The Conquest (23 page)

She looked as though he’d called her a whore. “You must be jesting. You are never one to turn down sex, Adelstan.”

He walked to the bed, stood at the edge. “Perhaps, but I am now. I am exhausted.”

Her brows furrowed and the blanket slid from her fingers. A heartbeat later she was on her knees before him. She had a pleasing body, and she knew how to use it, but he had already had her too many times and his body craved only one woman.

It was common knowledge Evelyn had been sleeping with the majority of soldiers at Castle Almeron since her arrival. One man in particular, a newly knighted soldier, had already declared his love for her. Unfortunately the girl would use him until she grew tired of him, as was her custom.

Evelyn laid a hand on his chest, her fingers sweeping over his nipple. She leaned in, kissed his neck, her tongue tracing a path up his throat to his chin.

He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Not tonight, Evelyn. I am tired.”

Her arms were around his neck before he could blink, her breasts pressed flush to his chest, and she kissed him.

Behind him he heard the door open, and when he turned, he saw a face in the crack. There one moment, gone the next.

Rhiannon.

His heart pounded hard.

“Who was that?” Evelyn asked, suddenly concerned with her nudity.

“I do not know, but perhaps you should get dressed and return to your chamber before that person returns.”

She nodded, and was off the bed and dressing. “Perhaps I can return tomorrow?”

“Your uncle would not take your visits to my chamber lightly, Evelyn.”

“We can find other places.”

The woman obviously didn’t take rejection well. Having lost his patience, he walked her to the door and showed her out.

* * *

Rhiannon felt ill.

She still could not believe what she had seen. Thank goodness Elspeth had been there to pull her away from the door, and safely back to her chamber before being discovered by Adelstan and his whore.

She’d had a horrible feeling about that woman from the second she’d seen her welcoming Adelstan. The two had been lovers, and would continue to be…and nothing would change that.

“Sit down and I shall brush your hair,” Elspeth urged.

“Nay,” Rhiannon said, walking toward the side table and the warm wine there. She lifted the goblet to her lips and took a few swallows.

“Perhaps she went there of her own accord. After all, he still had his braies on.”

“He was half naked, Elspeth.” Her voice broke and she took another drink.

“I am sorry, my dear,” Elspeth said, kissing her cheek.

Rhiannon nodded, her mind racing. “We must leave here.”

Elspeth went completely still. “Rhiannon…”

Rhiannon’s heart clenched. “Ye would not leave with me?”

“Remember what your father said to ye? He is bound by this agreement, as are you, Rhiannon.”

“Then I shall leave alone.”

“Do not be foolish. How will ye survive?”

“I shall find a way.”

“Ye are not used to a life of hardship.”

Rhiannon shrugged. “I would prefer a life of hardship rather than marry a man I despise, or watching the man I do love flaunt his lover before me.”

“Love?”

“Aye, I love Adelstan.”

Elspeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “If ye wish to leave, I shall go with ye.”

Hope filled Rhiannon for the first time in days. She hugged her friend tight. “Thank ye.”

Elspeth started to pace the chamber. “In the coming days we must prepare for our journey. Your every move is being watched, so I shall find the food we will need. Perhaps Adelstan can help?”

“Nay, he must not know. I will not put him in jeopardy, and swear to me ye will not tell Jorden.”

Nodding, Elspeth sat down in the nearest chair. “I swear. But how will we escape if Malgor is always watching?”

“I shall find a way.”

Elspeth folded her hands together. “Perhaps in time being the Lady of Almeron would not be so horrible.”

“I find my betrothed repulsive and he has a leman. When we marry, what makes you think he will not bring her to our bed, Elspeth? I have seen the way he looks at me. I do not put anything past him, even sharing me with his lover is not beyond him. I watched the same happen to my mother, and she was soon cast aside. The difference between us is that I do not love Malgor, nor would I ever.”

Elspeth frowned. “Perhaps ye should consider telling Jorden at the very least.”

“Do ye wish to stay because ye want Jorden?” The words almost sounded accusatory.

Elspeth’s gaze fell between them, her cheeks crimson. Rhiannon had often wondered about what happened between her and the two men at the loch that day.

“I will not lie…I am enjoying myself.”

Rhiannon sat on the floor beside her maid and rested her head against her knee. “I wish I could be like ye, Elspeth. How easy it would be to make love to whomever ye chose, and not let your emotions become involved.”

Elspeth brushed her fingers through Rhiannon’s hair. “It is not that I don’t care for the men I become involved with. I fell in love once, and he crushed my heart. I do not wish anyone to experience such pain, especially ye.”

Rhiannon looked up at her, shocked she had not told her so before.

“I was only five and ten, and he twenty. He wasn’t very attractive, but I liked his smile. At the time I was a lowly maid in your father’s keep, and he worked in the kitchens as the cook’s apprentice. He flirted with me constantly, and at first I had no interest, but as the weeks went by, he became more and more handsome to me. One day, he pulled me into the pantry and kissed me.”

Elspeth’s lips curved into a soft smile. “I could barely sleep that night for all the excitement I felt. For weeks we carried on like that, stolen kisses, and then he grew bolder, touching my breast, squeezing my buttocks. He told me he wanted to marry me, and being young and innocent, I believed him. So after much convincing, he took me to his home in the village. That night he made love to me, and every night thereafter for at least three months. I was desperately in love, so much that when our nights together became fewer, I didn’t notice his attention had turned to another servant.”

“Oh, Elspeth,” Rhiannon said, her throat tightening, reminding her of how she felt seeing Adelstan with Evelyn.

“At the time I didn’t understand, and worse still, I found out I was with child. The healer confirmed it, and when I went to his house to tell him the news, I found him in bed with the servant.”

“What did ye do?”

“I screamed at both of them, and I remember him scrambling from the bed, and the girl just lay in the bed gloating at me as the man I loved told me he was marrying her.” Elspeth closed her eyes, took a deep breath before opening them again. “I went to the healer, and I told her to mix me a concoction that would make me lose the child.”

“Elspeth…”

Elspeth took Rhiannon’s face between her hands. “I tell ye this because I want ye to know that even though your heart might be breaking, there is a tomorrow and ye shall love again.”

Elspeth lay naked, flat on her belly on the blanket she had brought with her, in the only room in a weathered old hut outside the village of Castle Almeron. She had taken a chance by coming here, but she needed to see Jorden before she left. Needed to let him know she would never forget him for as long as she lived.

She heard a horse’s hooves, and taking a calming breath, she watched the door expectantly.

The door opened suddenly, and Jorden appeared, looking as handsome as ever. “Elspeth,” he said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he shut the door with his foot and walked toward her, untying his braies.

He was out of his clothes before she could blink, his powerful body glorious in all its splendor.

Her thighs tightened as his gaze slid down her backside and he grabbed his cock, caressing himself from root to fat crown and back again.

She guessed he might scare many of his lovers, but he didn’t scare her. She reveled in his openness, his eagerness to please, his intense sexuality that might make a meeker woman run.

But not her. He excited her in ways no other lover had.

They had not spoken of Dante since the three of them had made love in the river. The younger officer always beamed whenever she walked by or stopped to talk to him, and she had a feeling Jorden had warned him to say nothing to anyone. Once she had noticed Jorden watching the two of them closely, and to her surprise, she had thought she saw jealousy in his eyes.

Whether that jealousy had been directed at her or Dante, she had no idea. It didn’t matter. He had given her some much-needed confidence, and she would be forever grateful to him for that.

“Do what ye will with me,” she said, sounding less nervous than she felt.

He flashed a devilish grin that made her heart beat in triple time. “That is quite an invitation.”

He started kissing her toes, and worked his way up to her ankles, her calves, the backs of her knees, to her thigh.

He spread her legs apart, pulled her hips up and kissed the dimples above her buttocks, before licking her slit from one end to the other.

Her fingers fisted the bedding beneath her.

“Jorden,” she said on a ragged whisper and he laughed under his breath, a wicked sound that thrilled her.

He flicked his tongue over her throbbing clit, and over her back passage. Her insides clenched with the need to have him fill her.

His fingers followed his tongue, probing inside her slick heat, while his thumb eased into her ass. He pressed past the tight ring of muscle, and let out a groan. “Mmm, so tight.”

“Ye want me there, don’t ye?”

His silver eyes turned a darker shade. “Aye, I do.”

“But you are soaking wet here,” he said, moving his fingers against her sweet spot inside her vagina.

She came against his fingers, enjoying the rippling of his chest as he groaned against her back.

He removed his fingers and thrust his cock inside her, her weeping walls gripping him tight. She arched her back, taking him fully, loving the feel of his heavy sac slapping against her folds.

Taking a handful of both breasts, he played with them, teasing her nipples into tiny little buds, the sensation sending a pulsing pleasure throughout her, centering at where he filled her.

She looked back at him, saw the intensity in his wolf-like eyes. He flicked her clit again and again and she came hard, her inner muscles clenching his thick length tight.

When the last tremors had faded, he pulled out of her, his heavily veined cock still hard and slick.

Her stomach clenched when he placed the head at her back passage and slipped past the band of muscle. “Bear down,” he whispered, and she did, biting her lip against the pain. He was so much larger than Dante and she wasn’t sure if she could take him.

With a single thrust, he buried himself balls-deep and she cried out at the mixture of pleasure-pain that rippled through her.

Trembling and staying completely still, he bent over her, kissing the nape of her neck, whispering French love words in her ear.

She began to relax, and only then did he begin to move. Instantly her body came back to life, and he knew exactly where to touch her, a hand on her breast, the other at her sex, rubbing her clit and sliding into her heat with expert skill.

The familiar stirring began deep in her belly, and soon she was reaching for the stars, and crying out his name. He followed right behind her, moaning as he filled her with his cream.

* * *

Rhiannon tried to keep up with de Cion’s long strides. Renaud de Wulf and his bride, Adelstan’s sister, had arrived at Almeron, which meant she was days from her wedding.

She felt sick and had been for the past two days. The very sight of food made her stomach churn, and even when she was certain there was nothing left to purge, she continued to heave. Scents were the worst, particularly de Cion’s strange odor, which had been one reason she stayed in her chamber.

This morning, when she had thrown up yet again, Elspeth had rung her hands nervously, pacing the chamber, until she finally turned and asked Rhiannon if she was with child.

Rhiannon’s menses should have arrived by now, and they had always been timely, which meant she could very well be pregnant with Adelstan’s child. Fear and a mixture of excitement filled her at the thought.

“The least you can do is look happy, my dear,” de Cion said with a forced smile.

“Aye, my lord.” She forced a grin, and he nodded with satisfaction.

Malgor had dressed in his finery, the yellow tunic stretching over his barrel chest. Rhiannon and Elspeth had been up on the ramparts earlier this morning, talking about which direction would be the safest to take upon fleeing. From their position, hidden behind the battlements, she had seen de Cion with his mistress, embracing and kissing before he left the armory. He had patted the woman’s behind, while she in turn tossed back her head and blew him a kiss.

Rhiannon could not wait to escape the man, and the hell her life would be married to him.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow she would be long gone from Castle Almeron. She had no intention of returning to Scotland or her father’s keep. Instead, she would flee to Wales, near the English border, to a small town her mother spoke about often. No one would ever think to look for her there.

Glancing behind her, Rhiannon looked at Elspeth, who smiled encouragingly, before glancing at Malgor, who cast both of them an irritated look.

It was obvious he didn’t like Elspeth, and for no other reason than Rhiannon was close to her. Perhaps he had wanted her to come to Almeron alone and make her own friends? Or perhaps he did not approve of such a friendship between a lady and her servant?

Well, de Cion could go hang for all she cared.

“Here they are,” de Cion said, smoothing his tunic as they passed under the gatehouse.

Renaud de Wulf was a tall and imposing figure. He dismounted from a large horse, and reached up to help his wife down. The slender woman beamed up at her husband with true affection.