Conquering the Dark Axe (5 page)

Rourke ended the hungry kiss again and she had to
bite back a shocked groan of dismay.

“If I untie your legs, you will behave.” 

It was a command, not a request.  She must have
nodded in her haze of euphoria for within seconds he had bent and freed her
legs.  The numbness forgotten, Alexa moved them to ease the ache that was
growing between her thighs.  But no, that did not appease it and only
seemed to make matters worse and the sensation spread to her center, pooling
and meshing with the hungry wave of delight forming there. 

And what he did next did not help.  He had that
hot mouth of his now on her ear, licking a trail of hot open kisses in a path
down her throat to end right above the rise of her breasts.   Alexa
did not know she stopped breathing.  She stiffened and fought to remain
still. 

The moment his hot mouth covered her hardened peak,
Alexa knew she’d lost and arched her back up from the bed with the deep moan
exploding from between her lips she could no longer hold back.  . 

Rourke groaned and laved both breasts to a
heightened frenzy of pleasure and she felt moisture flood her center.  A
throaty keening cry reached her ears and Alexa realized that the sound came
from her.  She should have been angry.  She had wanted to be
angry.  She had tried to reach deep down inside to hold onto it, the hate,
but the elusive monster escaped her and moved further and further away as the
pleasurable vibrations his tongue was inflicting upon her flesh overrode
it.  Damn, she welcomed it.   Her body could betray her, but her
heart and soul would never and so she held on.  The betrayer that it was
melted more and more under his masterful touch. Her body was working against
her and she said between clenched teeth.  “Hurry and be done with it,
Norman.”  The huskiness in her voice shocked her.

Rourke lifted his mouth and she sighed with dismay
once again.  He kissed her mouth quickly.  “In good time,
hellion.  In good time.”  He went back to torturing her aching
breasts. 

She gasped.  “Bastard.”

He stiffened for a beat, and then chuckled against
her ribs as he continued a fiery path of blazing kisses down to her
navel.  Her body was near quivering out of control. 

Gasping aloud now, Alexa was embarrassed by the
sounds that were coming from her throat.  She felt a moment of fear. 
What was he doing?  Oh, she wished he would stop this torturous game and
do his duty and leave her be.  What he was doing was painful, but a good
pain and very long.  Camm had been wrong, the pain was not brief. 
She tried to throw him off and twisted this way and that now that her legs were
free. 

Rourke grasped her curved hips and held her still,
inhaling her musky scent before lowering his head to slide his tongue between
her softness to find her root of pleasure.

The flaming fires he’d stoked within her burst and
chords of desire rippled through her and Alexa’s hips rose fully off the bed
against his mouth, her thighs, wrapping around his shoulders on their own
accord.  Horrified, she wanted to pull away but his hands held her in
place as he settled her legs over his shoulders and made passionate love to her
with his mouth. 

Alexa could not stop the throaty groans that spewed
from her mouth and she no longer cared.  Fire engulfed her and she heard
herself screaming.  

Something big was gathering inside her and he was
the key to open the door to this new and frightening discovery.   She
knew not what it was, but she sought it still and the intensity of it was
unbearable to the point that she shut her eyes tight.  She was panting
heavily between her short screams. She could not stop herself and ground her
hips against his hot mouth all the while cursing herself as she begged for
something she did not understand. 

“Please.  Pl-Please end it!  Damn
you!  Please- Oh! Just end- Oh lord, end it.  Oh my-
ahhhh!”   Her hoarse cry of pleasure filled the chamber as she came
apart, her body shuddering with her intense fulfillment.  She twisted and
jerked her passion against his hungry mouth.  She was out of breath and
limp when he finally lowered her hips back to the bed and moved over her to
cover her body with his.  He began to prod her sensitive area, seeking
entrance, with that large and hard organ of his.

Rourke almost exploded when she had found her
release against his mouth.  She was so hot.  He had never experienced
such raw passion before like hers.  She had tried to fight it, but that
had only made it more explosive for her. He had to have her and now.  He
slid into her only a little and he went easily, her honeyed cream easing the
way.  She was still limp, glorifying in her pleasure.  Her tiny
tremors coaxed him forward, deeper and Rourke knew a moment of unexpected and
surprising regret as he slid into her. 

She was not virgin after all. 

Alexa felt him pushing into her and she hated him
all the more for making her want this.  Want him.   His hardness
was stretching her.   She felt the ache along with that pleasure
building and surfacing anew inside her.  But suddenly something pierced
her sharply. Pain tore through her center, burning her and seemed to tear her
asunder. Alexa cried out. 

Rourke looked down at her in surprise, meeting her
gaze of pain and shock.  He saw that her amber eyes were wet bright with
tears. 

She tightened her body and tried to close her
legs and throw his large body off again, but the pressure from his
thighs halted that.  
She raged at him and cried out.  “St-stop! Please –stop.” 

Rourke hated tears and was surprised as tough as she
had been, that she was capable of shedding them.  He reached down to cup
her face, holding himself still above her; his shaft pulsed and grew even more
inside her.  He couldn’t stop now even if he wanted to.  She was so tight
and he had to have her. 

His voice was low and husky.  “I cannot. 
It must be done. The pain will cease.” 

Her eyes told him she did not believe him and she
shook her head in protest.  Rourke shook above her with restraint and the
unchecked desire like he’d never known coursing through him.  He’d never
wanted anything as badly as he wanted this woman. He wanted all of her and when
he had come against her barrier, he wanted her all the more. 

He knew what he had to do and he leaned down,
covered her mouth with his and shoved his tongue in her mouth catching her cry
of pain as he surged forth and buried himself inside her to the hilt.  She
quivered and shook beneath him even as he kissed her.  He pulled out and
she tried to throw him off once more.  But he thrust again, achingly slow
and deep over and over again until he felt her soften against him. 
Finally, her hot sheath clutched him, accepted him and he broke the kiss.

“It will be over soon enough.  It is
done.”  Rourke said with a bit of gentleness in his tone and continued to
kiss her tears away.  He had not lied, but wished he had.  It was
going to be over too damn soon.  

Alexa was amazed at how her body accepted him. 
He filled her.  She didn’t know how or why, but something in her
changed.  Different towards this man as he plunged in and out of her body
with his hard and thick sword of pleasure and took her close to the edge of
that blissful place  yet again, teasing her, the abyss just out of her
reach.  He’d awakened something animal inside her that she craved as much
as she was frightened of it.

She found that she welcomed each movement and soon
met each of his thrusts with her own until she was nigh delirious with the
sensations coursing through her. She grinded harder against him, frantic and
seeking more as the pleasure ascended on a crescendo that made her skin scream
for release again.

Rourke could hold back no longer and he felt the
tremors in her as she pushed back against him.  He knew he would take
longer the next time, but right now, his seed boiled inside him and he thrust
in and out of her with a few quick thrusts before he began to shake to his very
core as his seed erupted from him along with his roar of shocked pleasure.

Alexa cried out her own pleasure into his neck as
the long climax hit her, triggered by the spurt of his release into her
sheath.  Her lips pressed to his throat over the red mark, where she had
cut him.  She convulsed strongly around his hardness and reveled in the
feelings tearing her apart.  Rourke lay on top of her spent, totally
exhausted. 

When he was able to breathe yet again, he withdrew
from her and lay next to her side.  Alexa lay there overwrought. 
What they had shared had been beautiful as much as it had been brutal and
hateful. Fresh angry tears poured nonstop from her eyes into her hair.

Neither of them spoke a word, both overcome with
different emotions. 

What Rourke did next he knew not why at the time, he
would ask himself later, but he reached a muscled arm up to untie first one
hand, then the other and as though they had not been tied, the hellion let out
a deep anguished cry and rolled over against his chest with her hands balled
into fists pressed between them.   There, she wept quietly.  The
racking sobs shook her body and Rourke held her, saying nothing.  Soon,
her sobs quieted.  When she relaxed against him, he knew that she
slept.  Rourke stayed awake for a short time after and before sleep
claimed him, he put his legs over hers in a protective gesture and pulled her
tighter against him. 

~~~

The figure cloaked in a hooded dark robe moved
through the darkness across the cold stone kitchen floor until it stood in
front of the wine barrels stacked in the corner buttery room. The figure’s
interest lay in what was behind the flasks lined on top of the table.  It
was the lord’s ewer. After glancing about once again to assure no one was about
at this late hour, the figure smiled and reached into a hidden pocket of its
tunic and withdrew a vial of liquid. 

FOUR

The chill of the morning draft crawling up her spine
woke Alexa from her deep sleep slightly dazed.  After a few moments, she
gathered her bearings and a multitude of emotions hit her.  It took but a
second for the night before to come rushing back to her with vivid
images.  Her eyes shot quickly to where she expected to see Rourke. 
The Norman was gone.  The flush covered her from head to toe and she
kicked off the furs across her lower body.  Her eyes fell on the rope and
she rubbed her wrists. She rose and moaned suddenly at the soreness that
protested her sudden movement and taking a breath she moved slower and
stood.    She was still naked and rubbed her hand over her
belly.  Grabbing a fur, she wrapped it around her body and clutched it
together at her breast. 

She sucked in a breath when her eyes spied the
droplets of blood on the bed linen.  Her blood.  He’d taken her only
once last night.  Once was all it took sometimes, Camm had said and
he had spilled his seed.  Sudden regret snaked up the back of Alexa’s
neck and she felt the flush warm her cheeks.  He had been part of her body
and she could not deny it, it had felt good.  Hell and damn, too
good.  That craving she felt last night stirred inside her as did renewed
hatred and anger for it.

Alexa was drawn from her turbulent musings by a
knock at the chamber door.  She bid enter.  In came Camm, fresh linen
draped over one arm and in the other a tray to break her fast of bread, sweet
meats and her favorite, sweet wafers.

Camm smiled.  “Noon, mistress.” 

Alexa wrapped the fur around her nakedness more
snuggly, her eyes wide and gasped.  “Noon?  Surely, Camm, ‘tis not
so.”

Camm, having laid the items in her hands down, was
now stripping the linens from the bed quickly after spotting the proof of the
night on them.  Alexa reddened even more.  Although she viewed her
maid as more than a servant, despite their closeness Alexa found that she was
embarrassed. This was different.

“Aye, mistress, ‘tis so. ‘Twould seem you survived
the night. Appears it may have been quite taxing on you as well.”  Camm
covered her mouth at her words.  She reached out and touched Alexa’s
forearm.  “Forgive me, mistress.” 

Alexa gave her hand a comforting pat, her
embarrassment dissolving.  What had she been thinking? Camm had been like
another sibling to her and Lisbeth and Alexa still saw her that way. 
“’Tis alright, Camm.  You did nothing wrong.  You do tell the
truth.  It was not what I had expected.”

Camm noticed the puffiness around her mistress’s
eyes and concern marred her features.  She had feared the worst and the
sight of her mistress’s face told her she had been right.  The Normans
were well known for their savagery.  After all he had tied her down.  
“He didn’t hurt you much, did he, mistress?”  Camm’s voice was full of
concern.

Alexa shook her head.  “Nay, Camm. It did hurt
briefly as you said it would, but that was all.  It also felt...” she
stopped herself from saying good. Wiping back wisps of hair from her face, she
gave her maid a tight smile. “I am fine. Thank you for asking, Camm.” 

Camm’s expression was one of suspicion, but she did
not press her for more and Alexa was glad when two of the other maids,
including the redhead appeared in the doorway with the two guards behind them.
Two male servants also entered carrying buckets of steaming water.  They
went over to the wooden tub and poured the water in over the linen covered
tub.  Another pair of new faces.  They weren’t her servants.  Alexa
frowned.  Was the Norman going to replace her entire household? 
Again she wondered at the number of people that had accompanied him here to
take over her life and home.