Panic escalated, and she tensed as she felt him enter her, slowly gliding in, the head of his cock pushing against her hymen.
Hugh let out a strangled sound that mingled with Catriona's sharp gasp when he breached her. Her legs clenched against his hips, gripping. Catriona cried out, and Hugh panted against her ear.
With a little coaxing, she opened around him, allowing him to slide deeper. He filled her inch by inch, the pressure building the further he went.
"This hurts you, too?" she asked around panted breaths, clawing at the sheets, her hands fidgeting from the linens to his back, groping madly, searching for purchase yet again. Her legs came up to wrap around him, and she tossed her head, so torn between wanting to surge up to meet him and pulling back. She accommodated his girth, but he filled her so that she couldn’t breathe.
His hips urged forward with infinitesimal slowness, then drew back. He began a seductive rhythm, reserving the intensity of his passion she suspected. Hugh looked utterly anguished.
"It only hurts to restrain myself when I need you so badly."
She whimpered, but the pain ebbed in the following moments.
Again, she felt torn. She wanted him to move faster, to unleash himself on her, but she was frightened on the other hand.
He buried his face into her hair. One thrust and Hugh was in her to the hilt.
"Wrap your legs around me, lass. Aye, that’s it. Now hold me tight."
He began to move again, gently, kissing away her tears until she closed her eyes and enjoyed the rhythm of his hips. Moments later, when she had relaxed somewhat, his thighs slapped against hers as he rode her harder.
Catriona wrapped her limber body around his until she was certain they would never come apart.
His movements intensified, growing faster, more forceful. He dominated her completely with every thrust, the muscles in his back rippling and bulging.
His hands came up to tangle in her hair and then gripped at the base of her neck, holding her in place as his hips hammered fiercely.
What he did felt so wondrous she wanted to beg him never to cease. Catriona buried her hands in his black hair and held onto him. She indeed begged him not to stop, and repeatedly her pleading words spilled out over fragmented sobs of pleasure.
"Dia, lass, I won't last if you keep talking to me that way," he murmured against her nape.
He thrust hard, and Catriona felt herself slipping over the edge of an abyss. Again, he thrust, plunging savagely over and over until her release coalesced into hot, wet spasms rocking her insides. She cried out until his mouth covered hers, working intoxicating magic. His cock flexed inside her, thumping as his seed spurted out. Hugh frenetically rode the aftershocks of their passion until nothing remained.
He made a sound of pleasure deep in his throat as he pulled from her body, falling to his side, and turned her over in his arms. He pulled her against his chest and kissed the top of her head. His quick breathing decreased after several minutes until the peaceful intakes told her he had fallen asleep, completely spent.
Catriona sighed contentedly, nestling against him, and wondered why she had ever feared this moment. She wanted a happy marriage, something she'd never thought possible. Hugh was a different man than she had first thought, and perhaps they still had a chance. Her husband had now stoked yet another desire in her. She liked what he had done to her. In fact, her husband would be hard-pressed to get her from his bed now.
The repercussions of what they had done were not lost on her, either. She liked the idea of having bairns. She didn’t even mind having bairns with Hugh.
She silently chided herself for not coming to him sooner, for not giving into his requests for her to consummate their marriage.
She fell asleep peacefully, wrapped in her highland warrior's arms.
A threat on her life had been taken not hours past, but like this, she knew Hugh would keep her safe. Forever.
Chapter Seventeen
Catriona rolled over and stretched, arching her back and yawning drowsily. The soft linen of the bed smelled oddly masculine as her face rubbed against the fine material. She paused and lifted on one forearm, looking wildly about the chamber.
A fire had been roused in the brazier, and a crack of sunlight streamed in through the covered window, breaking through a seam between the wooden shutters. She stared at the illuminated gap, imagining the warm feel of sun on her skin, like a beam from heaven.
She was in Hugh's bed. She examined the entirety of it to assure herself she was indeed alone. A little piece of her heart fell at Hugh's absence after their lovemaking the night before.
A tender ache low in her belly reminded her of what had transpired and how wonderful the consummation she had been avoiding turned out to be.
She relaxed back on the bed and breathed deeply of the bed linens, the dreamy afterglow of their exuberant lovemaking tingled through her body. A fresh but heady scent caught her nose, and she smiled, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped in the same bed linens as her husband slept in nightly.
Oh, yes, she had enjoyed what he had promised her she would. Very much so. And, too, she was discovering a different man hidden away beneath all that hardened warrior exterior. Catriona smiled. She liked the man she was finding.
She lifted herself and glanced about the chamber then, to her clothing where her nightclothes had fallen so easily from her body. She blushed hotly and then groaned. What time was it? She had slept so deeply she had not known morning had come. And not only morning, but almost midday.
In a rush, she turned and flipped the covers from her body, then winced. She was tender and sore from her first loving. She glanced over her shoulder to see the small stain of blood on the linens and blushed hotly. Not long from now the servants would see and learn—Catriona edged herself out of the overlarge bed with a sharp wince—they would learn her husband had taken nearly a se’nnight to bed her.
But then, that was her fault, wasn’t it? He would have been willing the first night when they arrived at the keep.
She didn’t hurry. The day was now late anyway, so why rush?
The bright sun streaming through the crack in the shutters summoned her, and Catriona picked up the plaid she had wrapped around her shoulders to cover her until she reached Hugh's chamber the night before. She cloaked herself with the oversized woolen shawl and stepped barefoot onto the woven rug covering the large area. She padded barefoot toward the window, running her fingers over the carved wood of the massive bed fashioned for a massive man and smiled to herself.
She pushed open the shutters and closed her eyes as the dazzling sun hit her face. She relished the warmth only a moment, until the unfamiliar shouts from below cued her to examine the courtyard.
She sucked in a hard breath.
The king's standard waved from atop a tall pike, and men on horseback filled the small area around the keep entrance.
Her uncle, the king, was here.
All euphoria interrupted, Catriona reached out and jerked the shutters to, whipping around to dash through the chamber in a panic, ignoring the soreness and queasy twinges.
She gathered her clothing and struggled into the night dress she had worn, dressing as well as she could, good enough to make way to her own bedchamber where a surprised Bess jumped back from laying out a fresh gown for her.
"Hurry!" Catriona said. "Aid me in dressing."
With one hand covering her heart, Bess rushed to her and immediately began to pull the rumpled nightclothes from her.
"Oh, milady. What kept you abed so—" She stilled, her eyes flying to Catriona's as Catriona turned over her shoulder with a blush. "Oh! Finally."
"Never mind that. How long has the king been here?" she asked.
"No long. Laird Hugh sent me to wait on you, and instructed me to wake you if you did no get up before I had your clothing laid oot." When Bess stooped to pluck the dress Catriona had stepped out of off the floor, she hurried around her lady. "Was he an animal in the bed?" she asked
.
Catriona gasped. "Bess!"
"Weel, I've heard things in the kitchen. 'Tis what the other women say of him." She waved off Catriona's shock. "I've brought up water for you to wash with."
"Thank you." Catriona slipped behind the screen and quickly washed with a cloth and soap from the basin. Bess tossed a fresh shift over the stretched leather panel, and when Catriona finished, she took it, struggling into the undergarment.
She stepped out, and Bess helped her don one of her nicer gowns.
"Did you hear why the king has come?" she asked anxiously.
"Nay, milady. No a word. After they announced him, Hugh led the king to the dais where they broke their fast together and have continued to speak quietly. The king's men spread oot across the hall and—" Bess paused, lifting Catriona's hair. "Gor, milady. What in heaven’s name happened to your hair?"
"Oh, sush, Bess. Just quickly fix the natty mess please."
It took some doing with pulls and snags aplenty, but after several long minutes of torture, at last Bess had Catriona’s hair combed and swept up into a tight coiffure.
Those had to be the most awful tangles she had ever experienced and were surely Hugh's doing. She blushed.
Catriona gathered her nerves, forgetting completely the lack of a meal as she glided into the hall, Gillie and Jamie's men falling into a protective arch around her as she made way toward the dais. She swallowed a well of nervousness as she stopped before the low platform where, indeed, the King of Scotland sat with her husband and another man. Each held an alehorn as they spoke in tones not even she could hear at such a short distance.
The king's guards were as Bess described, spread out, surrounding the dais so no one could approach without being given specific permission to mount the steps.
Kenneth MacAlpin's eyes caught on her first, and Catriona fell into a regal curtsy. He stopped what he was saying and turned to her, regarding her silently for a stretched moment before a burst of humor escaped him, and he reached over to clap Hugh on the shoulder.
"Now we see why you ran off with our dear niece."
Catriona blushed deeply, more because he had acknowledged her publically as his niece than his blatant praise for her looks.
"Uncle," she said. "I'm pleased to see you." She glanced between the king and the other man, wondering who he could be. Obviously someone of importance.
"I've no laid eyes on the lass in years, yet still she is my most favorite niece," he said to Hugh.
"Your other brother has children, does he no?" Hugh asked.
Kenneth turned to Hugh with a nod. "If you've no had the displeasure to meet them, my suggestion is to avoid those lasses." The king returned his attention to Catriona. "Please, come," he said, standing and holding out a hand, beckoning her up the short steps to the dais. "I have heard from Jamie that you have been doing a bit of traveling recently." He eyed her teasingly, winking. "Across Scotland and back did you go, lass?"
Catriona blushed hotly and glanced to Hugh.
"‘Tis all right. Jamie told me what happened." His tone fell solemn as her hands slipped into his. "Do ken that I have sent men in search of your friend Tamsin McLaren."
"You have?" Her heart perked up at the idea. "Thank you, uncle." She gave him a bright smile, tears moistening her eyes. "I am so verra grateful."
He nodded. "However, you have left me with a rather pressing matter." The king let her go to place his hands behind his back and looked on her forebodingly.
Catriona quickly clasped her hands at her back, properly admonished, and looked at the floor, . "I suppose I have, haven’t I?"
A smile reappeared on MacAlpin's face, and he lifted a hand toward the other man sitting with them.
Catriona regarded the silent man, still in confusion as to who he could be.
"So this is the lady who made a cuckold of me?" the man asked.
His accent sounded strangely foreign to Catriona, and her eyes flared with fear as he rose. She quickly recovered from her surprise with a silent groan. She had known this wouldn't be pleasant, and had wished never to meet her former betrothed. For both their sakes.
He came around the table to take Catriona's hand in his and planted a soft kiss to her knuckles. The warm touch surprised her, and her eyes snapped to his as Ethelstan offered a teasing wink.
"I'm not so hideous, now am I?" he asked.
Her eyes went wider as she realized the Prince and future King of Wessex held her hand, but more importantly that the man she had unknowingly spurned had obviously forgiven her.
Catriona dropped into a curtsy as a display of respect. She tried for a smile to smooth any ruffled feathers there may be, but somehow she knew she looked nothing short of nervous.
"'Tis all right, my lady," he said. "All has been forgiven." Ethelstan led her to a seat and then went to find his own again. As he took up his goblet, he motioned toward the king. "Your uncle has filled me in on all the details. It seems you did not know of our betrothal when you were taken captive." He and Hugh shared a laugh.
"Prince Ethelstan," Kenneth said. "You are a saint to forgive what has been done." The king turned to his niece. "Young Ethelstan arrived at court a week past. He demanded I force you to make an appearance," MacAlpin said, then laughed. "That was before I explained what had happened. He suggested we travel here to discuss the details in person."
"Details?" Catriona asked, looking between the men and folding her hands in front. She last looked to her husband for an answer and Hugh offered a reassuring smile.
"My father sent me to rectify the situation and bring home the needed troops my kingdom yet needs to squash the Vikings plaguing our shores and the shores of our allies," Ethelstan said.
"If your need is men, I've plenty," Hugh said. "Most of them battle-hungry and withoot families to keep them here now that I no longer have a need for such a force. I may no be able to send as many warriors as the king promised, but I can spare one hundred if that will help."
Ethelstan nodded appreciatively. "Aye, methinks this shall satisfy any desire for recourse my father yet may retain."
"Good, and I shall match the number of his men. Should there be any ill feelings remaining I would no like to see such a happy union end in calamity," MacAlpin said on a laugh.
Catriona blushed again. Hugh was staring at her, a fevered look in his eyes. Suddenly, there was the pressing thought that she no longer knew how to respond to Hugh. What did she say to her husband now? How did she speak with him after the night before? After the intimacy they had shared.
"You hold no desire for recourse yourself?" she asked the prince.
He shook his head, a glimmer in his eyes. "Nay, fair lady, for my heart belongs to another."
Catriona blushed again, something she was full of today.
"There is something else I must apprise you of," MacAlpin said.
The air about them changed suddenly with tension, the king's anxiety filling the small space.
Catriona and Hugh stared at him in rapt attention.
One threat removed and another rises?
Kenneth cleared his throat. "'Tis no easy thing to tell you, my dear." His eyes turned to Catriona. "Your brother's keep was attacked only two days ago."
Catriona gasped, straightening in her seat, and lifted a hand to cover her mouth. "Nay!"
"Is Jamie injured?" Hugh asked.
The king shook his head. "Nay, no from what I have been told."
"Who attacked him?" Catriona asked. "I've made a few enemies—" She glanced to Ethelstan. "And some I only thought I made, but who would want to harm Jamie?"
The king stroked his beard. "'Twas no enemy you are aware of, lass. 'Twas your half-uncle, Barnaby, this time."
"Your own brother?" Hugh asked. "Jamie's uncle."
Catriona sat wide-eyed, her head whirling. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked to catch Gillie's reaction to this news. However, he appeared nonchalant, as though he had not heard a thing, and was slowly winding his way closer to the
dais. Of course, he was a good way across the hall now. She turned back to her uncle. "Why would he attack Jamie? They have never had a quarrel."
The king sighed. "I'm certain 'twas him. 'Tis perhaps because of something your husband did no mention."
Catriona's eyes shot to Hugh. "Tell me."
Hugh looked as confused as Catriona. He shook his head. "You shall have to enlighten me as weel, my liege, for I do'na ken of anything my wife does not."
The king's eyes narrowed slightly causing his brow to furrow. "Jamie no told you of the lands you are to receive as Catriona's dowry?"
Hugh glanced between the king and his wife. "Nay, I expected no dowry."
"Weel then." He cleared his throat. "That explains things. Catriona's dower lands were in the safe keeping of my brother for some time, before I came to distrust him. They were turned over to Jamie when Jamie became laird, and my brother was none too pleased."
"Why?" Hugh asked.
The king shook his head and sighed hard. "'Tis been a most unpleasant ordeal. Barnaby seemed to think the lands were meant for our sister's son, Gilbert."
"Gillie!" Catriona sat a little straighter, and her stomach clenched. She glanced furtively at her cousin so not to embarrass him, but from the distance he was at, he seemed not to hear a thing the king had said. Mayhap only her exclamation of his name, but nothing more. "Tell Barnaby I do'na want the lands." She caught herself. "Uncle, with all due respect, I thank you for all the graciousness you have bestowed upon me despite my birth, but I can'na take what was meant for Gillie."
"'Tis honorable of you, my dear, but those lands were never meant for Gilbert. They were lands stripped from my brother and handed to your father. However, upon his passing Jamie was overwhelmed with being a young laird and did'na need the extra responsibility. 'Twas when I began considering an alliance to be made through your hand in marriage that I decided to use those lands as your dowry, to be handed over to the authority of your husband.
"That this Gilbert would have inherited 'tis an assumption my brother made wrongly. And, I can'na entrust lands to a mon's control, brother or no, to appease one who is planning to usurp me."
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