was cold.
