“Please, don’t fuss. I am just a little tired.” She glanced at Tamhas.
Tamhas pressed his lips together and stared down at his goblet of Port. If she was not mistaken he looked a mite sheepish. He thought it was because of him that she was pale. Well, it wasn’t, although Chloris was content to let him believe he was right.
She almost ran to her bedchamber, relieved to be away from the difficult situation. She could only hope that it would get easier now that she had ceased her involvement with Lennox.
Once inside her chamber, she reached for the candle that stood on a shelf inside the door and struck the flint next to it. Lifting the lit candle she carried it to the mantel where she set it down near a small looking glass to reflect the light. The fire burned low in the grate. She stared down at it. As she did the skin on the back of her neck prickled with anxiety. Turning on her heel she scoured the dark shadows of the room.
That’s when she saw him standing there.
Shocked by his presence, she put her hand to her throat. “Lennox.”
“I had to come. I had to be sure you were safe.”
Chloris couldn’t see his face clearly, but she could hear the concern in his voice.
He’d come to her, that indicated he cared enough to fear for her safety. Her heart swelled, emotions brimming. She’d longed to see him, and he was here. “You received my letter?”
“I did.” He stepped out of the shadows.
“You shouldn’t have come here, it is too dangerous.” She was about to dart over to him, to chastise him for taking the risk, when she heard the floorboards in the corridor outside her chamber creaking. “Oh, no, it is the serving girl. She will come in to stoke the fire and turn down the bed.”
“Fear not. Act as you normally would.”
His voice was calm, but Chloris felt only distress. Then she blinked and stared, but could barely see him at all. He had retreated into the dark shadows. A moment later there was a tap at the door and it opened. If she distracted the girl, perhaps she would not notice him. Chloris turned and smiled.
“Mistress Chloris.” The upstairs serving girl curtsied, then darted over to the fire and stoked it from the nearby basket.
Chloris could scarcely believe it was happening. Lennox was in her chamber and the threat of discovery was immense. She took another glance at the spot where he’d stood. Mercifully, she could not discern his outline.
“Do you require any assistance with your disrobing, mistress?” the girl said as she straightened up. She always asked. It was her duty to do so.
“No, thank you.” She realized her voice was barely audible because she was so tense. She forced another smile.
The girl wiped her hands on her apron. “I will just turn down the covers, in that case.”
“No, that will not be necessary.” Usually the girl undertook the task, but Chloris could not risk her moving closer to the place where Lennox stood.
The girl needed no further encouragement to be on her way. She bobbed another curtsy. “Good night, mistress.”
As soon as the door closed and the sound of creaking boards faded away down the corridor outside, Chloris turned and ran to him.
He captured her in his arms.
“You should not have risked coming here,” she chastised.
“I had to. I do not believe that you want to put an end to our endeavor.”
She stared up at him, taking in the intensity of his expression. “It has gone far beyond an endeavor, even you cannot pretend otherwise.”
He gave a gentle chuckle. “You are a brave and honest woman, and it is one of the things that draws me to you.”
“Brave, because I have faced the truth of it, that we have become lovers when that was not my original intention?”
“Aye.” Reaching for her hand, he drew it to his lips and rested a gentle kiss there. “We became lovers, and you cannot deny that you wanted it as much as I did.”
His forthright remark only served to remind her how pleasurable it had been, and Chloris could not respond immediately because her body was wildly stimulated by his proximity. She could smell his aroma, hot and male and alive with the scent of the forest. “Lennox, please.”
With his free hand pressing her close to him he ducked his head and kissed her mouth. Firm and persuasive, his lips covered hers. His hands were around her hips and he kissed her deeply, passionately, his mouth opening hers, forcing her to receive him. Locking her hands over his shoulders, she moaned into his mouth, unable to hold back for the touch of his mouth on hers made her clamor for him.
“This is too good to deny,” he said as he drew back, his voice husky and determined, “and you will not send me away until we’ve coupled again.”
“But we cannot. The serving girl might come back—”
He held her tumbling hair in one hand, drawing her head back so that he could look into her eyes. “You are as needy for it as I.”
She was, and the hot tide of shame she felt was momentary in the face of her desire for him. She nodded.
He smiled. “You will not regret it.”
“I will not, if you are fast and then make your escape,” she blurted, “before my cousin finds you under his precious roof.”
Lennox laughed beneath his breath as if delighted by that. “He could not stop me, for right now all I can think of is being inside you. The taste I had of you yesterday only whetted my appetite for more.”
The appetite he referred to was there in his face, and she could not refuse him because she wanted it, too. Chloris could scarcely control her breathing. Her corset felt painfully tight, her pulse racing.
“Make haste,” she whispered, clutching at his hips.
Backing her into the shadows beside the curtained bed, he pressed her to the wall. He cupped her head in one hand, stroking her hair as he did.
In the hidden shadows her desire intensified. Chloris ached for him at her center. Her head dropped back, her lips ready to accept his fierce, hungry kisses. In the gloomy niche they were shielded from the fall of the candlelight and she could not see him clearly, but she felt his passion enveloping her.
Hitching up her skirts, she lifted one foot from the floor, riding her knee up the side of his leg. “You have made me wild with your spells and your wicked ways.”
“If you wish to give me credit that is your prerogative, but I fancy it was there in you all along, Mistress Chloris, begging to be unleashed.”
He undid the lace that held his breeches closed and freed his manhood. Chloris went to touch it, but before she had the chance he lifted her with his hands around her buttocks and encouraged her to wrap her legs around his hips. It made her feel so wanton, so womanly, cleaving to him that way that she had to gasp for air.
He pressed hard against her and she leaned into the wall at her back, one hand clutching at the velvet bed curtains at her side. Between her spread legs she felt his hard length pressed against her splayed flesh. She caught her lower lip between her teeth to anchor her emotions. They were about to couple, here, where her cousin would have Lennox strung up if he found him. She squeezed her eyes shut. Even though she knew it was wrong and dangerous, there was nothing she could do but submit to him because her body craved him so.
Lennox was calm and focused. That made her doubt the wisdom in this all the more. How could she have fallen into this so quick and so deep that all her reason was gone, that she took such great risks to be with him?
Because I’ve never had a taste of anything like this before.
Tears dampened her cheek. She brushed them away, annoyed.
Then his hard length was against her most sensitive places. Her breathing altered, speeding, for it was as if he freed life itself in her swollen bud, the pressure of his erection massaging it so intimately.
“Hold tight to me, for I must be inside you, now.”
It was so true, need had them both. Not magic or her quest for fertility, but pure mutual need. She moaned and clutched at him, resting her weight
back against the wall where she pivoted. He held her steady with his palms beneath her bottom. Then he eased the crown of his cock inside her, stretching her open. She breathed even quicker, her mouth opening in response to his penetration.
“You are so damp, mistress, my cock is doused in your precious juices.”
Her entire body flamed. “Lennox...”
“Oh, aye, you’re lush tonight, my beauty, tears or no tears.”
The husky way he spoke and his warm breath on her face were maddening. She clutched at him. “Please, Lennox, please.”
Shifting his weight, he pressed the blunt head of his cock deeper.
“Fill me,” she whispered.
As he drove his full length into her, she cried out with pleasure.
Lennox covered her mouth with his, silencing her, then slid deep to her core in one fast move. He was inside her, his blood pounding inside hers. Her hips were angled to take him in, her flesh melting onto the hard, hot shaft. Sensation burst at her center and rolled through her. It felt too good. Her hands went to his head, holding him as she arched her hips to accommodate him.
Chloris moaned in ecstasy, her head falling back against the wall. He moved his face into the curve of her neck. Her sheath clutched at him, and Lennox cursed. He drew back, and then reached farther inside. She rose up, her hands on his shoulders, matching him. He was riding her hard and Chloris struggled for breath. Her hands fisted on the fabric of his coat. She contracted, tightening on his throbbing length.
He pushed one hand between them. She cried out in ecstasy, another rush of pleasure taking her.
“Chloris, oh, yes.” His thrusts grew urgent.
She responded, wanting more, wanting it all. Pressing down hard onto his length she relished that it brought about both pleasure and pain in her. She wanted to feel it all, for it made her feel vital and alive. Her hands roved over his back, and as she did he whispered her name on a sigh and pulled free.
Chloris found herself lowered to the floor, swaying unsteadily as her feet met the floor. Staring down she watched as he rode his erection with his fist until he spilled.
The ache that loosed in her inflamed body was almost too much.
He put his hand to the wall behind her head, his head bent close to hers while he gasped for breath in his release.
Silence surrounded them, but for the sounds of their mutual labored breathing.
Then he sought her mouth with his.
The tender kiss they shared was interrupted a moment later.
A noise sounded in the corridor outside the door. It was the boards creaking again, signaling someone’s approach. Chloris reacted, drawing him deeper into the shadows next to the head of the bed. Chloris had almost forgotten their surroundings, and the discussion had been heated earlier, their lovemaking fierce, perhaps too loud. Had they drawn attention to themselves?
Footsteps approached her door. She held her breath, one hand on Lennox’s chest, protectively, her eyes trained on the door. Then Lennox whispered something. The strange words made her look his way. His eyes went bright, then faded. He smiled softly and put one finger to her lips. “Stay quiet.”
There was a tap at the door. A moment later Jean entered the room. Her shoulders were shrouded in a heavy shawl and it hung down and covered most of her nightgown. She glanced over at the bed.
Chloris’s heart hammered in her chest. She recalled the way Jean had fussed over her at dinner. She was obviously still concerned. Chloris rued the fact she had not sent Lennox on his way as soon as they’d talked. They were going to be found. In a moment she would be discovered harboring the Witch Master in her room at night. Jean would call out for help, and Cousin Tamhas would find Lennox here.
Jean lifted the candlestick from the mantel and held it aloft as she looked toward the bed. Chloris dared not breathe. Jean replaced the candle, then turned and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
“She did not see us?”
“I made it so.”
Chloris realized the curtains around the bed had obscured Jean’s view. Jean must have assumed she was asleep and decided not to disturb her. But the curtains had been open before, she remembered it distinctly. “You obscured the bed by magic?”
“Aye, and cast us deeper in shadows. Although it is the first time I have used magic since I entered this room tonight.”
Chloris stared up at him. At first she thought he was clarifying about the earlier interruption, when he’d hidden in the shadows and she’d distracted the serving girl. Slowly, it dawned on her what he was saying. Magic had not played a part in their frantic lovemaking, only mutual desire. There was no ritual, no chanting, and yet it had been every bit as powerful an exchange as it had the day before in the bluebell glen. More so, in fact, because they came together with open, mutual longing, and because she could see his expression while they coupled.
He ran his fingers through her hair and smiled. “You seem surprised.”
“I am. When you made love to me I assumed it was...magical.” Her face flushed. She felt a little silly.
“It was magical, but only by virtue of the fact that we are well matched in both desire and appetite for each other.” After he said that, he stroked his fingers along her upturned face, looking at her for a long moment, as if he, too, was considering the import of that connection.
Chloris tried to take it in. They had come together for ritual magic, a task, and yet what had happened between them that night was driven by something entirely different, a mutual need that had to be fulfilled. Could it be true, or was this part of his seductive repertoire, a performance he delivered to any woman he wanted to bed awhile? She wanted to believe, but it was a difficult task, given all that she had been told.
For her own part she wanted him, she couldn’t deny that—couldn’t deny him when he’d come to her. Before Lennox she’d known no other lover aside from Gavin. Their couplings were cold and perfunctory, at best. She assumed a man such as Lennox experienced pleasure this way with any woman he chose to couple with, and that she was one of many he was well matched with. Yet the way he looked at her made her wonder as to his meaning.
Then he bent to kiss her. It was gentle this time, a confirmation, not a demand.
Chloris returned the kiss, wrapping her arms around his head when he held her to him, savoring his embrace. Never before had she experienced such bliss, and she wanted to claim every part of it.
“You must go, all is quiet now,” she insisted as they drew apart, her growing need to protect him taking over. “Promise me that you will not come here to the house again, it is too dangerous.”
“I will promise you that, if you promise to meet me at the old oak in the mornings instead.” He searched her expression as he awaited her response, and she felt the strength of his will. He wanted her to agree to the request.
Could she even begin to think about denying him? She would be denying her own desires, too, for her instinctive response was to agree. She wanted to meet with him again. She’d already broken her vows—just as her husband had done, long ago, when he took a mistress—and this was a source of happiness she had never imagined could be hers. She was also afraid, though, because the dislike Tamhas had for Lennox was so fierce, and Jean had made it clear that her husband was looking for a good reason to oust the witches who lived around Saint Andrews. Chloris did not want to put any of them in danger of that. If she met him in the forest, though, the risk would be much smaller. Would she be brave enough to claim a few more moments of happiness with Lennox while she was in Saint Andrews?
“Please, Chloris,” he murmured, “say you will.”
“Yes, I will.”
The tension in his expression vanished, and the smile he gave was broad and infectious. Chloris laughed softly then stood on her tiptoes and cupped his face in her hands in order to kiss his mouth. The swelling emotion in her chest should have made her fret, but it didn’t. Not then, not when he was holding her and it felt so right and true. The doubts wou
ld come later, she knew they would, but for now, she denied them.
CHAPTER TEN
Tamhas Keavey supped his ale and scowled at the doorway to the inn. It was well past the agreed meeting time and there was no sign of Master MacDougal. It was important that he wait, though. As head of the town council MacDougal was often called upon to adjudicate in urgent matters.
When MacDougal eventually arrived, Tamhas signaled for another jug of ale and rose to his feet.
“My apologies, friend.” MacDougal took his seat. “Affairs of the council take precedence over social time, I’m afraid.”
Tamhas forced a smile. “It is a matter of the council I wish to speak to you about this evening.”
MacDougal frowned. “If that is the case it should be discussed in council.”
“It is imperative that I warn you about a suspicion I have, one that I cannot speak about openly as yet.”
They fell silent when the serving wench arrived with a jug and a second mug. While she poured the ale, Tamhas was pleased to note that MacDougal looked curious, despite his reservations.
Once the girl had gone, MacDougal nodded for him to continue.
“It is Lennox Fingal.”
MacDougal’s frown returned. “You have already raised concerns about Master Fingal and we made a compromise in recognition of that.”
“The concerns I have are weighty and therefore need to be broached. Believe me, it is the council and our town and families I fear for.”
“Fear? You fear Master Fingal?”
Tamhas twitched. “I fear for the innocents because I believe Lennox Fingal is a wrongdoer. I am more than ready to step forward and defend our town.”
“Master Fingal hasn’t given me any cause to doubt the decision we arrived at regarding his presence on the council. And his men are good workers, skilled.”
“It’s a sham!” Tamhas paused to rein in his anger. It wouldn’t do to lose control. “A respectable cloak behind which he hides. His allegiance is to the dark path of the Devil, and he engages in witchcraft up there at his house in the forest.”
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