Her scowl was evident as she watched the singing and drinking going on.
“Listen tae them singing that dirty song,” she growled. “I apologize tae ye, lass. They turn these celebrations intae drunken orgies, so I’m sorry they’re singing such a disrespectful song.”
Adria could see that Jemma was quite upset about it and she fought off a smile. “It makes them happy, I suppose,” she said, pointing to the heart of the group where her husband was. “Will is in the middle of it. He’s probably singing the song, too.”
Jemma shook her head in disapproval. “’Tis unseemly for the bridegroom tae be singing of whores,” she said, then realized the naughty word she used and looked at Adria apologetically. Then, she hiccupped loudly from too much of that fine Scottish ale. “God’s Bones, I sound like a drunken fool myself. Forgive me, lass.”
Adria laughed softly, taking the old woman’s hand. “There’s nothing to forgive,” she said. “I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to curse in my presence. I’ve used that word once or twice myself before.”
It was Jemma’s turn to fight off a grin. “How disgraceful of ye.”
Adria winked. “I know.”
As they shared a laugh, Scott abruptly appeared. He had to fight his way past several groups of happy, drinking guests, like a battle he’d finally emerged from. He appeared a bit harried and drunk himself.
“Come with me,” he said, holding out a hand to Adria. “The vultures are starting to circle and I must take you to your wedding chamber.”
Adria let him pull her out of the chair. “What vultures?”
Scott pointed to the group of men around Will. “Them,” he said. “They are my brothers and I love them, but they are vultures when it comes to a wedding night. They’ll stand at the door all night and drink, or they’ll even try to push into the chamber if you let them.”
“Wait!”
Paris de Norville was suddenly at Adria’s side. He’d been speaking to another group of men near the hearth, but he saw when Scott came to claim Adria. Elderly but still quite spry and strong, he tried to put himself between Scott and Adria.
“Where are you taking her?” he demanded.
Scott tried to push his former father-in-law aside. “To her chamber,” he said. “Get out of the way.”
Paris frowned. “You know nothing,” he said, trying to take Adria from him. “I will do this.”
Scott pulled Adria towards him as he pushed Paris away. “If you truly wish to help, then help Will make it to his wedding chamber. I fear that Troy and Atty and the others will try to abduct him for the night as a joke. We’ll find him chained in the vault in the morning.”
Jemma was on her feet. “They wouldna dare,” she said. “Both of ye take Adria up tae bed. I’ll deal with the lads.”
That was the best offer they had, and probably the only one that would really work, so Scott took Adria by the hand and led her from the hall with Paris bringing up the rear. That movement had Will moving to follow, but his uncles and cousins were determined to hold him up.
Jemma swooped in.
“Back, all of ye,” she said, swatting at Thomas and her own son, Nathaniel, when they tried to block Will. “Leave him be, ye pack of dogs. The man has a wife waiting for him, a wife he’s waited a whole year for, so dunna delay him.”
A chorus of congratulations went up as the men began to slap Will on the back, sometimes quite hard. Will found himself virtually pummeled, including by his own brother, Tor, who leapt on his back and kissed him on the cheek. The entire de Wolfe Pack was full of drink and deliriously happy, but Will managed to extract himself from the group and, with Jemma’s help, headed up to the chamber where his wife was waiting.
But the group was following. When they saw the tide of happy men coming their way, Jemma stood her ground.
“Go,” she said. “I’ll hold them off, but hurry. And when ye get up there, send Bonny down tae me. I’ll need him tae help fend off the horde.”
Bonny was what the grandchildren called Paris. When he first became a grandfather, he wanted his grandchildren to call him bon père, but somehow that got twisted into Bonny. Not exactly the auspicious name Paris had wanted, but it couldn’t be helped. Will kissed Jemma on the cheek and darted off, rushing up the stairs to find Bonny and send him down as reinforcements.
Not that Jemma needed them.
Jordan had put the newlyweds in the top floor of Castle Questing’s enormous keep, which wasn’t like a traditional keep. It was shaped like the letter “H”, with wings and stairwells and corridors. It was a maze. It had been built by the Dudforth family many years ago, a very large family, and they had added to it over the years until it sat derelict for a while until William de Wolfe brought his family to live there.
Jordan had put Will and Adria in the very last room at the top of the northeast wing, overlooking the bailey and the gatehouse, and the door was open when Will arrived. Scott and Paris were standing in the doorway, waiting for him.
“Well?” Paris said. “Are you being followed?”
Will nodded. “Unfortunately,” he said. “Aunt Jemma told me to send you down to help her. She’s holding the line.”
Paris lifted his eyebrows. “She does not need my help,” he said. “She is quite capable of holding off a hundred angry men all by herself.”
“Then go down and protect them.”
He was trying to get rid of his grandfather, who grinned. “I’ll go down in good time,” he said. “I thought you might have some questions about what is to take place now.”
Will clapped a palm to his forehead in embarrassment. “Bonny, my wife is in the chamber,” he said. “She can hear you ask such foolish questions.”
Paris was trying not to laugh. “She is not paying any attention to me,” he said. “Do you have any specific questions?”
Will grasped him by the arm and pulled him out into the corridor. “I do not,” he said. “And if I did, you are the last person I would ask.”
“How cruel of you to say so.”
“I do not mean to be cruel, but you told me once that women liked biting and spanking, and I found out neither was true.” He watched Paris nearly double over with laughter and he fought not to do the same. “It is not funny. You told me those things before I’d had any experience with women and, God help me, I believed you, so I am not asking advice from you again, ever. Now, go downstairs and help Aunt Jemma.”
Paris was still laughing when he kissed Will on the cheek and headed towards the stairs. That left Scott standing there, shaking his head at Paris’ antics.
“You did not really think women liked to be bit and spanked, did you?” he asked.
Will came over to his father. “Unfortunately, I did,” he said. “Lily nearly knocked my teeth out on our wedding night.”
Scott burst into soft laughter, pulling Will into the warm, lavish bed chamber where Adria was waiting for him. She was bent over the hearth, stoking it, as Scott softly closed the door and bolted it. Will looked at him questioningly.
“Papa, I adore you, but I do not plan to spend this night with my new wife and my father,” he said. “You can go, too.”
Scott shook his head. “I will in a moment,” he said. “But I wanted a chance to speak to you both. I wasn’t present when you married Lily, if you recall.”
Will’s smile faded. “I remember,” he said. “I missed you.”
Scott looked at his eldest son, seeing a great deal of his mother in those handsome features. “Did I ever tell you about the night I asked Bonny permission to marry your mother?”
Will shook his head. “I do not think so,” he said. “Although I remember hearing something about the time when Uncle Troy asked to marry Aunt Helene.”
Scott smiled faintly. “Aunt Helene was pregnant with your cousin, Andreas,” he said. “Bonny, Poppy, and Kee proceeded to invoke the Helm of Shame to punish Uncle Troy for, shall we say, taking liberties before they were married. Kee sat on Troy’s head with his n
aked arse to punish him while Bonny shaved his head. It was truly spectacular punishment.”
Over near the hearth, Adria’s eyes widened at the terrible mental image Scott was painting for them. “Kee?” she said. “Who is that?”
“Kieran,” Scott said. “Kieran Hage, Jemma’s first husband. He was my father’s best friend next to Paris and the wisest, most gentle soul I’ve ever known.”
As Adria nodded in understanding, Scott continued. “On the night Troy and Helene were married, which was the same day as the Helm of Shame, your mother and I were summoning the courage to speak to Bonny about our marriage,” he said. “Your mother was pregnant with you and we were running out of time to tell him. As you can imagine, Bonny was not pleased. Not in the least.”
Will had a smile playing on his lips. “Don’t tell me,” he said. “You were also a victim of the Helm of Shame.”
Scott shook his head. “I was not,” he said. “Bonny tried to kill me at first. He chased me all over Castle Questing’s stable yard with an iron rod and tried to kill me. But as he chased me, he insulted me – greatly. I finally had enough and walked away. That brought your mother to defend my honor. Someday, you should ask Poppy how your mother tried to kill Bonny by chasing him around with a sword.”
By this time, Adria had come to stand next to Will and he put his arm around her, laughing softly at the idea of his mother trying to kill his grandfather.
“Mother was not a shy or retiring woman,” he said. “She was tall and strong, so she surely must have been formidable.”
“She was,” Scott said. “I thought you should know that it was your mother who fought Bonny for permission to marry me. She was as fearsome a woman as I have ever known.”
They were venturing onto the very sensitive subject of Athena de Norville de Wolfe. Even Adria knew that. She and Will had visited Athena’s crypt earlier in the day, talking to Athena and explaining their courtship.
It had been a bittersweet and poignant moment.
Will thought it was very important to include his mother in the day of their marriage and even though she wasn’t present, Paris had given Adria a blue dress that had belonged to Athena, long ago. In fact, it was the same dress Athena had been married in and Adria had worked furiously for three hours, along with Jordan and Jemma, to alter the dress so that she could wear it for her wedding to Will.
In spirit, Athena had been there.
It had been important to them both.
“I was happy to honor her by wearing her wedding gown,” Adria said, her eyes glimmering warmly at Scott. “It made her a part of this day.”
Scott looked at Adria, such a lovely woman with a lovely disposition who had completely and wholly captured his son’s heart, and he reached out to take her hand.
“You must understand that we de Wolfes get very attached to one another,” he said. “We love our family and the people in our lives. Understand that for that reason, I loved Lily, but were I to search the entire world for a bride worthy of my son, I could never find anyone as worthy as you are. We are so happy to have you.”
Adria went to him and gave him a hug, smiling gently at the emotional man. But Scott wasn’t finished yet. He dug around in the pocket of his tunic and pulled forth an object. Taking Adria’s hand, he put it in her palm.
“On the night I asked for Athena’s hand, I gave her that ring,” he said as both Adria and Will looked over the ring with great interest. “That was hers. The stone is a moonstone set in a star-shaped mount and on the inside of the band, it says my moon and stars. I used to tell Athena that she was my moon and stars. Will, I want you to give it to your bride. Your mother would want that.”
Deeply emotional, Will took the beautiful ring and slipped it onto Adria’s finger next to the small gold band she already wore. The ring was a little large, but not too terribly. The two rings fit well enough together.
“Thank you, Papa,” Will said sincerely. “That means more than you’ll ever know.”
Scott looked at the ring on Adria’s finger and felt quite emotional about it himself. The last time that ring had been on a finger, it had been Athena’s corpse. William had the foresight of mind to remove it and save it for his son. But Scott didn’t want to think about that – he only wanted to think about the happiness that ring brought him.
The happiness it would bring Will and Adria.
“I will leave you two now and see you on the morrow,” he said. “You have my blessings and my love this night.”
Will hugged his father tightly before the man quit the chamber and shut the door softly behind him. Will threw the bolt, turning to his wife.
“Well?” he said. “Here we are.”
Adria grinned broadly. “Indeed,” she said. “Here we are.”
“No more sneaking out of your chamber so the servants won’t see me,” he said, snorting. “No more hiding you under the coverlet when Atticus comes in early in the morning and wants to climb into bed with me.”
Adria laughed softly and went to him, sliding her arms around his neck as he bent down to kiss her. Fourteen months of courtship had brought them to this moment, but the truth was that they already felt married. They had for the past several months. They slept in the same bed nightly but tried to keep it discreet. What wasn’t discreet was the fact that Adria was already four months pregnant with their first child.
Will hadn’t quite shared that with his family yet.
He would when the time was right and hoped he wouldn’t be on the receiving end of the Helm of Shame. Even though Kieran was no longer around to deliver it, there were plenty of eager arses to take his place.
But for tonight, no thoughts of shameful helms or drunken relatives. No thoughts of what had happened over a year ago, only what was coming with the future. Tonight, they could hold each other with all of the rights a marital couple had. Will was so eager to taste her that he immediately reached out and pulled Adria into his arms, his warm mouth slanting over hers.
Adria fell against him without resistance, her soft body against his. They craved each other so much that they were intuitive when it came to the needs and wants of one another. They knew what was to come and made all due haste to ensure that it happened. Her arms around his neck tightened, pulling herself closer to him even as he nearly crushed her in his embrace.
Her scent.
Something sweet and musky filled Will’s nostrils as he kissed her and his arousal was instant. It always was when it came to her. He’d spent most of his adult life bedding a woman who didn’t mean anything to him in the romantic sense and, in truth, he knew that he was sharing her with another.
Now, he was with someone who belonged only to him.
Forever after.
Will was consumed with the smell and feel of her, his mouth on hers, his arms around her, but soon enough, his grip loosened and his hands began to roam. She was dressed in his mother’s wedding gown but that that did not deter him. He was a man used to getting what he wanted and he was not subtle. His lips still fused to hers, he pulled at the fastens on the dress, loosening it enough to pull it over her head. She was left in a fine silk shift and Will could feel her hard nipples when he dragged his palms across her breasts.
Something in him unleashed.
With a growl, he grabbed her by the waist and lowered his head, suckling her nipples through the fabric. Adria gasped as he suckled and bit and tugged at her breasts, her hands finding their way into his hair, holding his mouth against her breast as if to nurse a starving child.
Still holding her by the waist, Will lifted her up onto the table behind him, the one that contained wine and fruit and had been so artfully arranged by Jordan. They couldn’t even make it to the bed. One big arm lashed out and everything was swept onto the floor. Adria’s legs were parted as he yanked her to the edge of the table, wedging himself between them. One hand left her waist and lifted the shift over her head, tossing it to the floor with the food, while the other hand moved for the glistening flower b
etween her legs.
The moment he touched her, he groaned.
“God’s Bones,” he muttered, his mouth now on her bare nipples. “You are already prepared for me, Wife.”
Adria didn’t have a chance to answer as he thrust fingers into her quivering body, first one and then two. She groaned softly, throwing her head back as she lifted her knees higher, giving him unhindered access to her tender core.
Her movements had him foaming with lust. All Will could think of was thrusting himself into her slick folds and he fumbled to untie his breeches as his throbbing erection strained against them. His tunic was getting in the way, so he yanked it over his head and lowered his breeches, freeing his enormous manhood. Pulling Adria forward so that her buttocks nearly hung off the side of the table, he arched his big body over hers and thrust into her quivering, slick body.
Adria was so highly aroused that she bit off a cry into his chest as he plunged into her. It was the most uncontrollably pleasurable thing she had even known and, predictably, her body began trembling with what was the first of several releases. That was something they’d discovered since Will first bedded her – she was easily aroused, leading to more than one climax, and that excited Will terribly.
A woman whose body finally understood his.
Will, feeling her body react to him in a most erotic way, didn’t wait to extend his pleasure. He could feel her body milking his, demanding his seed, and he was so highly stimulated that in little time he was answering her, climaxing so hard that he bit his tongue. But the moment was more than worth it. The love he never thought he’d have, now with his wife, made every stroke as he made love to her completely worth it.
She was worth his life and more.
Beneath him, Adria was still twitching, still gasping softly with the ripples of release as Will gently thrust into her. He wanted to stay that way for the rest of his life, buried in her sweet body, feeling her flesh react to his. He cupped her buttocks in his big hands, holding her pelvis against his as he kissed her gently.
“I am so sorry,” he whispered. “I should not have taken you on the table.”
WolfeLord: de Wolfe Pack Generations Page 31