by Sondra Grey
“Aye, well, the man was old. Mayhap his seed was no good,” Adam said, dismissing the idea. But the thought gave him pause. Adam had tumbled a good many servants, and carried on affairs with several married women. While he’d always tried to be careful with his seed, accidents happened, and yet he’d never gotten a single of his lovers with child.
In fact, he’d not thought much of children; though he supposed he might need to get a son in order to insure the land remained in Maclean hands. If her curves were any indication, she’d no doubt prove as fertile as his new estate. The thought made him smile.
As the far door creaked open, all eyes turned to see James leading the bride to the altar. Adam found himself suppressing a grin. Poor girl. Whoever had lent her the clothing had not been quiet her size. The dress was tight in the chest and pushed her bosom up high enough as to be indecent. To get the ivory gown to fit about her waist, the laces had to be cinched tight, creating folds in the fabric across her hips.
No one had seen fit to give her a veil, but whatever lady’s maid she’d borrowed had done her hair up beautifully, scooping it off her neck. A few neat touches of makeup highlighted his bride’s better features: her large, intent eyes and round apple cheeks.
It had taken Adam all an hour alone with her last night to realize that she’d no guile at all. What she thought appeared on her face almost instantly. Now, she looked irritated, but Adam was willing to bet her irritation wasn’t aimed at him. As he walked her down the aisle, James wore a fixed expression that seemed to suggest they’d had words in the hall.
As Adam had already witnessed her attempt to contradict the king, he could only wonder over what they’d discussed.
As James handed her over to Adam, Adam rested Annis’ hand on his bicep so that she might lean there. They would have to stand through most of the ceremony and he’d seen her ankle last night. It would be a month before she was walking well again.
The ceremony was dry and longer than Adam might have wished it. He was distracted by how close Annis stood, how sweet she smelled, and how her bosom pushed against the neckline of the dress. His mind kept travelling back to her bedroom, where he was giving serious consideration to how their wedding night might go. He nearly missed it when the priest cued him to speak.
But he did speak, and so did she, her voice steady and clear. But she kept her gaze fixed on the altar. Only when the priest announced them man and wife did she look up. The expression on her face was one of resignation.
“If you’d like,” the priest intoned dryly, “you may kiss your…”
Adam didn’t wait for the final word, but swooped down, pressing his lips to hers and wrapping an arm about her waist, drawing her into him. He could feel her stiffen in surprise, but he persisted, his kiss persuasive, and he felt her start to melt against him.
A fierce and primal sense of pride scorched him inside and out.
When he broke the kiss, her cheeks were flaming, her eyes glassy with desire. Oh yes. They were going to have a good time tonight.
Chapter 6
T he wedding luncheon was a short affair, and Annis – again – found herself unable to eat much. She was a wreck of nerves. Adam’s kiss in the chapel had awoken something hot and needy within her, and it hadn’t yet dissipated.
To make matters worse, he seemed intent to make a fool of her in front of everyone: When he saw that she was not eating he insisted, loudly, on feeding her with his own hands. Each time his fingers slid into her mouth to deliver a piece of food, that burning in her gut would start again. She knew her cheeks were flaming, because Adam had leaned down and murmured in her ear how becoming her blush was.
“So maidenly,” he’d murmured. “I wonder, how far down does that blush extend…”
Miserable, Annis took solace in her wine cup. As long as the cup was at her lips, Adam couldn’t try and force food on her.
And yet after the second cup of wine, he refused to let the servants refill her glass, and when she frowned at him he announced, loudly, that he and his bride would retire so that they might rest up before their trip north.
He then stood and gently escorted Annis from the room, all chivalrous solicitation and good manners. But when they entered the hall, his hands strayed from the small of her back to rest on the swell of her buttocks. Annis would have shifted away, but it would have put undo pressure on her ankle, so she bit her lip and tried not to let her embarrassment show.
“This really is quite a remarkable behind,” said Adam, fingers splaying lower. “And my word, dear wife, you are practically scarlet.”
He laughed but removed his hand and, rather than return it to her back, he scooped her up in one motion and began to stride down the hall. “I find I am eager to get you out of these clothes, dear wife, and see what lies beneath this ill-fitting dress.”
Annis didn’t know what to say and clung to Adam helplessly, burying her face in his kilt to hide it from the servants who gawped at their passing. Surely, he didn’t mean to undress her fully! David never had! Oh god, what embarrassment!
He took them to her room, not his. Setting her feet gently on the floor, Adam set out to remove his kilt.
“What…what are you doing!?” she asked him, as he shucked his boots, as the kilt fell about his feet, leaving him only in his shirt. It stopped at mid-thigh, revealing legs that were generously muscles and sprinkled with golden hair. Annis couldn’t quite take her eyes off where the fabric of his shirt was beginning to tent outward.
“Undressing,” said Adam, looking at her as if she’d lost her head. “Don’t tell me your husband never took his clothes off to make love.
Annis bit her lip and, mortified, shook her head.
Adam’s brows rose high, the expression tugging at his scar. “You’re telling me that David MacDonnell tumbled his wife with his kilt still on?”
Annis was suddenly ashamed. “He…” He had wanted the act itself to be quick as possible. He would lay her on her back, lift her skirts and his kilt, make sure she was wet, and thrust upon her until he was finished.
A slow smile spread over Adam’s lips. “That old dog,” he said, shaking his head. Slowly, he lifted the shirt over his head, revealing first his half-hard member, which seemed to grow even further as her gaze landed on it, then the hard plains of his abdomen. Lord, he was fine. He was tall and heavily muscled. The same golden hair on his legs was sprinkled across his chest. Unlike David, who hated anyone to see him unclothed, Adam seemed to have no trouble being naked, and Annis understood why. He was glorious. She could not take her eyes off him.
But Adam gave her almost no time to look. In a moment he was spinning her around, his hands on the laces of her dress.
“Can we…” she said, trying to step away from him. “Can we just… do it with the gown on?”
Adam looked aghast. “Absolutely not!” His fingers went back to the laces and Annis felt herself trembling with anxiety.
“Good lord, you’re shaking!” said Adam turning her back around to face him. Annis tried to hide her eyes, but Adam gripped her chin and forced her gaze to meet his.
“Go on,” he said, his voice impatient. “Tell me what’s wrong so we can get on with it!”
Annis didn’t know what to say. She knew she was being ridiculous. He was her husband, which meant he could do with her as he wished. But…god she’d never felt this way before. She was anxious, and needy, and she didn’t think she could control her emotions if he touched her any more. And if he took her clothes off…what if he hated what he saw.
Adam’s face shifted, as he tried to read her silence. He grew suddenly somber. “Did he beat you?” he asked, quietly. “I know there are men who do such things…”
Annis wished it were that simple. She shook her head.
“Out with it,” said Adam again. “I can’t read this silence.”
Annis colored. “He…he didn’t like it when I…”
“When you what?”
How did she explain this? Couldn’t he j
ust leave it? Annis reached back, hoping that if she continued to undress perhaps he’d get distracted, but he stilled her stand, stepping in close to her and reaching around, removing her hands from her laces and taking up the task himself. He unlaced her slowly, his breath warm on her cheeks as he towered over her.
“Go on,” he said, sliding each lace out and loosening the corset that pressed her breasts nearly beneath her chin. “He didn’t like it when you…what?”
He dipped his head, suddenly, his mouth catching her ear lobe and sucking it into his hot mouth. Sensation streaked through Annis and her knees nearly buckled, but he didn’t let her fall, his arms held her up as his fingers pried her laces loose.
His tongue slid from her lobe then and into her ear, the sensation so exquisite she couldn’t help herself. She let out a low moan and immediately clamped her lips together.
“Ah,” said Adam, his voice hot in her poor, tortured ear. “He didn’t like it when you responded. I can tell from the way your teeth are clenched.”
Annis thought she might die of shame. She tried to pull away from his touch, but Adam’s arms hardened around her. “Shhh,” he said. “As it happens, I quite liked that sound you made. It tells me I’m pleasing you.”
Annis blinked up at him. His eyes were dark, his expression mischievous and Annis realized that he’d loosened her gown only when he slid it suddenly from her hips. She gasped and grabbed for it, but he captured her hands in his, holding them prisoner behind her back.
“That’s better,” he said. She couldn’t move. Her feet were trapped in her gown. Adam’s mouth came down before she could move and his lips captured hers again. David had kissed her a few times, but they’d been sloppy, impatient things. Adam’s kiss was hot, patient, his lips skilled as they danced over hers. His free hand went to her chin and tipped it, opening her mouth so that his tongue swept in.
“Kiss me,” he rasped against her lips.
When she was sixteen, Annis used to practice kissing on the back of her palm. She used to imagine that kisses were like this. So, she kissed him back, with all the unpracticed skill she possessed.
It worked. Adam went from cool control to fiery passion in an instant. He released her hands, his arms banding around her waist and lifting her from her gown. When he broke the kiss it was to pull the chemise from her body until she was as naked as he.
“There she is,” he said, his eyes scouring her figure, hands whipping out to trap hers again as she tried to cover herself.
“Good lord, Sparrow,” he said. “You curve like the lowland hills.” He ran a hand from her ribs to her hip, settling there and squeezing. Before she could struggle against his grasp her kissed her again, and all thoughts of struggle flew from Annis’ mind. Adam’s skin was hot on hers and she didn’t even realize he was walking backwards until the bed hit the back of her knees and she tumbled onto it.
Adam followed her down, covering her body with his. He used his knees to part hers and felt his thick, fully engorged member hot against her most sensitive parts. She panted slightly when his mouth returned to her ear.
“Moan for me,” he whispered, his teeth scoring her neck. Oh god! She didn’t even have the presence of mind to think. Sensation was streaking through her, his every touch stirring that roaring flame within her.
While his mouth teased her neck, his hands found her breasts, squeezing them, pinching at the nipples until she was overwhelmed with sensation.
“There’s a girl,” he whispered in her ear and she writhed beneath his ministrations. “I knew you’d be like this. Hot as molten iron. Look at you, arching like a cat into my hands.”
Annis wanted to be embarrassed, but couldn’t summon the energy, especially not when Adam’s hands left her breasts and travelled to the cleft between her legs. Reaching into her soft brown curls, he found that small bud of nerves that David had avoided. He rubbed at it and Annis nearly arched off the bed.
Adam’s chuckle was low in her ear. “That’s it, Sparrow. Sing for me.” His hands drifted down and he slid a finger inside her.
“Lord,” he whispered, “you’re right as a drum.”
Annis moaned as his finger swirled and she cried out when he pressed a second one in to join the first. He shifted his weight until his mouth was level with her breast, then he took her hard nipple into his mouth and suckled. His fingers slowly withdrew before pressing in, thumb coming up to rub at that sensitive spot. Annis bowed off the bed, the pressure building in her until she was nearly sobbing with pleasure.
Oh god, this was everything she’d dreamed of. Only Adam seemed separate from the storm that consumed her. His fingers weren’t enough, she needed more of him. Annis reached out for him, grabbing a handful of his blond hair and tugging him upward.
Adam roared with laughter, his hand withdrawing as he allowed himself to be tugged up the bed.
Reaching down, Adam grabbed her knees and, in a sudden motion, jerked her knees towards her chest, leaving her more exposed than she’d been in her entire life. Annis cried out in dismay, but Adam shushed her by covering her mouth with his, and silencing her in another onslaught of hot, drugging kisses.
She could feel him, pushing at her entrance, head thick enough that she wondered whether or not he was going to fit. Adam reached between them, never breaking the kiss, and she felt his fingers pressing her lips open, holding them wide as he coated himself in her wetness. Then he started to push into her.
Annis stiffened at the fullness, but Adam withdrew slightly before pressing onward. It seemed the work of minutes until he was fully seated within her, hip to hip. He broke the kiss down and stared down at her, his face intent.
Annis knew she looked wild, but she felt like she was on the precipice of something amazing. She was a slave to her body. “Please,” she whispered. That was all he needed. He began to move, bearing down on her knees, he used them as leverage, surging out and then in again, slowly as first, and then with more urgency. Annis tried to lift her hips, tried to shift their positions, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Please, Adam, please!” she was begging, she had no control, her hands reached to move his and only then did he adhere to her wordless request, reaching down, instead, to grab her hips. He thrust into her hard, and at just the right angle. She cried out, stiffening all over as wave after wave of unfamiliar, incredible sensation rocked through her, pulsing from her very center.
Adam cried out too, and gave three more hard, sharp thrusts before he came, exploding hot inside her, collapsing his weight upon her chest.
“Oh god,” he gasped, shuddering. He buried his face in her neck and gave a brief bite to the sensitive spot he’d worked on earlier.
Annis didn’t have any words. She felt wonderful and terrible at the same time. She was afraid to look Adam in the face, afraid at the scene she’d made. But Adam seemed not to care. His hands were tangled in her hair and before she could think of something to say, his mouth was back on hers, his tongue prying her lips apart and kissing her passionately.
After a minute he was finished. He slid out of her, leaving her empty, and rolled over onto the bed. “God, I love a good fuck,” he declared.
Shocked, Annis just stared at him. He sat up and grinned at her. Without much further ado, he stood, and began dressing himself. “I would stay longer dearest, and see what other aspects of love-making your departed husband neglected, but there are preparations to make for our journey home. If you’ll excuse me, I will call upon you when we are ready to depart.”
Annis sat up, pulling the comforter to her chest to hide her nudity. “I thought we were leaving on the morrow?”
“Not a day to lose unfortunately. Each second we delay is a second the Camerons come closer to overrunning Inveralt. I’ve sent men there, but would like to not be far behind.”
Tugging his boots on, Adam exited the room full of what seemed to be a renewed energy.
Annis sat there, still throbbing slightly between her legs. What had just happened? Adam Maclean
had come in and changed her world entirely without seeming to realize it. Then he’d exited as quickly as he’d blown in.
Annis ran a hand through her now-tangled hair. There were no ladies’ maids to retie it. Not wanting to remove any of the borrowed gowns, she found that the dull brown dress she’d arrived in had been cleaned. She dressed in that, and braided her hair back.
Studying herself in small vanity mirror, she noticed red splotches bloom upon her neck. How mortifying! Annis shook her head and took a seat, elevating her injured ankle. There was nothing to do now but await her husband’s return. With any luck, he’d run Inveralt with the same vigor he exhibited in the bedroom.
Chapter 7
A dam had to procure horses, and send letters ahead to inns to make sure there were fresh mounts for their arrival. He sent one of his men off with the letters. He knew that his wife’s ankle was still injured, but now that the marriage was consummated he was eager to get to his newly acquired property and start making changes.
It was late afternoon by the time Adam had his affairs in order. Only Simon, and Adam’s man. Joss would be riding with them. Adam was relieved when the Sparrow made her appearance at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in that same terrible brown dress he’d first come upon her in.
“Good,” he said. “If there are Camerons watching the road to Inveralt, I plan on not being recognized. Dressed like that, you’ll no doubt be mistaken for a washerwoman?”
He watched his wife’s cheek turn pink and felt a moment’s guilt for insulting her. He had to remember that she wasn’t like the other women he bedded, who were all sharp barbs and easy laughter. Annis Black didn’t seem to have the ability to laugh at herself. Ah well, at least she was good in bed.
In fact, Adam had been forced to put her from his mind so that he could go about his business. What was it his father had said about having a plain wife? Better a plain wife than a beautiful one. You never had to rush home to a plain woman, and plain women did not distract you. So far, he’d been plenty distracted by Annis Black and was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t plain at all. In fact, this morning, in her borrowed dresses, with her hair done up and her shoulders thrown back, she’d been addled his wits completely. Seeing her now, back to her brown ruin of a dress, with her hair in a wilted braid, the transformation was startling.
