by Mary Wine
“Do I want to know if you are planning on taking your wife in hand?” Ambrose asked.
Ramon chuckled softly, menacingly. “Be very sure that I have no plans to accept defeat.”
None whatsoever.
* * *
She was being stubborn.
Isabel found the bed impossible to stay in and left it. She paced across the chamber and back again. The stone was cool beneath her feet and she shivered. Which only made her long for Ramon even more.
How had she become dependent on the man in so short a time?
You are craven…
She was. And her husband used the weakness against her. So she would simply learn to be without him. She looked at the bar across the door and nodded.
Indeed. Ramon was not the only one who could impress his will upon another. She could as well.
She just wished it did not make her bed feel so lonely.
But wishes never came true. She knew that well.
* * *
“Locked him out of her chamber…”
“She did not!”
Isabel forced her chin to stay level as she walked into the sanctuary the next morning. More than a few curious looks were cast her way before the service began. She stood through it, noticing no one was paying attention to the priest but to her and Ramon, who was standing on the other side of the aisle with his men.
Apprehension filled her as she said the final prayer.
Now you’ll know what sort of man you’ve wed…
Well, that would be good too. Knowing the truth. She turned and gaped as Ramon strode from the church without a backward glance.
“Look at you,” Mildred admonished her in a hushed whisper. “Looking forlorn when you’re the one who barred the door.”
“I’ll not be denied—”
“Hush.” Mildred poked her in the ribs to get her moving. Everyone except for Ramon’s men was still standing in the sanctuary, waiting for her to leave.
Isabel forced a serene expression onto her face and walked quickly from the church. The moment she cleared the arched doorways, the whispers started.
She would not be swayed.
She increased her pace and left Mildred behind. The tasks waiting for her were many and she devoted herself to them to keep her mind busy. She didn’t want to think about the pleasure she’d denied herself the evening before, because it came at the cost of her freedom. Jacques wouldn’t want her now that she was wed.
The day went by, the sounds of the building common now. When they stopped, she raised her head. The yard remained quiet, not a single groan from the cranes. She dusted her hands on her apron and went toward the doorway of the keep. The heat of the day was waning, a breeze blowing in with the coolness of night. The sun was on the horizon, the last rays turning the sky orange and scarlet.
The new tower was crimson, its stone lighter in color because it had yet to be weathered. She lifted a hand to shade her eyes as she looked up at it. A prickle of dread touched her nape at the silence. Everything was sitting where it had been left, not a single one of Ramon’s men anywhere in sight. It was as if they had vanished.
She trembled, her belly knotted.
There was a soft step behind her. She whirled around, her robes rising up, and saw Ramon looming over her.
“What have we here?” he demanded. “A prize to claim, I think!”
He grabbed her hips and lifted her up, tossing her into the air and over his shoulder.
“Ramon!”
His men laughed from behind the keep, some of them roaring encouragement to their lord. She glanced quickly at their revelry before Ramon carried her down the steps and tossed her over the back of his horse.
“To camp, men!”
“What are you doing?” She wasn’t sure if he even heard her demand because she was being bounced with every step the powerful stallion took. Her head ached and her hair worked free, whipping around her face.
Ramon made a wide circle of Thistle Keep, making sure everyone saw him before he headed to the camp his men lived in. She saw the canvas tent walls before he lifted her by her girdle and handed her down to a man. She sputtered and pushed her hair back to find herself facing Ambrose.
“My thanks,” Ramon said as he hoisted her once more and left her hanging over his shoulder.
“Ramon…”
Her protest went unheeded as he pushed through the tent flaps and inside. He lowered her to her feet, but her relief was short-lived. She faced a high bar of steel with a set of chains on it and a thick collar. She shuddered.
“What are you doing?” She stepped away from the chains, fighting the urge to rub her neck because it felt as though the collar were locked around her throat. “What are you thinking you’ve proved?”
He flopped onto his back in the middle of the bed and contemplated her. “That I understand the way of warfare more than you. It would be simple to lock you in that.”
“So I must accept your will,” she demanded, not caring for how much truth there was in his statement. Beyond the flaps of his tent she heard his men. There was no escape.
He crossed his boots and his lips lifted into an arrogant grin. “At the moment, you must deal with my whims, and I assure you, lady wife, they are carnal in nature.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think I will not be joining you in that bed.”
“I have already proven that I do not need a bed to enjoy your sweet flesh.”
Excitement brewed inside her. She didn’t want to feel a thing, but as was the way with her body when it came to Ramon, there was no controlling the rise of hunger.
“This is preposterous, Ramon. Let us return to the keep.”
His face lost its teasing expression, becoming serious. “I think not.”
“You cannot—”
“Yet there is naught to stop me.”
A new sensation went through her, and this one hurt. It was centered in her heart and grew from the fear starting to tear into her.
Ramon sighed and rolled off the bed. He closed the distance between them and cupped her chin. “Frightening you brings me no pleasure.”
She scoffed at him and backed away. “Yet you abduct me and show me your chains? Is this to show me your tender devotion?”
His eyes flashed with a warning. “Aye. Better you learn the fate Jacques would give you if he is given the opportunity.”
There was a hard note in his voice. She didn’t care for how it dredged up the guilt that began to needle her. “You cannot expect me to be happy about having to change the way I live.” Frustration burned through her.
“Yet you were as eager for marriage as I was, Isabel.”
He caught her around her waist with his arm, pulling her against him even as she struggled to avoid him.
She’d melt, she knew it.
She pressed her hands against his chest. “I cannot lose myself.”
He stopped, pulling her close, but stroked his hand along the curve of her hip. It was such a simple touch, yet so tender, it sent a bolt of emotion through her heart.
“Do you think I fear your effect on me any less?”
She was stunned, locking gazes with him and finding something there that she’d never expected.
Uncertainty.
“Men do not—”
“In your case, I do,” he growled. “I cannot stomach the idea of you placing yourself at risk.” He pointed at the collar. “I had that put in here with the intention of making you feel the weight of it, yet I cannot bring myself to put it on you. That is how weak I am now. I cannot even deliver a stern lesson to you.”
Jacques certainly wouldn’t have cared how she felt.
Her wrists suddenly itched even though her wounds were long healed. She rubbed them, drawing Ramon’s attention. He stalked back to her and folded
her into an embrace.
“Take an escort with you if you must leave the keep.”
“It is a waste of men.”
His chest rumbled with a grunt.
“Of course you know such,” Isabel said, disliking the facts. But there was no way to dismiss them. Guilt tore into her, shredding her reasons for being angry.
“I shouldn’t have barred the door. I don’t know why I did it…only that…I feared I was…”
Tears were trying to choke her. He stroked her back, slowly, soothingly.
She raised her head and found him watching her. “You feared you were losing yourself to me?”
He wasn’t taunting her. She was surprised that he was sharing the moment with her.
“Aye.” Her response was soft. “I simply can’t stop comparing you to my last husband, even though I know you are nothing like him.”
“I know the difficulty, for I fight the same battle.” He stroked her cheek. “I think it is a good thing that you had all that stone cut, for I am done sleeping in that chamber you shared with your last husband.”
“You cannot blame a chamber for the way I feel.”
He scooped her up, cradling her against his chest as he carried her to the bed.
“Yet I can decide that it is best for both of us to start our life together someplace else.”
“Such as your tent?”
He tossed her onto the bed. It was smaller and lower to the ground because it was made to be broken down for travel. The bed ropes groaned as it took her weight, her robes flipping up to expose her legs all the way to her thighs. Her instinct was to push the fabric down, but the way Ramon’s attention was drawn to her uncovered legs made her quell the impulse.
“Seems an agreeable way, from where I stand.”
A memory of Rauxana surfaced.
She shifted her legs, slowly drawing one along the other, and watched Ramon’s complexion darken. She was fascinated by the way he watched her, his gaze devoted to her every motion. But he looked up and caught her.
For a moment, she saw frustration flaring in his dark eyes. Something surged through her and she realized it was anticipation, but this time she directed it.
“I suppose such is only…fair…”
He frowned but she rolled over and rose to her knees. This gown didn’t lace, but was held closed with a girdle. She opened it and tossed it aside.
“What game do you play, Isabel?”
She had started to pull her loosened over gown up, but stopped. “I was intent on trying my hand at seducing you, Husband. Unless you would prefer me…dull.”
She flopped back onto the bed. The ropes groaned and her clothing settled over her. “Is this better?”
He captured her ankles and pulled her down the bed. As she moved, her clothing stayed where it was, and by the time he’d finished pulling, he’d bared her to the top of her thighs.
“Much better,” he growled.
She twisted, uncertain, but he pushed her robes up until she felt the night air on her mons.
“Ramon…” Her voice was a ghost of a whisper as excitement flared inside her. “What…you cannot…”
“Oh, I can and plan to…” He boldly petted her mons, stroking the curls that crowned her sex. “Tonight, I am going to taste you.”
Her eyes widened, but she wasn’t sure if it was with horror or delight. She felt a crazy twist of need tunneling through her passage. Her clit throbbed and every inch of her sex suddenly felt more sensitive.
She shuddered when his breath hit her folds. She cried out and tried to twist away, but he pressed her down with one hand on her belly.
“I enjoy making you cry with pleasure,” he muttered as he stroked her slit with a single finger, drawing her cream forward. “And knowing you find ecstasy beneath my touch.”
He was smug, his tone arrogant, but hearing it only excited her more. It went against everything she thought she wanted, but she couldn’t deny the way she felt.
He teased her again, stroking her folds as she twisted beneath his touch. Her eyes closed as sensation took over but she opened them wide when she felt his breath against her sex.
“You cannot mean to…”
“I most certainly do,” he declared, then lapped her.
She cried out again, the contact between his tongue and her slit so intense she couldn’t hold it inside. Something twisted inside her, wringing her. Every muscle tightened, but she didn’t burst into climax.
He kept her on the edge as he teased her with long licks, each one hotter than the last. She writhed and twisted and strained, so close to release.
“Stop toying with me,” she snarled, opening her eyes and giving him a hard look.
She gasped. His eyes were ablaze with pride and possession. He looked at her, studying her before lowering his head and fastening his mouth on the top of her mons. He pulled her flesh inside and worked his tongue against her pleasure point. She burst beneath the motion, straining against him as pleasure exploded inside her, racing up her passage and into her womb. She felt as if she were being burned from the inside out.
Nothing pleased her more.
She surrendered to it gladly, content to be tossed about on the waves of ecstasy. When it released her, she panted on the bed, too spent to move.
Ramon rose and fit his member against her spread sex. She lifted her heavy eyelids to watch him, mesmerized by his member—thick and rigid and swollen. She licked her lips, suddenly not completely satisfied.
His first thrust eased her hunger. She locked her thighs around him, rising to meet him. There was no room in her for thoughts, only impulses. They flowed like water as she moved with him, gasping as he rode her hard and fast.
Still, it wasn’t fast enough.
Or hard enough.
“More,” she demanded between gritted teeth.
“Aye,” he rasped. “You shall have it.”
His face tightened until it was savage, wild in its raw determination. He rode her hard, and just as she teetered on the edge she felt his member begin to give up its load. The hot spurt sent her spiraling into pleasure again, the walls of her passage gripping his flesh and pulling forth the last of his seed.
“Sweet Christ!” he growled, pumping his hips against her a few final times. He fell forward, catching his weight before landing on her. The bed rocked with a vicious groan from the ropes holding the mattress before he settled on his back next to her and pulled her close.
She shifted, uncertain. Ramon pushed her head onto his shoulder and locked his arm around her waist.
“I need you near, Isabel. Do not ask me to explain why, just know I crave it as much as I do riding you.”
She craved it, too.
There was no logic to the idea, but she shifted and laid her head against his chest. The sound of his heart filled her with a strange sense of contentment. It was different than the satisfaction glowing inside her body. This was a satisfaction that warmed her heart.
She’d never felt anything like it.
* * *
“Off in the military camp, were you?” Mildred teased when Isabel came back to the keep the next morning. “Well now, do not you know what becomes of women who walk among soldiers?”
Isabel blushed but smiled knowingly, which made Mildred blush as well. Mildred waved a hand in the air between them. “Do not say. I am too old a woman to be teased by the enjoyments of youth that I can no longer have. Yet you may tell me you are glad I urged you to wed.”
“I am glad.”
And she was.
But as the day wore on, she realized her husband instructed his men to watch her. She bristled, but finally accepted that she’d have to either suffer confinement or an escort. She’d rather have control and a say over the matter, so she marched across the yard until Ambrose stepped into her path.
; “’Tis unsafe, lady.”
“I seek you.”
He angled his head and looked down at her from his greater height. “Aye?”
“The men watching me answer to you.”
He offered her only a raised eyebrow. “I follow commands given for your safety, lady.”
His stance warned her that he wasn’t going to be sympathetic to her desires.
“Their time is wasted. Let us come to an agreement.”
He hooked his hands into his belt. “Only if it does not compromise my word to your husband.”
“I wish to fly Griffin in the mornings. Provide me with an escort, and I will stay inside the keep the rest of the day.”
Ambrose contemplated her for a moment. “Your word?”
“Aye.”
He lifted his hand and two of his men walked toward them. “On the morrow, you will gather an escort for the lady to go hawking. Today, your duties are finished.”
They looked relieved and returned to the ranks of men training.
“Do not disappoint me, lady. I have begun to like you,” Ambrose warned her.
“I keep my word.”
And she would, because her shoulders already felt lighter. Ramon kept half of his men training while the other half built the new keep. The two men who had shadowed her were happily pulling on padded tunics so that they could join those practicing with swords.
The new keep was three stories high now. She tipped her head back and shaded her eyes to look at it.
“Making bargains with my men?” Ramon inquired.
“Doing my part to ensure we do not waste resources,” she countered. “Yet you could have spoken to me before setting your men on me.”
He looked down at her, reminding her of how much larger he was. She forgot such things from time to time.
That was trust.
The realization made her smile.
“When it comes to your protection, Isabel, there will be no discussion.”
“And yet it is simple to have an agreement,” she argued. “Ambrose shall provide me an escort in the mornings, and I have given my word to stay in the keep during the rest of the day.”
“Does that please you?”
She nodded.