Betrayal (Book 2: Time Enough to Love) (13 page)

Dressed in her most alluring robe, Alyse stood at the makeshift sideboard, her back to the door as she poured wine. The slight creak of the hinges announced her husband’s arrival. She straightened her shoulders, closed her eyes, and prayed for strength.

“Alyse.”

She could not suppress a shudder at his voice, though she had expected a harsher tone. Thank goodness for that small boon. Summoning her courage, she turned to see Thomas wince and mutter a curse. Not the best response. Neither did his countenance instill confidence in her. The gracious courtier had gone, leaving instead a hard man with severe lines etching his face. She trembled anew, now fearing the worst.

“Would you like wine before dinner, my lord?” She smiled bravely, searching desperately for some sign of grace from him. Instead, she found misgivings and unease staring back at her. The cup she offered shook in her hand.

Thomas grabbed it before it spilled, and she cast her gaze to the floor, not wanting to dwell on the mistrust in his eyes.

“Thank you.” His gruff reply sent new shivers down her body.

She stepped quickly toward the table and gestured to his seat. “Will you dine, my lord? Princess Joanna had the meal brought a short time ago, but ’twill cool if ’tis not eaten soon.”

Thomas nodded and moved to his seat.

Alyse sat opposite him, head lowered, still avoiding his gaze. Too anxious to be hungry, she merely succeeded in picking at the food on her trencher.

A chair scraped on the wooden planks. She raised her head in time to see him stand up and lean toward the sideboard, his hand stretched out to retrieve the wine bottle.

“I will fetch that for you, my lord.” She jumped up, glad to have something to do. After securing the bottle, she placed it at his elbow then returned to her seat. Any small service might make a difference.

Thomas nodded his thanks, but frowned, and Alyse’s spirits fell at the sight of his displeasure. She sat back down, hands in her lap like a chastened child, at a loss for what she had done now to cause his disapproval.

After some moments, she dared raise her gaze to him once more, anxious to read his mood. To her dismay, he stared back at her with a deep scowl on his face. She snapped her head down to keep him from seeing tears start in her eyes.

He was still very angry with her. She wrung her hands in her lap. What else could she do to turn his ire from her?

“Alyse.” His voice made her jump. “You have eaten nothing, my lady.” His tone might have held concern. Or was it reproach?

She took a deep breath to garner courage. “I beg your pardon, my lord, but I am not hungry this evening.” She paused, words failing. “It has been…an eventful day.”

Thomas sighed and nodded. “Aye, that it has. I understand Her Highness has given you leave from her service.”

Alyse looked up fearfully. “Aye, my lord. I was late in attending the princess this morning, and she bid me remain in my chambers for the duration of the voyage.” She hastened to add, “I do not think it was meant as a reprimand or slight, my lord, but merely to give me time to... to rest and reflect on...” She trailed off, not sure if she helped or hurt her cause.

He cocked his head. “Why were you late to attend her?”

“I took care to bathe thoroughly before leaving the chamber, my lord.”

Bemused, Thomas shook his head. “Could you not have bathed this evening, my dear? Why risk the displeasure of the princess by willfully being tardy?”

Alyse dropped her gaze to her lap. “I dared not wait and risk
your
displeasure, my lord. You bade me...remove...the reek...” The humiliation of this morning’s exchange robbed her of coherent speech.

Suddenly, her patience failed her. She could not sit calmly across from him, feeling his contempt wash over her. On the verge of flying to pieces, she rose and moved to the sideboard to get more wine. Only to realize it was no longer there. She leaned against the cabinet, her strength run out.

Oh, Holy Virgin, pray for us sinners now…

His sharp intake of breath made her cringe.

He is still angry with me
.

His chair squealed as he slid it back across the planks.

Acquiesce. Let him see you are ready to obey him.

She wound her arms around her waist, waiting. In the silence, he moved to stand behind her.

“Alyse, look at me.” He clamped his hand onto her shoulder and turned her toward him. He had to feel her trembling, but she could do nothing to stop it. Reluctantly, she lifted her gaze to meet his.

“Please do not hate me, Thomas.” Teardrops trickled down her cheeks. “I know you are angry with me, but please do not—”

“Shh.” Carefully, he wiped them away and took her hands. “I do not hate you, my dear, but we have come to a crossroads.” His firm voice held no anger, only conviction. “We cannot continue as we have been. I cannot stand by and watch as you dream about Geoffrey and what might have been. The man is married and beyond your reach. This attachment must needs be severed.”

His words sent a chill down her spine. The moment she had dreaded most had arrived. Could she, in the end, forsake Geoffrey? “But how am I to bid my heart love where it does not?” She stared into his face, searching for the smallest measure of understanding.

He stared steadily back at her. “Allow it a chance to change and mayhap you need bid it do nothing at all.” He set his lips at her temple, kissed it softly then moved lower to claim her cheek. Wracked with shivers, she shook, knowing, fearing where this would lead.

“I remember talk of a time when my caresses would have left you giddy and willing,” he whispered, licking the outer shell of her ear. “When my merest touch would have made you swoon.”

Her trembling increased, though she fought against the spell he cast.

“Can we not return to those days,” he moved his hands down her arms, raising goose bumps, “and explore those long-delayed feelings?”

Every inch of her quivered as he continued his descent in a slow, tortuous pathway down her neck, setting off alarms in her head.

He meant to prevail this time. No excuses. He would banish Geoffrey and have her before the night was out. ’Twas now she needed to submit.

Instead, she pulled away, a play for time. “And if those feelings no longer exist?”

The boldly confident smile he gave her turned her bones to water. “Then we will conjure new ones, my dear.” He drew her back to him. “Do you remember the first time we met?’

She cocked her head, suspicious. “Aye, my lord, I remember it well, though I can scarce credit that you do. ’Twas nothing special to you, as I recall.”

Thomas grinned at her and slid his hands over her shoulders, under her robe. His touch burned as though made of flame. “A fresh face at court is always welcome, always remarked upon.”

Alyse nodded. ’Twas truth. She had gawked herself when new courtiers arrived in the Great Hall.

“And one as beautiful as you can easily cause a stir amongst the attendants.” He ran his fingers up her nape and into her hair, kneading gently. She silenced a moan before it could escape. God’s death, but the man knew too many ways to give a woman pleasure.

“So yes, I marked you.” He closed his eyes, and that lazy, beguiling smile curved his lips. “’Twas your eyes I remember best, though I enjoyed all of you in my mind.” He sighed and looked at her again before sinking his mouth onto hers.

No tender lover’s kiss this time. Instead, he seemed bent on conquest, crushing her to him with a hunger she had not dreamed. He thrust his tongue between her lips, capturing her tongue and sucking it until she writhed with the heat he created at her core.

He released her, and she almost fell against him, dizzy with the intensity of his passion. “I remember your eyes, dazzled by the spectacle and splendor of the court. The innocence that shone there touched me for some reason.” He drew his thumb down her jaw line to her chin, leaving a trail of flames in its wake. “Had I been of a different mind, I would have bedded you that night.”

Alyse almost sent up a cry of protest, but it died unuttered. Had he kissed her thus that night, she would have been his, heart and soul. “But you did not.”

“Nay. I took pity on that innocence and steered clear.” His dark eyes deepened almost to black. “But no more.”

With hands that generated scorching heat, he pushed her rich brocade robe off her shoulders, revealing the best weapon she possessed in her campaign to turn him from his anger. To signal her surrender. The blue silk shift she had worn on her wedding night.

“Ah.” The soft sound seemed all he could muster as he stared at her, hunger growing in his eyes once more. “Were you bent on conquest, too, my lady?”

Heart beating like the hooves of a racing stallion, she shook her head. “I only hoped to please you, my lord.”

“Oh, you please me very well, wife.” He slid his hands down to cup her breasts through the sheer fabric, and the breath shuddered from her body.

He bent and sucked her nipple into his mouth.

“Ahhh!” She could not bite back the cry of pleasure as lightning bolts streaked from her breast straight to the triangle between her thighs. Heat flushed her from head to toe at such a wanton reaction.

After swirling his tongue around the taut flesh, he released it and stood staring at her. His hot gaze made her blush even harder. How shameful that he should know her—

“Passion is the normal course between a woman and a man, Alyse. ’Tis not a wicked thing. Even St. Paul said it is better to marry than to burn.”

“Even if it is not to the one for whom you burn?” She all but whispered the question, afraid she dared too much.

Instead of the anger she had expected, he continued to stare steadily at her for a moment then took her chin in his hand and drew it close to his face. “Then, little one, I will make you burn for me.”

He leaned away from her and his gaze roved over her thinly-veiled body. The hunger in his eyes kindled a spark of warmth that wound down into her stomach. And that hunger was not all in his eyes. His shaft seemed to strain toward her though his clothes.

“You look like a nymph, dressed to torment me.” Thomas licked his lips, and her heart beat faster.

“’Twas a gift from Princess Joanna for our wedding night.” She flushed, remembering that room and how everyone had stared at her.

“Aye. I remember it well.” With a sudden movement, he scooped her into his arms and bore her toward their bed. He laid her upon sheets she had turned down invitingly and pillows she had strewn with softly-scented rose petals from Knowlton’s Keep. She stared at the blooms they had gathered together that last day. Now they roused her senses, tying her more tightly to the man before her.

When she glanced back at him, Thomas had wasted no time in doffing his tunic and undershirt. She lay trembling, half-fearful, half-excited by the play of sleek muscles in his chest and arms. Then his hand dropped to the drawstring at his waist and, with one quick motion, he cast his braies and hose aside.

At the sight of his taut staff, Alyse swallowed hard. Desire fought with the urge to hold onto her memory of Geoffrey. But her husband stood so temptingly close… The fire in her belly threatened to burn her up. The memories receded.

Thomas stalked toward the bed, gazing at her hungrily, as if she were his prey. His limbs moved easily, yet she sensed a tension in him, a purpose that would not be denied. He crawled onto the end of the bed, his shoulder muscles rippling as if his skin struggled to contain him. Beautiful, powerful, dangerous. Her breathing sped up, and she shifted restlessly.

He stopped at her feet, grasped them and stroked upward along her legs, moving the blue silk before him. Revealing her inch by slow inch. When his hands reached her knees, he lowered his mouth to her instep and ran his tongue along the curve of the tender flesh.

Her toes curled at the intimate touch. She grasped the sheet and clamped her mouth shut against the moan that lurked deep within her, summoned by his attentions. At the least, she would not give voice to her passion.

He caressed her calf with light strokes of his tongue then nudged her legs apart and moved from one knee to the other. Alyse struggled to hold still as he kissed, licked, and bit the sensitive spots behind her knees. She wanted to arch her back and revel in the lust-filled sensations he offered, but some small part of her continued to resist.

He urged her to bend her knees, opening her wider until she lay bare before his hot gaze. A flush bloomed all over her as she imagined how she must look to him. Such an intimacy did not seem right, even for husband and wife. She jumped as his tongue slid down her inner thigh, heading toward—

“Thomas!” She struggled to scoot backward in the bed, away from his wicked mouth, pushing her shift down, poor shield that it was.

His low chuckle rankled. So her actions amused him. Well, he would not be amused when she fought against such an unnatural—

With dismaying ease, he hauled her back to him and, without any warning, burrowed his head between her thighs.

The unimaginable feeling of his hot breath on her most private part froze the protest in her throat. She held her breath, waiting, completely confused by what he was doing. Then he slowly traced the outline of her opening with his tongue, and her long-suppressed moan escaped, filling their cabin with sounds of a need she had hoped to hide.