Authors: Elizabeth Boyce
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Historical
Time After Time (109 page)
From his boldness, she glanced lower and saw a rod between his legs. She jerked her head away, her face burning.
“Well, wife?”
Her mouth went dry. “No.” Last night her mother and Elva explained the marriage bed, but she imagined his implement a dagger, not this broad sword. He would surely kill her.
She hiked up her skirts and bounded to the door. But he chuckled, hauling her back by the waist.
“I promise I will not do anything unless you ask.” He carried her across the room.
She squirmed in his arms. His manhood pressed against the back of her thigh. He dumped her in the bed and then held her with his arm as he dove in after her.
He kissed her neck. Then he nibbled at her ear lobe until she offered her lips.
His lips touched hers and she opened her mouth. She eased her tongue out, ran the tip along his lip. He groaned and opened for her, their tongues blending together.
Heat coursed her between her legs. He stroked her hair, her arms.
She mumbled she was hot and so he removed her wedding gown. Embarrassed, she folded her arms across her chest. Only her leine covered her.
Bram kissed her again, making her forget her worries. His hand stroked her breast, teasing the nipple through the fabric. Pleasure flooded through her. His other hand lowered to her stomach and then at the junction of her legs. She gasped as moisture pooled there.
His fingers caressed her where no one else ever touched her and she clenched the bed sheets in her fists. He continued this torture despite her whimpering until her legs grew numb. “Take off your leine if you want more,” he whispered.
She jerked the leine, tearing the fabric. He leaned back, his fingers ceased their movement.
Had she done something wrong? She shivered with his body away from hers. She opened one eye watching him.
He stared at her, his breathing heavy. He saw her stare and smiled. “I wanted to see you.”
She tugged on the sheets.
“No. The sun will set within the hour. Let me see you in the light afore candles are lit. For we will not sleep tonight.”
He kissed her lips then traced a path down her neck. Wanting more, but not sure what, she raked her hands across his back. He kissed each breast in turn until the pink nipples perked.
His kisses lingered between her legs and she thought she would burst. Then he kissed her stomach, her breast, her neck, then her lips again.
This was madness. Her body pulsed with her want of him. What did he wait for?
“Now, please now.”
He used his hand and moved his member to the junction of her thighs. Her breath forced as he sheathed himself into her flesh. She cried out against his mouth.
“Shh. It hurts this first time, that’s all. But I promise I will bring us both pleasure.”
She wanted to punch him. Push his invasion away. If this is what the marriage bed entailed, she wanted nothing more to do with it. She opened her mouth to tell him so, when she saw his face.
Sweat beaded across his forehead the same as when Elva set his leg as she called it. His brow furrowed in concentration and his azure eyes darkened as he gazed at her with love, pain, and wonder. Somehow, this union caused him pain too?
“I love you.” The words flowed from her mouth.
“Kaireen,” he kissed the tip of her nose, “I love you too. As I also promised in our vows.”
Truly he loved her. Aye, she recognized the emotions in his eyes. He shifted, and pleasure mingled with pain raced through her. Where they merged, she throbbed.
Slowly, he eased from inside her, then back inside. She bit her lip, worried about the pain. But then her body rose to meet him. She kissed him, holding his golden hair in her fists.
Despite her protest, he kept the pace slow. The man wanted to drive her mad. Her muscles seized then released with her climax.
They lay together, each panting from their lovemaking.
“I love you, my stubborn bride, my sweet wife.” He took her in his arms.
She kissed his chin. “And I love you.” She paused. “Bram?” The room was dark and she could not see his face. “May we do it again?”
“Aye.” His laughter boomed through the room. “Many times tonight and the next day, and the next. And I have Elva’s promise our bathing on the morrow will be ready here with herbs to remove your tenderness.”
She crept from bed and then used her flint stone to light the candles. A dozen candles splayed across the shelves along her walls. She smiled, imagining their children to come.
They would have at least three. Two girls, and a son. Aye, a son whom she would name Lochlann for his father’s heritage. His ancestors would be McLochlann, son of Lochlann for generations. A sign that the word that she once thought appalling had now become her love and father of her children.
Embers burned in the hearth but she noticed kindling stuffed among the iron frame piled into ash. Logs were staked beside the hearth. She threw three logs onto the fire.
She shivered and crawled back into his waiting arms.
“Will we talk before slumber?” she asked. How long did he need to recover from their duty? She had overheard tales from the other servants…a man took hours to recover.
His fingertips brushed her lips, and then he followed with a kiss. “I want to see you by candlelight now.” His fingers stroked her neck, and then his lips traced their path. “And in the dark, and come the dawn at our keep, and come—”
“Enough talking.” Her fingers pressed against his mouth.
He smiled against her fingers and did her bidding.
About the Author
Andrea R. Cooper was born in Houston, Texas, and dreamed of being a writer since getting her first praise in grade school on her story about a piece of chalk. She has an Associate of The Arts Degree and has worked as a freelance writer. She lives outside of Houston with her best friend who is her husband, their three children, and lots of books.
More from This Author
Son of Dragons
by Andrea R. Cooper
How to Wed an Earl
Ivory Lei
Avon, Massachusetts
This edition published by
Crimson Romance
an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
10151 Carver Road, Suite 200
Blue Ash, Ohio 45242
Copyright © 2013 by Ivory Tamargo
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-7318-2
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-7318-7
eISBN 10: 1-4405-7317-4
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-7317-0
Cover art © istock/com/jcarroll-images, istock.com/illustrart, istock.com/GoodLifeStudio
Contents
Acknowledgments
To my husband, Tom, and my first reader, Laura — thank you. I am also grateful for the support of friends and family whom I’ve no doubt would love to be mentioned here. So, there.
Sincere gratitude goes out to the Crimson Romance team as well for their editing genius and for taking a chance on Penelope. Finally, a big shout out goes to the gentleman from Connemara and everyone who lived in early nineteenth-century Britain. This book would not have been possible without you.
Prologue
Maitland Hall
Colton, England, 1805
There was nowhere to hide. Penelope Maitland considered her options as her cousin, and world’s tallest nine-year-old, David, continued counting. The salon’s chairs had those annoying, thin legs, and so did the sideboard. Those were no good. The curtains were too sheer and the table … the
table!
She crawled under the table just as David finished counting, turned around and headed straight for her.
“You always hide in the most obvious places!” he complained, crouching to meet her eyes beneath the furniture. “How did you ever manage to get away from your nurse?”
“I have my ways.” Penelope took David’s proffered hand as she squeezed out from under the table. In truth, she never needed to hide from Nurse. The woman liked David more, and she was far too busy prettying herself up to notice Penelope slipping out of the schoolroom. She never needed to hide from anyone. David was the only one who ever sought her out, and he rarely visited.
Talking about Nurse seemed to conjure her up, because she burst into the salon, breathless, her big bosom heaving. “Master David! Thank goodness you found Miss Penelope. I’ve been looking everywhere for her.” She pressed David’s grinning face to her breast and glowered at Penelope. “The baron wants to see you.”
“Father’s home!” she jumped, earning another glare from Nurse. “Where is he? When did he arrive? How long has he been here? Did he receive my letter?”
Nurse smirked. “He’s in his study. He’s been here since dawn.”
But … it was nearly suppertime. He must have forgotten about her. Again.
Still
, she thought as Nurse led her into the study
, Father is home
.
And she’d missed him
.
That was all that mattered.
“There’s my little pet!” Father said, as he looked up from the papers laid out on his desk. He was dark and handsome, like a prince from a fairy tale. But he was grinning at Nurse, so perhaps the greeting wasn’t meant for Penelope.
“Father! Did you get my letter? Is that why you’re home?”
After dismissing Nurse with a nod, Father reluctantly turned his hazel eyes on her. “Yes, I received your letter.” He motioned for her to sit across from him and waited until she was comfortable. “You know, Penelope … ‘love’ has an ‘e’ at the end.”
“Oh.”
“That’s right, it also has an ‘o’ in the middle, not a ‘u.’”
He looked disappointed in her. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better, Father, if you teach me.”
She would not cry. She
wouldn’t
. Father didn’t like tears, from her or Mama.
Father cleared his throat and shuffled the papers on his desk. “Well, there is a way you can make up for your failings, and your mother thinks it’s time you are told. You might be a girl, but you can make a lot of money for us, Penelope.” He grinned, looking proud of himself. “You see, three years ago, I gave your hand away in marriage to a future earl.”
Marriage?
He was surely jesting. She was six! “Can I still live here?”
“You don’t have to move out for a while yet.” Father laughed. “Not until your future husband comes for you. You see, that saves us a London Season, and your future father-in-law is a very wealthy friend of mine. Your Uncle Hugh might have produced the heir, but it will be
you
who will make the family part of an earldom. It’s important to us, and that’s why I’m here. This is your duty, Penelope, and even my brother can’t complain about that.”
