Margo Maguire (14 page)

Edric dipped his head down and lightly licked her nipple through the thin cloth of her chemise. Her head fell back, and when he touched her other breast with his fingertips, she gave a soft cry.
“Encore,”
she murmured in French, and Edric knew the battle was won. “More.”

He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. Lowering her gently, he followed her down, releasing his belt and lowering his braies at the same time. She slid her fingers into the hair at the back of his head, and pulled him down for her kiss.

Hunger, raw and fierce, swept through him and he savaged her with his tongue, so aroused he had difficulty working the ties at her waist. In a haze of need, he heard the cloth tear, and broke the kiss long enough to pull her skirts from her.

Naked but for the stockings gartered on her thighs, she was the epitome of all that was feminine. Her lush breasts and narrow waist, the fleeting fragrance of lavender, her warm, wet center…everything about her incited him, but he forced himself to go slowly, to savor every moment.

He nipped her neck just below her ear, and allowed his hands to glide up from her waist to touch the soft undersides of her breasts. She arched in response, pushing the tips of her breasts closer to his chest.

She placed her hands upon his shoulders as he’d shown her before, but moved them down, feathering them lightly until she touched his own pebbled nipples again. He groaned, surprised at how sensitive she could make them. Never before had a woman’s touch wreaked such havoc with his senses.

Her fingertips brushed him, then closed upon those sensitive points, and fire shot directly to his groin. Closing his eyes tightly, he savored the
fierce burn, wondering how this untried maid could bring about such exquisite sensations.

Relishing her attentions, Edric rolled to his back and pulled her onto him, determined to prolong his endurance. He felt her moist, feminine lips open for him as she straddled his hips, and knew it would take only one fleet movement to slide his cock into her hot sheath.

He restrained himself, and drew one of her peaked nipples into his mouth. Circling that lush tip with his tongue, he felt gratified by her sharp gasp. Feeling her tremble, he reached down, seeking her most responsive part. The last time he’d spread her legs wide and touched her there, she’d come apart with pleasure.

He planned to show her heaven again, and not only once. Dipping his fingers inside her, he found her slick and hot, and ready for his entry.

Still, he held back, aware that a virgin needed the perfect seduction. As he sucked and teased her nipples he circled the center of her pleasure with his fingers, rubbing softly at first, but increasing the pressure as her hips bucked against him in a wild response to his touch.

“Aye, my beauty,” he whispered. “Come for me.”

“Oh!” The word was but a quiet sound upon a quick breath, and she fell onto him, her breasts
against his chest, her face in the crook of his shoulder.

Her thighs tightened ’round him, but he was not yet finished with her. He turned her once again, and when she lay beneath him, he kissed a path from her neck to her belly, keeping his eyes on hers, stirred by the utter astonishment in her eyes.

He slid his hands down her thighs and felt the knife at her garter. Pulling it out, he dropped it to the floor and positioned himself between her legs.

He kissed the soft skin of her inner thigh. Nipping and licking his way up, he reached the apex of her legs and looked his fill at her womanly center.

“Edric!” She started to squirm under his perusal, attempting to close her legs.

“Hold still for my kiss,” he said.

“Oh!”

He put his mouth on her, licking her slick heat, spearing her with his tongue. He felt her hands upon his shoulders, but she did not protest his actions, rather, she opened for him, exposing her very essence to him.

Her fervor drove him on, and he laved the tip of her mound, her most sensitive flesh, until her pretty bottom came off the mattress.

“Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!”

He rose up on his forearms and positioned his cock at her entrance, ready to plunge. But he did not. The thought of her small, tight sheath both aroused and cautioned him. He did not want to cause her any pain.

Sweat broke out on his forehead as he slowly penetrated her and reached the barrier of her virginity. “Kate…”

Uncertainty clouded her eyes.

“Do you trust me?”

Without hesitation, she pulled him down for her kiss.

’Twas all the answer he needed. He thrust deeply into her, then held perfectly still at her cry of discomfort. “’Twill soon be all right,” he said, dearly hoping his words were true.

Her muscles tightened ’round him and she moved slightly, encouraging him to withdraw and plunge again.
“Jesu!”
he muttered. Naught had ever felt so sweet, so intensely right. “Better?”

“Oh! Aye.” She quickly learned the rhythm of his movements and met every thrust of his hips, welcoming him inside. Edric’s heart pounded and his breath came so fast he was nearly dizzy with pleasure. There was an odd catch to her movements, somehow increasing the erotic sensations, drawing him ever closer to his culmination.

It hit him like a thunderbolt, crashing through
his body, starting at his cock and ballocks, and shooting into his chest until it swelled and he felt as if it might burst. His muscles tightened and released in a spasm so strong ’twas almost painful, yet the sensation was exquisite. Tremors racked his body as his climax continued, and Kate’s contractions prolonged it.

It seemed hours before he could move again, and he lowered himself to his side, pulling Kate with him as he stayed imbedded within her.

He was in no rush to leave her.

K
athryn could not find any words. Lying on her side, face-to-face with Edric, she was unsure whether to feel embarrassment or bliss. He was still inside her, and she was glad their intimate connection felt too good for him to withdraw.

He closed his eyes and brushed her lips with his mouth, and she felt his sex tug inside her. “Ah, Kate.”

“Umm…”

She should not have submitted, should never have given herself to this man who had vowed
not to take another wife. Yet she could not regret her actions. She cared for Edric, as she would never care for another.

“’Twill be better next time.”

“I do not know how that is possible,” she said, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. Her hand lingered there, and Kathryn realized how much she loved to touch him. She let her fingers drift to his shoulder and down his arm, learning the swells and indentations of each muscle and sinew as she moved. She touched his chest, spearing her fingers through the dark, crisp hair that grew there.

He made a low sound and moved his hips, pulling her leg higher to rest on his hip. Kathryn closed her eyes as he growled and started nipping at her neck. He touched her intimately again, caressing the same spot that had propelled her to the height of wanton pleasure before.

It felt different now, with his fingers working their sorcery while he moved inside her. Sensations flooded her, and she heard herself whimper with delight. An instant later, she was soaring through the clouds high above Braxton Fell, her flesh and bones scattered to the wind. Somewhere far away yet impossibly close, she felt him shudder within her, felt his hot seed spill deep inside her once again.

It took several long minutes before Kathryn returned to earth and could breathe again. She knew her heart was in her eyes, but she did not care. She loved him.

“How do you do that to me?” Tenderly, she stroked the crease that had formed between his brows. “I never knew…”

His jaw clenched once before he spoke, and he pulled out of her. “’Tis just sex. Mating is always a pleasure.”

Kathryn recoiled as if he’d clouted her. If it had been his intention to cheapen their lovemaking, he’d succeeded. She reached for the blanket and pulled it over herself, shuddering, wishing she’d guarded her heart more carefully.

Edric rolled from the bed and went to the fireplace. He laid a fire and lit it, poking at it until it caught while Kathryn tried to figure a way to get her clothes on and leave before she made an emotional fool of herself. Clearly, what she felt for him was not reciprocated and that knowledge swelled painfully in her chest. What he’d done with her was no different from what he’d shared with Cecily…or any other woman he’d bedded.

Perilously close to tears, she held the blanket close and slipped from the bed. She located her chemise and started to draw it over her head, but he stopped her.

“You are very beautiful naked,” he said, holding her wrist in his strong hand.

’Twas not true. Oft had it been said that Isabel was the beauty of the family, and Kathryn realized Edric intended his flattery to soften his previous words. She attempted to cover herself with her hands, but he would have none of it.

“Come back to bed.”

Emotion fluttered in her chest. There was nowhere she’d rather be than caught up in Edric’s strong arms. She had made her decision to make love with him, and would shed no tears for what could not be.

Standing close, Edric gently pulled her hands from her body and looked his fill. He touched the engorged peaks of her breasts, then bent to lick them. “So perfect,” he whispered. “And this,” he added, sliding his hand down to her feminine core.

Kathryn fumbled with her chemise and held it in front of her, taking a step back. Regardless of her decision, this was too much. It was a sensuous onslaught. She needed a moment’s reprieve, time to gather her thoughts and emotions, a chance to adjust to the turmoil within her.

“Aidan will wake soon and want to be fed,” she said, ashamed that she had not thought of the bairn
even once since Edric had taken him from her arms.

“Where is his milk?” Edric asked, pulling on a long, woolen tunic.

“In Lord Bryce’s chamber.” She’d left it there earlier, and had forgotten it with all that had happened since.

Edric started for the door, but came back to her, pulling her into his arms for a kiss that seared her with its potency, leaving her knees weak and her heart palpitating.

Bryce awoke when Edric entered the room, but his guard slept on, quietly snoring. The crock of milk was on the hearth, the same place where Kate kept it in the nursery. “’Tis late,” Bryce said groggily.

“Aye,” Edric replied, uninterested in a midnight conversation with his brother. He had better things to do.

“Ahhh,” said Bryce knowingly when Edric picked up Aidan’s milk and headed for the door.

“’Tis not your concern,” Edric replied.

“Take care, brother,” Bryce said. “If the Norman is a gently bred lass…You dabble where no one but a husband should go.”

Edric barely gave his brother a glance before
quitting the room. Kate had made it clear that she would not return to her home, and he had every intention of keeping her at Braxton. He would never have believed a Norman capable of such passion in the bedchamber, but Kate had surpassed all his expectations. She was a lioness in bed who’d mistaken lust for something else. Something elusive and quite impossible.

Fortunately, he’d seen signs of a virgin’s infatuation in her eyes and had set her straight about what had transpired between them. They would have many a night like this together and he did not want her mistaking their bed play for some elusive dream.

He heard Aidan’s whimpers when he returned to his chamber, and when he entered, saw Kate in her thin chemise, carrying the bairn to and fro, rocking him gently in her arms. The pretty sight struck him physically, in the lowest part of his back. It weakened his legs, but heated his groin with something other than arousal. Some feeling he did not recognize.

She looked up at him then, and smiled.

Edric cleared the thickness from his throat and went inside. There was something different about her…mayhap a slight reddening of her nose, and he wondered if she’d been weeping. Fortunately, he saw no sign of tears over her lost virginity, so he
took her hand and drew her back to bed. “Feed him here.”

Divesting himself of his tunic, Edric slid in behind her and pulled her against his chest. Kate lowered the top half of her chemise, yet remained modestly covered as she fed Aidan, and Edric’s cock grew against her back. She spoke soft French words to the bairn as he drank, and Edric moved her hair aside to nuzzle her neck. He wanted to hear her say those words to him.

“You could never have left Aidan,” he murmured, sure that it was so. “You are more a mother to him than his own would have been.”

He felt her stiffen, but when he slipped his hands ’round to her breasts, she seemed to melt. As she sighed, her body eased back into his, and he lowered her chemise to her waist, teasing the tips of her breasts, wishing ’twas her milk that fed his son.

“Edric, I lose myself when you do this,” she said tremulously. “You must let me feed Aidan without distraction.”

“Ah, but I cannot resist.” He kissed her ear. “These globes were meant for my touch, meant for my tongue.”

She shivered at his words and he knew she would have covered herself in embarrassment if her hands had not been fully occupied with Aidan.
Her self-consciousness was enchanting, but he wanted no awkwardness or shame between them.

“Is he finished?”

She gave a slight nod and took the crock from Aidan. Lifting him to her shoulder, she patted his back and he soon gave a satisfied belch.

“Will he sleep now?”

“Likely not,” Kate replied. “There is more to being a nursemaid than simply feeding the bairn.”

“No doubt you will show me.”

He heard a smile in her voice when she spoke. “No doubt.”

From Aidan’s position at Kate’s shoulder, he faced his father. He began to gurgle and bat at Edric with his tiny fist. “He is a fighter already.”

“No he’s not. He is French—
très doux
.”

Edric did not contradict her. “Then it must be that I rouse his baser instincts, for he is trying to thrash me.”

She laughed softly at his jest and he shifted their positions, turning her in his arms. With Aidan between them, their eyes met and Edric tipped his head down, drawing her close. He touched his lips to hers, kissing her lightly, surprising himself with the fullness of sentiment behind the gesture—gratitude for the care of his son, affection for the way she’d spoken to the crowd in the hall, respect
for dealing with Robert Ferguson in spite of her fears.

She astonished him. And she pulled away first.

“My lord, he’ll want to be entertained.”

“As will I,” Edric replied, dipping lower to nip at her breast. ’Twas so much better to keep the bed play uncomplicated, just as he’d have done with Felicia.

She pushed away and lowered Aidan to the mattress where he lay upon his back, fully awake, kicking his legs and jabbing his hands at the air. Kate raised her chemise to her shoulders and slipped her arms in, covering her breasts from his view. Still, as he leaned back against the wall, he enjoyed the delicate lines of her neck and the smooth, feminine muscles of her arms as she and Aidan amused each other. “Look what a comely lad he is, my lord,” she said, touching the cleft in Aidan’s chin. “He will be an exceptional man, I think.”

She spoke softly to the bairn, too, gentle words he knew he would never have heard from Cecily’s lips.

Kathryn awoke early, at Aidan’s first whimper.

Edric slept soundly behind her, and she left the bed to bathe quickly and slip on her chemise. Gathering Aidan into her arms, she took a seat in
the chair by the fire to feed him, unready to face Edric just yet.

She blushed when she thought of all they had done the night before, and winced slightly at the discomfort resulting from the unfamiliar, vigorous activities.

Clearly, he believed their activities amounted to no more than a carefree diversion. But Kathryn knew better. There would come a day when he realized there was more.

The three of them—she and Edric and Aidan—were already a family, whether he knew it or not.

But she could not face revealing to everyone in the keep what had transpired between them.

As soon as Aidan finished, Kathryn dressed and slipped out of the room with the bairn in her arms. She had no intention of returning to the nursery where she’d killed Robert Ferguson, but there were other rooms in Edric’s massive fortress. There had to be one she could make her own.

’Twas still dark inside the keep, so Kathryn moved along carefully until she reached the stairs that led down to the hall. The embers in the fireplace gave her enough light to find her way to the main door. She left the keep, unsure where she would go.

In the predawn light, she saw the ravages of the night’s battle. ’Twas hard to believe it had only
been last night that she’d killed Robert Ferguson and Edric had gone to battle. So much had happened since her abduction from Kettwyck that she had difficulty keeping accurate track of the time. Had she been at Braxton Fell for months or was it only days? How could she have fallen so hard and so deeply for the lord of this estate and his son?

Holding Aidan close, Kathryn walked east, toward the gate that would lead to the lane where Lora’s cottage was located, hoping she would find her friends at home. She crossed the bridge and saw that several of the outermost buildings had been burned. The charred shells remained standing, but the devastation was severe.

It looked as though few of the villagers had slept, for they were out and about, carrying buckets and tools to and from the burned area. When they met Kathryn on the lane going toward Lora’s cottage, many of them tipped their hats to her, or gave a quick bow of acknowledgment. One woman called to her from her cottage. “’Tis said you saved the village, mistress.” The woman’s three children gathered about her skirts. “We thank you.”

Kathryn did not know what to say, so she gave a brief nod and continued walking. But her path was soon impeded by others who stopped to thank her for her part in thwarting the Fergusons, and to ask
if the rumors were true…that it was
she
who’d killed Robert.

She’d met many of these people before, when she’d walked this way with Lora, but she’d felt like an outsider then. This time, there was a warmth and appreciation that was wholly different, as well as unexpected. They clamored ’round her and called her praises.

“Lord Edric will reward you richly!” called one woman.

“When Drogan returns, we’ll have all we need,” said another.

“You raised the alarm and made us flee to safety!”

“Who would have thought ’twould be a Norman who killed the Ferguson,” one of the men pondered aloud.

Someone put a shawl ’round Kathryn’s shoulders against the chill of the morning. “I—I never meant to…He threatened Lord Edric’s son so I…” Moved by their unexpected kindness, tears suddenly filled her eyes.

“’Twas well done, lass,” said one of the men, patting her shoulder to comfort her. ’Twas with relief that Kathryn saw Lora, carrying her own bucket toward the well. Blinking away her tears, she took her leave of the villagers and followed Lora’s path,
catching up to the red-haired healer as she drew her water from the well.

“Good morn to you, Kate. All is well?”

Kathryn nodded. “How is Elga?” she asked Lora.

“Better. She is terrified of fire, and last night the fires burned much too close.” She narrowed her gaze. “You are out and about quite early, are you not?”

“Er, Aidan woke me, and since he did not seem inclined to go back to sleep, I decided to get some air.”

Lora drew her full bucket up and out of the well. “Aye, well, the air is foul just beyond the tanner’s. But thankfully, most of the village is unscathed…thanks to you.”

Kathryn made no reply, but walked beside Lora as she returned to her cottage. They went inside where Elga was still asleep.