by Maya Banks
His instinct was to roll back atop her and plunge as deeply into her welcoming body as he could. He wanted to remain inside her, simply feeling her around his cock. He would be content to spend the entire night surrounded by her warmth.
She stirred restlessly beside him, as if she, too, couldn’t wait for him to possess her again. He ran a hand up her leg to her shapely hip and then up her side with a gentle caress until he reached the swell of her breast. There he cupped the soft mound and rubbed his thumb across her puckered crest until it hardened into a point. Then he angled his head down and drew the nipple into his mouth, sucking until she let out a moan and arched farther into him.
Pushing himself farther up so he was above her, he reached down, sliding his hand between her thighs, satisfied to find her hot and damp with desire.
He rubbed over the tiny nub hidden in her woman’s flesh, eliciting another sigh of satisfaction from her. Then he pushed her gently onto her back so he had full access to her body, her breasts, everything he wanted to kiss and touch and caress.
He loved the contrast of the pale, plump mounds and the pink-tipped nipples. He could spend hours feasting on them, licking and sucking until he drove them both mad with lust.
Feeling particularly devilish, he licked over one and then followed it with little nips, his teeth grazing the points until they were hard and puckered. Then he licked the other, rubbing his tongue over and around, circling until she was writhing beneath him.
Then he pulled away, staring intently into her beautiful eyes. “Ah, lass, how you tempt me. I cannot spend another moment outside your sweetness.”
He slid his fingers into her opening, wanting to ensure that she was prepared for him. They met with no resistance. She opened easily for him and then fit his fingers snugly as he moved them deeper.
It was enough to send him right over the edge.
He rotated his body over her, moving her thighs apart with his knee. Then he grasped his erection and worked it up and down, bathing himself in her moisture. Finally he positioned himself at her opening and pushed forward, entering her just enough that she fit snugly around the head of his cock.
She closed her eyes and her hands flew to his shoulders, her nails digging into his flesh. He pushed farther, gaining another inch. She trembled and then lifted her hips in silent plea for more.
He was more than happy to accommodate her. He surged forward, burying himself to the hilt. She cried out and he went completely still until he realized it wasn’t a cry of pain but one of pleasure.
It was the most intense sensation he’d ever experienced. Never had he realized what it would feel like to be with the right woman. One he wasn’t with for a quick rut and an even quicker release. This was right. So very right, and he knew he’d never feel such again. There would never be another woman for him.
She was his. His wife.
He loved her.
The realization was startling and it overwhelmed him.
Love.
He loved Eveline Armstrong. How could it have happened so quickly? How could he love a woman whose clan had caused his family such grief? Logically he knew—and he’d already made it clear—that she could not be held accountable for the sins of her clan. He even knew that he felt a certain tenderness for her, and aye, a fierce protectiveness.
But love.
’Twas an extraordinary realization and one he hadn’t been prepared for. It was like being hit by a mace.
“Graeme?”
Eveline’s whisper reached his ears, and he realized he’d gone still and was hovering above her as he processed the magnitude of this moment.
“ ’Tis all right,” he said, his voice breaking. And it was. Everything was perfect.
He was holding in his arms the woman meant for him. Nothing would ever feel this right if he lived to be a hundred.
He looked down at her, wanting to savor this moment, to commit to memory the moment he realized just how much Eveline Armstrong meant to him.
A tiny slip of a lass who’d snuck between his defenses. It was baffling even as it was satisfying.
He began to thrust again, this time with slow and measured movements meant to prolong their pleasure. He was besieged by tenderness, by the need to hold her and cherish her. How was he possibly to explain to her what she meant to him? How could he even find the words?
Aye, but he could show her. He could show her what he didn’t yet have the words to describe. He might not be able to tell her what was in his heart, but he would show her in actions and deeds.
Gathering her in his arms, he slid into her deep and then retreated only to push back inside her.
Never had he felt so vulnerable, so completely unprotected, and yet it wasn’t the terrible thing he would have imagined. He found he didn’t mind trusting her with this softer side. Indeed, he wanted her to have it.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Her lips whispered over his jaw and then to his ear where she kissed and nibbled at the lobe, playful and yet sinfully sweet.
Her actions were unpracticed and yet he found it endearing that she sought to show him her affection and perhaps her love. He could only hope, for it was the worst sort of hell to imagine that she wouldn’t return his feelings. She simply had to love him. He could entertain no alternative.
Closing his eyes, he buried his face in her hair, letting her surround him, hold him. He didn’t trust this sudden overwhelming emotion. It was overpowering. Beyond simple lust. Beyond the pleasure of a beautiful woman’s body. His heart was captured and it was a helpless, wondrous feeling.
“I love you,” he whispered into her hair, knowing she wouldn’t hear, but wanting to test the words on his lips. “I love you,” he said again when he realized how easily they came.
He covered her completely, but it was she who held him in her tiny hands. She who possessed him, not the other way around.
His release was powerful, so much more intense than ever before. It came from a place much deeper inside him. His entire body drew up and he plunged deeper, harder until she tightened around him.
She went liquid around him, soft and satiny, and he thrust again, this time his satisfaction roaring through him like a storm. He held her so tightly, he feared he was hurting her and yet he couldn’t let go.
He wanted to be inside her so deeply that they could never be separated, so that when they were apart, she would remember this moment when they were inseparable.
When they were one.
He relaxed onto her body, his loins still quivering with the last vestiges of his release. He rested there a moment, savoring the feel of her flesh imprinted on his. After a moment, he shifted to the side, bearing her with him, their legs tangled, their bodies still connected in the most intimate way possible.
She murmured something against his neck, but the roaring in his ears had yet to subside enough that he could make out what she said. He stroked her hair, down her back to cup her buttocks, holding her tightly against him so their link would not be severed.
It was a few moments later that he realized she was sound asleep, her head nestled underneath his chin, her mouth resting over his heartbeat. He smiled, more content than he’d ever been in his existence.
Her hand rested on her side and he reached to twine their fingers, fully intending to pull her arm over his side. When he touched her palm, he frowned and then lifted his head as he held up her hand in the dim light of the glowing candles.
Her palm and even the pads of her hand and fingers were ravaged. They were red, and there were still traces of dried blood where the skin had been broken. He turned it so he could better see and then swore when he saw the evidence of broken blisters.
Anger boiled through his veins, replacing his earlier contentment with rage. No more would he tolerate this, no matter Rorie’s arguments. Eveline would come to no harm, his clan be damned. If they could not see the treasure that had been bestowed on their clan, then they were all fools and he would suffer no fools.
No longer.
This matter would come to an end the very next day.
CHAPTER 32
Eveline woke with a start and for a moment was so disoriented, she couldn’t gain her bearings. Then she smiled because she was snuggled tightly against her husband and his arm was thrown possessively over her body.
She closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. After the few days she’d had, she’d desperately needed what he’d given her the night before. Tenderness. Loving. His actions had shown her more than words ever could, that he valued her. That she meant something more than a wife he was forced into marriage with.
Perhaps one day … She sighed wistfully. Perhaps one day she would even gain his love. Oh to be able to hear those words. Really hear them. The idea sent an ache straight to her heart that nearly overpowered her.
She hadn’t spent a lot of time dwelling on the fact that she’d lost her hearing. In the beginning, she’d done plenty of moping and had even wondered if it was God’s punishment for her sins. But as time had gone on, she’d accepted that she’d never hear again. She’d never be normal and she’d never hear the things she’d taken for granted before. Music. Her mother’s voice. Her brothers’ teasing. And the rumble of her father’s voice, full of patience for his free-spirited daughter.
But now she’d give anything to be able to hear words of love from her husband. If not love, affection. She wanted to be able to hear the things she saw in his eyes and felt when he touched her.
He might never grow to truly love her as her father loved her mother, but perhaps that kind of love didn’t exist freely. She knew from hearing earlier accounts from her mother, that it hadn’t always been so between her and Eveline’s father. Theirs had been an arranged marriage, as so many were, and at first, neither had any liking for the suit.
But over time, they’d grown to love each other as fiercely as two people can love, and Eveline had grown up the beneficiary of that love and devotion. She wanted it for herself. She wanted it with a ferocity that she couldn’t even articulate. It was why she’d been so adamant that she’d never marry Ian McHugh, because she’d known without a doubt that he was not a man who’d ever treat her well, much less regard her with any love or affection.
It was her mother’s story of growing to love her father and his eventual love for her that gave Eveline hope that she too might find a love like theirs with her Montgomery warrior.
Fanciful, aye, she was that, but she’d set her mind to gaining acceptance from his clan. From him. And she wouldn’t rest until she had it. If it took cleaning the keep from top to bottom and tearing her hands until they were rough and callused, then she’d do it without regret.
It was that determination that drove her early from her warm bed next to her husband when she’d love nothing more than to wake him in a way he’d remember for days to come.
She rose, shivering, quickly dressed, and then set the fire to blazing so Graeme would awaken in comfort. Then she went below stairs, prepared for another day of torment.
She wondered what today’s tasks would bring. Maybe Nora would have her cleaning chamber pots. She shuddered at the thought, but didn’t think it was out of the realm of possibility.
Nora looked surprised to see her and didn’t quite cover her reaction. Eveline could swear she saw guilt in the older woman’s eyes, but quickly set aside that ridiculous notion. Nora was a tough taskmaster and Eveline doubted she ever felt sorry for any of the women under her supervision.
“Good morn,” Eveline sang out, determined to be cheerful despite the urge to run as fast as she could back up the stairs and dive underneath the warm blankets.
Nora sent her a disgruntled look and then motioned her over to where she stood with Mary and two other younger women Eveline didn’t know by name.
“You can help finish up the preparations for the morning meal,” Nora said. “ ’Tis simple enough fare. Oatcakes and bread with a bit of porridge for those who want it.”
Eveline sighed in relief. It did sound simple enough, and it shouldn’t be a threat to her aching hands.
After receiving instruction from Mary on how to fashion the oatcakes, she dove into the duty, determined not to show any reluctance whatsoever. She quickly discovered that preparing enough food for a hungry horde of warriors wasn’t a simple matter at all.
Her attempts weren’t as well shaped as Mary’s had been, but they should suffice and it would taste the same. She couldn’t imagine anyone quibbling over the appearance of something as unappetizing as an oatcake.
When she looked up after finishing as many as she had mixture for, she discovered that the kitchen was empty and that the women had disappeared.
Frowning over that oddity, she wiped her hands on her skirts and glanced around to be certain she hadn’t missed anything she was supposed to have prepared for the breaking of fast.
A moment later, Nora and Mary reappeared and hurried over to begin piling the oatcakes on serving trays while one of the other women took care of the bread.
Nora frowned over the misshapen oatcakes and then cast Eveline an impatient look. It was a look that said, “You’re hopeless.”
Disheartened, Eveline’s shoulders sagged, but then she quickly squared them and held her hands out for one of the serving trays.
Mary readily handed over her tray and then shooed Eveline in the direction of the hall.
Suddenly nervous, Eveline hesitated at the doorway and peered into the hall. It was only half full, but the men were filtering in at a steady rate. Graeme and his brothers had yet to make an appearance, so Eveline started toward the first table to serve the warriors already seated.
She was greeted by looks of surprise and more than a few raised eyebrows. A few even scowled in the direction of the kitchen. Eveline had no idea what to make of that. Perhaps they preferred to be served by women of their own clan. Montgomery women. It only made her all the more determined to be the one to serve each and every one of them.
She was through the first table and was heading to the one opposite when all activity ceased. Several men at the table she was facing looked nervously behind her. One even dropped his goblet, spilling ale all over the table. Eveline winced, sure she’d somehow be blamed for the mishap.
She turned to see what all the fuss was about and met the gaze of her husband, and he looked furious. He stalked in her direction with such a black look that she hastily took two steps back, bumping into one of the seated warriors behind her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She was sure he roared the question because the vibrations were strong in her ears.
Without waiting an answer, he yanked the tray from her hands, shoved it into the hands of a nearby serving woman and then took Eveline’s arm to herd her toward the table where he always sat.
He sat her down and then immediately took her hands in his, turning them over so the blisters and raw skin on her palms were readily visible.
He waited until she lifted her gaze to him, and then he said so clearly that she couldn’t possibly misinterpret his words, “Who did this to you?”
Her brow furrowed. “No one did this to me.”
Graeme glanced up, and Eveline saw he was looking at Bowen and Teague, who’d arrived at the table. They must have asked him what was amiss because he held up her hands so they were visible to all, and his lips curled into a snarl.
“This is what is amiss. Look at her hands. Look at what they’ve done.”
“But, Graeme, no one did this to me,” she protested. “I scraped them when I was bringing wood into the hall yesterday morning and the blisters are from the washing and cleaning.”
Bowen took the seat directly in front of her, his frown as fierce as Graeme’s. She glanced nervously to where Teague had taken a seat next to Bowen. He didn’t look pleased either. His mouth was set into a firm line.
“I don’t understand,” she said in bewilderment. She turned to Graeme. “Have I offended you in some way?”
Bowen’s han
d came down on the table, jerking her attention back to him. “What on earth were you doing trying to carry those logs in? Not even the lads can hoist those pieces of wood. ’Tis why we have one of the men do it, so none of the women incur injury trying to start the fires in the mornings.”
Eveline’s cheeks heated as realization struck her. The other women had well known that one of the men had the duty of carrying in the wood. Why then would they have wanted her to attempt it?
Her lips trembled, but she was determined that no one see her upset. She wouldn’t give the women the satisfaction of knowing they’d made her feel foolish even for a moment.
Now she wondered just what else Nora had fabricated when she’d instructed Eveline on her duties. For the last couple of days, Eveline had worked harder than she’d ever worked in her life. She’d performed tasks that surely had to belong to the lowliest member of the clan. And yet she hadn’t complained. She hadn’t balked.
How they must have laughed behind her back as they watched her struggle to perform every single job that had been assigned to her. All that talk of leading by example. Eveline felt like the simpleton she’d been accused of being for so long.
She glanced down at her sore and torn hands and slipped the cuffs of her sleeves even farther over her palms.
Graeme touched her arm, but she refused to look up at him. She didn’t want him to see the shame and humiliation in her eyes nor did she want to give in to the tears that threatened. Instead she stared down at the ill-formed oatcake in front of her and was tempted to hurl it across the room.
The table shook, and she glanced up in time to see Graeme stalk away from the table. Those hated tears she fought so hard shimmered in her vision. How she hated them all right now. Everything had been so perfect between her and Graeme and now he was angry and she was miserable and so humiliated, she wanted to die from it.
She’d been a trusting idiot, so eager to please, so determined to win a place in the hearts of her new clan when such a thing was never going to be possible.
Bowen reached over the table to lay his hand on hers, and she turned her gaze to him, battling tears with everything she had inside her. Damned if she’d let them know how much they’d hurt her. Damn them all.