Conquering the Dark Axe (14 page)

Two more days passed and Rourke gritted his teeth as
he impatiently waited for Camm to finish her report on his wife.  He sat
on a bench in the room off the hall, his brooding face turned toward one of the
windows.  Goran stood at the door. 

Camm could not halt the tremors in her voice, “She
still refuses to eat, my lord.”

Rourke rose abruptly and stood in his war stance.
“Then she shall starve.”

Camm’s gasp was heard at his back. But Rourke walked
past her and Goran without a spare look.  What did he care if the hellion
did not eat? She spited only herself and since she was not yet breeding, there
was no child of his loins to hurt. Camm had delivered the news of her menses
yester morn. ‘Twas just another way for her to get under his skin. Fine!

He stomped his way out of the hall and headed
towards the rise where the workers were busily building, constructing his
masterpiece. Rourke shook his head after standing there for a long while, and
then he turned and walked back toward the manor.

As soon as he entered the great doors, he spotted a
carafe filled with wine on a nearby table. Just what he needed, some mulled
wine would rid him of these haunting thoughts.

Lina sauntered past just then with a swish of her
hips and Rourke found his lingering gaze following her from view down the long
hall.  He needed something, someone to get the hellion’s scent out of his
blood. Out of his soul. And he knew just the thing.  Rourke snatched up
the carafe with a grunt and went in the direction Lina had taken. 

FIFTEEN

He was unlike any Norman she had ever seen, his long
golden waves  loose flowed over his shoulders and  two tiny braids
hung on either side of his cheeks this day, no doubt to control his unruly
bangs.  Alexa was so glad he was not fond of one of those rat nests of
lice for a beard as most Vikings and Normans usually favored.

Aye, Alexa thought as she watched him enter the
room, she could have done a lot worse.    Although he was
covered from head to toe with dust from the field or a ride, she could see the
cleanliness beneath.  Just as she could read the keen and knowing
intelligence in those striking green and all-consuming eyes, that now watched
her face with an amused expression on his beautiful face.

Nigh a sennight had passed and he had finally come.

She let out the painful breath she held.  
What she yearned for she knew not, but she did know it came from him and when
he turned away from her, the disappointment nearly choked her.   When
his husky voice came, she closed her eyes and savored it. Telling herself
madness and loneliness were the blame for such thoughts.

“You bleed and do not carry my seed. I come to give
you warning that I will be here when it ceases.”  Her gasp made him turn
back to her for a brief moment.  Those eyes pierced her soul.  “Twill
be quick enough so that you will not suffer nor derive any pleasure from the
ghastly
deed.   Let us both pray it does not take long and perhaps we both
will survive it.”  Rourke finished as he stood near the window, his back
to her once again.

Alexa was glad.  If he’d meant to shock her and
inflict pain with his cruel words, he’d no clue how easily he’d just
accomplished that feat.  She worried her bottom lip over why his uncaring
attitude bothered her so.  He looked uncomfortable and restless standing
there. She quickly shook that thought away. ‘Twas just what she wanted to
believe. She watched him seeking more from him.  More did not come and as
he walked back to the door without looking in her direction, she called out,
desperate.    “A word, Nor-“  he whirled and Alexa caught
her breath. The look in his eyes savage.  She swallowed, continuing
softer,  “A word. Just a word.”

He arched a brow and she bit back a curse. He’d not
approached the bed once.  He looked healthy and robust. Nay, her
confinement bothered him none at all and his distance spoke volumes.

“You once said I could gain a boon.”  She hated
the sound of herself begging, but she was going mad locked in this room. 
He said nothing.  A man of few words. What had she expected? Him to say he
was sorry. Him to fight with her and ridicule her for him being right? In that
moment she hated the word
never
. She started to pant with worry. 
“Does it still stand?”

His expression did not change. At least he’d not
gloated. His eyes made her stomach flip and his answer was a long time in
coming, but finally he said, “Aye.”

“More time to exercise. Please.”  She implored
him.

That look in his eyes caused her to choke on a
broken sob and she wished she could stomp her foot, but she could not as all
four of her extremities were locked in these blasted chains.  How she
hated talking to him from this humiliating position.  He stared at her for
a long time and at first, Alexa thought he’d deny her, but with barely a
visible nod he gave her his silent answer before he left the chamber.

The sob left her throat at the sound of the door
closing, her thoughts on a discussion with him forgotten.  He’d not
remained long enough for her to say anything more.  Alexa could no longer
blink back the tears and their warmth soothed her as they ran in rivulets into
the strands of her hair.

SIXTEEN

A few days later he still had not come and her
menses had stopped a day ago.  Alexa forced herself not to dwell on it or
how much she hoped he’d come and tried to concentrate her energy on the extra
time he allotted her to be free.  He’d given her longer than she had
hoped.  She picked up an unlit long taper and began her movements of sword
practice. A pang filled her heart as she wondered what he may have done with her
sword.   He’d not done anything or meted out any punishment to Camm
yet for returning it to her the night of her escape. Rourke probably had melted
her precious weapon down to nothing.  Her heart sunk at the loss of her
treasured weapon, but she pined for the strip of black and red cloth he’d taken
from also.  No doubt, it too was thrown out along with everything else.

Alexa whirled and fought an invisible opponent
fiercely as tears blinded her for a moment.  After a few more thrusts and
jabs into the air, she released a sigh of relief, and some of the tension
unfurled in her tall frame.  Her strength was coming back. She had started
to eat after he’d come that day.  Why should she waste away when he looked
healthy as a horse? Plus she needed her wits about her.

The moves calmed her nerves as they always
did.  Her thoughts turned back to her husband.  Aye, she would not
give up.  Memories of that week he’d held her nightly in his arms, chasing
away her night terrors came back to her and heat washed over her.  Rourke
could pretend as much as he wanted that he was an unfeeling, cold and soulless
bastard.

But a cold man, Alexa stopped her quick movements,
breathing heavy, would not have held the woman he so despised in the way that
he’d held her.  His scars ran deep from something she still had yet to
reveal, but Alexa believed she could find that gentle part in him again
somewhere.  Or at least a part that showed he had half a heart beating in
that chest of stone. 

When he finally came to her the first night she'd
been in such a deep sleep and woke with a startled gasp to feel his soft
caresses upon her flesh.  He did not clamp the irons around her feet, but
did so around her wrists. Their gazes had held, no words spoken between them in
the semi-darkness of the room. His full lips pulled into that hard line. Aye,
he was more stubborn than she! And his blatant fight only recharged her own
anger.

One low candle burned, illuminating the strong
planes of his handsome face as he lay above her.   He did not kiss or
fondle her breasts. His hand only moved between her legs until he produced what
he sought.

Just as his movements upon her started to kindle the
desire he denied her, he’d lift his head and glare down at her with a look
close to one of violence as if she'd done something wrong. Then he would
quickly finish, climb off her and leave the chamber without a word.  It
frustrated Alexa to no end and she was ready to scream.

By the fourth night of this unbearable and barbaric
treatment, words still unspoken betwixt them, with neither willing to give in,
Alexa was nigh tears.  The deed was over almost as quickly as it had begun
and still he left her lying there further frustrated.

On the fifth night, she found she looked forward to
him coming even though she told herself she didn't.

She was wound so tight and furious over the myriad
of turbulent emotions coursing through her. Sick unto death of the deep
frustration he had caused to build in her body from him taking from her,
filling her with his hardness and leaving her aching. 

She’d prayed for numbness, but it eluded her. Just
as what he wrought and what she sought eluded her all the same. But tonight she
had made a vow that she would get what she wanted.  It hurt her that he
refused to speak to her and used her body without care.

Nay, ‘twas a lie. Although the act had been quick,
his lingering and soft caresses bespoke something else. 

He would not leave her wanting his hard body
anymore. He said he’d not give her pleasure and he had not. He never broke his
word, his own words.  Alexa’s inner thoughts mocked him.  But she was
determined to see that his word was broken this night.

When he came, she was not asleep as he'd expected
and when his fingers slipped between her thighs, she heard his sharp intake of
breath.

Aye, she was ready for him. Her thoughts all day had
built and settled there in her core in anticipation. She felt her body spasm
under his fingers and she could not stop the deep groan that escaped her lips
as he withdrew his fingers from her moist heat.

Alexa cursed him aloud, “Damn you.”

He said nothing and she could see his dark angry
gaze beating down on her for a silent moment. Would he not speak a word to her?
Nay! 

This was utter madness what he was doing.  He
rose and removed his long tunic as he did every night to reveal that
magnificent and powerful body that made her mouth water.  Alexa readily
spread her thighs.

She would no longer be denied.

She would have release this night.

When he probed at her entrance, she waited and held
her breath. His hardness slid into her, filling her and her cry of satisfaction
rang loudly in her ears as the sound escaped her lips on a breathless
cry.  She shook and did what she hadn't since their wedding night. She
wrapped her legs around his waist.

Rourke roared above her or roared. “Nay!”

His shout came too late and Alexa did not
care.  She lost herself in the first crash of the blissful explosion as
his body jerked against hers, convulsing violently around him with her pent up
climax and soared to the heavens.  She could not breathe as she thrashed
under him in the throes of the incredible eruption. 

It seemed to go on forever and she reveled in the
soul rendering bliss. Damn his Norman hide.  The shock waves continued as
he started to move inside her.

Rourke roared again, this time finding his own
release triggered by her tightening liquid heat. He’d watched her take her
pleasure and had marveled in the beauty of it, thrusting over and over into her
satin heat.   His release came hard and fast and pulsed out of
him. 

He watched the tears leak from her eyes as she cried
with her passion against him, her body twisting and arching her loveliness
against his chest.  Feeling her hardened pebbles was too much for him and
he could no longer resist the demons he'd fought and struggled with the past
nights and took a hardened peak into his hungry and waiting mouth. A satisfied
groan escaped him at the wondrous taste of her. God's Wounds! The hellion drove
him mad with the want and need of her. So passionate was she.   Her
moans increased and he felt himself hardening inside her once more.  Would
he ever get enough of her?

Rourke was angry but happy at the same time. Her
response to him- undeniable and glorious. It robbed his breath as she met him
thrust for thrust, albeit he cursed when he did another thing he could no
longer resist and dipping his head, he kissed her parted and waiting lips.

Her tongue shot into his mouth before he fully
covered hers with his and Rourke let out a guttural growl, his body jerking
over her as his hot seed spurted out of him again from her movement.  The
hellion would be the death of him yet!

SEVENTEEN

Alexa woke from the deep slumber with a content
smile on her face.  Although her body was sore and her bottom ached, she
felt good. The tension had abated and it was all because he slept beside her.
He’d not left her after their spent passion.

His light snores were at her back and unable to
resist, she pressed against him.   The chains lay above their heads.
He had released her so that she could sit astride and ride him. She’d
experienced and achieved even more pleasure than she'd believed imaginable at
the new position. She’d been more wild and uninhibited and not at all embarrassed
as she took of his flesh.  Hating each other as they might, she did not
hate the fiery pleasure they shared.