Highland Grace

by K. E. Saxon

  “Even if it were, how do I know that Bao has not the same weakness? Just look at the way he gulled me into mating with him! His abstinence didn’t even last a full sennight! What will he do when the babe is born and I am unable to couple with him for two moons?”

  “Ah! Now it is clear to me. This groundless fear is the cause of your continued stubborn refusal to reconcile with Bao,” Maryn said, with a nod of her head. “Well, let me assure you...there are other means of pleasuring your husband.”

  Jesslyn warred with herself over whether to tell Maryn the truth. “That is not possible,” she finally said. “I can tell you naught more on the matter, so please do not press me to confide it.”

  Maryn’s eyes narrowed on her a split moment before she gave a nod. “All right,” she said. “But think on this awhile: Bao abstained for quite some time after you wed and his eye did not stray once from you. You are his prize, the one he craves. And, tho’ he did use some trickery to gain his ends, ‘twas with you that he mated, not any other. And he hasn’t had another since you and he first made love.”

  “How know you this?” Jesslyn asked.

  “He said as much to me two nights ago when he asked my advice on what he might do to win your trust.” Maryn strolled toward her stool and sat back down. “Oh, there was one occasion in Perth, that evidently ended quite embarrassingly for him, in which he couldn’t, shall we say, hoist his manly sword? But after that, there was no one.”

  “Why did he not tell me of this himself?”

  “Mayhap, because he didn’t think you would believe him? You have, after all, accused him of lying at every turn,” Maryn replied. “In any case, his telling me was an accident, I believe. At first, he only said how absurd your fears were, considering the fact that he’d been with no one but you since last summer. I prodded, and he rather unwillingly gave me the full of it.” Maryn sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees and loosely twining her fingers together. “I only break that confidence, for confidence it was, because I think that by telling you, ‘twill finally give you the assurance you need to trust in Bao’s love, in his allegiance to you.”

  Stunned, Jesslyn plopped down onto her stool with her hands clasped in her lap.

  “He loves you, Jesslyn,” Maryn stated again. “And what is more, he is devoted to you. All it will take for you to have your heart’s desire is to let go of all these groundless worries and run into your husband’s waiting arms.”

  Jesslyn rose to her feet, saying “I’ve an errand I just remembered. I shall see you at the noontime meal.” And with that, she rushed from the room.

  Maryn followed her a few steps behind. “I hope he is sufficiently thawed first!” she called down the stairwell to Jesslyn’s fleeing backside.

  Jesslyn cringed. Why had she told her of that? She should have known Maryn, with her wicked sense of humor, would not be able to restrain herself from teasing her about it. The sound of womanly laughter echoed in the stairwell. Jesslyn’s shoulders scrunched. Aye, Maryn was certainly enjoying that bit of humiliating information. And then, before she realized, she was laughing as well. Suddenly, she felt cheerful, as light as air. She recalled Bao’s reaction when she’d asked him the question and laughed even harder. The lecher had been hiding his own amusement!

  * * *

  Jesslyn found Bao overseeing the work on the new tower. “Will you walk with me to your bedchamber? I’ve left something there for you that I wish to give you.”

  The spark of hope in his eyes as he nodded and motioned to one of the men to take over made her smile.

  “So, now that you know I never broke my vows to you, will you consider staying with me?” he asked as they walked toward the keep.

  “Aye.”

  * * *

  Bao’s heart raced and his palms sweated as he shut the door behind him and leaned against it, watching her. What should he say to her? His mind was a blank.

  “I made you some berry tarts,” Jesslyn said into the silence, lifting the basket slightly that resided on the tabletop near the hearth in indication of what it held.

  Bao cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. “My thanks,” he finally said. He knew better than to press her to stay. He must tread very carefully with her, let it be her decision to be with him—if, as he hoped, ‘twas what this errand was truly about.

  She shocked the hell out of him when she lifted her hands to the tie of her chemise and loosened it, then pulled it open and ran her fingers over the rise of her breasts. “‘Tis a bit warm in here, is it not?” she asked in a sultry voice. Untying the strings that held her gown together on the side, she loosened it as well.

  Bao swallowed a couple of times.

  She smiled. “Is it not?” she repeated when he didn’t reply, skimming the gown and chemise off her shoulders a bit, just enough to bare another few inches of her bosom.

  Bao blinked and cleared his throat. “Aye, it is.” He would not walk one step toward her, he swore silently, else he might ruin his chances with her for evermore. He would not use his sexual prowess on her again unless she begged him to do so.

  She took a step toward him, not covering herself when her bodice gaped open even further, allowing him a clear view of her excited nipples. Her eyes traveled from his face, down his torso, and halted briefly on the area where his tunic tented over his arousal, before she lifted her gaze once more to his own. “Bao,” she said throatily, “I believe part of you”—she tipped her head toward the evidence of his desire and openly gazed at it, making him grow even more turgid—“is suffering a chill and needs a bit of thawing.” She looked into his eyes once more. “I’d be pleased to hold it inside of me again to warm it—for as long as it takes,” she offered suggestively.

  His mind and sight were so fixed on the wanton display before him, that it took a moment for her words to register. When they did, his heart lifted and he grinned. She had turned his own method of trickery back on him. In two strides, he was before her. Without breaking eye contact, he lifted her in his arms and strode toward the bed. “You look a bit piqued, you should take a nap.”

  She brought her hand up to his face and stroked her thumb over his lips before leaning up and giving them a gentle kiss. It thrilled him beyond reason when she melted into him. It had been so long since he’d been allowed to hold her, kiss her. Without prompting, she opened her mouth to receive his tongue and gave him hers in return.

  After a time, Bao lifted his head and gazed into her bemused eyes, out of breath, but eager to follow this through to its most pleasurable conclusion. “I want to touch you, taste you, all over, if you’ll allow it.”

  Her smile was warm and her eyes held longing when she shook her head. “I shall touch you instead.”

  Her words hit like rapid, hard blows to the abdomen, forcing all the air from Bao’s lungs, for he knew what she meant to do. It felt as if they had collapsed, so tight was his chest now. But, he knew also that he must attempt this thing in order for their union to fare well. With effort, he took a deep breath. Nodding slowly, he said, “I do not know for how long I shall be able to bear being touched there. Even by you.”

  “All right.” Her eyes met his and did not waver. “Take off your clothes,” she commanded softly.

  Bao settled her back on her feet and took his time disrobing, not only for the added reprieve he received in doing so, but also in an attempt to heighten the sense of anticipation in himself.

  When he finally dropped the last garment to the floor and stood bared to her gaze, she tipped her head in the direction of the hearth and said, “Sit in that chair over there.”

  Bao did as she wanted, but his heart raced and his muscles tensed. He placed his sweaty palms on the arms of the chair and grasped the edge in his hands. He’d never before felt this odd combination of trepidation and desire. Even the first time he’d bedded a woman he’d been filled with lust, not fear.

  Bao watched as she took two of the large pillows from the bed and walked over to stand in front
of him. “Lean back and open your legs wide so I can kneel between them.”

  “Is that wise? The babe…”

  “I can manage it, I assure you.”

  He nodded. Tho’ his hands clenched and unclenched the wood, he did her bidding and she placed the pillows on the floor and went down on her knees, resting her hands on the taut muscles of his thighs. She gazed up at him as she ran her hand over them. “I like the feel of the course black hair on your limbs. It tickles my palms and fingers.”

  His lungs wouldn’t cooperate and he was getting lightheaded. He held tighter still to the ends of the wood armrests and his knuckles turned white. A crush of panic gripped him and he squeezed his eyes shut. His heart pounded in his ears and he swallowed hard.

  Her sensual touch halted mid-thigh. “Whatever you’re thinking of, stop,” she commanded softly. “Open your eyes and look at me. Think only of me and what I’m doing. Naught else. At least for as long as you can do so.”

  Forcing himself to do as she instructed, Bao slowly lifted his lids and watched her.

  “I see I must start in a different place.” She took her hands from his thighs and placed them on her breasts, lifting them and caressing them the way he craved to do. His breath, what there was of it, caught in his throat and his rapid heartbeat tripped in his chest with both lust and shock.

  “I was asked to do this once before, by Graeme, but I was much too shy to try it then. However, if this will help you to concentrate only on me, only on what is taking place between us in this chamber, then I am more than willing to overcome my own abashedness to gain that end.”

  Gripping the arm of the chair even tighter, his mind spun. “My thanks.”

  She twirled the rigid nipples between the thumb and forefinger of each hand and gave him a sultry smile when his arousal twitched against his stomach in reaction.

  “Let me touch you, love. You’re driving me mad,” he ground out.

  She shook her head. “Nay, not yet. But if you could, where would you touch me next?”

  Bao’s lungs worked just fine now, his breath coming faster and harsher. “I’d touch the heat of you, stretch you open with my fingers and take the honeydew it offered, up to its hidden pearl.”

  She nodded and placed one of the pillows behind her, then gingerly laid back. Lifting her legs over his knees, she did exactly as he’d described.

  Bao moaned. The sight of her long, feminine fingers manipulating her lovely sex brought him dangerously close to climax. He craved to touch her, taste her. Now his hands grasped the armrests only as a means of keeping them from their purpose. He found her childing body intensely erotic; she was his very own golden fertility goddess. Whatever panic he had been feeling in the moments prior was gone in the wake of his overriding passion for her. “God, you’re so lovely down there. Make yourself come,” he begged. “I want to see you fly apart.”

  He could tell she was fighting her embarrassment, but she did as he asked. In no time, her eyelids drifted shut and the rosy hue of her cheeks and chest turned carmine and damp. A long, low moan escaped her lips.

  Bao’s breathing turned harsher still. She was close, he could tell by the gathering of her muscles, the trembling of her thighs. “Slide your finger into your sheath, feel how it quivers.”

  He could almost feel those inner muscles around his own digit as she did his bidding. In the next instant, her head flew back and she cried out, “Ahhh! Ahhh!” Her body remained taut, suspended in its pleasure for a moment and then she settled back on the cushions, her breath coming hard and fast. Her eyes opened and they stared hazily up at him a long moment.

  “God, you are so beautiful,” he said, stunned. She’d managed, with her openly erotic display, to send his panic flying. Now, all he wanted was her, in whatever manner she would allow.

  Slowly rising back up onto her knees, she stroked his inner thighs once more. “I want you,” she said throatily, easing her hands ever upward toward his aching cock.

  “I want you, too,” he said hotly, keeping his eyes, his thoughts only on her.

  She managed to shock him again when she said, “I want to suck you, curl my tongue around this glorious manhood of yours.” Then she coiled her fingers around him and stroked up, teasing the head before stroking back down. She did the same several more times and a drop of seed emerged.

  He groaned, his abdomen tightening and trembling in pleasure. “All right. You may try putting your mouth on me,” he said gruffly.

  She rose up, balancing on his thighs and opened her lips, taking him between them and licking off the cum at the same time.

  Intense pleasure rushed through Bao’s veins. His eyes shut of their own volition and instantly a memory of Giric taking him this way, his grinning eyes as he molested his much-younger quarry, flashed through Bao’s mind. “Stop!” Bao yelled, thrusting her from him.

  She sat back with a stunned look on her face.

  Bao leaned forward and covered his eyes with the base of his palms, forcing the foul images of his youth from his mind. “I’m sorry. I suppose ‘tis just too soon for that.” Lifting his gaze to her face, he said, “Forgive me?”

  “Aye,” she replied. “Make love to me, Bao. Now.”

  Bao rose from the chair and lifted his wife in his arms. He reached the bed in four strides and lay her down on her side. He settled behind her and lifted her leg over his arm. “I need to be inside of you now. All right?”

  “Aye.”

  He entered her with a hard push, not stopping until he was fully sheathed. “Oh, God, Jesslyn. You, Alleck, our babe—you are everything to me. Everything.”

  * * *

  CHAPTER 17

  As the white and gray frost of winter slowly melted into the lush green and vibrant color spectrum of spring, Jesslyn and the ladies prepared for the birth of her babe while Bao, Daniel, and their soldiers continued preparing for the possible invasion. With a bit of difficulty, due to a late snowstorm, the barbican was completed and the final defense requirements were met. Tho’ there had been hope that the babe would be born prior to the arrival of the army, it was not to be so.

  On a bright April morn, only three sennights before the babe was expected, the Maclean scouts arrived with Reys ap Gryffyd bearing news that Llywelyn and his army were only days behind and would make camp on the other side of the wood while the required truce conditions were being considered.

  * * *

  “So this is my answer, then?” Bao said harshly to Reys as the man was finally allowed to enter the great hall. Bao and Daniel had left him to cool his heels in the antechamber while they consulted with their scouts.

  Reys held his hood in his hands, twisting it slightly. “Yes. I’ve spent these past moons seeking to turn my cousin from his purpose, as you and I agreed, but the effort was in vain.” Reys looked from Bao to Daniel before saying, “He’s quite adamant that Branwenn must return with us to Gwynedd.”

  “—Nay!” Daniel said.

  “—That will not be,” Bao said at the same time.

  “The betrothal contracts have already been signed,” Reys continued doggedly. “She is to wed Gaiallard de Montfort, nephew thrice removed to Guillaume le Maréchal, Earl of Pembroke as soon as possible.” He slapped the woolen hood against one palm before grasping it once again in a tight fist. “My cousin wouldn’t even allow more than a few days lead time for me to meet with you prior to his arrival here.” Reys looked from one huge, fierce warrior brother to the other and waited. They stood silently glowering at him like one massive wall of human flesh and bone, their legs spread and their arms crossed over their heaving chests.

  Without moving his eyes from Reys, Bao called out, “Steward Ranald!”

  When the steward appeared in the doorway, Bao said, “Have the ladies’ things packed immediately for a long visit to the Donald holding.”

  The portly steward nodded once and quickly departed.

  “Branwenn cannot leave here,” Reys said anxiously, “else there will be no negotiation
s. Llywelyn will strike forthwith and he will show no mercy.”

  “So be it,” Daniel replied solemnly.

  With a curt nod, Bao reiterated, “Aye, so be it.”

  “Be assured, he will attack the Donald fortress as well,” Reys warned.

  “Then he will not find out,” Bao said forcefully. He was behind Reys in two strides and, before the man could know what Bao intended, he had looped his arms through Reys’s and pressed his forearms against the back of the man’s head, forcing it forward in an unnatural position.

  Reys’s arms flailed out to the side. “Wha—!” he wheezed.

  Bao had locked the man inside a human vise. “You will be our prisoner, it seems, until this is finished,” he growled through clenched teeth.

  * * *

  Intent on finding out what her fate would be, Branwenn rushed into the chamber and came to an abrupt halt. “Bao! What do you?” she shouted.

  Bao tightened his hold.

  “Aaargh,” Reys cried out.

  “I only seek to make our guest comfortable, as he will be staying here for quite some time it seems,” Bao replied.

  Reys lifted his foot and slammed his heel down hard on Bao’s toe, grinding it in for good measure.

  “Yeeowww! You spawn of a cur dog! You’ll think twice before trying that again!” Bao swore, then he tossed Reys to the floor and sat down on him, hard, knocking the wind from the other man’s lungs with a loud whoosh.

  Spurred into action by the struggle, Branwenn flew over to the two men and yanked on Bao’s upper arm. “Release him this instant! Are you addled?” she asked hoarsely, winded now from her own exertion.

  Daniel let out a loud whistle that nearly broke all of their eardrums.

  The tussle came to an immediate end.

  “Get up Bao,” Daniel said shortly.