by Amber Dane
He gave a small snort and with an arrogant toss of his head, mumbled something she did not quite hear before he yanked her forward and crushed his mouth to hers, and forced her lips apart. Caroline gagged over his sour breath and his intrusive tongue. She twisted and tore her mouth free from his brutal assault.
‘I hope you rot in hell! Let go of me.’ she seethed and kicked him. He let out a howl and she got one hand free.
‘Not until I have had you. I have nothing to hide from your beastly Norman. I have been the model prisoner. Aye, he may use your body, but a barbarian like him, no better than an animal, will ever trust the English. You. When he sets me free and he will, you need come with me, Caroline.’ His calm and deadly tone muttered against her ear.
Caroline swallowed. ‘Release me.’ She demanded breathlessly.
He drew back, his sharp eyes on hers with an arched brow. ‘I will if you but say you will give me what I seek.’
Her heart skipped a painful beat and pushed her into action. She shoved her hands against his chest and using the wall for support pushed him with all her might.
He was not as off-guard as she’d thought. Anger flashed in his eyes and he stared down at her for a long moment, his face rigid, eyes cold, sending a shard of ice racing up her spine. Then after a moment, he smiled and slowly took a step back.
Though he no longer touched her, he still blocked her path to freedom. His hands were balled into fists.
He could not be crazy enough to beat her to a pulp right under her husband’s roof, Caroline thought. But looking into his wild eyes, she saw the truth.
She lowered her voice and tried a different tactic. She spoke with as much sweetness as possible. ‘Cedric. Cedric. Acting like this will never make me believe that I can trust you or make me leave with you’
His eyes narrowed as he eyed her, his expression skeptical. ‘You are not a good actress, Caroline. You know what I want.’
He reached for her again and she swallowed. She needed to say something, anything to get him to let her go. ‘I will give you what you want.’
‘Swear it.’
She couldn’t say the words for she knew she would choke on them and nodded instead. He said naught for so long she thought he would grab her again but he didn’t. An evil grin spread across his lips and her fear came back.
His low chuckle unnerved her as he backed away into the shadows. Just then, she heard voices out in the yard.
Kelbie, calling for her.
Horror filled her heart and she bolted down the corridor and headed for the first exit she saw.
Within moments she was outside.
Kelbie came running, Laur and Mildred not far behind and threw his small body at her. Caroline bent down and wrapped him to her breast in a tight, protective embrace. Turning back, she glanced secretively over her shoulder and was shocked to see Cedric’s thin silhouette in the shadows. His daring with so many nearby frightened her more.
Mayhap she had been wrong. He did not care if he was seen. But as she looked to Laur and Mildred, and a few soldiers in the yard, they stood distracted by the yard activities. From where she stood she was the only one who could see him. He stepped into a shaft of light just enough for her to see his face.
His eyes were on Kelbie.
Caroline clutched the wriggling boy closer. When Cedric’s eyes met hers that same grin from before tilted up his lips right before he stepped back and disappeared into the shadows once more.
Tightness in her chest made her next breath painful. She blinked rapidly and held onto Kelbie tighter till he squirmed to get down. When she lowered him to the ground he tugged furiously at her hand to drag her toward something he so excitedly wanted her to see. As she moved to follow him, she looked one last time to where Cedric had been standing and closed her eyes with a fervent prayer for she knew now he would not leave them alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Caroline watched from her place at the solar window Darc dismount his large destrier and hand the reins over to the stable hand whilst he removed his gloves. He seemed larger than life wearing his quilted gambeson which only made him appear even bigger. His squire, a yellow-haired tall boy approached and took his gloves and dagger from him.
Even from this distance her husband’s dark expression bespoke his mood. ‘Twas not a good one. She had anticipated his return.
Her run in with the sly Cedric had eaten away at her will till naught was left but her raw nerves. At first she could not wait to tell Darc of it. But now seeing him, she was even further beside herself and unsure.
Were she to tell him, he would question her further. Oh she knew not what to do. Mildred entering the room drew her from her angst and Caroline gave one last look down at her husband below. He faced her direction and her breath stuck in her throat.
Darc turned away from the sight of his wife’s silhouette in the window and headed toward the blacksmith’s hut. The day had not been a good one thus far. Those responsible for what had happened in the village had not yet been found. And a few oxen had been felled by what one of his farmers thought to be a sign of a coming pestilence. Darc did not think it was that and had ordered the man to keep a still tongue. Last thing he needed was more panic among the serfs over this latest incident. That word alone was enough to cause mass hysteria. The guards had seen nothing out of the ordinary around the penned animals. The oxen had eaten from the same trough and only those few had perished. Something else had been the cause.
His headaches were growing and seeing Caroline in the window only added to the weight upon his shoulders.
He’d not trained yet the group of men William would need and today was just the day for it. Combat practice would get out his aggression.
It did not.
Later as dusk fell Darc stalked through the fields with sweat pouring down his back, his muscles tight and breathing heavy. Cursed he was for all that fighting had done nothing more than increase his agitation. Villiens passing by ending their day scurried out of his way as did a few chickens that were plucking at the ground for the feed spread before them.
A guard at his post called out a greeting to him. Darc grunted.
He heard a child’s laughter and the soft sound of a woman’s giggle. His head turned back to his wife’s window. A candle burned showing light from the window, but her petite figure was not in it. His steps slowed as he continued to look up.
He had not wanted to face it but he knew part of his frustration was the built up passion he still carried from her simple kiss last eve. Was this what Cedric wanted from her too? A taste of her sweet lips?
He was a fool! He had more important things to think about and with that thought, Darc changed direction. A dip in the river would cool his heels.
Something woke her and Caroline started, opening her eyes to the darkness of the room. A candle burned low and shed a glow in the room. Kelbie had fallen asleep in her lap and she stood carefully with him in her arms. Her gaze swept the room and she found what had disturbed her sleep.
Darc stood just inside the door. She swallowed.
‘Here, my lady. Let me take him.’ Came Mildred’s sleepy voice as the maid rushed up from her seat near the window. Mildred closed the chamber door behind her.
Caroline smoothed her hands down the front of her wrinkled gown. She’d not meant to doze off in rocking Kelbie to sleep. She noticed her hands shook when she reached up to touch her hair. She cleared her throat and glanced in his direction.
His nearness disturbed her in the worst way and she wished it did not. Was he going to say aught or just stand there glaring at her? She turned her back to him and walked to the chest where the water basin and cloths sat on top.
She heard his booted feet as he came up behind her. Her chest heaved up and down with her rapid breaths. She almost jumped out of her skin when his hand covered hers over the cool cloth she had pressed to the side of her neck.
His warm breath stirred the small hairs there and she drew away from him. The tension building in her
was nigh overwhelming. ‘Any news on the murders?’ she asked him.
His eyes darkened. ‘Not yet.’
He looked coiled as tightly as she. Seeing him down in the bailey earlier had stirred a longing for him in her that she had tried to deny all evening, but now it was back with a vengeance that made her mouth go dry. Their hands were still touching with the cloth between them. Caroline released it and took a step back.
She should tell him of Cedric. But he would not believe her for she knew he did not yet fully trust her. She stood with her back straight and opened her mouth. His gaze dropped to her lips.
‘I would like to visit the…the families of the slain.’ she stated. ‘Twas not a lie, she did want to. But bit back a curse that yet again she stalled on the other.
He gave her an annoyed look. ‘Do you not remember my words from last eve? Nay. It is not safe to do so now.’
‘The guards are there. ’Tis only right as the lady of the manor that I do so. Especially if I am to move forward as the king said. I wish to know all of the people here.’
Suspicion blazed in his sharp eyes as he stared at her. ‘Nay.’
‘But-‘
‘Nay! Till this matter is taken care of and the murderer caught, you are not to go near the village.’
She stalked past him in an angry huff and grumbled something incoherent. Darc watched her stiff shoulders and said, ‘Do not think for a moment to defy me on this. You will lose.’
She whirled on him and as he suspected, defiance burned in her wide honey-colored eyes as she uttered her lie. ‘I would not dare think to defy you.’
‘Your word?’ Darc ignored her sarcasm and eyed her with a slanted look as he closed the gap between them, the wet cloth clutched in his fist and droplets of water splashed to the floor.
Her answer came quickly. ‘Aye. My word.’
She’d lied right to his face! He gave her a curt nod. He wanted to shake her senseless but instead he reached out with his other hand and drew her close. ‘You break it and you will regret it, wife.’
Before she could say another word his mouth came down on hers. Caroline knew why he had come. A part of her was glad the kiss she had shared with him had affected him too. Last night she had thought the overwhelming desire had been caused by the wine. Now she knew it had not done so alone.
Mixed emotions flowed through her as her passion rose and Caroline shoved out of his arms.
He caught her wrist. ‘You know why I have come.’
Aye, she did. Her heart tattooing a pattern of hard beats against her ribs told her thus. She licked her lips, her undoing as he kissed her again. When she could breathe yet again she asked, ‘Cedric? Did you speak with him?’
He stiffened against her but replied, ‘Aye. He will be removed and kept elsewhere until the time comes for me to make a final decision. Does that satisfy you?’
Caroline was elated. Her prayers had been answered. Cedric would be gone.
‘When?’ she asked hastily.
‘In less than a day.’
There was no need now to tell him of Cedric’s wanderings and that someone had helped him get out. Just as there was no need to mention the true reason Cedric was here.
With Cedric soon to be gone from here, she and Kelbie would be safe just as he said they would and that was all that mattered. She shivered and released a tight sigh. ‘The sooner he is gone and the farther he is away from here all the better. Thank you.’
‘I told you to worry not. It would be taken care of. Is there something more which bothers you, wife?’
Caroline forced herself not to look away from his intense and scrutinizing gaze. She gave him a shaky smile. ‘Nay.’
She gasped when his hands cupped her through her gown and pinched her hardening nipples. She shoved her thoughts aside and let the needs of her body take over and closed her eyes.
Her cry of pleasure filled the room and he picked her up and sat on a nearby stool and drew her snuggly up against him between his spread thighs. Tension was thick between them and she could have fought him, but she wanted what he sought as much as he.
He took the wet cloth and squeezed the last droplets of water onto the pulse that beat at the side of her neck. He leaned in and let his tongue and lips kiss the droplets away. Caroline squirmed against him, feeling the wetness between her thighs, the ache for him building. She could feel the pommel of his Norman sword, his big strong thighs and heat flooded her center. Without breaking their hot kiss he rucked up her gown.
She grabbed strands of his hair in both hands when his fingers brushed over her womanhood and she clung to him.
She wanted to forget about everything. Needed to forget. The murders. Cedric. The distrust between them. Everything for just this moment.
He slid his lips along her cheek, then down the side of her neck, his hot tongue licking her in a scorching caress. She shook with her need and from the hot tingles his mouth sent through her.
‘Open your legs,’ he ordered.
Trembling, she could not for she thought if she did she might fall. She need not worry for he cupped her bottom with his other hand and drew her up onto his big thighs, his long sword and scabbard thrust aside and her legs straddling him. His hand pressed firmly against her lower back, his sultry whisper came next to her ear. ‘Wrap your legs around me now.’
His words were breathless, gruff and lust-filled and Caroline soared from the sound. She eagerly did what he asked and locked her legs behind his waist.
She called his name when she felt the tip of his swollen shaft bump her sensitive flesh. ‘Darc….’ She said on a startled and gasping sigh.
‘Oh, Aye.’
How he’d managed to free himself she did not know she only knew she wanted him inside her. Needed him inside her and now.
She told him so. ‘Come into me, husband.’
He didn’t obey and moved the head of that erect beautiful part of him up and down her slick swollen heat as he’d done the last time.
She had run from him, from this last time but the fire burning in her now told her she could no longer avoid it. Nor did she have wont to.
The explosive heat between them was almost too much to bear.
She was a different person in his arms; carnal desire worked its magic fingers in her brain ridding all rational thought. She would not run from this passion that frightened and excited her at the same time tonight.
As if in answer, her body reached its peak and Caroline went wild, arching against him and screaming her passion loudly as her fast and jolting fulfillment took her by surprise. She was grateful for his strong thighs for her movements were forceful enough to knock them both over.
She laughed lightly, joyfully and saddened at the same time when he lifted her and turned her around so that her bottom now rested on the stool. He stood, her legs open and braced on either side of his thighs, and then he entered her in one smooth thrust. Caroline sighed and closed her eyes from the bliss of it. He was so thick. So hot, large and hard.
The stool moved across the rush covered floor with each of his deep thrusts. By the time they’d finished and he had withdrawn and spent his seed on her thighs, she found her back against the wall next to the hearth. Her heart thudded like a spirited horse inside her chest. Darc’s head rested against the top of hers.
‘You aim to slay me with the want of you, wife.’
Caroline did not know what to think of his words and too choked with emotion she instead wrapped her arms around his neck. He groaned into the crook of her throat as his softening manhood jerked and pulsed against her thigh.
The way he made her feel frightened her.
This passion intense and almost insatiable they shared she could not explain. She felt so close to him but his withdrawal when he found his release bothered her. She knew it shouldn’t. The fact that he did not want a child was plainly understood by his actions. An ache stirred in her chest.
This time when she closed her eyes, it was to stop the burn of her tears
and she drifted off to sleep against his chest.
Darc watched his wife sleep soundly next to him. He had carried her to his chamber and he rose on one elbow to gaze down at her.
What was it about her that entranced him so?
He’d learned something else about her this eve. She cried in her sleep.
The tears that had leaked from her eyes had disturbed him. Her dark wet lashes lay still now against her flushed cheeks.
Though her face now looked relaxed, the strain and worry that had been there earlier, troubled him more than he wished it did.
As he took in her features he noted how perfectly her nose fit her face and that mouth… He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her lips. She moaned and snuggled closer to him.
Unease settled over him and he frowned. She had seemed more fearful of Cedric than she had of the murders themselves. Despite all she’d revealed to him about the man, something still was not right. He knew the backbone she possessed, so what was it truly did the man hold over her?
After his dip in the river, his feet had brought him to her chamber with the need to put out the raging fire in him that only she could. And she had.
That thought made Darc’s mind go in another direction.
So much had happened in such a short time and what he’d been afraid of was indeed happening. He was starting to care.
She was getting under his skin and deeply. He drew the wool coverlet up over her slim hip. She mumbled in her sleep and burrowed against his chest even more. He knew he should take her back to her chamber. That was the right thing. Darc laid his head back on the feather pillow and pulled her tighter against his side. He would shortly. He closed his eyes and sleep came to him without nightmares.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cedric grinned to himself and slipped between the grooved crevices in the wall away from the beast’s chamber.
Renald Castle had lots of hidden passages for escape during sieges and for protection, no doubt built at the beast’s requests when he’d erected this monstrous sized Norman fortress. Well they had benefited him quite well, Cedric grinned ear to ear. The guard he had in his pocket had shown him all the crooks and false walls for him to move about freely and undetected.