A Battle Lord’s Heart (6 page)

           
He felt her arms give him a strong
squeeze, then she leaned back to snatch a piece of cold meat off the tray.
Yulen laughed softly and also reached for the tray. Neither of them moved from
their position. In spite of her additional weight, he felt no discomfort
holding her between his legs.

           
“What else happened yesterday that I
missed,” Atty asked. “How’s Cole?”

           
Yulen tilted his head. “He’s fine.
Liam let him go yesterday. He’s feeling a bit sheepish. He feels like he let us
down.”

           
“That’s BS. That partner came out of
nowhere.
I
wouldn’t have seen it,” Atty said.

           
“No, but a trained soldier like Cole
should have been prepared for anything.”

           
“Again, you’re talking BS.” She
reached for some more grapes. “You can’t be prepared for everything. It’s an
unreasonable expectation. His first concern was my safety. He had the culprit
at the end of his sword, and he was checking to make sure I was all right.” She
paused, adding, “It was like the guy you conked over the head. He should have
seen you coming.”

           
“Nevertheless, I know he learned his
lesson, even if it was a painful one.” Yulen looked over his mug and up at her.
“I’m shipping him and fifty more men to Wallis tomorrow morning.”

           
“Oh? Why?” Her eyes widened. “What’s
happened?”

           
Quickly, Yulen told her about the
Bloods attacking Bearinger, and about the pennant that had been recovered. “I
need to make sure Wallis is still standing. I also want to send three more
wagons of supplies to them before the worst of the snows hit. And...Liam has to
get in contact with Gilter as soon as possible.”
 
Before she could again ask why, he explained the physician’s
theory about the compound’s declining birthrate. Atty listened attentively,
without interruption, as she ate.

           
When he had finished, she carefully
asked, “How much longer do you think the Bloods will keep attacking?”

           
“Can’t be much longer, unless
they’re starving. The cold will sap all their strength. We can only hope.
Otherwise...” He took a deep breath and kissed the soft inside of her arm where
she’d draped it over his shoulder as her hand played with his hair. “I’m also
sending Paxton to Bearinger with a hundred men.”

           
His wife froze. “You’re splitting
the forces?”

           
“I have no choice. My men in
Bearinger need replacing. They need to come back to their own families, if just
for a brief while. Both compounds are too green for me to just send or leave
orders. It will take at least another year or two until they can run themselves
with only a small battalion in attendance. Until then, I’m going to have to do
some judicious juggling.”

           
Her fingers grabbed a handful of his
golden-red hair at the nape of his neck and pulled down on it, until she’d
lifted his face to hers. Yulen could see the question in his wife’s expression
before she could voice it. “I’m trying to do everything I can so I can be here
when our son is born,” he tried to reassure her. “But, yes, there’s the chance
I may have to leave you to protect our people.”

           
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “If
you have to leave, I’m coming with you.”

           
“No, Atrilan. Not with the baby.”

           
“No!” Atty repeated more strongly.
“You promised me we’d never be separated again. You
promised
me.”

           
Yulen drew her tightly against him
as she rested her cheek against his hair. “It may not come to that, my only
love. There’s no sense in us becoming agitated when there’s no reason to.”

           
“But—”

           
He shushed her as he pressed his
hands into her lower back, kneading the muscles he knew were beginning to
become a source of discomfort to her. Atty sighed loudly, a low moan rumbling
inside her where he could hear it with his ear pressed to her breasts.

           
There was a heat emanating from her,
along with a scent, and overall aura of womanliness, enveloping him. Yulen
could feel himself stiffening when she lifted her other arm to complete the circle
of her embrace around his face and head. Turning his face slightly, he pressed
hot kisses through the fabric of her gown, along the ripe curves of her
breasts. Already he could feel the hard buds of her nipples trailing down the
sides of his cheeks, and it took great effort not to touch them with his hands
or mouth.

           
Atty shifted in his lap, exciting
him further. Yulen groaned, soft and deep, and moved his hands down to her firm
bottom, lifting her slightly before raising the hem of the gown above her hips.
Once done, he lowered her directly on top of him, until the buttons of his
pants pressed into her.

           
She shuddered. Lowering her face,
she sought his mouth, placing soft, whimpering kisses against his forehead,
brows, and the bridge of his nose. He lifted his lips to find hers wet and
tasting of blueberries. His tongue sought entrance to her mouth, separating her
lips to find more heat and the sweetness of the jelly she’d been eating.
 

           
The world came to a complete
standstill as his hands slowly slid over her thighs and into the ready moisture
between them. She leaned back just enough so he could begin to unbutton his
breeches.
 

           
The kitchen was cold without the
fires inside its many ovens, yet they felt none of the chill. Although
shirtless, Yulen could already sense the first wave of perspiration covering
his chest and back as he delved further into Atty’s mouth, using his tongue in
the same manner as he would be using his erection.
 
She trembled and clutched his hair even tighter.

           
“Yul,” she somehow managed to
whisper hoarsely, lifting away from his incredible mouth for a brief second.

           
“What, my beautiful love?”

           
“How...how long can we still make
love before we have to stop?” she panted. She pressed her breasts against his
face again as the ache to have him play with them grew stronger.

           
He immediately understood her
question. How long could they continue to make love before the burgeoning
nearness of their son’s birth prohibited such intimacy?

           
“I don’t know,” he whispered
thickly. “You’ll have to ask Liam. But right now, it’s not an issue, Atrilan.”
He’d managed to finally undo the buttons, releasing his hardened length from
its restricting confines.
 
Before he
could lift Atty off of his lap long enough to slide his pants to his knees, she
jutted her hips into his groin, ready for him, needing him, wanting him without
further delay.
 
Yulen took a deep, shaky
breath as he felt himself sliding deeply into her velvet heat.

           
Her muscles were already contracting
around him as she remained unmoving in his lap. She sought his mouth again, but
this time it was her own tongue that parted his lips and plunged inside to
taste him, taunting him with its sweetness.

           
For several long seconds they
remained still as every sense heightened, igniting the flames inside them as
their breathing grew heavier and faster, racing along with the beat of their
hearts. Dimly Yulen thought he felt the intrusion of another person, but by the
time he could glance beyond Atty’s shoulder to the door behind her, there was
no one there. No matter. She was sucking on his tongue, and the incredible
sensation was making him lengthen and harden even further.

           
“At-tri-lan.” It came out like a
prayer, soft. Worshiping.

           
She hooked her feet on the rungs
under the stool and moved herself upward, coming down slowly over his aching
shaft. She gasped, releasing his mouth to raise her head, exposing her throat.
Yulen pulled her forward until he could mouth its silken arch. Her long,
lustrous hair brushed against his abdomen and over his shoulders, and he wished
he could have a blanket of it to cover with each night.

           
Again she lifted herself, and again
she lowered herself down around his thick length. Yulen grabbed her hips to take
some of the strain off her legs and prevent a muscle from cramping. He worked
her up and down, slowly upward before pounding her downward. With every stroke
she moaned, lost in the mounting storm rising inside. Yet it wasn’t enough.

           
Carefully, Yulen pushed aside the
tray and rose to his feet. He laid Atty back across the chopping block until
she was perpendicular to him. She released his hair and reached to pull the
gown over her head. Cupping her breasts, she offered them to him as he bent
over to lose himself in her moist, incredible depths. Now when his hot mouth
closed over a pale pink nipple, she cried out softly from the river of passion
flooding her. She arched her back as he firmly held her hips unmoving against
the coarse grain of the wooden block, so as not to scratch her skin, yet giving
him unrestricted access.
 
Over and over
he pounded into her, pushing them harder and further and higher toward their
release.
 
By now Atty was crying out
softly with every deep, penetrating thrust as she lost herself in him and in
his lovemaking. And when the overwhelming rush suddenly enveloped them,
swallowed them, and cancelled out every thought and sensation, her hands found
his face in the valley between her breasts and held it there as he gradually
slowed, stretching out the final moments, the final sweetness of their ecstacy,
until he shuddered violently to a halt.

           
They were panting, enclosed within
each other, and holding on tightly. After a long minute, Yulen reared up to
look into her own blue-gray eyes so similar in color to his. “Where did
that
come from?” he breathed.
     

           
Atty could only shake her head. They
hadn’t had a session of lovemaking this intense, this rapturous, in a very long
time. “Maybe it’s the baby.”

           
He shrugged slightly and bent his face
to caress her upper chest and collarbone with his lips. “It was incredible.
You
are incredible. My love...my only love...”

           
Lifting her suddenly to a sitting
position, he reached behind her and helped her to put the gown back on.
 
Atty watched mutely as he buttoned himself
back into his pants. “Are you still hungry?” he asked with a grin.

           
“For you,” she told him honestly. “I
want you. I want more.”

           
“Then we are of like mind.” He
leaned over to kiss her, while at the same time he gathered her into his arms.

           
With the half-empty tray of food
forgotten, Yulen carried his wife upstairs to where they could remove their
clothing without fear of discovery, and together they proceeded to try and
rekindle the bonfire that continued to smolder.

           
It wasn’t long before the bonfire
became a raging inferno.

Chapter
Five

December
Snow

           
The first major blizzard struck in
mid-December, two days before Mastin and the men returned from Wallis. The
whole compound came to a screeching stop for one full day and night, until most
of the twenty inches of snow could be dug out. Around the outside of Alta
Novis, every man pitched in to clear the white powder at least ten feet away
from the walls. Otherwise any enemy approaching could easily climb over the
walls by building up the drifts.

           
During that time, when the world
settled in for a few days to let Mother Nature blow unrelentingly over them,
Yulen and Atty spend an exorbitant amount of time upstairs in bed. Atty now was
in her second trimester, and not only had her hormones gone totally off the
scale, so had her sex drive. And somehow, for some inexplicable reason, her
need and desire had transferred over to Yulen. As a result, for the two days of
the snowstorm, they never got out of bed except to eat whatever Berta brought
upstairs and left by their bedroom door.
 
Even being apart from each other didn’t seem to diminish their
heat.
 
All Yulen had to do was get close
enough to her to smell her scent, or feel the brush of her quivering skin
against his, and he was instantly in lust, with a depth of passion that
surprised them both.

           
One afternoon, Yulen had sought out
MaGrath to ask him about the effect of their lovemaking on the baby, but the
physician had laughed off the Battle Lord’s concern.
 
“When Atty starts to feel uncomfortable, that’ll be your cue to
back off,” the older man informed him. “Until then, you’re not going to hurt
her or the boy.”

           
Apparently Atty’s determination to
call the child a boy had rubbed off. Even the soldiers were heard referring to
the unborn babe as the Battle Prince.

           
Once the snow was cleared, life
resumed somewhat on a normal level. On the morning of the fourth straight
sunshiny day, Yulen did a final inspection of the new lodge before pronouncing
it ready to move in.
 
And while Atty was
taking her customary afternoon nap, he had the new furniture and last of their
belongings settled into it.
 
When she
woke up, he would take her over and show her their new home, and then they
would christen the lodge properly in their new bed upstairs.