The Border Lord and the Lady (43 page)

“I am directed to wed you,” Cicely replied slowly, debating how much to tell him.

“And?”
The blue eyes bored into her.

“Jo . . . the queen has convinced the king to restore my entire dower,” Cicely said. “Ian and I were going to split it, for he said he didn’t need it all.”

“Ian loved you unconditionally,” Kier replied. “I do not even know if I like you. Your dower is mine as your husband.”

“The house needs to be enlarged,” Cicely said. “I meant to use my half to do so. The bedchambers are small. We need a large master’s apartment, and below it a library.”

“The house is big enough,” he responded stubbornly.

“If we are to have these heirs that are expected of us, we need a larger bedchamber to share. Neither your chamber nor mine is big enough to contain a bed suitable for two people,” Cicely told him. “Of course, we could just couple in the stable!”

“An intriguing idea, madam,” he said as he reached out and pulled her close. “I should enjoy putting you on your back in a darkened stall.” A single finger moved slowly across her lips. “Would you enjoy being taken on a pile of sweet-smelling hay, Cicely?” The blue eyes locked onto her own blue-green eyes. “Tell me what you want, for I am said to be proficient in the amatory arts.”

For the life of her Cicely could not break his gaze or look away. Ian had never spoken to her like this. Nor had she felt such an intense aura of masculinity from him as she did from Kier. Ian had simply loved her. Now, faced with this cold, fierce man, Cicely was not quite certain what to do. He made the decision for them.

One hand reached up to cup her head. Then his mouth came down on hers hard. His lips demanded everything from her, forcing her lips to part, his tongue driving between those soft lips to do battle with her tongue. At first Cicely attempted to elude that ravaging tongue, but at last, unable to, she let him stroke her tongue with his. Heat suffused her whole body, and she actually felt dizzy. Finally she managed to pull her head away from his.
“Please,”
she managed to grind out.
“Please!”

He nibbled at her lip and her face. “Please what?” He groaned.
Christ’s wounds!
His cock was hard and his balls hurt with his need for a woman. He either had to let her go now, or put her on her back. “We’re going to be wed June first,” he said, “and if you are carrying my bairn then, so much the better, Cicely.” He began to unlace her gown.

Shocked by his words, she didn’t actually divine his intent until a moment later, when he yanked her gown down.
“No!”
she said as he lifted her from the pile of green fabric that now lay on the floor about her ankles. “We are not yet wed, my lord!”
Blessed Mother!
The bulge in his breeks was . . . was formidable. Ian’s cock had been large, but this was certainly larger. Did manhoods come in different sizes?

“Aye!”
he growled at her, and, turning, twisted the key in the lock of the chamber door. “The king says we must wed. The queen says we must wed. Yet you demur and consider the ways you may escape this obligation. I intend to be in your bed every night from now on, Cicely. And on the first day of the new month we will marry.”

“Why now?” she demanded of him, trying to edge away, but to where?

“Because kissing you has filled me with lustful thoughts,” he said wickedly. “And I mean to act on those thoughts. I might seek out one of our pretty serving girls, or some willing lass in the village, but I will not. You are to be my wife, and you shall be the only woman I couple with from this moment on. Now take off your chemise or I will rip it from you. Have you so many that you can afford to have one destroyed?” He began pulling his own garments off of his tall, lean body, and when he was naked he turned to face her once again.

“You have not removed your chemise,” he said in a low, dark tone.

“Get out of my chamber!” Cicely cried, her eyes going everywhere in the room but to him.
“Get out!”
She attempted to edge away from him.

Reaching out, Kier Douglas’s big hand fastened itself in the round neck of her chemise and ripped. “If you wish, madam, I’ll have Father
Ambrose marry us on the morrow, for I am certain he has the marriage contract all drawn up and ready.” He flung the two halves of the destroyed garment from him.

Cicely shrieked, her hand frantically reaching for something, anything, to throw at him. But there was absolutely nothing.

He backed her into a corner, reaching out to draw her into his arms. Their naked bodies touched. He smiled wolfishly at her gasp, taking her face between his two hands, looking down into her eyes. Her round breasts were soft against his smooth chest. Her belly and her firm thighs pressed against him. His cock pushed back against her. “In time,” he told her, kissing her mouth softly, “we may actually come to like each other, Cicely. For now, however, we have a duty, and we will do that duty.”

“You are vile!” she spat at him. “Ian treated me with kindness.”

“My cousin loved you. To him you were a prize worth having,” Kier told her. “But you and I have been matched by cruel circumstance, Cicely. We have been raised to do what must be done, and so we shall do it. Stop quarreling with me, and I will make love to you. Have you not missed a lover’s touch?”

She hid her face in his shoulder, and he felt her tears on his skin. “I never thought to know another,” she said to him.

“I expect you did not,” he replied. “But these are the borders, and women are widowed more times than not here. That is why it is so important that we produce a son for Glengorm. These are Douglas lands, and must remain so.”

“Then I am nothing more than breeding stock to the Douglases,” Cicely said bitterly. She looked up at him now with bleak eyes.

“For now, aye, you are,” Kier told her candidly. “But that could change one day.” He stroked her face with the back of his knuckles.

“Is your speech always so direct?” she asked him softly.

“Always,” he replied. “I will never lie to you, Cicely.” He tipped her face up and kissed her mouth softly, and as her lips parted willingly this time for him, he found her tongue again and stroked it
slowly, sensuously, until he felt her begin to relax against him. He released her mouth and, taking her by the hand, led her to the bed.

Had she lost what few wits she had remaining? Cicely asked herself. He was a vile, wicked man! But he was also to be her husband, and the truth was, she found to her confusion that he excited her. It had been months since she had been made love to, for Ian had not wanted to touch her once he knew she was with child. Oh, she had coaxed him now and again, but he had been so fearful of harming her or the child.

The cousins were similar in physical form. Both Ian and Kier were very tall. Ian had been bigger boned. Kier was slender, but well made, and a quick glance at his male part told Cicely that his was longer and, she suspected, would be thicker than her husband’s manhood had been. She attempted to put her thoughts from her, but then Kier was pulling her close again, their bodies were touching, their mouths were fused in a kiss that grew deeper and more intense as the seconds slid by.

They fell together upon the bed. Propping himself up against her pillows, Kier pulled Cicely up between his outstretched legs. His hands reached around to fasten upon her breasts as he kissed her creamy shoulder.

Cicely jumped. The touch was so intimate. Ian’s touch had never felt so suggestive, so sensual. She distinctly felt the rounds of her breasts resting upon his hot palms. He fondled the warm flesh, and she shivered. The balls of his thumbs stroked her nipples, and a small whimper escaped Cicely.

Behind her Kier smiled. He was hot to have her, but he fully intended taking his time with her. She was still angry. Still resisting. But within a short time she would lie beneath him, and while afterwards she would convince herself he had forced her, she would yield herself willingly if he did not rush her. They would be bound until death. He hoped that eventually they would be friends.

Cicely remained silent. He had entrapped her. Was forcing her to
his will. But what choice did she have? She wondered if her father had known in the end that the choice would not be hers at all. He gently pinched her nipples, and another whimper escaped her as the sensation raced between her breasts and to the hidden place between her thighs. She was like a young mare being brought to the bridle, Cicely thought.

Kier shifted himself so he might lay her down. He began to kiss her fair body. What was the seductive fragrance that enveloped her? It intoxicated his senses, and a groan escaped him. His mouth closed over each breast in its turn, sucking upon the tender nipples, nibbling them, licking them. He tasted breast milk briefly before quickly moving away. She had not yet obtained a wet nurse for Johanna, and he would not rob the child of her nourishment.

Cicely felt herself beginning to tremble just a little. He was kissing every inch of her body. Ian had never done such a thing. He turned her this way and that, his lips brushing over her skin. And then he began to lick her. Cicely almost fainted then and there. The sweep of his tongue across her flesh sent chills up her spine, and hot flashes down the backbone. She squirmed to get away from the sensuousness of that tongue.

“You taste delicious,” he told her.

“I don’t think I want you to do this,” she protested faintly. “Ian never did this.”

“Then you can hardly compare us as lovers, Cicely,” he said. “Being older than my cousin I have had a bit more experience. Ian never left the borders. I have.” Reaching for her foot, he kissed it, and began to suck upon her toes.

She would have pulled away from him but that he held her calf tightly in one hand. Her head was spinning. She had never imagined such . . . such . . . “Ohh!”

He had relinquished her foot and was now licking up her legs. His hand pushed her thighs apart, and he licked the insides of the sensitive flesh. His fingers began to play with her folds, running up
and down her slit, pressing past it. The tip of one finger touched her love bud. She shuddered. He stroked it slowly, slowly, until Cicely was aching with a need she could not deny. He pushed a finger into her sheath, moving it about, and she moaned. “More?” he queried her, and added a second finger, the two digits imitating what his manhood would soon do. Her love juices were already beginning to flow, creamy and warm over his hand. He leaned forward and kissed her slowly.

The kiss deepened and grew more passionate as the minutes slipped by. Withdrawing his fingers, he sucked on them while she watched him with big eyes. He smiled into those eyes, and Cicely blushed at the knowing look he gave her. “You are ready to be fucked, aren’t you?” he whispered against her lips.

“Never!” she lied. “Never by you!”

He laughed softly, covering her body with his, positioning his hard cock at the entry to her love sheath. “There is much I am going to teach you, Cicely, for I can see my cousin did little to tutor you in the arts of love. But tonight I am simply going to fuck you and fuck you and fuck you until you admit your need for me, as I am willing to admit my need for you. And when you have spoken truthfully to me I will give you more pleasure than you have ever received. You are passionate, I suspect. And we will have that much in common on our wedding day: our lust for each other.”

And then, pinioning her arms above her head, he drove himself deep into her hot sheath, his eyes blazing as he carried out his threat. He was tireless in his desire, thrusting again and again and again into her heat. “Wrap your legs about me,” he growled into her ear after some minutes had passed. He pressed deeper into her. Still dissatisfied, he withdrew his steaming cock from her and pulled her legs over his shoulders before driving himself deep into her body. “Ahhh,” he groaned as he plunged deeper. “Ahh, Christ’s balls, yes!” But he would not take his release. Not yet.

Cicely’s head was spinning. His first entry after so many months of
her enforced abstinence was, though she hated to admit it, delicious. She had not realized how much she had missed this. When he ordered her to enfold him with her legs and pushed deeper she wanted to scream with delight. But when he forced her legs back and over his shoulders he drove himself deeper into her than she had ever known a man could. His cock was longer than Ian’s, and certainly thicker, but she seemed able to contain it.

Her head was spinning. Her nails clawed at his broad back in her passion. When he laughed she sank her teeth into his meaty shoulder, trying to keep from screaming. Then he touched something within her, and pleasure such as she had never known engulfed Cicely. She could not hold herself back. “Blessed Mother! You are surely the devil, Kier Douglas, and I want you!” And Cicely screamed softly as he brought her to a place she had never before been. “Damn you! Damn you!” she sobbed as he continued to piston her until she was overcome with a fiery gratification such as she had never before known. Then, as her love juices bathed his eager cock, Cicely fell into a swoon. But as she floated away she heard his roar of triumph, and felt his lust filling her.

When she awoke Cicely found herself alone. A bright fire burned in her hearth. She had been carefully tucked beneath the coverlet, and her two white terriers were sleeping in their usual spot by the fireplace. Had she had some wicked erotic dream? she wondered. Or had Kier Douglas forced her to his will? Aye, it was a dream! But she knew it wasn’t so. Her body ached with a delicious soreness that only a bout of fierce lovemaking could produce. Her thighs were sticky with their combined juices. And to her shame she had enjoyed every minute of their passionate encounter.

Well, why not? They would be wed. And if she did not love him, at least if she was expected to bear him a son she should enjoy his attentions. But she would make him wait longer before she would say her vows. That much control over her life would be hers. She would speak
to the priest. She knew now how she would revenge herself on Kier for the night past. Cicely turned over and fell into a satisfied sleep.