by Marie Hall
"Be still, Io, and accept what you have earned," he told her softly then slapped her smartly on the fullest part of her beautiful bottom. He started rubbing again this time reaching between her legs so his fingertips covered her clit.
Io gasped and panted. She pushed and pulled until Xavier's hand left her. She went stiff and he dropped a half dozen very light smacks on the lowest part of her arse. The skin there was very sensitive and Io gasped with each one.
"You will behave the way I want, Io," he told her as his fingers went back to playing with her. He almost gave up on the game when he felt the wetness between her folds. But he wanted to draw this out, see how far he might take it. He slipped a finger between the folds and Io moaned. He pulled away and added a few more spanks, these with a little more force. Io's gasps mixed with the moan when he put two fingers deep inside her.
"Do you know how to behave, Io?" he asked. He let go of her hands but then took her right hand and placed it under her and on her own sex. "Io?"
"Yes, my lord?"
"Do you know how I want you to behave?" His fingers pushed in and out. He added a third and Io groaned, stiffened and then relaxed into it. "Io?" She was lost in it, getting wetter even as he thought what to do with her next. He slapped his left hand down on her arse and although not as strong, he still managed to drive her down onto his fingers. "Io, I asked you a question. Do you know how I want you to behave?"
When she still didn't answer he pulled his fingers out and gave her a hearty smack. Io yelped and put her hands over her seat. He took hold of the right and returned it to the place it had been.
"Work that, Io. And answer me." He put his fingers flush against the swollen lips of her sex. Her fingers were sitting at her clit but not moving. He drew his middle finger upward then pushed it down. "Work that, Io." She moaned and her fingers began to work at her clit the way he'd shown her. He'd love to flip her over and watch her take herself to climax. This game hadn't played out yet. "How are you to behave, Io? What do I want from you?"
"You want," she gasped when his finger slid all the way up between the twin swells of her arse and came to rest at that entrance. "You want… I am to be... brash, vulgar and unseemly."
He could now see her fingers working feverishly to advance her pleasure. He lifted his hand and brought it down on the center of her pink cheeks. He brought it down two, three, four times. Without any finesse, he pushed his fingers deep inside her. Io reached orgasm instantly. He wrapped his left arm around her waist and as she worked at her own clit he worked his fingers in and out. It took very little effort and Io spent for a second time.
She was panting and trembling, the mewling sounds she made told him she wasn't anywhere near finished. Xavier was more than willing to accommodate her in her desires. He adjusted her to a more comfortable and secure position over his lap taking her to bliss twice more before she went limp and her own hand fell away. He gave her a moment to settle then he pushed her gently off his lap so she knelt between his legs. Cupping her chin in his hand he lifted her face so he could see in her eyes.
"That is exactly how I want you to behave." He let go and leaned back in his chair. Io needed no prompting, no instruction from that point on. She opened his breeches and proceeded to return the courtesies.
Her mouth was hot as she used her tongue with skill. She took much of his length in and used her hand to pleasure what she couldn't manage with her lips alone. Io went about the act with abandon. Sucking and licking, stroking and squeezing until he could take no more and he released his seed, splashing across Io's chin and neck. She didn't relinquish her hold though and her hand continued to milk him. The sensation sent another wave of pleasure through him and he shuddered.
"My lord?" Io called.
He took several deep breaths then opened his eyes. Io used his discarded tunic to wipe her face and neck. He grinned at her. She smiled back easily and honestly.
"My lord?" She set aside the cloth and crawled back into his lap.
"Yes?" He pulled her close.
"I am not sure," she said as she nuzzled against him. "But I might have to have another fit." She kissed then nipped at his chin.
"Please do, Io, please do," he told her as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. Later that night something woke him. He reached out for Io but she was not there. "Io?" He called sitting up. He felt the end of the bed shift.
"I am here," she whispered. In the quiet of her voice he could tell something was wrong. Sleep fled instantly.
"Io, what is it." He reached for her and she came, scooting back until he was able to pull her against him and settle against the pillows. She was quiet for a long while. "Io, tell me what is wrong."
"Xavier, if we could not…" She pushed into his chest taking his hands wrapped his arms around her. "If we could not… do… be…"
"Speak, Io, say what is on your mind." He let her go so he could work the covers over her then he put his arms around her as she wanted.
"If we could not copulate anymore… If I could not, did not…" She faded off and shrugged. "Would you still want me? Would I still be useful to you?"
What the hell kind of question was that? He twisted around so Io dropped back into his arms and he was looking down at her. The light from the fire wasn't nearly enough but he was certain she could tell he was deadly serious when he replied.
"Io, you are not just a body. You are my wife and your usefulness is not reliant on what you are able to do in this bed."
He felt more than saw her nod her head. "All right," she said then seemed to let out a sigh of relief.
Xavier helped her settle back in the bed then lay down next to her holding her close. It was a bothersome question she'd asked. He couldn't think of any reason for it, save one.
"Io, did I hurt you with our play? Did you not like it?"
She actually giggled. "I liked it very much once I was sure I was not going to be thrashed."
He brushed his hand over her head, down to her face and then he turned her so he could claim her lips in a soft kiss. "If you do not like something, you are to tell me I will not take offense," he whispered against her temple.
"I have liked it all well enough this far, Xavier." She yawned and snuggled against him. She was asleep soon after but Xavier couldn't sleep. The question worried him.
She was more to him than a soft body. She should know that. What would make her question that he'd no idea. And he'd no chance to speak with her. Before dawn, he was told the raiders struck again but were now cornered in a canyon. He rode out even as Io still slept.
Chapter Fourteen
Xavier rode his horse through the second set of gates too tired to dismount in the outer yards as was custom. Even the animal seemed to be dragging. Three days it took to rout the seven men raiding on his lands. They fled across the border onto Westbur's land. Xavier not wanting to make the shaky relationship with his neighbor worse went through the protocols needed to pursue and capture the men. Eight days in total, now all of them hung from the gallows and Xavier only wanted to find a bed.
Dismounting, he handed the reins off to the nearest person not caring if it was someone who could handle the animal. He pulled his pack down and tossed it over his shoulder before moving towards the steps.
"Xavier." The shrill voice made him cringe. "Where have you been?"
"Mother, I have been," Xavier started but his exhausted mind couldn't find the words. "There were raiders." She knew this as he'd told her the same as he told Io. Io, where was she? He'd like to see her. He was disappointed she wasn't here to greet him.
"And this takes you a week?" His mother huffed. "You should have taken more men with you. I have waited most patiently for you to return that we might have time together."
Xavier thought it might be his sleep deprived state, but he'd almost swear his mother sounded as if she missed him. "I am home, Mother, and you have me at your call."
"Yes, as it should be," his mother said setting her hand on his arm l
ike he'd the strength to carry it.
He took a deep breath, straightened his posture and headed for the interior of his home. His mother was saying something he couldn't follow. Not when his mind was on a bath, a meal, and a bed. But he perked up when his mother gave a disgusted grunt and said,"... and the horrid girl, Xavier you need to do something about her."
Xavier opened his mouth to inquire what Io supposedly did, then snapped it shut. He didn't care. His house still stood, the people all seemed to be alive and accounted for, and nothing she could've done was worth his bothering with. He'd like to know where she was. Didn't she miss him the days he was gone? Didn't she feel the need to see if he arrived home without injury?
He was tired; he knew it. That he'd think Io wouldn't care, wouldn't miss him. It was more likely she attended some duty. His arrival home wasn't announced. Io would turn up and he was sure when she did he'd get the kind of greeting he expected from her.
* * *
Xavier stood on the top of the steps watching the gates. The sun sunk lower faster now and the eastern sky was starting to twinkle with stars. Still Io wasn't back. He managed to escape his mother shortly after he arrived. The bath, food and long nap put him right again. Learning Io hadn't returned to the house from where ever she was, put him on edge.
He questioned Gunther on the matter shocked to learn he hadn't accompanied Io. The man stated plainly Io no longer felt she belonged in the house, she found no sanctuary anywhere within the walls.
He looked again towards the west. He didn't like, at all, that Io felt unable to spend time in her own home. He'd be speaking with his mother about the matter. He wouldn't have his wife driven out. He didn't want to hold his breath waiting for her return. He again turned his gaze to the gates and this time he found what he'd been seeking, Io.
She walked near the back of the group talking with two other women. One of those women pulled her to a stop and then pointed at him. She looked up but not directly at him. It took several seconds for her to see him standing there. When she did see him she seemed to not grasp what she saw. Another woman in the group turned and said something to her. With a squeal, she dropped the basket she carried and charged him.
Xavier barely had the chance to step off the landing and set his feet before she threw herself in his arms. She covered his face with little kisses and cut off his ability to breathe with how tightly her arms were around his neck. He didn't care. If she killed him, this was as good a way to die as any.
He hadn't realized how her welcome would make him feel at home. Truly while he arrived hours ago, not until this moment did he feel he had. There was a missing element. It wasn't complete. Io made it complete.
"Xavier," she breathed against his neck as she settled down. "Oh how I have missed you."
"And I you." He tightened his hold and lifted her. She held on and pushed into him. Then she pushed away and squirmed until he set her down.
She stepped back and looked at him critically. "You are returned well?"
"I am." He laughed. Of course she'd make someone else her first concern.
"Everyone else has returned well too?" He nodded, his pride in her strong. "And the raiders you thwarted them? They will not trouble the people?"
"Everyone is well and there will be no more trouble for anyone from that bunch." He reached for her, pulling her close again.
"Oh I knew it." She put her arms around him.
"You knew what?" he asked pressing his face against her neck and inhaling the soft scent.
"That you are a capable tenant of the field." She wound her fingers in his hair.
Xavier pulled away to look at her. That she'd remember didn't surprise him. That she'd fittingly reference the events of the tournament did. He hadn't thought she'd taken anything from those games. She certainly hadn't found them interesting. She didn't watch many of them. He participated as a way to show himself a capable protector and thought she hadn't understood that lesson, until now.
"I will always return to you victorious, Io." He took her hand, brought to his lips for a kiss then pressed it to his heart.
She giggled, and with a wicked smile told him flatly, "Which always makes it my duty to defeat you."
Xavier threw his head back and laughed. Still laughing, he bent and lifted her in his arms. "I should like to see you try." Turning he carried her inside. By night's end he was indeed the one crying yield, but it was the sweetest defeat he'd ever suffered.
* * *
Lying in the quite dark, Xavier struggled to sleep. As tired and completely satiated as he was, he couldn't sleep. There were questions he needed to have answered and only Io could. Rolling to his side he propped up his elbow and set his head in his hand looking down on Io as she slept.
He'd been distracted by her enthusiastic welcome the first day. He then had to work to get through some matters which occurred while he was gone. With the chaos of settling back into routine, he forgot to ask her what she was about all day, every day. He wanted to know did she feel she'd no place in this house, except perhaps in his bed. He'd not addressed that issue either. It was his hope Io wasn't beginning to have doubts. Because she could become reckless when she thought she'd no one to rely on but herself. Her question the night he left, the observation by her personal guard and her avoidance of her own home all made him wonder what he wasn't seeing.
He didn't really want to know what she did while he was gone, it mattered little. He'd his mother's accounting of the week. Everything she claimed Io did that was disrespectful or unacceptable. None of it he cared to address. It was Io being Io. His mother could live with Io neglecting to acknowledge Lady Sabrina's day of birth, considering no one even knew Io's. What Xavier needed to know was why she fled the house and why she questioned him about her usefulness.
"I do not care for it when you stare so hard at me," Io said rather sharply.
"I beg pardon." Xavier's dry tone said he didn't. "I thought to take a moment to admire this little beauty that lay beside me."
"There is some other in this bed?" She rolled to her back. In the dark he couldn't tell if she did but he thought she might be smiling.
"Only you, Io." He dropped an arm over her.
"And this beauty you admire?" She set her hand over his intertwining their fingers and sliding his hand up until it rested between her breasts.
"Would be you." He clenched his fingers so she couldn't free her hand. "Are you perhaps begging about for compliments?"
She gasped, then chuckled. "I would not." She rolled to face him and he felt her free hand edging towards his groin. "Why waste time begging for compliments when I could beg for something far more pleasant?"
"Io," Xavier sighed rolling to his back and taking Io with him so she rested on his chest. "You need not beg for that." He kissed her. "I would speak with you."
Io stiffened against him, rubbing her forehead on his shoulder she made a frustrated growling sound before shifting to sit up. "Xavier, if you are going to be unpleasant and scold… You were gone for days and I have not slept well with you away and—"
"Io." He took a firm grasp on her arms and pulled her down. "I do not want to be unpleasant and I have no reason to scold you. I simply wish to know something that has been on my mind." Having said so, now why did a dread settle on him? He set his hand on her head and stroked the thick strands.
"Very well," she sighed, "what do you want to know?"
"Well," Xavier started, a bit discouraged by her obvious reluctance. "I would know why you spent so much time away from the house?"
"I was not about much. There was some problem between some of the sheep herders. Bickering over—"
"Not what you were doing, Io. I know you have duties in the shires, things you oversee. They never kept you from the house all day every day before." He didn't want to think she was avoiding telling him things. She knew the penalty for doing so.
"Xavier," she sighed and pushed back to a sitting position. "What reason do I have for being in this house?"
"You have duties here," Xavier told her
"I have none, Xavier." She flopped down beside him. "Your mother oversees everything and now the younger Lady Blake oversees what your mother sets to her.
"Io, all Mother is doing is creating menus directing the kitchens."
Io snorted. "Yes, of course, that is all she controls, the kitchens." Her voice all but dripped with sarcasm.
"Io, I have not given her leave to handle any other matter." Xavier sat up and reached for the flint and a candle.
"I told you, when you gave her the kitchens it forced a shift in all the other duties and who did them. The house cannot operate with two mistresses. It causes fights and duties are overlooked. You gave her the house when you gave her the kitchens. I tried to hold it but without your support…"
Xavier lit the candle and watched Io blink at the sudden introduction of light into the dark space. "Io, you have my support. You are the only mistress in this house. And there are still duties that you should be seeing to."
"There are none, Xavier. If I try to do something, your mother complains and then undoes it. What does it matter did you not say let her do as she would?"
"I did not say abandon all your duties." Xavier sat up and lit a second candle. "You are still mistress here. You have duties."
She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the light. "You call me mistress, but I am not in control. As long as your mother is in residence, she is who the people listen to. She is who they seek direction from. It is their habit."
"No, it is your failure to direct them. They would not seek out my mother if you…" Xavier grabbed for her as fast as he could. Io, always quicker, scrambling from the bed before he could stop her.
"Yes, it is my failure. Mine, when I tell the laundress to air the tapestries and she replies, ‘Lady Charlotte has ordered us wash the linens'. It is my failure when I tell the carpenter there is a leak in the roof of the east storage room and he says, "Lady Charlotte already has me mending stalls'…" Her voice grew shrill and she paced furiously alongside the bed.