Claimed by a Laird
Page 19
Her breathing took on a desperate rhythm and she reached behind her, grasping the back of his head, and pressed his lips against her neck. Whimpering, she rocked her hips in rhythm with his thumb. He flicked her earlobe with his tongue and raked his teeth down her neck. Her pussy throbbed hotly around him.
She moaned his name and he shoved his fingers into her core. Her pussy clenched him hard, covering his hand with her warm, slick juices. A hard rush of breath tore through Galen’s lungs and his cock surged. He slowed his movements and withdrew his fingers from Anna’s wet, trembling folds, but not before he flicked her clit once more, causing her to shudder against him.
He shifted his body lower and lifted her leg, but she flipped around in his arms and pushed him backward onto the bed. Dropping slow, sensuous kisses across his jaw and down his neck, she slid her smooth fingers through his chest hair.
Blinded by need, he grabbed her hips and tried to shift her on top of him. She pushed his hands away and slid her tongue down his torso, her hand leading the way.
Galen inhaled sharply, shuddering as she cupped his balls. She rolled her fingers over them, placing quick, teasing kisses along his hip. He clenched his fists in anticipation and was rewarded for his patience as she grasped the base of his jutting cock and glanced at him with a wicked smile playing across her full lips.
They held one another’s gazes as she brushed the tip of his shaft with her tongue. He snarled and bucked his hips, beads of sweat forming on his brow as a surge of molten energy rushed through his skin. She had never done this for him before and he had never thought to ask for it, assuming she was much more innocent in the ways of pleasure than he.
She continued to flick the tip and then ran her smooth tongue around the head before slowly licking the length of his cock. He closed his eyes, fighting to breathe, as the silk of her warm lips closed around him and slid downward until the tip nudged the back of her throat. He groaned and opened his eyes, his shaft pulsating as her mouth eagerly swallowed him.
She was good…too good. This was obviously not her first time. The realization pricked him something fierce. He struggled between the image of her doing this to other men and the insistence of his throbbing cock. The velvety depths of her mouth and warm hand moving up and down his member won out and he became momentarily lost in the heated pulsations of his shaft against her silky lips.
His balls tightened and he grabbed her by the arm. Though her mouth was almost too tempting to resist, they would soon have far too many nights apart and he wanted to claim her once more, to be deep inside her core when he came.
Anna withdrew her lips from Galen’s thick, silken cock, but continued to stroke him with her hand. She licked her lips and smiled with satisfaction at the tortured grimace on his face. It was about time she had shifted some of the power in this relationship back to her.
He grabbed her wrist to stop her movements and sat up. They reached for each other simultaneously. Anna wrapped her arms around his neck as Galen lifted her onto his lap, her legs straddling his waist.
He grasped the base of his cock and guided her by the hip toward him, impaling her to the hilt in one smooth stroke. Her pussy, stretched taut around his hard width, spasmed and she moaned.
Somewhere in her last threads of coherent thought was the fear that forever attempted to push its way back in and take over. But then, strangely, a warm glow of contentment flowed through her and traveled straight to her heart, unfurling like a flower in the morning sun.
“Lass,” his voice rasped against her ear. He bit her neck as his fingers dug into her hips. “I want to hear the words again, just like when I first took you. Tell me you are mine.”
Her mind issued a brief warning, but it faded as a newly awakened sense of life filled her.
He nipped her ear. “Woman, I want to hear it now.”
She smiled into the darkness over his impatience. “I am yours, Galen,” she whispered in a voice seemingly not her own.
“Yes,” he murmured against her shoulder as he slipped his fingers into her damp folds. “Yes, Annie. You are mine.”
She quivered and he reclaimed her mouth, his tongue swooping possessively between her parted lips. She rocked her hips back and forth, slowly at first, as she threaded her fingers through his hair.
An animalistic growl escaped Galen’s throat and his thumbs dug into the tender flesh of her hips as he thrust into her with a fevered abandon. Her aching nipples grazed his chest hair and she tilted her head back, moaning as his shaft throbbed inside her.
He raked his mouth across her neck, gently biting and sucking. She quickened her movements, matching the pace he set. Releasing his hold on her, his thumb found her clit once more while his other hand grabbed her breast.
“I need you to come again.” His tone was laced with authority and desperation. “Now.”
From deep within her abdomen, uncontrollable, shivery pulsations of pleasure surprisingly began. She fought for breath, grinding against him. A shuddering wave ripped through her pussy. It gripped his shaft hard, sucking him in deeper until it could stretch no more. Crying out his name in amazement at how her body responded to his commands, she crushed her chest against his, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.
He grabbed her hips once more, pummeling his shaft into her. With one last, final thrust, he completely buried himself inside her and snarled through gritted teeth as he convulsed.
The long, drawn-out pulsations of his cock thrilled her and she bit her lip as small, but excruciating tremors coursed through her core once again. He trembled and dropped his forehead to her shoulder.
Slowly, their breathing returned to normal and Anna sighed, laying her head upon his shoulder. A calm peacefulness filled her and she hated the thought it would come to an end with the morning light. She pressed her lips together, tears moistening her eyes.
As though he could sense the shift in her mood, Galen lifted his head and pulled away to look at her. Smoothing the hair back from the sides of her face, he peered at her intently through the dim light.
“Whatever is the matter now, lass?” he asked, his brow knitted in concern.
Anna shook her head and released her hold on him, wiping her tears away with her hands. “I’m just being silly.”
“Tell me.”
She smiled at the authoritative tone in his voice, both confused and amused by the change in her reaction to his demanding nature from annoyance to enjoyment. “I just don’t want you to leave.”
Galen brushed her swollen lips with his. “I will come back to you. You have my word.”
She nodded and hugged him to her chest once again, pushing aside her need to analyze just what he meant. For now she would allow him to hold her. That was all she truly needed.
Chapter Fourteen
The weeks had begun to bleed into one another. Anna’s brain seemed wrapped in a fog and all her energy melted away the moment she awakened each morning. Had it been four or five weeks since Galen had left with the others?
She initially blamed her inability to hold a thought longer than it took a snowflake to melt on a sun-warmed sidewalk on the clan. From day one, she was pulled in a dozen directions as they came to her for questions about how she wanted something done in the keep or to solve an argument between neighbors. At first, a sense of honored humbleness at their trust filled her, but as the questions and incidents increased along with her weariness, she gradually felt a bit of impatience.
Then she blamed her scattered thoughts on Galen. After all, the damn man had the gall to slip into her life and be so kind, generous and protective she couldn’t help but miss the big oaf. Most days she walked around as if there were a big, fat hole in her heart for all the world to see.
His continued absence wore her down…until the nausea began about a week ago.
Anna did miss Galen. But she could no longer blame the clan. She did, however, take some satisfaction in the idea she could blame Galen. After all, he left her alone and pregnant.
She stopped in the middle of the courtyard as a young boy chased a baying goat past her. She smiled distractedly before casting her eyes at the impenetrable keep. Stuck between a rock and a hard place was an understatement for her situation. She knew what Galen would demand of her when he found out about the baby, but she wasn’t convinced she was ready for either marriage or babies. She certainly wasn’t convinced that she could handle both life upheavals at once.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. After all, what other choice did she have? The damn pendant, which was the cause of this whole complete mess, refused to reverse her course no matter how hard she concentrated on going home. She was stuck. Her choices were to be pregnant and unmarried or pregnant and married. In her own time, being an unwed mother wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but here…here was different.
“My lady!” someone called behind her.
When she didn’t immediately turn, the shout repeated. It took her a moment to realize she was the one to whom the words were shouted. She would never get used to being called that.
She plastered a gentle smile on her face and turned. A middle-aged man with a grimly set mouth panted up the hill toward her, leading a young man by the shirt. Anna almost laughed at the sight. The young man seemed about the same age as Geoffrey and had to be at least a full head taller than the older man, but he hung his head limply, staring at the ground like a scolded pup.
They stopped in front of her and the older man released the young one with a shove. He crossed his arms and nodded at her.
“My lady, I am Angus, if you will remember. I have the herd of milk cows just over that hill to the south.” He jerked his head toward the young man.
Anna nodded, remembering his face but nothing else about him. “What can I do for you, Angus?”
“You can punish this young lad, that is what you can do,” he answered with a snort. “Caught him with my Annabelle behind the house. Helping himself to her he was.”
She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. Was this Annabelle the same dairymaid for whom Geoffrey had attempted to steal cattle from the Grahams? She glanced from one man to the other, expecting some embellishment to the story or a protest from the young man, but both just stared back at her in silence.
Anna sighed. “I don’t understand what it is you think I should do here, Angus.”
He scrunched his eyebrows together and threw her a scowl. “Well, punish him, of course.”
“But how?” She placed one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead in exasperation. “Is that what your laird would do?”
Angus nodded emphatically.
Anna pursed her lips in concentration, casting her eyes about the courtyard for something that would give her an idea to satisfy Angus but wouldn’t be too hard on the young man. A stableboy taking a shovelful of manure out of the stable caught her eye. Would assigning something like that to the young man soothe Angus’ feathers?
“He’ll scoop manure out of the stables for a week,” she finally answered. “Will that be acceptable, Angus?”
He paused for several moments but eventually nodded, the features on his face relaxing. “Yes, I suppose that will do. Thank you, my lady.”
“Good.” She dropped her hands to her sides and stepped toward him, turning her back on the young man to speak confidentially to Angus. “You may also want to have a little talk with Annabelle.”
Angus nodded and dropped his eyes to the ground. “Yes, my lady, I will.” He bowed and walked down the hill.
Anna waited for a few moments before turning to the young man still standing beside her. She patted his arm. “You may want to stay away from Annabelle. You’re not the first young man she has gotten into trouble.”
He grinned shyly at her and nodded. “Yes, my lady.”
She offered him a sympathetic smile and shrugged. “Guess it’s time for you to go shovel some shit.”
He chuckled and awkwardly bowed before turning toward the stable.
Anna shook her head and exhaled loudly. Why the hell did everyone keep coming to her in Galen’s absence? It simply didn’t make any sense, especially with Adam, John and Owen staying at the keep.
She stifled a yawn. She was already exhausted and it wasn’t even time for the midday meal. A wave of nausea rippled through her, but she pushed it aside and walked up the hill to the keep. Upon entering the great hall, she found Adam sitting at one of the long tables near the hearth.
“Has it been a long morning already, my lady?” he called to her, his voice laced with laughter.
She smiled weakly and shook her head. She must have looked as bad as she felt. Sitting down in a huff across the table from him, she replied, “You don’t know the half of it.”
Adam’s laughter bounced off the stone walls in the quiet room.
“I just don’t get it.” She leaned forward, her forearms on the table. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m flattered so many people want my advice, but ever since Galen left, people have been coming to me to resolve all sort of disputes. Yesterday, Arthur’s dog chased Duncan’s cattle and then killed one of Gormal’s chickens. This morning, Brodie accused Lachlan and his friends of tapping into his whisky barrels, but then his wife told me he was simply too drunk to remember he had been the one to offer them the whisky. And just now Angus demanded I punish the young man he caught groping his daughter behind his house.”
“What did you decide to do?”
Anna shrugged and propped her elbow on the table to rest her face on it. “Sent him to shovel manure in the stable.”
Adam chuckled. “That may work. For a while.”
“Do you know why this is happening?” she asked.
He nodded slowly, casting his eyes to the tabletop.
“Well?” she asked.
Amusement flickered across his features. “It is because you are the laird’s wife.” Instantly wide awake, she straightened and stared at him wordlessly for a few moments.
“But…but…”
He smiled at her sympathetically. “May I speak frankly, my lady?”
She nodded eagerly. In the weeks since Galen had been gone, she and Adam had spent a lot of time together. At first, this was because she was taking care of him while he healed from his injury, but then their relationship gradually evolved into a friendship. Adam was wise and honest, not to mention generally good-natured, unlike Galen. Adam was easy to like and always offered sound advice. He was even beginning to seem like the older brother she never had.
“When Galen told our warriors on the eve of the battle with the Grahams that he was taking you as his woman, he was essentially pledging himself to you as your husband.” Adam looked her squarely in the eye. “When he introduced you here in the hall after you had recovered from your fever, he publicly declared you as his woman. It was simply assumed you had exchanged marriage oaths.”
Anna shook her head almost violently. “But we aren’t married. I haven’t given him any such oath. Why would everyone jump to the conclusion I had?”
He shrugged. “Because he is the laird and he is taken at his word. Besides, you share his house and his confidences. Just like a wife. Why would the clan not see you that way?”
Her mind whirled in a mixture of panic and confusion. Were Galen’s demands to hear she was his while they were having sex somehow a ruse to get her to promise something she had no intention of truly promising?
“But I haven’t agreed to marry him,” she protested, hating the whine that had crept into her voice.
Adam leaned forward and folded his hands in front of
him. Lowering his voice to just above a whisper, he stated, “I know that. Geoffrey knows that. And Galen knows that. No one has told the clan that.”
None of this made any sense to her. She shook her head, certain Adam was just being dramatic. “If everyone thinks we’re married already, then why was Father Andrew following me around to discuss the benefits of marriage and offering to bless us?”
He laughed. “He may be persistent, but he will not break a confidence. Galen told me how you were the one to break the news to Father Andrew that the two of you were living in sin. Father was only trying to save your soul without exposing you to the ill will of the clan. If you had given your oath to Galen before he left, then Father Andrew would have given you his blessing since he was already here. Since you did not, he was simply trying to convince you to pledge yourself to Galen as soon as he came back home.”
She drew her brows together in confusion. “Wait. You mean he wasn’t trying to marry us? Just to bless us?”
“He wanted you to pledge yourselves to one another so he could bless you, yes.”
Anna shook her head, still not understanding. “But when would the wedding take place? You know Galen better than I, but even I know he wouldn’t to take too kindly to me moving out until the wedding, if we’re to do what Father Andrew wants.”
He cocked his head and stared at her for a moment. “Why would you need to do that? As soon as you give Galen your oath, you are married. You do not even have to do it publicly if you do not wish to, though the nobility usually do have a priest perform a ceremony nowadays, which is the Church’s preferred method, of course. I had not thought it was much different in England.”
“You mean, that’s it?”
He nodded, his eyes flashing with mirth as he smirked at her.
“No flowers, no church, no foofy white gown?”