Love's Magic (39 page)

“You’re shaking, Nicholas. Am I hurting you?”

His voice was hoarse with need as he answered, “Nay.”

“I am not burning you?” Her tone was cautious.

“Aye, I am burning, but not in a way that hurts.” He turned around and caught her in his arms. “Soon you will be burning in the same manner as I.”

He kissed her deeply, and her arms wrapped themselves around his neck. She pressed her breasts into his chest, and he caught her up and placed her on the bed.

He laid her down on the soft, feather-filled comforter and kneeled beside her. He kissed her hair, her forehead, her nose. That stubborn chin. “I love you, ‘Tia.”

She sat up and trustingly allowed him to remove her chemise. “And I you, Nicholas.” She lay back, expecting him to join her on the bed.

Instead he went to her feet and removed her delicate slippers with their happy little bells. He kissed her toes, encased in sheer stockings. He laved his way up the back of her legs and untied the laces at her knees with his teeth. He pulled them down, caressing her calves as he went.

Celestia’s face was flushed, her chest heaving. “I am getting most warm, Nicholas …”

He grinned, his teeth white in his swarthy face. “I would hope to have you hot.” He ran his hands up her thighs and across her midriff. Everywhere he touched with his hands, he placed a kiss.

She shied as he hovered over the nest of blond curls at the apex of her legs. She jumped as he touched her woman’s place. “Are you supposed to do that?”

“Aye, Celestia. And this.” His fingers parted the folds of her flesh, and his thumb stroked the tight pearl inside.

She moaned. He applied a touch more pressure, the pad of his thumb flicking the bud. Keeping her eyes tightly closed, she clutched at Nicholas’s shoulders. He lifted her knees, and replaced his thumb with his tongue.

“Nicholas!” She sat up. “I have never heard of this before.” Her eyes were panicked and her skin slick.

“Trust me, ‘Tia.” He flicked the pearl with his tongue and inserted a single finger inside her, stretching her, preparing her body for his. He moved his finger in sure, rapid motions and felt her body tense as she reached climax.

She screamed her satisfaction. He let her catch her breath as he traced circular patterns over her belly.

“Nicholas? I never thought—” She tried to cover her body, suddenly shy.

“Oh, no, my little angel, we are not through yet.”

“Hmmm, there’s more …”

He gestured toward his erection, evident beneath his tight-fitting hose.

“I didn’t realize you were still clothed.” She got to her knees. “You distracted me,” she accused with a laugh, determined to use the same care on him that he had lavished on her while removing her chemise.

Keeping her eyes averted from his groin, she shyly peeled his leggings from him, revealing muscled thighs and strong calves.

“What’s this?”

“Nothing, a slash. Petyr caught me with the tip of his sword.”

“But Nicholas, I can heal this.” She didn’t wait, but tucked her feet beneath her bare bottom and hovered her hands over the gash. Heat spilled readily from her fingertips, and Nicholas groaned in pleasure. She concentrated on knitting the skin, caressing the area with featherlight touches until the flesh was smooth.

Then she moved her hands, still hot and sensitive, up and down the rest of his leg. “My gift is back,” she said with amazement, feeling the air crackle with energy.

“Magic—you never lost it, for I loved you always.”

“You did?” She looked up from where she’d been massaging his calf, then sat back in surprise as his manhood rose from the triangle of black curls between his thighs.

She swallowed, her breath caught in her throat.

“
That
is supposed to fit inside of me?”

Nicholas gave her a masculine look as old as Adam. “Aye, with great pleasure, if done properly.”

“All right, Nicholas. Would you have me kiss it?”

Nicholas’s smug look left his face. He kissed her on the lips, placing his hips close to hers. “I would not last to take your virginity. Men are not fashioned as women; it takes them some time to climax again.”

Her eyes were pools of sensual promise. “But would you not like it?”

His member throbbed against her leg. “Aye. Mayhap too well is what I am trying to say. Can you not feel my desire for you?”

She nodded and reached down between their bodies. She closed her warm hand around his girth, and stroked the length of him. “You make my blood soar like a falcon in flight.”

Nicholas’s dark gray eyes turned black with passion, and he traced the column of her throat to the point where her pulse beat madly.

She nibbled her lower lip and ran her thumb over the moist tip of his penis. “'Tis like costly velvet.” A drop of moisture formed, and her body hummed. “I am getting warm again, Nicholas.” She smiled and arched against his leg, his manhood firmly in her hand.

They kissed, their tongues twisting and tasting one another. She couldn’t stop touching him. Finally, after all this time, he was hers to love. Celestia pressed her aching breasts into Nicholas, who caressed first one, then the other. He took a nipple between his teeth and tugged, sending a spiral of desire through Celestia’s belly.

“They are perfect, ‘Tia. Round and firm.” He suckled the other breast until she was on fire, throbbing with anticipation. When he flipped her to her back, she eagerly spread her legs to allow Nicholas between them. He positioned his manhood, teasing her opening with the moist tip of his penis. “It may hurt this first time, ‘Tia, but only for a moment. You are ready for me, and I for you.”

He thrust inside, his mouth capturing her shocked cry. He was sheathed in warmth, and his arms shook with effort to stay still.

He looked down at Celestia’s face.

Disappointment warred with her earlier satiation. She said smartly, “I see why you wait to tell a woman that it will hurt, Nicholas. I might not have done it, otherwise.” She sniffed, as if he had tricked her on purpose.

He kissed her damp forehead and moved his hips slightly. Her eyes flew open. He rocked his hips, slowly, but with great precision. “Never?”

She moved with him, feeling desire build with each thrust until her entire body was burning with need. She threw back her head, allowing Nicholas access to the sensitive column of her throat; he nibbled and kissed her as she held his hips to her body with her knees. “Nicholas, ‘tis hot! Very hot!”

Being the noble man that he was, he pushed forward to put out the flame, sending both of them flying with pleasure to heaven and back.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

N
icholas held Celestia in his arms, watching her as she dozed. He had never been so content in his life. She opened one eye in a languid manner. “I can feel you stare … Are you disappointed, Nicholas?”

He laughed. “I was simply wondering how I could deserve such a treasure.” He pinched her bottom.

“Ow! This is how you treat your treasures?”

Nicholas caressed the injured cheek. “I was assuring myself that you were real.”

She placed her hand at the juncture of his thighs, her fingers in the ebony curls at the base. His member pulsed against her hand, and she snuggled closer. “Methinks there is at least one part of you that knows this is no dream, my lord.”

He pulled her on top of him, content to have her so. For a fleeting instant he recalled Leah, then he firmly, and forever, banished her from his mind. He put his hands on the sides of his beloved wife’s face and claimed her soft lips. “You’ve healed me, ‘Tia.”

Celestia smiled a mysterious smile and slid atop his seeking manhood. “It certainly feels like magic to me, Nicholas.”

It was some time later that the door to the tower flew open with a bang. The tower walls shook, and plaster fell from the ceiling. Nicholas wrapped the linen cover around Celestia and protected her from sight with his body.

Grainne Kat stalked in carrying a short sword in her hands. “Ye’ve defiled the tower!”

Nicholas scrabbled for his hose, which lay puddled on the floor with his undershirt. He slipped them on, tossing Celestia her tunic.

“What right have you to barge in on my wife and me in my own bloody keep?” His fury was as cold and clipped as his voice, hiding the fear he had for Celestia.

“What right? I have kept this tower sacred for nigh on twenty years! This is the Lady Esmerada’s tower, and she detests strangers.”

“I am no stranger; I am her son.”

“Pah! She didn’t want you.” Grainne Kat thrust the sword at him. “Why do ye think she sent ye away?”

Nicholas eyed the round tower room, calculating a way out. The wise woman’s hatred was cold, and it sapped the warm energy within. Celestia donned her kirtle and slid her hand into his.

“She lies,” Celestia said softly, noting the chill of the room just as a gust of air blew in from the battlements. She rubbed her arms. The chill settled at the nape of her neck.

Nay!
Not a time for visions she thought. Stepping closer to Nicholas, she thought to protect him from this madwoman who’d been jealous of Nicholas his entire life.

Suddenly, Celestia was one with the vision. She was not alone in her body or mind. Frightened, she opened her mouth.

“Viperous, vile woman! Get ye gone from here.”

Celestia recognized the voice as that of Nicholas’s mother.

Nicholas dropped her hand and backed away, staring at her in disbelief. Grainne Kat’s wrinkled face paled.

Celestia found her hand being raised, her finger pointed at Grainne.
“Ye’ve caused enough harm to this family; let them find peace. Yer son is dead, Kat, did ye know?”

Grainne’s sword dropped point down into the floor of the chamber, and she leaned heavily against it. “Joseph?”

“’Twas yer bitterness toward the baron that has caused all of this unhappiness. I had forgiven, Kat, why could ye not?”
The voice that came from Celestia’s mouth was soft and deep with a Scottish brogue.
“I loved Robbie MacIntosh, ‘tis true. Just as you loved his brother. We would have been sisters.
Piuthars.”

Grainne’s anger flashed from her wrinkled face. “I canna listen to ya! Ye forgot all about Robbie and revenge once ye held yer bairn in yer arms. This was
our
keep! For the clan, and yet you let it lie.”

“Yer anger was always dangerous, Kat. ”

Nicholas’s dark gray eyes grew damp and stormy as he listened to the byplay. He held out his hand to her, well, to his mother, and Celestia let their fingertips touch.

“Machair?”

“Nicholas!”
The voice was filled with love and sorrow, then another wind gust racked the room, knocking against the tapestries along the wall.

Celestia wobbled weakly, bereft of the force inside.

Nicholas enclosed her in his arms, keeping her safe against his hard chest.

Celestia, her voice once again her own, said accusingly to Kat, “You are the Lady Katherine. The friend who took care of the Lady Esmerada as she went mad from grief. The woman who sent Nicholas away.”

Celestia’s brow furrowed, and she pushed away from Nicholas. Her body shook with indignant anger. “You have lied all along—Lady Esmerada loved her son, I know that as if she were still alive.” She placed one hand alongside her head. “I had thought I was dreaming, but Nicholas, your mother came to me when I was so sick from Grainne’s poison. She told me—” Celestia stopped, confused. What had the kind woman whispered to her?

She never heard the arrow that almost impaled her. Nicholas knocked her to the ground, furious that his dagger was in his tunic and out of reach.

What kind of knight kept his weapons out of hand?

All three pairs of eyes turned to the wall to see Maude standing before a secret entrance to the chamber. The tapestry that had hidden the door lay at her feet.

“Will ye not die, bitch?” Maude’s hair was a rat’s nest of black tangles, leaves and twigs ensnared in the mess.

She aimed the bow with another arrow notched to fly and pointed it at Celestia, who had scrambled to her feet. Nicholas pushed her behind him and faced the new threat. He would protect Celestia with his life, but God, how he hated to feel so powerless.

Maude laughed, the sound as shrill as a broken lute. “Look at ye! Frightened as a doe in the forest.” She ground out between giggles, “Nicholas is
mine.
Do ye hear me? I’ve tried shooting ye, and ye get me instead! I’ve tried pulling you down the stairs, I’ve tried poisoning ye, and still ye breathe. Would that I had your magical powers, I would not be rotting away in these damn woods, alone.”

Celestia hissed, but Nicholas would not let her step around him.

“I want no other, Maude,” Nicholas said firmly. “I would never be yours. My heart belongs to my wife. Put the bow and arrow down, Maude, and we can discuss this rationally.”

Celestia snorted.

Maude snickered. “Ye’ve not had a taste of a real woman, Nicholas.” With one hand she tore her dress to reveal her breasts. “I warrant she has none as fine as these, eh?”

Nicholas felt Celestia press her eating dagger into his palm. His fingers clasped around the handle as he said convincingly to Maude, “Well, Maude, my wife has finer. Lay the bow and arrow aside, and let us talk about this further.”

Celestia punched him in the back while Grainne Kat yelled, “Nay! Maude, ye daft chick! He’ll not marry ye now. Where did I go wrong?” Grainne Kat’s voice warbled with grief as she straightened to her full height. “It was all for naught.” She held the sword in her hands, the blade steady. “Ye’ve killed me only son. Ye’ll pay, both of ye.” She stepped forward as Maude gasped.

“Joe is dead?”

Grainne ignored her daughter, focusing on Celestia and Nicholas. “Who do ye think kept the stories of the curse alive? Who do ye think sent word to the baron of the curse? I did! I tried to keep this heap of stone going, but Esmerada stopped me at every turn. She no longer cared for war! She wanted to raise her son … I thought I’d bide me time, for if the bairn was Robbie’s, as we thought, I knew Esmerada would change her tune. But once your features became more pronounced, we both knew it was not Robbie’s get that she’d nurtured at her breast. Nay!”

Spittle flew from the old woman’s mouth. “The child was the spawn of the devil who had killed her love—but would she put the child aside? Nay. She chose to forgive the brat his father, while sending a curse on the baron for not claiming ye.”

Grainne’s eyes were wild with rage. “What would we have done had the baron chosen to come back here ta live? How could she treat her bonnie Robbie MacIntosh so poorly by loving the brat of her rapist? How could she have forgotten such a massacre? She let Ian die a rebel’s death with no help from her, her, her own lover’s brother.”

She lifted the short, yet deadly, sword. “And my husband. Ian and I had to be secretly handfast, as she would not even allow the MacIntosh clan in Falcon Keep.”

Celestia darted from behind her husband. She said with utmost certainty, “You claim the Lady Esmerada was your friend, yet you poisoned her to gain control of the keep. You poisoned her slowly, with your dark herbs and treacherous tongue! It was not the Lady Esmerada who threatened to throw Nicholas from the battlements—it was you.”

Grainne’s arms faltered. “How could ye know that?”

Celestia shook her head, which was foggy and unclear. “It matters not—what did you hope to gain? You killed your best friend and sent her son away from his home and his mother. You had no claim to this keep. You kept alive the talk of the curse. The haunting of the north tower … you scared away the peasants and servants, but why?”

Grainne Kat shrugged, then steadied her arms. “I remained loyal to the Scottish rebels and wore the MacIntosh plaid with pride. I knew that Nicholas would be back someday, and I could again bide me time.”

Nicholas pulled Celestia close to him. “Why must we talk with weapons drawn? You have an unfair advantage if we are to work this problem through.”

Maude screamed, “I want nothing worked out!
Machair
promised me the keep and you for my husband. Ye were not supposed to come back already married. Was he, Mother?”

Grainne sucked her lower lip; her arms were tiring. “I would have bound ye to Maude, and then Falcon Keep could have been the saving of the rebels. Those who are left.”

“Celestia has ruined everything, curse her,” Maude panted, her once pretty eyes now glittering like broken shards of stained glass.

Nicholas stepped forward, the dagger hidden in his palm. “Grainne, I am married to Celestia, and I would not undo the tie. Mayhap there is another way we can help. Let us share some wine, some food.”

He could feel Celestia bristling behind him.

Grainne Kat lunged toward him, the sword raised. “Food? Wine? Ye killed me son. Ye must die!”

“I didn’t kill him.” Nicholas sensed the movement just before she jumped forward; he swerved quickly, taking Celestia with him to the floor. At the same instant Maude let loose a white-feathered arrow.

Grainne screamed.

“Nay!
Machair!
”

Grainne Kat fell to the ground, the arrow quivering from the center of her poisonous heart.

Her wild eyes found Maude’s. “Me
dochair,
how could ye?”

Maude dropped to her knees, cradling her mother’s head in her lap. “I didna mean it, I did not see you running! I only thought to kill them both. They’re rotten, and they’ve ended it all.” Maude sobbed and petted her mother’s gray hair.

Celestia calmly stood, her figure wavering with the over-image of a taller, ebony-haired woman.
“’Tis over, Katherine.”

Grainne’s eyes widened, then closed. “Aye, Esmerada, ‘tis over.”

Maude let loose a bloodcurdling yell and let her mother’s body fall with a thump. She shot to her feet and grabbed Celestia by the hair, murder in her eyes.

Nicholas caught the woman by the shoulders, the small dagger now openly in his hand. He said, “I am so sorry, ‘Tia,” as he slashed down.

Maude screamed, and Celestia fell to the floor.

Ela clucked over Celestia. “Now, ‘Tia, it does not look so bad.”

They stood in front of the mirror. Deirdre raised her brows. “Ye could just keep it covered with a veil, and no one would know.”

“I hate to wear a veil at all times. And besides, Nicholas would still see.”

Galiana nodded her head; her own locks bouncing as she practically swooned. “That is very true. Nicholas saved your life, ‘Tia, just like a knight of great chivalry should do.”

Celestia’s temper flashed. “Aye! But he hacked off my hair to do it! I look ridiculous! I am a shorn sheep, a, a …”