Seduced (25 page)

Raik threw back the sheet and turned on his
left side, disturbing the bed again. It had the desired effect when
Letia squeaked and fell over against him.

Her breasts grazed his chest, the nipples
hard and hot. Remembering their lush beauty when she stood before
the basin, his heartbeat quickened. Never had he seen anything so
arousing as her soapy hands gliding over her breasts, cleansing and
checking the nipples, staring down at them. It would have been even
more stimulating had she been pleasuring herself.

The harsh rush of his breath stirred a
wayward curl on her brow to tease his cheek when he rose on his
elbow and reached for her. He did not go straight to her breasts,
though his lips demanded it, but prolonged the anticipation by
cupping her chin and sliding his thumb over her full lips.

Lush. Soft. Warm.

Would she relish a kiss? Surely, she must
like some aspects of bed sport or Aubrey would not be sleeping in
his cradle. He hesitated but a breath before he decided to find
out. At first, her body stiffened and her lips stayed still beneath
his. He plied them with all the sensual skills he had learned over
the years. Soon, her breath caught and she responded. Would she
like his tongue tracing her lips then probing for her to open? She
did. Ah, she tasted of honey and cinnamon left from the warm scones
served with the fruit and nuts.

Still, he hesitated to touch her breasts.
Instead, he kissed and licked his way from beneath her left ear,
down her neck and across her collarbones. The faint scent of
heather on her skin drifted to him as he traveled between her
breasts and on down to plunge his tongue in her navel. She
squirmed. He rubbed his cheeks on her soft belly, the hair covering
her sex ticking him beneath his chin. His hot tongue tasted her
hipbones and started back up.

As he nuzzled beneath her breasts, he felt
the tension in her stomach, felt the muscles in her legs try to
relax as if she willed her hips to stillness. He grinned. Her body
was quick to heat and respond. He would not let her deny him. Or
herself. His hand stopped its leisurely travel over her thighs to
move between them. She clamped her knees together before she
realized his trapped hand was nestled against her heated
center.

He had felt what he wanted. She was damp.
Near ready. His fingers parted her nether lips, and as he settled
over her, he rolled her nub between his fingers at the same time he
licked a turgid nipple. She arched against him, thrusting her
breast at his mouth, her sex against his fingers. Her head rocked
back and forth.

"Nay, nay," she murmured, all the while
denying what she said, for she clutched the hair at his temples to
keep him close.

He spread her legs with his knees and settled
himself there. He nudged his cock against her opening, wondering
how slow he should go. Never before had he swived a woman who had a
small bairn. Had she healed from the birthing? Would he hurt
her?

She made no protest as he eased into her. Her
flesh clenched around him, surprisingly as tight as any childless
lass who was used to swiving.

He squeezed his eyelids together, remembering
the way his Lily had felt, how she had responded to him so readily.
His lips closed over a nipple, but on feeling the milk spurt there,
drew back. He wouldn't steal from his heir. He lapped the areola
surrounding the nipple, the taste of her breast's milk stimulating
him further.

To keep her from bucking him off, he plunged
deep and firm. Her frantic moves met his own needs, and he rose on
stiff arms arching above her, angling his hips as he quickened his
thrusts. When he was near to bursting with holding himself in
check, he reached between them to slide his finger around her slick
nubbin. She strained and arched so high and fiercely she near
unseated him.

Letia, who had looked at him so disdainfully
earlier when he asked if she was loud in her bed sport, now gave
him a truthful answer.

She yelled. Loud.

So loud she near drowned out his own groans
while her body pulsed and pulled at his bucking cock as he released
his seed. She throbbed around him, the waves squeezing up and down
his member, draining him.

They both collapsed.

Depleted.

Letia had meant to be as still and
unresponsive as an oak tree?

She had failed.

Unless a fierce summer storm had caught that
tree.

She gasped for breath, the sound of her own
voice still resounding in her head. It was the first time in her
life she had ever been so vocal in the throes of her release. Nay.
Mayhap not. Had Raik not covered her lips with his on those stolen
dark nights, would she have been as loud?

Raik's weight was heavy. Though his bent arms
kept his chest from robbing her of breath, his lower body locked
hers firmly against the pallet, his sex still engaged. He was as
spent as she. His forehead pressed into the pillow beside her head;
his gasps for air huffed against her neck. Her body still pulsated,
trying to keep Raik within.

Saints! She heard a small sound above their
rasping breaths.

Of a sudden, Raik reared back, twisted and
leaped from the bed. He crouched and, as he came upright, she heard
the sword tip scrape against the floor. Sword in hand, in three
steps he reached the door and wrenched it open.

"What do ye here!" Raik's harsh voice
demanded.

Though Letia could not see his back in the
doorway, the faint glow of the sentry's torch at the stairwell
highlighted his form and that of another man's.

"No need to skewer me, Baron. A slight
mistake in rooms only."

It was Sir William's smooth voice.

"Dinna take me for a fool. You lurked
to..."

Letia could hear no more, for Raik slammed
the door closed behind him. She didn't need to hear the muffled
words on the other side to know her husband did not believe the
Norman. But in the absence of a cry of pain or scream, he must have
reassured Raik he meant no harm.

Oh, Saints! Judging from the voices, now Sir
Cormac was there, and heaven only knew who else.

"If the lot of ye are not stealing from
another's bed, there is no reason for ye to be lurking about
outside my bedchamber."

Sir Cormac coughed and gurgled, sounding like
he was stifling laughter. "How could we not land at yer doorway
when we heard such howling and baying I thought the great black
beast had ye in his jaws!"

"Yer crowing and clucking is as foolish as
any rooster feeding on dregs from the brewer's hut, fool."

Letia heard the scowl in Raik's voice. He
railed at them all for scurrying about where they did not belong.
He stopped when her son's cry added to the tumult.

Letia jumped out of bed and swept her hands
over the floor, searching for the robe she'd so carelessly thrown
there earlier. Locating it, she fumbled around until she found the
sleeves and drew it on.

The door opened wider, and Raik backed into
the room.

"Yer foolishness has awakened the bairn.
Maud, yer mistress will be ready in a short time." He shut the door
as soon as his body cleared it. "Lucifer's shriveled prick! Ye
would think half the keep camped outside our chambers."

Raik muttered and cursed as he stalked over
to the window to wrench open the shutters. When the moon's light
streamed through, he went over to the linen Maud had set on the
table to bind Letia's breasts. The beam from the window shone on
his far-from-flaccid tarse and stones that hung heavy. He growled
and wrapped the cloth around his waist before he crouched down at
the fireplace and set a twig aflame to light a candle.

He held the light high, and seeing she was
decently covered, yanked open the door and commanded in a voice
filled with disgust, "Come, Maud. All else should hie yerself off
to yer pallets. I expect each man to meet me on the practice area
at first light." He glared at the faces around him. "Be there!"

Sir William stood aside for Maud to carry the
babe into the room. Cormac stopped at the entrance and bowed toward
Letia then winked at Raik. He said a senseless thing.

"
'Tis glad I am the wayward carrot turned
to a rod again!
"

Cormac snickered and pivoted to disappear in
the darkness. Sir William nodded and pulled the door shut, muffling
the sound of men returning to their own sleeping arrangements.

"Shh, Aubrey. You will make yourself sick
with your keening," Letia crooned as she took her son in her arms.
She was so anxious to feed him she shrugged the robe from her
shoulder, exposing her left breast. Aubrey halted in mid-squall
when his nose bumped her milk-wet skin. He latched on as if he
hadn't nursed a short time earlier. She sighed and sat on a small
chair beside the solar door, suddenly tired.

"Is the bairn always so greedy?"

Raik's voice was so soft she near missed it.
Her eyes flew open to find he stood so close his knees near touched
hers. There was naught but interest in his eyes as he watched the
little cheeks suck and swallow as fast as the babe could. Her face
heated remembering his full, sensual lips and hot, wet tongue on
that same flesh that now was feeding Aubrey.

"When he first awakes. But he soon slows and
is easily filled."

Raik walked back around the bed. She at first
thought he meant to return to it, but Maud was busily straightening
the sheets and blanket and plumping the pillows, a satisfied smirk
on her face. He seemed surprised at the old woman's expression,
shook his head and went to sit on the ample window seat.

Her new husband stared out at the night,
breathing deep of the cool air. Sadness slowly drifted over his
face. His lips thinned. Curious. What thoughts could have caused
it? He had attained more in this one short day than any man could
hope for—a castle and keep larger than most with ample warriors,
castle folks, servants, craftsmen, serfs, fertile lands, farms,
cattle and villagers to make the castle productive.

And if she did say so herself, he'd acquired
a wife that was not hard to look at.

Though she lowered her head and pretended
interest only in her son, she studied Raik through thick lashes. He
took deep breaths of the night's cold air, scraped his fingers
through his thick, dark hair and stood. Not even glancing at her,
he released the cloth around his waist and settled between the
sheets. 'Twas not long before she heard his breathing deepen and
the soft puffs of his snores.

Aubrey finally finished nursing. After Letia
heard his resounding burp when she patted his small back, she
motioned for Maud to take him back to his cradle. Sleepy now, she
sighed and yawned, grateful to join Raik in the warm bed.

He had rolled to the middle and sprawled on
his stomach. With what space he'd left for her, she had little
choice but to lay close. She inhaled his arousing scent from the
arm so close to her cheek. His leg moved, restlessly rubbing
against hers. Feeling the warm roughness of his calves against her
bare legs, her heart tripped. He mumbled, draped his arm across her
and pulled her close, then threw his leg over hers. The hot bulge
of his sex nudged her hip.

He had brought her body against his length as
he would a long pillow. She did not protest nor did she try to slip
from beneath his arm and leg.

She could have.

With the cold breeze blowing through the
room, she had need of his heated flesh.

Or so she told herself.

o0o

Raik wriggled his nose then batted his hand
at whatever tickled him there. Too late, he realized where he was.
He was not alone, for his fingers were entangled in a woman's hair.
He stilled, hoping he had not awakened her. A slight ache in the
head reminded him he'd had more wine than usual the night
before.

'Twas his custom to rise early to greet the
awakening sun with a sword or mace in the practice field. Cormac,
knowing his habit, would likely meet him there. Sir William, if he
was not an early riser, would soon learn to be. It was with him who
Raik intended to loosen his muscles this beginning day.

He slipped his arm from around the supple
flesh he'd been clutching. His cock stirred, reluctant to part from
the warm buttocks it rested against, but he did not want to tarry.
Ranald would arrive by the noon hour. He planned to discuss his
plans for the castle's protection with his cousin to be sure they
were sound. When Ranald returned to Hunter Castle, so would the men
he had sent to protect Seton until Raik arrived.

The shock of his feet touching the cold floor
pushed the last dregs of sleep away, clearing his mind. Needing
more suitable clothing than the finery he had worn the day afore,
he padded over to ease open the solar door. Much to his surprise,
Leofwan and Edulf were already within. The one-armed advisor
watched as Edulf busily warmed clothing draped over a wooden rack
standing close to the peat fire.

"Good morrow, Baron." Edulf looked up, his
face tense. "I did not know if I was to serve you or if you'd be
wanting another squire?"

"I dinna wish another squire. If ye serve me
as loyally as ye served Baron de Burgh, we will do nicely." Tension
eased from the young man's face.

"Will you need normal attire for the practice
field? I heard you would be meeting Sirs William and Cormac this
morn." He looked questioningly at Raik.

"Aye. Over a fortnight at the royal court has
left me stiff. I need to swing a sword."

"I thought as much. I have cleaned your chain
mail and," he stopped to cover an embarrassed cough, "uh, removed
the arrows and repaired your shield. The stable boys have checked
your saddle and harness, and the armorer has honed your battle
sword. Do you wish help donning your clothing?"

"Nay. I dinna require aid."

The young man had done a fine job of
selecting clothing for him. The brown breeches and tan sleeveless
tunic would do for a start. He would strip to a plaid for practice.
His movements were sure and swift as he dressed.