Conquering the Dark Axe (11 page)

Rourke knew he had hurt her but he was too angry to
care.  The mere sight of her had set off a myriad of emotions in him that
he did not wish to feel.  “Aye, you care. Rid yourself of the name calling
and you just might gain a boon.”

Alexa whirled and flung the feather filled pillows
at him, hitting him in the chest. He smirked not budging and they fell at his
feet. His stoic expression only angered her more.

She swallowed back the burn in her throat. “’Tis not
only I that needs rid of the name calling. Are you not guilty too? I want
naught from any of you but to be free of the vile presence of you Normans and
to have my home back! And never will I ask a favor of you.”

Rourke bent and picked up the pillows. He tossed
them back on the bed and crossed those bulging arms over his massive chest with
a shrug. “Never, hmm? We shall see. Suit yourself.”

Emotions warred in her at his towering form, the
mockery in his tone unbearable.  Seething, Alexa could not stop herself
and mumbled, “Bastard.”

His green eyes stormed and he closed the small space
between them in one giant step.  “Did I just not warn you to tame your vile
tongue?”

Alexa too infuriated and her pride wounded to care
that he was riled, did not think before she flung the sharp retort, “Have I not
told you enough that I will not obey a murdering Norman?”

His hand circled her throat.   “Do not
speak!”  She opened her mouth and his fingers tightened as he repeated
slowly through clenched teeth,  “Do-not-speak! Seems you deign to remain
chained to this bed.”

She struggled against him and matched his glare of
fury with her own. She could feel his restraint.  She would not yield any
more than she could hold back the unbidden words.

Her time in this room was driving her mad and the
bastard forbidding Camm audience with her was the last straw. She tried to yell
her words, but they came out strangled with his large hand pressing against her
throat. Her eyes watered and burned as she dared him. “Throttle me or tie me
back up if you must, least it will end this torment of confinement and your
presence. But, never ever will I be cowed under the likes of you.” 

His hand tightening and the feral growl that
exploded from between his lips had her wishing to take her words back. He
dragged her close to him. So he would choke her. Good, Alexa thought. She would
be free of these alien feelings, this room and him. Her chest burned on that.

But he didn’t. Instead his head dipped and he kissed
her, hard.

Heat flamed in her immediately as he forced her lips
apart to accept him. By the time he lifted his head, both their breaths were
ragged and Alexa glimpsed the passion in his eyes and knew his intent. 
With his hand around her throat, she had little room to scramble away, but she
did her best.

When he leaned down to sprinkle hot kisses on her
exposed chest, she twisted beneath him.  He soon covered her body with his
and heat ignited wherever he touched. When he took her nipple into his hot
mouth her struggles ceased and she knew he knew it. She cried out at the
delicious ache and welcomed his caress.  Damn his Norman hide she had
wanted it.  Wanted him.

Rourke bathed both tips with devoted fervor and when
he felt she would struggle no more, he let his hands sweep over her soft
curves. His hands reached under the hem of her chemise to caress her lean
thighs.   The moans coming from her throat encouraged him and he
kissed her down to her navel.  Her scent drove him mad.  She drove
him to such fury as she did him to uncontrollable and enflamed passion. She was
just a woman and any woman could draw the same result from him. Rourke blew out
a hot breath on her inner thigh and knew his words to be a lie. The soul
rendering, almost violent lust this woman stirred in him was nigh madness! No
other could withdraw such an emotion from him and Rourke lowered his head with
a growl.
Alexa shouted when his hot mouth delved between her thighs. Again, her hips had
a mind of their own and undulated against that expert mouth.

This act he’d introduced her to was one she craved
almost as much as when he joined their bodies.  His tongue darted out and
soon drove her into a pleasurable abyss of madness. Her trembles shook the
whole bed as the exquisite pleasure consumed her. 
She vaguely felt him move and was brought back when she felt him nudge her
tingling swollen flesh. Cowed be damned, she had to have it and she arched up
against him and shuddered her joy as he filled her in a single thrust.

Rourke caught her satisfied cry in his mouth. Moving
on her, he kissed her over and over, as he teased them both.  Her hands
clutched and unclenched clumsily at his shoulders when he pulled all the way
out, the head of his shaft brushing gently over her nub of pleasure before he
then thrust back in. She clawed at him in frantic need, quivering beneath him
but matching him hard thrust for hard thrust.  

Alexa writhed wildly beneath him as the
pleasure built and held on as the tidal wave once again stole her
breath.  All too soon the fire coursed through his limbs and came to
a head in his shaft. 

Rourke drew back, pulling her with him and reached
down to place his hands on either side of her hips. He lifted her and guided
her on him; each slow, penetrating stroke brought strangled choking sounds from
them both.  Soon he roared with his hot release into her, drowning out her
delight filled cry as she went over the edge with him. 

Panting and sated he rolled off her onto his back.
Immediately he missed her heat and he growled over the abrupt sensation. 
They said naught as they fought for normal breath. 

Rourke was taken aback when her fist came down on
his chest.

“You rutting beast! Is that your answer for
everything?” 

Her anguished outburst was thick with her sobs.
Rourke jumped up from the bed and stood.  Rage instantly in place of the
explosive passion they had just shared. 

Her words brought back another’s so long ago. 
He looked down at her as though she was crazed. Fat tears streamed down her
flushed face as she struggled to right her clothes. Her strange behavior
shocked him. Something pulled at him and he tamped down the twinge of regret,
too lost in that haze of memory her words had conjured. 

Swiftly lacing up his breeches, he said
brusquely,  “Seems the only way to get through to you Saxon wenches. Do
not lie, I know and felt you enjoy it. Call me a rutting beast again and you
will die.”  

Her amber eyes widened in shock on the steely calm
in which he spoke and he read the hurt in them.

Her throaty and mirthless laugh made him wince as
she managed to choke out,   “Fine! Kill me then and know that you
will be setting me free. Anything would be better than to have to suffer
through this ghastly deed with
you
again.” 

Rourke's boot came down hard on one corner of the
bed and he kicked it with a loud roar, the heavy bed slid across
the room, leaving Alexa stunned.   
He left the room before he carried out his threat.  Painful memories
blinding his path, he stumbled down the stairs, past servants, past Goran and
without stopping, Rourke threw a quick command to his friend over his
shoulder.   “Stay! And make sure that bitch does not leave
here.”  And out to the stables where he mounted and rode out.

TWELVE

Oh, how she hated him! Handsome and nothing but
brute strength to get his way.  Her body had betrayed her again. Melted
within moments under his skillful and artful caresses.  He’d manipulated
her flesh and Alexa shuddered with angry tears because she had enjoyed every
minute of that ghastly deed.  Immensely. Damn him to hell!

The man had not spoken to her in nearly a week and
thought to command all she did and took what he wanted when he wanted it. 

She should be ashamed for wanting his hulking
body.  But she was not.  She liked every inch of it, craved it more
and more.  A fool she was indeed. She exhaled heavily.

Never had she been one known or prone to weep and
since she’d met him, she’ done nothing but. Alexa wiped the angry tears away
from her eyes as she quickly finished her toilette and bath that had been sent
up after he had disappeared.  She glanced over to the bed; it still sat
where he had kicked it.

In the middle of the room.

The four postered bed of heavy oak had been crafted
and built right here in this room.  Four strapping men had been needed to
push it against the wall.  

And he managed to move it with just one leg. 
The look in his green eyes had been crazed.  He’d looked at her as if he’d
not recognized her and for the first time since he had darkened her doorstep,
Alexa had known true fear.  He looked like a madman over her words and
Alexa winced and eased her hands from rubbing the cloth too vigorously over her
still tingling flesh.  He had really wanted to kill her in that
moment. 

He had been in the room with her when he was inside
her, but when she had hurled her cruel words at him, his mind had been
somewhere else.  Something had happened to him and whatever it was had cut
him deeply.  The scars of it, still visible and painfully raw and she’d
seen it first hand in his stark expression.  Rising out of the now cool
bath, she wrapped the cloth tightly around her body.  That wounded look
touched something deep inside her heart and she wished badly that she could
ignore it. But she could not.  She wondered what type of woman had gotten
so close and under his skin. What had she done that still had the power to
cause the Dark Axe’s soul to be so deeply and dangerously tortured?

One guard still had yet to return from the small
group of bushes she’d seen him walk into a long time ago.  And now this
one, his hand down the front of the serving wenches russet gown, laughed and
snorted like a pig as they tried to hide their entwined bottoms behind the
barrels stacked neatly along the south side wall of the manor.  If they
were any louder, Alexa sighed, ‘twould be more than she whom heard their coy
giggles and whispers of an intimate nature. The couple’s passionate tryst would
be discovered.

Alexa tested the knotted linens in her fist and
tightened her thighs around the bigger knot she had fashioned and now gripped
between her thighs.

Finally!  The guard, with a last look over his
shoulder, no doubt to make sure he was not seen, went off into the same part of
the forest as had his fellow comrade.  Alexa shook her head,
disgusted.  Not waiting a moment longer she lowered herself out the window
after quickly grabbing the small dirk from the table, which Camm had managed to
steal away and hide for her yester eve and Alexa used her teeth to hold the
small blade.  Steadying herself on the small bird size ledge, she perched
herself there until she had pulled the knotted linens taut.   The
other end was secured around one end of the bed post.  She was glad the
bed still sat in the middle of the room, for it assured she would reach the
ground now.

She straddled the makeshift ladder which consisted
of his and her tunics.  Mostly his.  Why should she ruin hers? 
Besides his were larger and she would need less, telling herself her reasoning
had been sound.  

She was just a few feet from the ground when she
froze.  More laughter came from the forest.  Were they coming back
already?  Damn!  She said a solemn prayer and sighed when the muffle
turned into a throaty moan of pleasure.  Something stirred inside of her
and Rourke’s beautiful face swam before her.  He’d not returned to her
since their fight two nights ago.   She pushed the image away and the
tension left her briefly when her feet touched the hard earth. 

Letting the rope go, she wasted a moment staring at
it.  She hadn’t thought that part out. Mayhap she should have asked for
Camm’s help after all.  

Alexa let out a deep sigh, grasping the garments yet
again and made short and quick work of it by hacking away as much as she could.
All the while praying no one heard the last shred tearing as she yanked hard
and ripped what looked to be one of his tunics.  A very good one at that
and the remainder of the rope blew in the cool night breeze as she glanced back
up at that window.  It was barely enough that remained and the person
would have to be taller than her husband to walk right into it and that would
not happen, she mumbled under her breath, sliding the dirk now into the folds
of her short cloak; for there was none taller on the grounds than he.

Turning her back on it, already forgotten, she went
in the opposite direction of the guardsmen and   anticipation beaded
on her upper lip.  She was almost there. 

She flitted through a group of low hung trees and
underbrush as quickly and quietly as she could.  Mayhap ‘twas the fear of
being caught that made her feel as though someone followed behind her. 
But each time she glanced back, no one was there. 

Still, when she came to a small clearing before the
next group of trees, she could not shake the feeling. It was stronger this
time.  She thought of Rourke again and a twinge of something she refused
to name stung her chest.  She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Defying
him was the only way.  Then if that was so, her inner thoughts persisted,
why did she hurt inside?  A chill slid up her spine and she rubbed her
hands over her bare arms before pulling the cloak more closely around her
shoulders.  No one other than the guardsmen had been in the yard.  No
one else had been about and no one was behind her.  ‘Twas just her
nerves.  Straightening her shoulders Alexa sprinted through the trees
toward her goal.  Freedom beckoned around the corner and she ignored the
weight in her chest and the hairs tingling at the back of her neck.