Authors: Julia Templeton
He reached down to lift her skirts, his hands rough.
She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Malgor put a beefy hand over her mouth and reached under her kirtle again.
Dear God, he would rape her and there would be no one to save her.
She tried time and again to buck him off, and did her best to keep her thighs pressed tightly together, but he used his knees and brute strength to part them.
His small cock settled against her belly.
“You feel that, don’t you? I like when you fight me.”
That comment alone made her want to stop, but she didn’t. She would submit when hell froze over.
He fumbled with his braies, and she screamed again. He clamped his hand tighter over her mouth, but she bit him.
“You bitch!” he cried, looking at his wounded hand before taking a handful of her hair in his meaty fist. He knocked her head back against the floor, hard.
A pounding started at the door.
“Hel—”
Malgor shifted just enough so she could try and lift her knee and maim him where it would do the most damage.
He clamped a hand around her throat. Blinded by the hair in her eyes, she clawed at his hand, but it was no use. She gritted her teeth when he reached beneath her skirts again.
Blackness lingered on the outer reaches of her mind. She heard voices and a cracking of wood, then she heard nothing at all.
* * *
Adelstan’s chest heaved as the door crashed open and he saw Malgor straddling Rhiannon’s limp body, his hands closed around her throat. A mixture of white-hot anger and fear shot through him and he was across the room, pulling de Cion off her. He slammed Malgor against the wall.
“Rhiannon!” Elspeth cried, going to her knees beside her limp body.
“You traitor,” Malgor said, his breathing labored.
“What did you do to her?” Adelstan asked.
“What was coming. I will not be cuckolded by my betrothed.”
“Does she live?” Adelstan asked Elspeth, almost afraid to hear the answer. Her face was ashen, and he could not see her chest rise and fall. “By God, if you killed her, you will not live to see the dawn.”
“You dare threaten me?” de Cion taunted, wiping blood from his cheek where nail marks trailed down his face and neck. “You, the man who has been fucking my betrothed? You are as good as dead, Cawdor. What favor you have won from your brother-in-law will be ripped from you. You shall have nothing after King William finds out about this.”
“You love another. Why not marry Jocelyn?”
“She is a whore, nothing less, nothing more. I’ve no more use for her.”
Elspeth rested her ear on Rhiannon’s chest. “She lives.”
Relieved beyond measure, Adelstan said a silent prayer of thanks.
“Adelstan, her eyes are opening!”
Suddenly, someone pushed past him. The woman drew a dagger from her skirts and, with a mighty yell, thrust the blade into Malgor’s chest.
A surprised de Cion looked at Jocelyn, his eyes wide in horror as he fell to his knees, blood spurting from the wound as he gasped for breath.
Adelstan went to Rhiannon and pulled her into his arms. She held him tight, her face pressed to his chest.
He brushed the hair off her forehead, furious to see the bruises there. “Malgor is dead. He can no longer harm you.”
Jocelyn’s wails filled the chamber. The woman, sick with grief, and with blood on her hands, sat against the wall, looking down at her dead lover in disbelief.
Rhiannon floated on her back in the lake, looking up at the blue skies above her. She had found this place by chance one day when she and Adelstan had been out for a ride. The beauty of the setting had taken her breath away, nearly as much as the man whom she loved more than life.
Adelstan came up from the water, whipping his hair back out of his face as he pulled her to him. Her heart leapt to her throat as she looked at him, her legs wrapping around his lean waist. Her heart constricted with love for him, this handsome husband of hers.
Aye, husband. She could scarcely believe it, even now. That dark day so many weeks ago had faded, and since then, new memories had been made. Almeron Castle, along with Rhiannon’s hand in marriage, had been given to Adelstan by Renaud, with King William’s blessing. Everyone from Almeron had joined in the celebrations, including Joselyn; who was absolved of all charges relating to de Cion’s murder.
Aleysia had wept through the entire wedding, Renaud holding her hand, his own eyes misting a bit as well. Neither sister nor brother-in-law had been ready for Adelstan to leave Braemere, but there had been no denying the happiness they had shared knowing he had fallen in love, and was starting a family of his own.
“I wonder if our child will be born with gills, wife,” he said, a smile on his lips as a large hand cupped her rounded belly.
“Perhaps he will.”
“Or she?”
Rhiannon smiled. “Aye, or she.”
Adelstan’s cock brushed against her heated core and she lifted a brow. “What if someone were to happen by and see us, my lord?”
“I do not care who would see us, my lady.”
“Do ye not?”
“Nay, let the world know how much I desire my wife.”
“Even though that wife be fat with child?”
His hands moved down her curves, over her bottom, dipping between the cleft there.
“You have never been so appealing to me as you are right now. In fact, the larger your belly grows, the more of you there is to love.”
She tried to frown, but his words delighted her, for she knew he spoke the truth. He loved her, and she him, and she felt like the luckiest woman in the world.
“In fact, I shall show you just how very much I love you.”
He slipped the head of his cock into her entrance and smiled innocently, leaving the work to her.
She slid down his length and sighed, biting her bottom lip as he touched her womb.
She would never tire of this, of these quiet moments, just the two of them. They had everything they could ever desire…a castle of their own, faithful friends, and a child on the way. The beginning of a wonderful life together.
His hands gripped her hips. Her fingernails grazed his shoulders, her body reaching closer to climax with each thrust, each solid stroke within her molten core.
Rhiannon looked into Adelstan’s light eyes, and as her body quickened, she kissed him with all the love and intensity she felt, knowing she had truly found heaven on earth.
The author of over twenty adult romance novels and novellas, and seven young adult/new adult (writing as J.A. Templeton) novels, Julia enjoys reading, research, traveling, riding motorcycles, and spending time with family and friends. A certified psychic medium, Julia is married to her high school sweetheart, has two grown children, and four grandchildren. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and loves hearing from readers.
Masquerade
Now & Forever
Little Miss Independent
Trail Boss
Kieran the Black
Forbidden (writing with Tracy Cooper Posey)
Dangerous Beauty (writing with Tracy Cooper Posey)
Dangerous Desires
Sinjin (Rakehells of Rochester, #1)
Victor (Rakehells of Rochester, #2)
Rory (Rakehells of Rochester, #3)
The Bargain
Return to Me
Parlor Games Anthology (Border Lord)
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MATURE YA/NEW ADULT titles by J.A. TEMPLETON
The Deepest Cut (The MacKinnon Curse, #1)
The Haunted (The MacKinnon Curse, #2)
The Departed (The MacKinnon Curse, #3)
The MacKinnon Curse novella (The MacKinnon Curse, #4)
Thin White Line (Badboy Rockers, #1)
Ryder’s Redemption (Badboy Rockers, #2)
The Gatekeeper (Otherworld series, #1)