The Libertine (14 page)

Again she chuckled. “You taste so good,” she whispered.

Her breath on his inflamed member made him reach for her, but
his hand on her shoulder did not stop her. She took the swollen head of his cock
into her mouth and ran her tongue across its seam.

“Chloris,” he warned again, speaking through gritted teeth this
time, “I must be inside you.”

“When you are inside me, I can’t adore you like this.”

“You adore me in other ways, and I feel every one.”

Mercifully, she lifted her head and looked at him, her eyes
shining and her lips parted. “You do?”

“The clasp of your body, it is the best thing I have ever
known.”

She seemed awestruck by that. Adjusting her position, she
crawled over him and kissed his mouth. Meanwhile, her hand guided his erection
between her legs. When he felt the clasp of her body as she eased down, he
moaned into her mouth.

“Oh, yes,” she murmured, holding tight to his length with her
hand and sitting upright, so that she could bear down on him some more, “it is
too good.”

His cock was already slick with her juices. Then her sheath
enclosed him entirely. He reached one hand around her neck and drew her down.
When their mouths met, they locked together.

“I feel brazen, mounting you this way,” she whispered.

He noticed the blush on her cheeks. “Being brazen suits
you.”

She rocked back and forth, as if discovering him.

“Ah, but that feels good,” he murmured.

She lifted up and then eased back down, and as she did her lips
parted, her expression revealing the pleasure she felt.

When she ground down, firmer still, the head of his cock was
squeezed tight in her embrace, deep within her. Lennox withheld a curse and
arched up, holding tight to her hips through her skirts.

Then she began to move with more speed, to buck and ride him
rhythmically.

Lennox watched, reveling in her triumphant actions, her
freedom.

Clutching at him with her hands she growled and writhed, her
inner flesh clasping him over and over. She splayed her hands on his chest for
balance, and it drew fire from him. Moaning loudly, she shivered, her eyes
rounding as she looked down at him, querying him.

“Aye, you feel that, that is the magic our connection brings
about.” He put his hands beneath her skirts and thumbed her damp folds, making
her cry out.

She threw her head back, her hips working faster still on
him.

With his cock buried deep inside her, he savored the way her
body tightened on his cock as she found her release. Lennox groaned deeply, for
she was milking him and he wouldn’t be able to hold back. He wanted it to last
and last, but his ballocks were primed. “I am fast coming undone,” he warned,
urging her to break free.

As his climax approached she held tight to him, forcing him to
stay inside. “I want to feel you,” she insisted.

Lennox was powerless to do otherwise than grant her request.
His sac lifted, his seed pumping into her tight sheath.

Her entire body rippled and shuddered, a startled gasp escaping
her, but still she held tight.

Lennox moved his hands to her waist, holding her steady while
she caught her breath. “You look so very beautiful.”

She stared down at him, her eyes sparkling.

“Shall I tell you what I see?” he asked.

“If you must.” She chuckled.

He glanced over her. “Your womanly power fully realized.”

She flashed her eyes at him. “You set me afire, Lennox, and all
of this only makes me wilder.”

He nodded, stroked her hair back from her face, and then he
rolled her over onto her back and pulled free, so that he could kiss her
properly.

On her back on the mossy ground, her hair spilled free and it
looked like a shaft of sunshine across the forest greenery, just as she brought
sunshine to him.

The bower they sheltered in was redolent with fecundity.

Under him, his woman was passion personified.

Lennox groaned against her throat, kissing her there.

He felt magic surging within him, the most powerful ritual of
all, because they were so intimately connected. The life force that surrounded
them was palpable in the air. Drawing on it, he whispered in the Pictish tongue,
requesting that she would be as richly fertile with nature’s magic as was this
precious haven.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tamhas Keavey watched his cousin heading toward the
stables from his window. Dawn had scarcely broken and yet there Chloris was,
fully dressed and hastening along the path to the stables as if she had an
urgent appointment to attend.

Tamhas frowned. She would rather be out riding than anything
else, it seemed.

It occurred to him that he should perhaps accompany her on one
of these early rides of hers. If the morning air benefited her as much as she
said it did, she might be in a more pliable state when he next invited her to
share a carnal tryst.

The foolish woman ought to look kindly on his offer. Her
husband had begun to refer to her as if she was an embarrassment. It would be
her good fortune if she fell pregnant by another lover, giving Gavin Meldrum the
heir he wished for.

Tamhas stepped closer to the windowpanes, his breath clouding
the glass.

As a younger man he had been quite smitten with Chloris. She
had acted like a nun, though, rejecting his advances. He remembered it well. So
many evenings spent together while she would read and sew, and he would sit and
lust after her, imagining her undressed with her legs spread. How pale she was
back then, and how he would have enjoyed putting a flush on her cheeks. It would
have been so easy to slip into bed with her, but she denied him.

When he’d suggested marriage to expedite the matter, she’d
refused him. He had pursued necessary fornication elsewhere, but even after all
these years Tamhas found he still had a hankering need to possess the thing that
he had lusted after as a youth, even if only for a short while.

The best he could do for her when she refused him was to marry
her off and get a good arrangement out of it, but now she was back and in his
house and he wanted her again. How enjoyable it would be to see her on her back
for him, at last.

He pictured it, and found it most pleasing.

When her fleeting figure disappeared into the stable, Tamhas
returned to his bed, vowing to rise earlier one morning and join her.

* * *

The sky was streaked with pink and amber light when
Lennox left Somerled to meet Chloris that morning. He urged his horse to a
gallop. Shadow had fast learned the routine and huffed on the morning air,
relishing the journey as much as his master relished the woman who waited at the
end.

Lennox dismounted and let Shadow roam free to graze while he
strode to the edge of the forest and stared out across the land for sight of
her. When her figure appeared on the ridge and she waved his way, relief poured
through him. He steadied himself with one hand against a nearby tree trunk,
biding his time, but he could not resist stepping out to meet her when she
closed on him.

She looked tousled, as if she had rushed to dress. That made
him want to undress her all the more. He wanted to see her completely naked in
his arms, so that he might picture her that way when they were apart. He
captured her in his embrace, teasing her with hungry kisses on her neck and
bosom.

“Lennox, you are wilder than ever.”

“That is what you have done to me.”

The sound of her laughter made him so happy. He took her hand
and led her to their favorite spot.

“It is so beautiful here,” she said.

“It is, but especially so when you are in it.”

She looked at him as if she thought he were teasing her, but he
meant it. “You have become the forest queen.”

“I am not one of your witches, Lennox.”

“That does not matter.”

She strode alongside him, smiling. “I will humor you because
you are so charming.”

Her resistance to flattery only made him want to flatter her
more. She was not used to it, he assumed. That was a crime.

When they reached the bluebell glen she paused and sighed. “I
will dream of this place, forever.” She met his gaze. “Of being here with
you.”

That tugged at something deep inside him.

He did not want her dreaming of him. He wanted her by his side.
The notion surprised him, and he pushed away the urge to state it aloud. Instead
he drew her down onto the forest floor. Tugging at her gown, he edged it down at
her bosom. Her creamy flesh swelled from the lace edge of her shift. Ducking his
head, he kissed her, sighing against the soft, responsive flesh as he moved to
crouch over her. With quick, nimble fingers, he prized the edge of her gown
back, and one nipple rose up, stiff and eager for his tongue as he closed his
lips over it.

“Oh, Lennox.” Her hands closed about his head.

Kissing her heavily he worked his tongue over the stiff peak,
his free hand worked her other breast free, until she was gloriously exposed,
both breasts on display for him. Drawing back to observe, his cock grew rigid,
for she looked so gloriously undone, so ready to be plundered. When he leaned
closer to kiss her in the shadowy dip between her breasts, his rod pressed
against her hip, and she cried out.

“Lennox.”

“Something you need, my sweet?”

“You are outrageous, you know what it is.” Her head rolled
against the mossy ground, and several strands of her tresses came free to curl
against the side of her neck.

“You want me to give you more air?” He backed away.

She grabbed his shirt, holding him to her. “No, I...I want
you.”

Lennox laughed softly. How adorable she looked with her cheeks
flushed. “And you shall have me.”

She viewed him with suspicion. “You tease me so. You make me
say it aloud and make a show of myself for your fun.”

“Of course, but I cannot help myself because you are so
desirable when you are this way. There is no malice intended, only joy in
hearing you whisper your need. A man cannot help enjoying that when it is so
genuinely meant.”

She stared up at him as if thinking on what he said, and her
candid innocence was so beguiling that he vowed he would not take his eyes off
her face, he would watch while he pleasured them both, eager to see every moment
reflected in her eyes.

He shifted, placing one knee between her legs. With haste, he
pulled her skirts higher. When she wriggled to assist, as eager as a wanton, her
knees parting and rising up, Lennox once again had the overwhelming urge to see
her naked, to adore every measure of her, to know it intimately.

She moaned with pleasure, and it drove him on. He closed his
mouth over her shoulder. She rose up into his embrace. As he glanced down, the
sight of her loosed hair tangling over the top of her pale shoulder blades made
him reach for her laces, to see more of her. Chloris rippled in his arms and
pressed her face into his neck. Speedily he pulled the laces free, then eased
the flaps of her dress open.

A gasp escaped her. Her fingers tightened on him.

He took it as encouragement. Pushing her gown down from her
shoulders, he unraveled the ribbons on the back of her gown, eager to have her
completely naked. He’d only been able to imagine it, due to the hurried nature
of their encounters, and it was not enough. He pushed his hand beneath her
loosened gown. “Yes, I shall have you naked today.”

“Lennox, no!” Her body stiffened. “Please don’t.”

Too late were her pleas. In that moment he felt the very thing
she was attempting to hide.

“No!” She pulled away from him, turning her face away from his
as she twisted her arms behind her back and attempted to pull her gown into
place, her fingers trembling as she struggled to find the laces.

Alas, her desperate actions only exposed what she attempted to
hide.

Lennox stared in disbelief, then drew back, horrified by what
he saw. Beneath her gown her beautiful skin was marred by deep scars, scars that
spoke of a harsh beating, so harsh that her skin had been torn and healed
poorly, leaving welts that would remain with her for life.

Grabbing her by the shoulders he halted her attempts to cover
herself.

She shook her head and there was a crazed look in her eyes, the
nature of which he had not seen there before. “Let me go, I beg you.”

“No.” Possessively, he held her.

“Please, Lennox, don’t look at me.” Wriggling her shoulders she
attempted to break free.

Lennox gritted his teeth and forced her flat to the ground,
rolling her onto her side so that he could properly examine her back.

Chloris whimpered and covered her face with her hands, but he
had to know.

With one hand he held her in place, with the other he pulled
her laces completely undone. The fabric eased apart and he tugged down her shift
to expose her skin fully as far as the top of her corset, disclosing a tracery
of raised welts.

Lennox swallowed down the shock he felt. She’d hidden herself
very cleverly all through their time together. He realized that now. Hiding her
shame, keeping the secret. Tracing the scars with his fingers he attempted to
hold back his anger when he felt pain there. It was as if he’d been thrashed,
not her. It pumped into his fingertips, and it was not just this beating, but
more. The anger he felt in response to the images that flared in his mind would
not be kept in check—images of Chloris, and images from his childhood, pictures
of his mother being stoned.

Chloris flinched at his touch on the raised skin.

That made his anger worsen. Forcing back the images of his own
mother, lying on the ground stoned and bloody, frustration bit into him, his ire
rising all the while. He voiced his opinion. “You wish to fall pregnant to a man
who does this you?”

Her head lifted and she stared over her shoulder at him,
dismayed.

“Answer me!” His indignation was making him unreasonable. He
could see that fact reflected in her eyes, but he couldn’t help being angry.

“It will not happen again,” she snapped, “if I fall
pregnant.”

Lennox cursed aloud. “If you believe that then you are a
fool.”

Chloris recoiled in astonishment. It was she who looked angry
now, the shame that had marked her expression quickly changing as she pulled her
clothing into place, covering the scars she had so cleverly concealed during
their relationship. “What do you know of me and my situation?”

Lennox felt that old anger and frustration, that which was born
of powerlessness, the mood that turned into white heat in his veins. He saw the
men who stoned his mother almost to her last breath, then hauled her bloodied
body upright so that she could take the final steps to the gallows where she
would be hanged and burned. He’d cursed them all, until they bound and gagged
him, but he had never forgotten the looks on their faces. Their fear twisted
into glee, that ugly thing that turned them to animals. It disgusted him. “A man
who does that to a woman will never change. There will be another cause for him
to beat you, another day.”

Fear flitted through her eyes as she considered his words, but
she shook her head. “No, it is his anger at my barren state that is at the root
of his black moods.”

He resisted the urge to growl. She was too trusting, and he
knew that too well for he had preyed on it, too. Annoyed at himself for forcing
her to consider what was likely the truth of the situation, he reached out for
her, moving to comfort her. The urge to remove her from her current situation
was growing larger by the minute and he could scarcely trust himself, so unruly
was his desire for her. It was in that moment that he knew with certainty that
she was his destined lover, and the realization that he was irrevocably bound to
Chloris shocked him to the marrow.

But she was rising to her feet and backing away. “If you have
done what I paid you to do, then it will end.” Tears shone in her eyes, and she
trembled. “Your ritual, it had better work.”

Lennox’s thoughts were in chaos as he realized just how
desperate she was. This was why she had come to him. He’d thought it her own
desire for a child, but it was fear of her own husband that had put her in this
position—fear that had forced her to be brave and venture to Somerled—and that
was not right. He could not allow her to go back there. Rising to his feet he
went after her. “It will, but my magic will not protect you if you go back to
Edinburgh.”

Striding over, he attempted to hold her. More than ever, he
wanted to claim this woman as his own. He could not bear to think of her
sacrificing herself to a man who would do that to her.

Chloris tore her arm from his grip. “You have said enough. You
have shamed me, and now you have put me in fear of my situation in Edinburgh.
Yet you are no saint, for you are a seducer of many women.” She glared at him.
“I know that I’m not the only one, for I am not the fool that you apparently
think I am. This has been a pretty diversion for you. I know that you wanted
more than your fee in return for your magic, and you took it.”

Lennox reeled. Her words hit him harder than he could have
imagined. “Chloris—”

“No, you will not charm me with your magic or your clever ways
now.” She held his gaze. “I just pray that you are as good a witch as you are a
seducer.” With that final remark, she lifted her skirts and ran through the
trees, back to her mount.

Turning away, Lennox gripped a low hanging bough, forcing
himself to stay there, not to go after her in anger. He was no longer in control
of himself in thought or deed. Closing his eyes, he drew strength from the old
oak, from the rising sap and the fertile ground beneath his feet—the things he
was sure of, the tenets of nature that he clung to in faith when he felt madness
beginning to descend on him.

A single shard of clarity shot through the chaos that reigned
in him. He would not, could not, let her go back to Edinburgh. Even if she
refused his protection, Lennox knew he had to make her see and understand
that.

And as much as Lennox hated Tamhas Keavey, he suspected she was
safer there under her cousin’s roof.

Somehow, that only made his bitterness grow.