The Conquest (13 page)

Uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken, Adelstan stood, and put the chair aside. “I have kept you too long. You must be tired.”

“Do not leave yet,” she said, the words desperate. “Please, Adelstan. I don’t want ye to go.”

She took a deep breath, her chest heaving as she awaited his answer.

All the blood in his body went straight to his cock.

“I do not wish to cause speculation by being with you in your chamber.”

“Why are ye always worried about what others will think of ye? Why do ye care so much?”

His heart slammed against his chest as she walked toward him. “What do you mean?”

She stopped before him, and looked up, deep into his eyes. “Ye asked me earlier if watching Elspeth and Antony had answered all my questions about making love, and I told ye no, that it hadn’t. Do ye know why that is?”

He shook his head, fearful of her next words.

“I want to know everything there is to know when it comes to making love. I want to make my lover happy, and please him in every way. Most women in my shoes know that a man comes to her bed, and lies with her, and that she may have a child. That is all she knows. But I know there is so much more, for I have seen it with my eyes, have watched it unfold and felt my body respond to what I was seeing.”

His cock bucked and he grit his teeth at the wicked images racing in his mind.

“I know that true pleasure can be experienced when a man slips his sex into a woman’s entrance,” she said, running her hand down her belly, to her mons.

He swallowed hard, tried not to look at where she touched herself, but failed miserably.

“I know how to take a man’s length inside my mouth and fondle his ballocks while I—”

“Rhiannon, enough,” he warned, cutting her off, trying to ignore the pulsing ache deep in his cock, and the intense fire that burned within his veins.

Her gaze shifted from his, down over his chest and belly, to the obvious ridge of his hard sex.

She reached out, touched him there with the same hand that had been on her sex just moments before. Her elegant fingers cupped his cock. He wanted to pull away. God help him he did, but his legs were like stone, much as his cock, and he couldn’t move to save his life.

“
This
is what I want. To feel the very essence of your manhood in my hand.” Her fingers molded around his thick length and he groaned low in his throat. “Can I feel ye, Adelstan?”

He opened his mouth to speak, and her hand moved to the cord of his braies. Warning bells rang in his head, and yet he ignored them as his braies loosened about his hips and her hand found him.

Her innocent touch was his undoing, and when she looked down at him, her violet eyes dark with desire, a wide smile on her full lips, all his willpower dissipated.

He lifted her in his arms and marched toward the bed, tossing her on the blankets that had already been turned down. She went up on her elbows, alarm on her face…until he reached behind his neck and pulled the tunic from his body.

* * *

Rhiannon could scarcely breathe. She had wanted this from the first moment she had set eyes on Adelstan.

His hair was mussed from pulling off his tunic, the locks falling past his broad shoulders in thick waves. He tossed the garment aside, and she stared at the wide expanse of chest, the flat, small nipples, the hard planes of his abdomen that bunched with each movement.

A familiar ache built within her, settling between her legs, making her hot and wet. She had never been so excited in all her life. She wanted this more than she’d ever wanted anything.

She scarcely blinked as he stripped off his braies, his cock jutting from his body, large and proud.

Then he was on the bed, crawling up, settling over her, his erection wedged between them. She had never experienced anything so wonderful, so beautiful, so special. Having every hard inch of his body pressed against hers sent jolts of pleasure throughout her.

His mouth covered hers, and she opened wide for him. For long minutes they just kissed, exploring each other’s mouths, tasting, touching, followed by a longer, deeper kiss that had her shifting beneath him, wanting to feel him inside her.

Her hands wandered from his shoulders, down over his strong back, to his narrow waist, and the high buttocks, which she squeezed tight. He smiled against her lips and she opened her eyes to find him staring at her, his long dark lashes casting shadows on his sharp cheekbones.

So beautiful, this English warrior.

She remembered the way Elspeth had moved against Antony, and she lifted her hips against Adelstan. He smiled again, and dipped his head to kiss her. She closed her eyes, too, and enjoyed the moment, just the feel of lips against lips, tongue against tongue, heart pounding against heart.

His hands moved down her side, grazing a breast, but not stopping there. He traced her ribs, her waist, her hip, before taking the same path up again, this time stopping at her breast. His large hand covered her there, and she released a sigh.

“Ye have no idea how long I have waited for this,” she whispered against his lips.

The sides of his mouth curved slowly. He pulled gently at her nipple, rolling the bud between thumb and finger. The sensations within her built by the second, a need that shot from her breasts to her wet, aching sex.

Wanting to do some exploring of her own, she urged him to roll over. Instantly, she liked the sensation of being in control, of having the freedom to touch him how she wanted.

Adelstan reached for her undertunic, and brought it up and over her head, tossing it aside. Her first reaction was to cover herself, but she stopped short of doing so, dropping her hands to his chest.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, his gaze shifting to the rose-colored nipples that tipped her magnificent full breasts. The firm mounds were a perfect handful and he palmed both of them. The hair at her sex already glistened with her dew.

She was so ripe, so ready.

She touched his jaw, his neck, his chest, her fingers splaying over the wide muscle there. Her lips followed the trail her fingers had begun, and she could see and feel the hair on his arms stand on end.

Continuing downward, she kissed his flat abdomen, his navel, her tongue drawing tiny circles around and inside the small valley, before following the line of hair to the glorious cock that bucked at her attentions. The heavily veined appendage sprouted from a nest of golden hair leading to an impressive crown and a small slit where a drop of fluid had already formed.

She licked the bead from his cockhead, before her mouth closed over him.

He let out a groan that pleased her to the core. Aye, she would never forget that sound for as long as she lived.

Concentrating, she tried to mirror Elspeth’s motions earlier, but knew she had much to learn.

Adelstan’s blood burned within his veins. His balls were tight against his body. He would not come before he had her. He could not. They had come too far for that.

“I will not last,” he said, reaching for her, pulling her up, and then flipping her over yet again, needing her beneath him just as he had envisioned a million times in recent days.

Her arms wrapped about his neck, pulling him close. He used his knees to nudge her thighs open wide. Guiding the head of his cock to her entrance, he had to grit his teeth when she lifted her hips to greet him.

He kissed her at the same time he entered her, capturing her cry with his lips. He moaned as he settled fully within her, her inner muscles cradling him like a glove, so unbelievably tight, so hot.

And then he began to move.

With each thrust, the pain subsided, followed by a pleasure that had Rhiannon eagerly meeting each stroke. One of his large hands moved down her side, reaching for her buttocks, cradling her. With the other, he touched her breast, his fingers playing with her nipple, bringing her need to a fever pitch.

He bent his head, kissed her throat and the tops of her breasts, before taking a rigid nipple into his mouth.

The dual sensations of being filled with his cock and him sucking her nipples were almost too much for Rhiannon to bear. He dropped his forehead to hers, increased his strokes, faster and faster, and she met each thrust, her fingernails digging into his shoulders.

Her heart slammed against her chest. With each thrust she came closer to orgasm, her insides tightening, her breathing increasing, and then it happened…her world exploded, her inner muscles squeezing him tight, taking her to a place she could only describe as paradise.

Adelstan felt the tremors clamp around his cock, pulling him in deeper. He caught Rhiannon’s soft cries with his mouth, and as she held on to him, he thrust again and again. He groaned loud when his release came, pulling out of her sweet body just in time.

Adelstan woke up, felt the soft body beside him, and knew with a sinking feeling he had done exactly what he’d promised himself never to do.

He had made love to Rhiannon MacKay.

Malgor de Cion, and quite possibly Renaud, too, would see him swing from the highest rafters while the soldiers he had fought side by side with for over a decade applauded.

Why in God’s name had he come to her chamber last night?

Because you were jealous of Antony, and you wanted to discover for yourself if she was as true and as chaste as she claimed to be.

And chaste she had been, of that he had no doubt. He had broken through her maidenhead, heard her sharp cry of pain. Last night he had found heaven in her arms, and had been stunned at the depth of the emotion he felt for her then, at that moment, when he’d looked into her incredible eyes as he made love to her. And now, as she lay sleeping beside him, the last thing he wanted to do was leave her, but leave her he must, before day broke over the land.

Damn, what had he been thinking?

He ran a trembling hand down his face, wondering how on earth he could fix what had been done.

Removing Rhiannon’s hand from his chest, he sat up and went completely still when she shifted beside him, a soft moan coming from her full lips.

He looked down at her sleeping form illuminated by the light of the moon through the small window above them, and could not help but smile. It was hard to equate the innocent sleeping beside him with the vixen in this very bed hours before.

There had been an urgency when they’d come together. An intensity he’d never before experienced. Aye, Rhiannon was the kind of lover one never got out of one’s blood.

Ever.

Her eyelashes fluttered.

His heart began to pound.

She blinked a few times, focusing on him, and then the sides of her mouth curved in a shy smile. Her teeth grazed her bottom lip and he could not resist the temptation to lean down and kiss her. With a deep throated moan, she kissed him back, looping her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest.

He felt her need, reveled in it, until a sound outside in the bailey brought him back to reality.

He pulled her hands from around his neck. “I must go, Rhiannon.”

“Stay with me.”

“I cannot. If your father…”

“He does not rise until late.”

“I cannot risk being seen leaving your room in the middle of the night, not by the guard or even my own men. We would both be in a great deal of trouble.”

“Would they tell de Cion?”

Hearing her betrothed’s name on her lips made the blood in his veins turn to ice.

“My men are loyal to me, but I do not know how far that courtesy would extend in such circumstances. You will still marry de Cion, Rhiannon. This night will not change that, no matter how much either one of us wishes differently.”

She drew away from him, pulling her knees up to her chest, hugging them to her. He saw blood on the sheets, and her gaze followed.

“Are ye surprised?” she asked, her hair falling around her like a veil. Her gaze never wavered from his and he once again reveled at her courage, at her boldness, at her spirit.

She thrilled him to the very core of his being.

Seeing the blood there, and knowing he had been the first, brought something out in him that shocked him. He didn’t want to share her with anyone, least of all her future husband. But he was in an impossible situation.

“My God, ye
are
surprised.” How wounded she looked.

“Nay, I am not, Rhiannon.” He reached out to her but she pulled away, out of reach.

Her breasts heaved as she watched him, and his cock hardened. He ached to have her again.

“Rhiannon, I believed you when you told me the truth. I am not surprised to find you chaste. I expected as much. I have never been with a virgin before…”

“Truly?”

He nodded. “Truly. You are unlike any woman I have ever met. You are unique, special, and I am honored to be your first.”

She stared at him, her violet eyes softening. “I want ye to be my last, too, Adelstan. Please do not tell me that we will never have another night like this one.”

Swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat, he looked away from her, trying to steady his emotions. He did not want de Cion, or any other man, touching her.

“What will we do now?”

Though he wanted nothing more than to make love to her again, doing so would only endanger both of them. Standing, he gathered his clothing. “Pretend nothing has happened between us. Go on as before.”

“Stolen moments,” she said absently, her gaze shifting down his body. He saw the desire in her violet eyes, and the desperation, which he also felt. “That’s all we shall share, isn’t it, Adelstan? I will never be able to show ye any affection outside this room.”

“Rhiannon, we have no choice.”

She scrambled to her feet, and stood beside him a second later, naked and not at all embarrassed to be so. “I want more than that.”

She had a beautiful body, all curves where they should be, high, firm breasts, flat belly. And he remembered when he had slipped into her hot core, the way her inner muscles had gripped him tight. How wet she had been, and so sexual for someone who knew so very little about the ways of love.