Stealing the Bride (11 page)

“Ye may tend to me as much as ye like, lass.” Low and harsh, his voice sounded like she felt. Full of excitement and anticipation. Her confidence swelled up, banishing the nagging doubts that had been nibbling on her.

She had only stroked him with her fingertips, but she swiftly changed that, trying to clasp the entire length in her grasp.

“You mean like this, Hayden?”

It was overbold to voice such a question, but Elspeth did not care. She was not meek and he’d been warned about it. But there was something wickedly wonderful about the way his words made her feel, and she wanted to rise up to equal footing with him. There was a quiver of timidness flowing through her and it spurred her into action because standing still was a torment that she discovered she could not endure. Moving her hand on his cock, she stroked it and fingered the slit that sat on top of its head.

“Aye, lass …”

He groaned, and although she had never imagined that such a noise would sound enjoyable in that moment, it surely did. Pleasure shone in his expression, a deep enjoyment that she’d also never considered she might give to a man.

“But I can nae be so selfish as to take and not return the pleasure.”

His eyes opened and there was a wicked slant to them now. He scooped her up and off her feet in one swift motion. Her weight didn’t seem to cost him any effort; he held her cradled against his chest while walking toward the bed. It shook as he lowered her weight onto it. She lost her grasp on his rod and was pressed fully onto her back. Hayden lay down next to her but he remained on his side.

“Now that I have ye in my bed, I plan to feast on ye.”

He rolled over her, his larger body pressing her down into the softness of the goosedown bed. The ropes groaned but Hayden made a sound that was more interesting to her. It was deep and harsh but filled with male enjoyment. One of his knees parted her thighs, drawing a gasp from her lips. A kiss smothered it, trapping it between his lips and hers. He didn’t rush the kiss but lingered in place while his mouth teased hers. She needed to touch him, her hands smoothing over his sides and toying with the hard muscles of his arms.

But she was growing restless too. Her body was twisting and seeking something that had moved beyond a want, and had become a need. One that chewed on her belly, her clitoris, the center of the longing. Her thighs moved farther apart, the motion in harmony with the need churning in her belly.

“Not yet, lass. First I will prove that there is pleasure in having a husband, not just duty.”

He slid down her body, not stopping until his head was centered over her spread sex. She suddenly recalled her thoughts about him kissing her clitoris and the little bud throbbed insistently. His hand delicately pushed open the soft folds covering the entrance into her body, gentle fingers teasing what lay hidden there. Her thighs spread wide as his body lay between them, but it was his fingers that drew a startled gasp from her. That spot that throbbed at the top of her sex was alive with pleasure so intense it made her arch up off the bed. Her hands fisted in the sheets while she twisted in the grasp of intense enjoyment. The urge to push her hips toward that touch was strong and she didn’t resist it. She was now at ease with her legs spread, no more shyness or awkwardness distracting her from the pleasure of his touch.

“This little pearl is something I plan to pay a great deal of attention to.”

He leaned forward and allowed the tip of his tongue to flick across it once. She gasped, trying to roll away. There was simply too much sensation to remain still.

“Stop.”

“Why?” His thumb took over where his tongue had been, pressing against her pearl and rubbing it in a slow circle. A moan crossed her lips before she realized the sound was coming. Pleasure spiked through her but it was mixed with a need so large she feared it might consume her. A soft male chuckle drew her gaze back to Hayden. She hadn’t even realized that her head had arched back.

“That’s the pleasure that passion entices us morals with. The need that makes ye crave more, even when ye are nae sure what it is ye seek.”

He lifted his thumb away and she whimpered. His eyes narrowed.

“Exactly, lass. Ye don’t want me to stop. Trust me to show ye pleasure, even if the means is foreign to ye.”

He leaned forward and licked her clitoris again. This time her hips lifted to make sure it was pressed against his touch. She needed a harder touch, something just a little bit more than she gained. Her heart was racing and she could hear the blood rushing in her ears as she became consumed by every feeling, every point of contact between them. But most of all she was focused on where he was feasting on her spread sex. His tongue lapped her from the front of her sex to the entrance of her passage. He toyed with that opening, the tip of his tongue circling it in slow motions that drew more whimpers from her. She felt too empty, the need threatening to push her over into madness. But he licked his way back up to her clitoris and sucked the little nub between his lips.

Fire blazed through her. Pleasure and need tearing at her in equal amounts. One finger began toying with her passage and she surged against it, frantic for something she was sure she would die without.

Hayden sent his finger deeply into her body and pleasure burst inside her belly. It was blindingly bright, like lightning splitting the sky open. Intense feeling traveled along her limbs, a pleasure so thick there was no seeing through it. There was nothing but the swirling mass of it. She strained up, trying to press herself even harder against his hand. The storm held her tight in its grasp, time frozen while it surged through her.

“That’s the pleasure couples can have when they take the time to love instead of just use one another.”

Hayden’s voice was sweet and soft but there was a tightly controlled edge that made her lift her eyelids and look at him. Hunger was etched into his face, a muscle twitching along the side of his jaw. When she met his gaze, his shoulders tightened, his large body jerking. He ran his hands along her spread thighs and then slowly took off each heeled shoe before rolling the stockings down her legs. But his cock was still swollen and hard and she realized that she was not completely satisfied, not yet. She wanted that flesh deep inside her.

“Come, Hayden, show me the rest of it.”

He rose up, looking powerful and like a legend from Druid lore. Every inch of him was hard and she reached for him, eagerly clasping his shoulders when he covered her. His wider frame completely dwarfed hers, but that too was enjoyable, her softer curves delighting in his weight. The hard touch of his staff against her soft folds drew a gasp from her, but the delicate skin was slick and wet, offering no resistance to him. Her passage didn’t receive his girth so well. Pain pinched her, stabbing into the pleasure that still pulsed through her. It became red-hot between her thighs, and her hands curled, the nails biting into the flesh of his shoulders, but he did not withdraw.

Instead he thrust deeper, in a smooth motion that wrung a cry from her lips because her body hurt. She cried out, lacking any other outlet for the agony.

“It gets better, lass.”

Elspeth lifted wet eyelashes to find Hayden watching her. Satisfaction glittered in his eyes but she was more interested in the way the pain began to recede. Between her thighs, his flesh was now merely hard and filling, a source of pleasure, instead of stabbing hot with pain. He withdrew but plunged deeply back into her until his cock was fully lodged inside her. A small ripple of enjoyment went through her and she sighed with relief.

“Aye, there’s the way, lass. Trust me a wee bit. I’ll no leave ye wanting.”

“But you already pleasured me.” She stumbled over the last few words and Hayden snickered at her.

“There is nothing that says ye may only be pleasured once a night, or that it must be at night, either.”

Need began to flicker to life once more; it was deeper, and his hard flesh seemed to satisfy it in a way his mouth hadn’t. She craved friction and the motion of his flesh moving. Her hips lifted to meet his next thrust, ensuring his hard length slid deep inside her.

“Then I will gladly take more of that delight from ye, Hayden.”

“A gift I’ll gladly give ye, lass.”

Her lover increased his speed as he rode her. Control vanished as pleasure attached to their joining and the pursuit of more of it became the only thought her mind could hold. There was so much feeling, so many things she enjoyed, and it all centered on the way his cock filled her, the motion of it plunging deeply into her before leaving and returning.

The pleasure grew, filling her to the point of near madness. She wasn’t sure she would recover from it, but willingly allowed it to sweep her into another world where there was nothing but delight and her lover groaning with satisfaction. His seed was hot when it hit her womb, and even that drew another little ripple of delight from her body. Elspeth collapsed back onto the bed, panting, every muscle limp.

Even though her partner caught his weight on his elbows, she could feel his heart beating against her chest. Her entire body was too heavy to move. Satisfaction was like the heat rising off a bed of red hot coals, just as warm as the fire had been but steady instead of flames that danced and flickered.

Hayden moved, disturbing her bliss. He only rolled to the side and hooked his arm under her waist to pull her close. His embrace was warm enough to banish her misgivings. The night felt as if it were created just to shroud them and give them a sanctuary to make love in. For the moment it was all she needed. Her eyes fluttered shut, her body slipping into slumber.

Hayden didn’t fall asleep so quickly. As Elspeth slept on, he trailed his fingertips along her shoulder and smiled when she nuzzled against him. Reaching up, he ran a hand along his jaw. The skin was slightly smarting from his lack of shaving but that would vanish if he kept his chin smooth.

He heard something and turned his head. A small figure ran across the room, dressed in a white shift. It headed toward another vision, one that he blinked and still saw. The spirit picked

up the small one and he heard his daughter laugh. She turned her head and waved her chubby little fingers at him. The spirit of his wife had her arm looped around a babe that was sucking on a fist while watching him. Hayden felt them both keenly as though all he had to do was rise and join them. But Ruth shook her head slowly and blew a kiss to him before both visions vanished. He felt them leaving more completely than the day that Ruth had died.

Elspeth remained warm against him, her heart beating next to his, and he tightened his embrace around her before allowing himself to sleep.

There wasn’t a single part of her body that didn’t hurt. Elspeth stood in shock the next morning. She’d rolled out of bed and stood up and that was as far as she had gone before every muscle protested. From the bottom of her feet to the top of her head, everything either ached or hurt.

“Aye, that little trip down the river is showing its damage by now.”

Hayden groaned but rose from the bed, and Elspeth turned to stare at him in shock. The dim morning light washed over her lover and he didn’t seem intimidated by the fact that he was bare. But his face darkened when he looked at her.

Casting her own eyes down, she gasped at the number of bruises marking her skin. There were purple ones and brown ones and a few that were both shades. She suddenly giggled and Hayden lifted one eyebrow in question. Elspeth only raised her hands and shrugged while giggling some more.

Steps outside the hallway drew instant action from Hayden. He moved across the floor and grabbed her chemise, but frowned when the morning light shone through it easily. He reached down and snagged her skirts from where they still lay on the floor and dropped them over her head. The waistband caught on her shoulders allowing the fabric to drape around her like a cloak.

“What are ye doing?”

Hayden didn’t get the opportunity to answer. The door opened and Elspeth grabbed the edges of the skirt to keep her bare breasts from being viewed. Skene offered Hayden a tug on his knitted bonnet before clearing the doorway for the two maids who had been there last night. Another woman followed, this one older, and she carried herself in a fashion that spoke of being respected.

“I brought the village midwife along,” said Skene. “This is Sara Parkerson.”

The woman walked directly to the bed, leaning over it with her eyes aimed at the sheet. Elspeth felt her cheeks warming as Skene and the other maids went to peer at the bedding as well. Sara gave a short nod of her head and turned to study Elspeth. She lifted one hand and flicked her fingers at the skirts.

“Let me see you, girl.”

“Skene, take the sheet and go. We’ll be down as soon as the midwife is satisfied.”

It was one of the maids who pulled the sheet free of the bed. She gave it a snap before folding it with quick efficient motions. Skene took it from her before he quit the room.

“Go on, girl, drop that skirt. Ye have nothing that I have not seen and we needs make sure there is no whispering of ye being marked by a demon.”

“Well, I am marked.”

There was a soft gasp from one of the maids and a snort from Hayden.

“She’s marked by the river that tried to kill us both yesterday.” He walked toward her and pulled the skirts away from her in spite of the way her fingers tried to grip the wool. The morning air was cool against her nude frame and Sara walked closer to peer at her.

“Ye’re lucky all yer bones are still whole.”

The two maids were staring at her in shocked silence, one of them covering her mouth with her hand. But the midwife slowly circled her, missing nothing with her experienced gaze.

“Lift yer arms.”

Elspeth did as told but chewed on her lip with frustration. She could not refuse the midwife, or rumors would begin that she had something to hide. The church took such gossip very seriously, often sending their witch hunters to investigate. All brides were inspected, most grooms too. It helped make sure the marriage contracts were solid by having someone attest to the healthiness of both. That made annulment much harder to gain now that divorce was once again becoming impossible to gain.