The Hellion and the Highlander (9 page)

Lady Averill Stewart. She tested the name in her mind and decided she quite liked it.

“Are ye all right?”

Averill smiled faintly as the words rumbled to her ear; the chest she laid on vibrated as he spoke. She then tilted her head to peer up at him shyly, and whispered, “Aye.”

In the next moment, she found herself turned onto her back and Kade was getting to his feet. Half sitting up, she watched with confusion as he moved to the bath the maids had left behind. She saw him pick up the bit of linen she’d washed with, dip it in the cooling water, and wring it out, then he turned and moved back to her side.

“Spread yer legs,” he ordered.

Averill blushed, but supposed it was silly to be shy after what they’d just done and forced herself to lie back. When she opened her legs to him, Kade washed her with the cloth. He was gentle, but perfunctory, and still she felt a tingle that was negated by a slight soreness. Then he was done and up and moving back to the bath again. She watched him rinse the linen in the bathwater, then bit her lip as she watched him clean himself, wondering if she should not have offered to do it for him as he had done for her. Before she had decided, he was finished and returning to her side.

She expected him to rejoin her on the furs, so was surprised when Kade gathered her up in the linen and straightened. Averill quickly caught her arms around his neck as he carried her to the bed, noting that he was definitely much wider and stronger than he’d been on first awakening from his illness. It seemed the two weeks of plentiful
food and exercise were speeding him along in his mending.

Kade set her in the bed, kissed her forehead, then returned to gather the remaining furs. He brought those back to the bed, laid them over it, and climbed in beside her before drawing her against his side to rest her head on his chest once more. A little contented sigh slid from his lips then, but he did not go off to sleep as she almost expected. Instead, his hands were roaming restlessly over her body again. One began smoothing down her back to find and clasp her behind, pressing her against his hip. The other slid up and down her side, brushing the curve of her breast. When that hand paused to cup her breast, Averill moaned softly as her earlier passions stirred lazily. She then tipped her head up, silently requesting a kiss.

Kade complied, covering her mouth to kiss her in a way that was at first only gently questing but soon became more ardent. Averill moaned as the first embers of her returning excitement became a blaze, and when the hand at her bottom suddenly dipped between her legs to find her core again, she shifted one leg up over both of his, opening herself to make it easier for him. When he then started to slide a finger inside her, however, she stiffened in surprise at her tenderness there.

Kade immediately stilled as well, then he withdrew his hands, broke their kiss, and urged her head to his chest.

“Sleep,” he ordered, his voice grim.

Averill hesitated, then asked uncertainly, “Are we not going to—?”

“Nay,” he growled, not sounding happy about it, then added more gently, “Yer sore from the first time.”

“Oh,” Averill whispered, but couldn’t deny it. She was tender. However, her leg was still splayed over his hip and groin, and she could feel that he had grown larger and stiff again. While her body was not ready for another round, it appeared his was. She lay still for a moment, debating whether to suggest they risk it anyway. They could always stop if it was too painful, but then she supposed that would leave them both feeling as frustrated and unsatisfied as she’d felt after that night two weeks ago. She’d lain in bed for hours, her body aching. At the time, she hadn’t known what it had been aching for, but now she knew and really didn’t want to suffer getting even more excited, then being left unfulfilled. She shifted her knee, accidentally nudging Kade’s hardness, and glanced up swiftly at his hiss of indrawn breath.

She was just wondering if he was suffering the same frustration she had that other night and, if so, what she could do about it, when Sally and Old Ellie’s advice on how to please him came to mind. Considering what the maid had said, she decided she might be able to ease
his
aching at least.

Averill bit her lip, considering how to go about it. She had nothing to grease her hand with, so the pumping thing was out, but she did have her
mouth. Of course, Ellie had said some women didn’t like it, but she had no idea if that was true for her. Deciding the only way to find out was to try, she ducked under the linens and furs and began to shinny down his body.

Kade was trying to think away the bothersome erection plaguing him when Averill suddenly slipped from his arms and began to struggle her way down his body. Stiffening, he lifted his head to peer down in confusion, then caught at the linens and furs and jerked them up away from his body to see what the devil she was up to. He froze, however, eyes squeezing tightly closed and furs slipping from his fingers when her hand suddenly found his erection and grasped it firmly.

“Wife?” Kade asked, gritting his teeth against the sensations just her touch was sending through him.

“Aye?” her muffled voice came from under the furs.

“What are you—Jesus!” he gasped, his back raising halfway off the bed in shock as something wet—her tongue, he thought—rasped across the very sensitive tip of his manhood. In the next moment, he sucked in a hissing breath and grabbed at the bed linens, twisting them in his fingers as she licked him a second time.

This was wholly unexpected, he thought vaguely, as she licked him again. And a sort of hell to bear, he acknowledged as her tongue flicked over him
once more. The woman had no idea what she was doing, Kade realized with dismay as her tongue rasped over him for a fifth time. And he didn’t have a damned clue how to stop her without hurting her feelings.

Her tongue lashed him again, and he suffered it helplessly, aching to direct her, but—

“Oh, my, what a large piffle you have, my lord.”

The words came to him muffled from under the furs, and Kade’s eyes shot open with a sort of horror.

“Aye, a fine piffle indeed,” she added, then licked him again before adding, “’Tis very…big…and…er…handsome.”

That was followed by yet another lick, but Kade hardly felt it this time. His upper body was convulsed upward off the bed with sudden laughter. He tried to stifle it for fear of hurting her feelings, but ’twas like trying to stop the wind.

“Why, I would wager it’s the largest and handsomest piffle in all of England,” Averill added for good measure, then went still as she apparently became aware of the sounds he couldn’t keep from slipping out; little choked guffaws and low-pitched snorts. And then his erection was suddenly released and the linens and furs began to move as she shifted to crawl out from under them.

Kade immediately dropped back to lie flat, biting his tongue hard to kill the amusement on his face as she appeared and eyed him with concern.

“Are you all right, husband?” Averill asked, shifting up beside him so that she could peer down into his face. “I did not hurt you, did I?”

Kade bit his lip to hold back any remaining amusement and shook his head quickly.

She frowned, but said, “I thought I heard—”

“’Twas verra nice, thank you,” he got out in tones stretched thin by his effort to keep his amusement from showing. He then tugged her down to lie with her head on his chest, and muttered, “Sleep now.”

“But I have not finished—” Averill began, trying to sit back up again, only to gasp in surprise when he tugged her back into place and held her firmly there.

“We’re finished fer now,” he assured her. “It’s been a long day. Time to sleep.”

“Oh.” She sighed, then settled against him, her hand moving absently across his chest. “Well, I suppose I can finish pleasuring you in the morn when you are rested.”

“Aye,” he growled, horrified at the very thought of suffering her repeated licks.

Much to his relief, she fell silent then, her fingers stilling. Kade was just relaxing, a smile curving his lips, when she suddenly raised her head, and said, “Husband?”

Kade erased the smile at once. “Aye?”

“How am I supposed to tweak your nipples when they are all the way up here and I am all the way down there?” She dropped her hand down onto the furs over his groin, and Kade no longer
had to fight the urge to laugh. The woman had just thumped him in the balls. He closed his eyes briefly, intending to wait until the pain passed, but then her words sank through the pain and he blinked them open again. “Tweak me nipples? Why the devil wid ye want to tweak me nipples?”

“Well, Sally said men like it when you play with their piffles and tweak their nipples,” she explained.

Kade was just about to ask who this Sally was when she added thoughtfully, “Mind you, she did not say they had to be done at the same time. Mayhap she meant just that men liked it, too.” She considered that briefly, then yawned, and said, “I shall have to ask her about that.”

Kade closed his eyes briefly, not sure he could stand any more of the woman’s advice, but then his eyes popped open again as Averill said, “Husband?”

“Aye?” he asked warily.

“Is Stewart nice?”

He grimaced at the question. His family home had once been one of the finest castles around, but that was before his father had taken to the drink and left the care and well-being of the castle and its inhabitants to Kade’s mother.

Not that she had not done a fine job, Kade thought with a frown. She had run it as well or better than any man, as had his sister after her, but when his father and brothers got into the whiskey, they could get violent. Things got broken, servants
avoided the castle to avoid bearing the brunt of a whiskey-fueled temper, and the keep and people had suffered for it. The last time he’d been there, the castle had begun to show some small signs of neglect. But at the feast tonight, Kade had heard from Lord Mortagne’s neighbor, one of the guests at the celebration, that Lord d’Aumesbury had finally claimed and wed his sister, Merry. That meant that his father and brothers had been left to tend to Stewart, and he very much feared what he would find when he arrived.

Had Kade known this beforehand, he probably would have delayed the wedding and ridden home to tend to matters before marrying Averill and bringing her back. However, he hadn’t known, and the deed was done and well and truly consummated. He had no intention of leaving her behind for even a day while he took care of things at Stewart.

“Is it?” Averill prodded, absently tugging at the hairs on his chest.

“It was,” he admitted quietly. “And will be again if it isna now.”

Averill lifted her head to peer at him curiously, but before she could ask what he meant by that, he said, “Ye’ll see soon enough. We leave for Stewart the day after tomorrow.”

“What?” she squawked, levering herself up to gape at him.

“Me men have no returned from their chore,” he said quietly. “I would find out why.”

“Oh.” She frowned, her gaze suddenly moving around the room.

No doubt thinking of all that she would need to pack and take with her, he thought, and—suspecting she would ask for at least three days to manage it all—he said, “I’d leave tomorrow, but would no’ have ye suffer days in the saddle when yer tender. I’m givin’ ye time to heal. Ye’ll have to pack what ye need most. The rest can follow later.”

“Oh.” She blushed, but whispered, “’Tis very thoughtful of you, husband. Thank you.”

“Aye,” Kade grunted. “Now sleep. Ye’ll need yer strength for the packin’ and journey ahead.”

Averill smiled faintly, and laid her head back down on his chest. She then gave a little sigh and wiggled about against him, making herself comfortable before allowing her eyes to close.

Kade stared down at her until her breathing turned slow and steady, suggesting she was asleep. Only then did he risk a small smile curving his lips as he recalled her “pleasuring” him. His little wife might not have known what she was doing, but she’d tried, and that was enough to please him for the moment. He would teach her how to do it properly later…and figure out some way to get her to leave off with the compliments without hurting her feelings.

The largest and handsomest piffle in England?

Kade chuckled softly, then closed his eyes to sleep.

“Oh, this water is cold.”

Averill smiled faintly at Bess’s complaint but didn’t comment. Instead, she concentrated on cleaning away the dust and grime from their travels that day. It was the first night of their journey to her new home, and she’d found it a long, exhausting one. Aside from the fact that she had spent most of her life at Mortagne and wasn’t used to traveling, Averill also hadn’t slept well or long last night. She had worked late into the evening, sorting and packing what to take with her and what to have sent later, and had only given it up when Kade had entered and ordered Bess out of the room.

When Bess had protested that she had to prepare Averill for bed, he’d growled that he’d take care of that and had ushered the older woman to
the door. And then he had assisted her, stripping away her clothes with the ease of a longtime lady’s maid. It had made her wonder where he’d got all the practice in undressing women. It wasn’t until he’d finished the chore, and she was climbing into bed, that she’d realized he’d been affected by that simple act. He’d stripped his own clothes off then, revealing a manhood that had grown swollen and an angry red.

Averill had bit her lip as she watched him approach the bed. Recalling and appreciating his intention to let her heal before their journey, she’d shyly offered to pleasure him again. Kade’s eyes had widened with what she imagined must have been surprise at the offer, but he’d quickly shaken his head, repeating that he would let her heal before they left for Stewart.

Averill wasn’t sure how her pleasuring him could cause her discomfort, but then supposed he feared he’d want to make love to her afterward and wouldn’t risk it. Deciding he was really the most considerate and kind husband a girl could have, Averill had let the matter rest. She’d cuddled up next to him to sleep, more than glad that she’d punched Cyril and put him off marrying her. She really had got lucky, Averill had thought, and continued to think so.

Kade was truly a caring husband. His words were sometimes lacking and his tone often gruff, but he had proven very solicitous of her well-being on the journey today: taking her up on his mount
to ride in his lap when she began to flag in the saddle, ensuring she had enough to eat and drink when they’d interrupted their journey to have the nooning meal, ushering her away to tend to personal matters first thing each time they paused in their travels, then ushering her and Bess here to bathe when they’d stopped to make camp for the night. Averill didn’t think she could have asked for a better husband.

A burst of male laughter made her glance curiously to the right. Will and Kade were bathing just around the bend. Unable to see them thanks to the curve in the river, but within shouting distance, Averill found it comforting to know they were there.

“I’ve had enough of this cold, my lady. I am getting out,” Bess announced, heading for shore.

“I suppose I am ready to get out as well,” Averill said reluctantly. She then quickly ducked under the water to rinse the soap from her hair and body. By the time she resurfaced, Bess was out of the water and using one of the linens she’d brought down to the water to dry herself off. Squeezing her hair to remove the worst of the water, Averill headed back onto shore, murmuring a thank-you when Bess handed her a fresh linen to dry herself. By the time she’d done so, Bess was clothed and collecting her chemise to help her dress.

They had finished and were just gathering the damp linens to take back to camp with them when Kade appeared at the edge of the clearing. His
head poked out first and he peered around, but once he saw that they were both out and decent, he pushed the rest of the way into the clearing and approached, with Will on his heels.

With Kade’s own men not yet returned from delivering their message, Will had insisted that he and a small army of Mortagne men accompany them to Stewart. At least, that was the excuse he and Kade had given Averill, but she knew it was more than that. The two had been foolish enough to discuss the state of Stewart and Kade’s intention to ask his father to step down while seated at the trestle tables. It was not so much foolish to discuss it there, as it was to expect they would not be overheard and the information passed around. Bess had got hold of the gossip and brought it to her. She was not riding to her new home as ignorant as they’d hoped.

Averill knew her brother and husband were just trying not to burden her with worry, but really, it was insulting that they thought of her as a weak, swooning female who needed to be cosseted and protected from harsh reality. Had they even considered that she might be able to help in this situation? She doubted it…and fully intended to show them the error of their ways once they got there.

“Come, Bess, I shall see you back to camp,” Will said, moving to take the woman’s arm as Kade headed directly for Averill.

The maid cast a glance her way, but Averill could not seem to take her eyes off her husband. Some
thing about the way he approached made her feel like a rabbit being stalked by a fox. Aware that Bess had allowed Will to lead her out of the clearing, she forced a smile for her husband but also took a nervous step back, coming up against a tree trunk.

The action made Kade frown and pause a step away. “Are ye afraid o’ me, wife?”

“N-no,” she said, then grimaced as her stammer gave lie to the word. Realizing how silly she was being, Averill forced herself to take a step forward, placing her a hairbreadth away from her husband so that did she breathe in too deeply, her breasts would surely brush his chest.

For some reason, that made Kade smile, and he asked, “How are ye feelin’?”

Averill blinked in confusion at the question, unsure why he would ask it. Did she look pale or peaked? Frowning at the possibility, she said politely, “Fine, husband. And you?”

Kade chuckled, but explained, “I mean did the journey today trouble ye? Yer no’ still tender from the beddin’?”

“Oh! Nay,” she said, flushing brightly.

“Good,” he said, then bent his head and kissed her.

Despite her surprise, Averill responded at once, her arms slipping up around his head, her lips drifting open in invitation, and her body melting into his as his own arms gathered her close. Truly, it felt like forever since he’d last kissed her, though it had only been moments ago. Well, the last one
had been. He’d actually kissed her several times today: on waking that morning, as he’d headed out the door after dressing, before he’d lifted her into the saddle at Mortagne, and again each time they’d stopped that day, sometimes several times. In fact, he’d kissed her most passionately before leaving her here with Bess to bathe. That being the case, it was only natural that she would expect this time to be more of the same, a deep, passionate kiss, after which he’d lead her back to camp. However, rather than end the kiss and take her arm to lead her back to camp, Kade began to touch her as well, his hands roaming over her back, then dropping to cup her bottom, before moving to her upper arms to urge her back until she came up against the tree behind her. The moment she rested there, his hands moved to her breasts, squeezing them through the cloth of her chemise and gown. Averill moaned at the caress, her back arching to thrust her eager breasts most wantonly into his palms.

Kade’s response to that was to thrust his hips forward, grinding his hardness against her as he began to tug at the top of her gown and chemise. She felt cool air brush over her nipples, then his head ducked down to draw one into his mouth, and she heard a hiss thunk over her head.

Frowning, Averill tilted her head back to glance up, wincing as several strands of hair were torn from her scalp. She then gasped at the sight of the arrow protruding from the tree, still quivering in the air. Averill was vaguely aware of Kade also lift
ing his head, but was still completely unprepared when he suddenly dragged her to the ground, shouting out as he did.

At first, Averill feared he’d been injured by a second arrow or even grazed by the first, but then a sudden clamor of sound drew her head around as several Mortagne soldiers burst out of the bushes on every side.

“Where did it come from, my lord?” one of them asked.

Kade pointed silently across the river directly opposite, and several men immediately began to wade into the water, but he called them back.

“’Tis no use harin’ across the river. The archer will be long gone ere ye get to the other side,” he pointed out.

The men hesitated, but reluctantly moved back toward them as Kade stood and helped Averill to her feet.

“Are ye all right?” he asked, shifting to block the men’s view of her as he quickly helped her tuck herself back into her gown.

“A-aye, my l-lord, husband,” Averill whispered, aware she was blushing.

Kade frowned and gave her a quick, but thorough, kiss. When he lifted his head, he said, “Do ye wish me to have one o’ the men see ye back, or will ye wait a minute while I speak to them and allow me to accompany ye?”

“I will wait,” she decided.

For some reason, her response brought a tiny smile to his lips, but it was gone quickly. He gave a nod and moved off to consult briefly with the soldiers. He was back after just a moment, taking her arm to lead her along the path into and through the woods to the larger clearing where they’d stopped to make camp. Averill glanced around as they walked, noting that while two of the men were following, the rest were spreading out and moving into the woods.

“Husband?” she asked. “Who do you think shot the arrow?”

He frowned, but then shrugged. “’Twas probably a bandit.”

“A bandit?” she asked doubtfully. “That makes little sense. What would a bandit gain from shooting us with his arrow from across the river?

Kade smiled faintly, and said, “I didna say ’twas a smart bandit.”

“But—”

“I ken it makes little sense, wife,” he interrupted. “But I’ve been away for three years and have no enemies I know of who would wish me dead. And since no one would have reason to kill you either”—he shrugged—“it was most like a bandit…or an arrow gone astray.”

That seemed like perfectly sound reasoning to her, so Averill nodded and fell silent, but she couldn’t help thinking there might be some other explanation. It had been a close call, and only luck
and his ducking his head to suckle at her breast had saved him from an arrow in the back of the neck.

Actually, she realized, glancing at Kade, he was tall enough that it would have struck him between the shoulder blades. Aye, they had been very lucky.

Averill drew her horse in beside Kade’s and peered up the hill toward the castle ahead. Her gaze slid over the solid stone outer curtain and the keep beyond. At this distance it looked a strong, well-built castle, a good place to call home. When the sun chose that moment to come out from behind the clouds it had been veiling itself in most of the day and shone a bright shaft of light on the edifice, Averill could only think it was a good omen.

She glanced to her husband, her eyebrows drawing together as she took in his expression. When he remained still and silent, she asked, “Stewart castle?”

Averill thought it must be, but there was just something about Kade’s expression that made her uncertain. He looked stern and forbidding, a sharp contrast to the smiling, teasing Kade who had been in evidence since the wedding. He did not look like a man glad to be arriving home.

“Aye,” Kade said grimly. “’Tis Stewart.”

“It does not appear to be falling down yet,” Will commented, drawing her gaze his way as he drew up on her other side.

“Wife.”

Averill turned attentively to her husband at that growl. The man had taken to calling her Avy since the wedding, so she knew whatever he wished to say was important. “Aye, husband?”

“Ye’ll stay close to me or yer brother at all times until I say otherwise, and do as I order without question, ye ken?”

Though it was couched as a question, Averill didn’t mistake it for anything but the order it was. She nodded solemnly in response, wondering for the first time just how much trouble he was expecting.

Satisfied by her nod, Kade grunted and urged his horse forward. Averill immediately followed suit, staying close as promised. Will stuck to her side like glue as well, so that they rode three abreast as they started up the slight hill. A glance over her shoulder showed that the soldiers who had accompanied them were also riding three abreast, their number trailing away into the woods, too many to count.

Averill grimaced and turned back in the saddle, thinking that the men on the wall could be forgiven for thinking them an invading army. But then, from what she understood, that was pretty much what they were, Averill acknowledged with a sigh. If Kade’s father would not willingly step down and allow him to run the castle properly, Kade intended to force the issue, and her brother and father had supplied the army to do so.

Kade wasn’t terribly surprised to find the gates closed and the drawbridge rising when they reached it. He was only surprised the drawbridge wasn’t already fully up. The men on the wall had surely had the time to get it all the way up between spotting the approach of the English army riding with him and their arrival at the castle. However, judging by the drunken shouting on the parapet, and the calmer and much grimmer replies of someone who was not drunk, it seemed obvious his father had not wished the drawbridge lifted at all, but one of the soldiers had ignored his wishes and done the right thing. It sounded as if the soldier was now getting a drunken bollocking for doing so.

“Hail!” Kade shouted, drawing his mount as close to the edge of the moat as he could.

The shouting above stopped at once, and the sober voice called, “Who goes there?”

“Kade Stewart, son of Eachann,” he shouted back. “And who are you?”

“Aidan Stewart, cousin and first to Laird Eachann Stewart,” came the grim answer even as a drunken voice crowed, “See I told ye we werena bein’ invaded, Aidan. ’Tis me brother. Lower the damned drawbridge, ye silly fool.”

The drunk speaker wasn’t his father then, but either Gawain or Brodie, Kade surmised. Both of his brothers were younger and had not enjoyed the opportunity to be trained away from Stewart. Un
fortunately, that meant that all they’d been trained in was raising a mug of ale to their mouths. Not for the first time, Kade sent up a silent prayer of thanks to his mother for insisting he be sent to his uncle Simon the moment he was walking.