Catharine & Edward

by Marianne Knightly

  “Come with me,” he said gruffly, and pulled her along with him without waiting for a response.

  He left the fields and directed them towards one of the distant sheds once used for drying lavender. They’d be alone there, and there was little risk of being overheard, even with the doors open.

  Vines climbed the white stone façade, and the grounds were coated with smaller wildflowers and bushes of soft-scented white flowers. The shed featured a Dutch door, each half painted in a once bold azure blue, now faded.

  He pulled her into the dark interior and finally let go of her hand. As he ran an agitated hand through his hair, she walked around, the soft click of her boots echoing around the large room and rustling the bits of grass and earth that coated the stone floor underneath.

  “What is this place? It smells of lavender.”

  It did; it was one of his favorite smells as his mother often wore it, and now his sister did, too. The scent usually calmed him.

  But not now; not with Catharine in the room.

  “It’s an old shed, once used to dry the lavender after harvesting. If you look up, you can see a sort of trellis,” he said pointing, pleased the simple explanations were helping to calm him. “We’d hang hooks from the trellis and hang the lavender bunches from that.”

  “Rebecca loves lavender,” she said absently, then finally faced him. “What are we doing here, Eddie?”

  “This is a safe place, Catharine,” he said, walking towards her again. “You can say anything you want here.”

  “In this room?”

  “In my arms,” he said and wrapped them around her. “Tell me.”

  She didn’t fight his hold and her hands came up to rest on his t-shirt-clad chest. “Tell you what?”

  “What was that nonsense you were spouting a few minutes ago?”

  She bristled and looked away. “It’s nothing.”

  “Tell me,” he urged; he was close to shaking her for the answer. “Why did you assume I’d brought other women here?”

  He could see her warring with the decision before she sighed. “I was just thinking last night that no one seemed really surprised at my arrival, or this whole situation. So, I figured that they must be used to this sort of thing.”

  Edward blinked, then huffed a laugh. She stiffened in his arms and tried to break free. “You’re not going anywhere. Let me see if I got this straight. You think that I bring damsels in distress here all the time? And do what? Seduce them with my nieces just steps away?”

  She pouted. “Why not? That’s what you’re doing with me.”

  “Am I?” he murmured.

  “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m very grateful to be safe and sound, and to be so well taken care of. I just wondered about your past with women, that’s all.”

  Where the hell did he start? “Let’s get one thing straight, My Lady,” he said as he walked her backwards towards a wall.

  “First, I briefed my sister and my team before I came here, and asked their permission. I would never bring anyone into our home if they didn’t approve it first.”

  Because he wanted to shake some sense into her – and decided this was the better option – he kissed her, and used her startled gasp to his advantage.

  “Second,” he began, his voice rougher, “I told them not to kick up a fuss. I told them My Catharine didn’t need all the trappings and formality of the crown, and you proved me right by saying the same thing barely moments after you arrived.”

  “But, I–”

  He cut her off with another kiss, and felt her surprised moan tremble into his core, hardening his cock.

  “Third,” he began, both of them panting, “No one, not a man nor a woman, has been sheltered here, by me or my team. This is my home. It’s sacred. After everything I’ve told you, how could you even think just anyone comes here?”

  He rested his forehead against hers, their lips so close he could taste the sweetness on her breath. “I haven’t had time in my life for romance. I’ve dated women. Before your imagination runs away with you, I’ve slept with five of them. You can’t tell me you’re untouched, either, can you?”

  She waited a beat, then shook her head. “I’ve had two lovers in my life, which is two more than anyone knows about.”

  “I would never introduce anyone to my family, to my girls, if I didn’t care for them. I may have pretended otherwise, to save face, but I’m sure, by now, everyone’s surmised the truth. They can see how I look at you. The way I crave you.”

  “Eddie.”

  “You’re the longest assignment I’ve had with the RPS, did you know that?” She shook her head. “Marcello wanted to reassign me over a year ago, move me up to Alexander’s detail or even your father’s.”

  “What?”

  “I turned him down. I couldn’t leave you then.” He pressed her harder against the cool stone and she gasped. “I can’t leave you now.”

  “Don’t,” she said, her words staggered. “Don’t leave me.”

  “What do you want, My Lady?” His hand trailed down her right side and over her leg. She whimpered when the skin of his hand met the skin of her knee and hitched it over his hip. “Am I to be your lover? Your protector? A warm body in your bed?” he asked through a stiff jaw.

  “All of those,” she breathed. “You’ll be all of those to me, and everything else.”

  He was barely holding on, but it had to be said. “This is a difficult path.”

  “I know.”

  “We’ll need to prove ourselves to everyone, even each other at times.”

  “I know.”

  “Your family may force you to make a choice.”

  “And I’ll make the right one.”

  He froze. “Which is?”

  “You,” she whispered. “You. Eddie, if you make me happy, they’ll be happy, too. I know it.” She brushed her lips against his cheek. “And I know you can make me happy because you already do.”

  His heart beat painfully in his chest. “Catharine, are you sure?”

  “Yes. God, yes.”

  God help him.

  He pushed his full erection against the thin fabric of her skirt. “Whose am I?”

  She fidgeted against him. “Eddie.”

  “Whose am I?”

  “Mine,” she said with a sudden, fierce possessiveness. “You’re mine. Edward, Eddie, Bash – you’re all mine, damn it.”

  “And whose are you?” His hand closed over her full breast and she moaned. “Tell me. Whose are you?”

  “Yours,” she begged. “I’m yours.”

  “Fuck, yes, you are. You’re mine, all mine. My Lady. My Catharine.”

  The urge to ravage was fierce, but the need to savor was stronger. He stepped back, putting some space between them, and she reached for him. “No, please.”

  “Shhh,” he said, soothing her. “If I take you right now, I’ll be a beast. You deserve better.”

  “No, I don’t,” she said immediately, and he held back a smile. “Please, take me.”

  Possession swept through him. “Don’t worry, My Lady. I will take you, because you belong to no one else.”

  “Eddie.”

  “Take off your clothes.”

  She sucked in a breath and glanced around. “Someone might see.”

  “Do you believe I’ll protect you?”

  “Yes,” she said instantly, quelling a fear he hadn’t known he had.

  “Good. Then you should also know I’d never let anyone see what’s mine. Are you mine?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Are you mine?”

  “Fuck, yes.”

  “Then you take your clothes off, too.”

  His lips tipped up into a smile; she had a point. “Together, then. Slowly. Strip for me.”

  She swallowed hard, then her hands moved to her blouse. As her long, slim fingers undid one button at a time, he watched, the fire inside him growing more molten by the second.

  She pushed open the soft blouse, revealing a nude-colored l
ace bra filled to bursting. He moaned when he noticed her pebbled nipples peeking through the lace.

  Her blouse fell noiselessly to the side.

  He pulled his shirt off quickly and tossed it near her blouse.

  She watched him, and gave his long, lean chest smattered with wiry chest hair a look of unbridled lust; his cock hardened almost painfully.

  “Skirt,” he ordered, and broke her out of her reverie.

  Her hands skimmed over her hips and undid the zipper on the side, and he heard each tick as she did so, driving him even more mad with longing.

  A moment later, the skirt fell with soft swish to her feet. She stepped out, then began to bend down to pick it up; he cursed.

  “Stop. Unless you want to be fucked on your knees, you’ll kick the skirt out the way instead of bending over.”

  Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a circle of surprise, which led to him imagining those lips wrapped around his cock. She kicked the skirt away.

  “Bra,” he ordered.

  “Jeans,” she ordered back in a heated whisper.

  “Together.” He pulled out his wallet, withdrew a condom, tossed the wallet aside, then toed off his boots. His fingers undid the button, then the zip of his jeans. Only when her breasts spilled free, did he shove both his jeans and boxers down in one fell swoop.

  She whimpered and leaned against the wall for support.

  Completely naked, his cock thickening with each breath and each soft breeze around the sensitive tip, he closed the gap between them.

  He ripped the condom open with his teeth and placed it in her hand. “Put it on.”

  She licked her lips, uncertainty on her face. “I’m not good at it.”

  “Together, then,” he whispered. He placed it over the tip, but let her roll it down. They both moaned at the feel of it.

  “My panties.”

  His hand went to her core, his fingers gently rubbing the lace covering her trimmed pussy. Her knees buckled, but he wrapped an arm around her to hold her up, and she gripped his shoulders.

  He needed to fuck her against the wall. Perhaps their first time should be on a bed of roses, but his woman would take it how he gave it.

  She was already wet, and he made her wetter. Her leg shifted over his hip again, adding the friction of his cock as well as his finger.

  His lips tipped down took one dark nipple. Already hard, he sucked it into a tall point, moving to other one only after he felt her tremble.

  He built her orgasm slowly, layer upon layer of sensation and need. The cool stone at her back, his body searing her front.

  “Eddie, please.”

  “Please what?” he asked. His lips caressed the upper slope of her breasts, then trailed up her body. “What do you need?”

  “You,” she whispered desperately.

  The need to claim her rose like a brutal wave within him. His fingers shifted aside her panties and slipped inside her. “Whose am I?”

  Her body began to shift up and down, abrading the stone wall, and he worried about marking her back; with one flick of his fingers, he forced her to stay still.

  “Eddie,” she moaned.

  “Whose am I?” He flicked his fingers again; a cry escaped her lips while her hips bucked involuntarily. “Whose am I?”

  “Mine.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with a ferocity that stole his breath. “You’re mine.” Her mouth fell to his and the need to seduce was gone.

  The need to claim took over.

  Their groans shattered the shifting air.

  His fingers furiously brought her to orgasm, and her shouts echoed in the small room.

  He removed his fingers, ripping away her panties in the process, and lifted her other leg around his hip.

  His hands flattened against the wall.

  He lined up his cock and entered in one sharp rutting movement, her tight pussy closing in around him while she cried out.

  He stayed still for several long moments, watching her face as her body adjusted to him.

  “Whose are you?”

  “Yours,” she said, watching him with half-lidded eyes. “God, I’m yours. Don’t stop.”

  She was weightless, moving only at the thrust of his thick cock inside her.

  He was a beast. His bearded jaw was tensed, his teeth slightly bared in a gritting snarl. Sweat glistened over his nude form, over sinewy arms and legs that were in stark relief. His ass and thighs clenched tight with each deliberate heave of his cock inside her.

  If anyone came in, she would be shielded from view.

  But not him.

  And they would know the animal he was.

  When her pussy began to contract again, he roared and became savage.

  Thrust after thrust after thrust, his cock swelled, stretching the thin latex that surrounded it.

  Her body tightened, her nipples became impossibly hard and, after another roar, he tugged one with his teeth.

  She exploded.

  She rode him while his hips crashed against hers. Her long, loose groans filled his ears. His roar of orgasm filled hers as his cock pulsed in never-ending spurts.

  He willed his body to remain standing, to keep her weightless on his cock just a little longer.

  Slowly, yet far too quickly, the sounds of the world around them filtered into the bubble of heat and passion they’d made. The light breeze tantalized his cooling, sensitive skin. The vague sounds of late morning – small animals and birds – reminded him of where they were.

  Lavender swam around them, mixed with the scent of sweat and sex.

  He pressed a kiss just beneath her ear and she shivered. He pressed another to her jaw, her cheek, and then a sweet one to her lips.

  “Eddie,” she began, cupping his face. “I’m undone.”

  His heart thudded furiously, and something warm and soft bloomed within him. “Catharine. My Catharine.”

  Her fingers brushed over his beard. “I don’t know where to go from here, but I’d like us to go there together.”

  His cock still throbbed inside her, and he couldn’t have this conversation when his soul had just been laid bare before her.

  He slid her legs down, her boot-clad feet hitting the floor with a soft thud. He saw the flush of passion fade from her body. Beads of perspiration still clung to her skin and he restrained himself from licking them off.

  He’d barely scratched the surface of the passion they could have together. There were still large swathes of her skin he had yet to taste, touch, and tease. The same held true of his skin, as well; he wanted her hands on him, her mouth, and more.

  But passion would never be enough for her. Protection would never be enough for her.

  He wasn’t sure he would ever be enough for her.

  She didn’t dress, just stood there, her hands roaming and tracing the muscles on his chest.

  He’d taken care of the condom, and was still completely and utterly nude, his semi-hard cock between them.

  He cupped her nape with one hand, and covered one of her hands with the other, stilling it unconsciously near his heart. “What you just said is very sweet.”

  Something flashed in her eyes. “I meant it.”

  “I know. It means more to me than you can ever imagine. Did you mean what you said earlier? About making the right choice?”

  “Of course I did. What do you think? That I said those things just to get this from you?” She ripped her hand away from his and stepped out of his hold.

  She snapped up her clothes and put them on with jerky movements. “I can’t believe this. After what just happened, after I poured my heart out to you. Still, you doubt me.”

  “God damn it,” he said, taking her arm and forcing her to face him. “I need to be sure. This isn’t easy for me. I want you, and not just your body.”

  She gestured with her arms while she spoke, her blouse crinkled in one hand, her bra in the other, her skirt crooked on her hips, her breasts still deliciously free. “Then what are you saying
?”

  “I’m saying I want there to be an us, but I don’t know if I can give you what you need. I just need to know we’re on the same page, that what you said wasn’t simply in the heat of the moment.”

  He sighed. “It will never be just you and me. There’s your family, your duty. My family, my duty. All of it plays a part, and we can’t ignore that.”

  She eyebrows furrowed in worry. “I know. It’ll be difficult for you.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about, it’s you. Your mother’s the one who’s telling you to get engaged.”

  She swallowed. “And you don’t want to get married?”

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s too soon and your parents would have a tough time accepting me.”

  “They already respect you.”

  He nodded. “As an agent. That’s different than respecting me as the man who marries their daughter.”

  She was silent for a minute, her eyes downcast, before she lifted them again. “I see the choices Alex and Papa make every day, how they torture themselves to make lives better for Vallerians, knowing they can’t make lives better for all of them. Someone always gets left out; it’s the nature of ruling a country, monarchy or no.”

  She took a deep breath. “My point is that you can’t make everyone happy. Alex and Papa can’t. They understand that better than anyone, and they’d respect my choice even if they couldn’t agree with it. Besides, I’m not in line for the throne. It doesn’t matter. Truly, it doesn’t.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t just marry someone, you also marry their family. When Blake wanted to marry Lisette, he knew what it would be like. He knew I would be around for the long haul, always in his life, and not just because we work together occasionally. We’re family.

  “You said your family would be happy if you were, but is that realistic? Are you telling me you’d be all right if your twin brother, your father, your mother, and maybe even all your siblings disapproved of your choice? What about our children? What kind of life would they have with dueling families?”

  He looked past her, through the open door; the fields were just visible in the distance. “I don’t have a mother or a father anymore. I couldn’t stand it if I got between you and yours.”

  He heard her sharp intake of breath. Then she dropped her clothes and pressed against him. “Eddie. Oh, Eddie. My family could be your family, too. I know it.” Her lips curved into a frown. “You want a family, don’t you?”