by Mia Pride
She heard a chorus of loud drunken voices in the very back of the room singing a highly inappropriate song about concubines and lots of ale, but decided it only added to the gaiety. Not knowing what else to do with herself, she sat down on a wooden bench at the nearest table. Within seconds, a busty woman with scraggly blonde hair and large blue eyes approached her. “Drinking alone, are ye?” The big blue eyes widened as they took in Una’s startled features. She could see the woman was missing her two top teeth as she smiled warmly back at Una. “My apologies, my lady, if I startled ye. Tis not often a lass of your…station comes in here alone.”
Just before Una opened her mouth to tell the woman she was of common birth, a familiar voice called her name from behind. “Una? Is that you? By all the gods, yours is a face I have not seen in ages!” She whipped around and saw her old companion, Collin, standing behind her with a wide smile. He had dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. His nose was long but straight, just like his flashing white teeth. He leaned over the table top with his two strong arms to bring himself closer to her face with a smile.
“Collin! I have not seen you in many years. You have certainly…changed!” Una couldn’t hide her shock at how different her childhood companion looked. She wasn’t sure if she was more excited to see a familiar face, or that the face was one so handsome.
Collin had lived on the farm at the edge of the village with his parents when they were children. Once she left home to foster with Brocc’s family, her visits to the farm ended. A stab of guilt washed over Una as she realized she had abandoned the one companion she ever had.
He chuckled lightly at her reaction and winked. “People tend to change when you have not seen them in several summers. You disappeared when you started your fosterage. And then your mother fell ill. Och, Una,” he grabbed her hand and kissed it gently, “I am very sorry to hear about your mother. I came by to check on you, but you were already gone.”
Una’s guilt deepened. Collin had come for her, after all those years, and she had not spared him a moment’s thought. “Tis very kind of you, Collin. My thanks. I have been staying with Brocc— I mean, King Brocc, since she passed. He took me in as his ward. I am his servant now.”
Collin’s eyes flew open as his forehead crinkled in confusion. “His servant? Why would you agree to such a thing, Una? You should be married by now with a family and running your own home. I know you were his foster-sister, so I understand him taking you in. But I cannot see him needing you as a servant. A wife, aye, but not a servant.”
Una was speechless. She was slightly shocked by his ability to accurately perceive her strange circumstances, yet she was flattered he saw the potential she had to be more than just a servant. After a long pause, Una finally replied, “I had nowhere else to go. He offered me a home and I found a way to earn my keep.” She shrugged as if the matter was that simple.
“I do not believe that for a moment, Una. Nay man, especially King Brocc, takes a woman like you away for the sole purpose of gaining extra help.” He gave her a sideways look that urged her to tell him the whole story, but she decided that mentioning the King’s rejected proposals could only make her seem even more ridiculous, so she decided to sidestep that little detail altogether.
She looked straight into Collin’s beautiful ocean blue eyes and gave him another shrug, “That is the whole of it. I was his foster-sister for many years. He only wants to protect me. Brocc has nay true interest in me. Surely he is too busy to pay any attention to a simple woman like me.”
An astonished whistle escaped Collin’s perfectly shaped lips as he shook his head. “Una, if you went outside more often, you would soon learn that there is nothing simple about you. You are the most beautiful woman in the tuath. I have thought so my entire life.” His voice became a whisper as he gauged her reaction. She smiled shyly at him and looked down as a blush crept up her face.
He ran a finger through the dark brown stubble on his chin and, holding up a finger to signal Una to wait for one moment, disappeared into the crowd. Before she could even wonder where he had run off to, Collin arrived with a jug of mead, sliding it in front of Una with a wink.
She was feeling reckless and wanted beyond anything else to finally break free from her recluse past and find the carefree, exciting woman she had been suppressing. She filled her mug, took a large swig and continued to gulp it down until it was nearly empty.
“Una! I would not recommend drinking that much, or that quickly. You will be under the table in nay time! And I do not want Brocc to skewer me with his blade when I deliver you home ill or inebriated.” He gave her a slanted smirk as she wiped her upper lip.
“I am not at all worried about what Brocc thinks! He is not my husband!”
“But he is your king…and mine. And, I most definitely do care!” They both laughed together as he swiftly sat down on the bench, finally on the same level as her. He turned to look at her, his eyes seeming to drink in her every detail. Una turned away abruptly, struggling not to blush under his scrutiny. He placed his hand on top of hers and smiled. “I’m sorry if I seem too forward. Tis only that I have admired you from a distance for so long. I wondered if you had forgotten me. Tis very nice to finally be able to speak to you.”
Una drank down the last bit of her mead and looked on as he refilled her mug, then turned her eyes back on Collin. The mead was working its way through Una’s blood and she could feel herself becoming less reserved. “I was very nervous when I walked in here on a whim tonight. I have been tucked away for so long, I feared I would not know a soul. I feel lucky to have run into you.” She blushed again and looked down at her mug awkwardly.
His warm smile made her insides flutter and he continued to hold her hand throughout the night as they talked and laugh, both continuing to drink their mead without keeping track of the refills. As the room suddenly began to spin, she pushed her mug away. “I’m afraid I have lost track of both time and the amount of drink I have consumed. I feel dizzy…” She put her head in her hands to try and steady herself.
“I should not have allowed you drink so much. Perhaps you should come back to my farm. I will make sure you are well.” Sensing her immediate hesitation as her body tensed, he quickly added, “Oh, nay! I have an extra bed. I am honorable, I assure you. I simply want to take care of you, Una.”
She hiccupped loudly and covered her mouth in embarrassment. “My thanks, Collin, but I really should go. Brocc will worry…”
“What if he is not home? Someone should be around to take care of you.”
“I am quite capable of caring for myself, Collin. I am twenty summers and unmarried. A woman learns to survive.” She gave him a playful smile and he grabbed both of her arms gently, pulling her close.
“I know you can take care of yourself. But you do deserve to be cared for, as well. I would be willing to be that man, Una. And not just for tonight.” His piercing blue eyes fluttered as he leaned in closely with his lips. She could feel his warm sweet breath mixing with hers. She knew she should resist his advances, but wasn’t this what tonight was all about?
Brocc’s kiss had knocked her senseless. The temptation to test Collin’s kiss against his warred with her conscious. Would his kiss be as potent? Or would it lack in comparison? She started to lean in to find out, but suddenly pulled back as Brocc’s face unwillingly flashed in her mind. A frustrating pang of guilt, almost as if she were betraying Brocc, filled her mind and she turned her face away from his lips. “Forgive me Collin, but I am not ready for this.”
“Una, I am only trying—”
“You heard the lass. She would prefer to go home…to our home. Remove yourself from my woman.” Brocc’s intense hazel gaze shifted to Una, as if daring her to deny his claim on her. Her chest constricted with panic. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or slap him for his proclamation.
Collin quickly let go of her arms just as Brocc swung her around, flinging her against his chest in a protective embrace. She could smell the musky s
cent of him and it made her tingle. Too much drink had gone to her head and she had lost all control of her impulses. Una wrapped her arms around him and smiled into his chest, quite overcome with the mixture of mead and excitement.
Without looking back at Collin, Brocc grabbed Una by the arm and aggressively dragged her out of the gathering hall, cursing into the cold winter sky under his breath the entire walk home. As they reached the entrance to his home, he kicked the door open, flinging her limp body into the house. She struggled to land on her feet, but ungracefully landed on her backside on the fur strewn floor near the hearth. She looked up at him with a spiteful glare. Her hair was tangled around her face and her jeweled clip bobbed loosely on the top of her head. The wide neckline of her dress slipped over one shoulder, baring more skin than she was accustomed to, but in her stupor, she could not make herself seem to care.
“You are welcome,” he growled and started to storm down the corridor, leaving her in a disheveled lump on the floor.
“I am welcome?” she screeched. “For being humiliated publicly on the first night I venture forth into the village? I can handle myself, you know.” She crossed her arms and used her slippered feet to spin herself on her rear toward the fire and away from him. She knew she probably looked ridiculous, but in the moment, her indignation was too intense to care.
“You think I humiliated you? You did a fine job of that yourself, drinking mead until you can nay longer see straight and allowing Collin O’Leary to paw you in public!”
“He was doing nothing of the sort! He attempted to kiss me, but that is innocent enough. After all, I am not a married woman.” She knew her words hurt him. She also knew she would later regret them, but for the moment, her mind was addled just enough to spark a rebellion. She wanted to goad Brocc into a jealous rage, though she couldn’t understand why this should please her so.
“What came over you tonight, Una? You have been a sensible lass for as long as I have known you. I leave the house for a few hours only to find you over-imbibing in the gathering hall, wrapped up in another man’s arms and ready to go home with him!” He stormed back over to where Una sat and grabbed her arms from behind, kneeling down to her level. “Was my kiss earlier so terrible? Or perhaps it was so great that it drove you mad?” He whispered in her ear, his warm breath caressing her neck and sending shivers down her bared shoulder.
“Don’t flatter yourself, King Brocc.” She emphasized the use of his title, knowing it would chafe on his nerves as she tried to sound more confident than she felt, but her words came out in a meek whimper that convinced him of nothing.
“Am I not good enough? Do I disgust you?” He nipped on her ear lobe and a moan escaped her lips as the sensation swiftly spread throughout her entire body. Gooseflesh sprinkled down her arms as his hot breath fanned across her neck.
“Nay…” she breathed, “You do not disgust me. I was only looking for…”
“For?” She heard the hurt in his voice, though he tried valiantly to hide behind the mask of his usual arrogance. It was that stubbornness, his inability to express himself openly to her, that reminded her why she had gone out in the first place. Brocc could never, would never, declare his feelings for her, if any truly existed at all.
In all the years Una lived with Brocc, he ignored her or teased her. His sudden proposal two years ago had thrown her off-kilter, yet that was all it was. An offer of marriage, but no words of love or affection. Una thought about all his previous offers. Had he spoken of any tender feelings for her ever? Nay. Kissing her senseless only proved he wished to share his bed with her. But she needed evidence of more than lust to share a life with him.
She wanted more than his offer of marriage. She wanted his love, his passion. She wanted him to declare himself to her, not play her for a fool by breathing hotly against her neck and using her body’s betrayal as a weapon.
“I was looking for…for…” She could not say it out loud. To say she had refused his offer and sought out a new life would surely sound unappreciative of all he had done for her. “I cannot stay here like this with you, Brocc!” She breathed deeply as he released his grip on her arm and stared down at her with fire blazing in his eyes. She could see the moment he understood her meaning, even without saying the words, as his lips turned down and he stepped away.
“My offer of marriage was not good enough for you? You wish to find another? So be it.” He started to walk away again and she panicked, wondering if she had lost him forever, and then wondering why she cared so much. He had always been there, this powerful man who she could not seem to ignore, though, by all the gods, she had tried. Ten and three years of living with him, yet avoiding him at all cost. It was a habit hard to break. One that preserved her heart from the break she knew could come if she ever fully let him in.
Desperation filled her. She had to explain herself. The pain she saw on his face made her suddenly feel like she had hurt him more than she knew. “I am a common born lass. I live to serve those above me, tis what I have always done. You are the chieftain of our tuath, a noble born man whom I grew up serving. You can wed any woman you want. I am the one not good enough for you. I am fit to serve your home and nothing more. And yet, I cannot do that forever. I must find a life of my own. Run my own home and start a family…” She lowered her head and wrapped her arms around her knees as she started to shiver despite the warmth of the fire, choking back the tears that threatened to fall. “You could never be happy with a woman like me, not truly. Tis why I sought companionship tonight, Brocc, from someone who understands what it means to be common.”
With a sigh of resignation, Brocc walked back to Una and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her effortlessly, just as he had the day he took her away from her mother’s home. He walked down the corridor with her arms wrapped around his neck and her dizzy head resting in the nook under his chin. She heard him inhale deeply as he nuzzled his head into her hair. She wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and enjoyed the weightless feeling of being in his arms.
He turned into his chamber and threw her onto his bed. It was large and covered with an abundance of soft furs atop his straw-stuffed mattress. The woolen blankets smelled like Brocc, making her want to inhale until his scent became a part of her soul. But the expression on his face as she dared look up made her heart quicken and hands clench into the furs surrounding her.
“Why did you bring me in here?” she whispered and swallowed nervously.
“Why do you think?” He lifted his brows suggestively at her and gave her a wink.
“You would never!” she squealed and took her lower lip between her teeth to hide its quivering.
“Och…I would. But nay, I will not. I prefer my women to be coherent while I bed them,” he said with a grunt. “You will likely be sick tonight. I will stay with you and make sure you are alright.” Una tried to hide her obvious disappointment that he didn’t want to ravish her. Aye, she would protest if he tried, but it would be nice to know he wanted to.
The smug grin spreading across his face told Una that she had failed to hide her desire for him. Turning his back to her, Brocc swiftly pulled his loose white tunic over his head and then bent over to pull down his trousers. Una watched him with her mouth wide open, staring at his flexing back muscles and his perfectly hard backside. He turned around to face Una and her eyes roamed over his completely nude male form as a bright red blush covered her cheeks and she buried her head into his bed.
“Brocc! What are you doing?” she squeaked as she clutched the soft wool blanket in her fist until her knuckles turned white, refusing to look up from the bed.
With a smirk, he walked over and forced her to roll onto her back, but she kept her eyes closed. She felt the bed sink in around her as his muscled, naked body hovered over hers, his thighs squeezing against her hips and his breath upon her lips. “This is my bed. And I prefer to sleep in the nude. I am already being put out by your presence tonight. I refuse to be put out further.” He rolled off her ont
o the other side of his bed and faced away from her. “Good night, Una.”
Chapter 3
Brocc’s breathing lulled into a soft rhythmic slumber within moments, but Una remained wide awake, squirming as the knowledge that Brocc was nude and lying next to her permeated through the haze of the mead. How could he simply strip naked with her right beside him, and then roll over to fall asleep? Her pride was slightly bruised and she couldn’t deny her disappointment. What was wrong with her? Relief should be her predominant emotion, not disappointment! Besides, she didn’t know what it was her body was craving anyhow.
She laid in bed for the next few hours feeling restless and unable to sleep, focusing on a slow throbbing feeling between her legs that she couldn’t understand. Her mind kept reeling with the images of his naked body and, though her mind became more coherent as the mead wore off, her head continued to spin. She still wore her thin lavender dress and it was bunching up uncomfortably around her body as she moved, but she had no choice but to keep it on.
Memories of the night started to come back to her in a rush of shame and embarrassment. Closing her eyes, she could see Collin’s handsome face and sharp blue eyes as he leaned in to kiss her. Why was she so ashamed? She remembered the moment Brocc’s face flashed into her mind and then he had magically appeared, as if she had unknowingly summoned him to her side.
Part of her had felt disappointed that he found her in another man’s arms. However, in the rebellious corner of her mind, she felt slightly triumphant. His reaction to Collin’s attempted kiss was surely more than the simple reaction of a guardian protecting his ward. She was quite sure she had sensed a spark of jealousy. Remembering the low tenor of his angry voice as he had claimed her as his woman made her stomach flutter. Had he meant that? Or was he simply trying to put Collin off?