Chapter 25 Hanna
HANNA
His body crashed into hers, and Hanna was lifted bodily in strong, unyielding arms, her feet kicking wildly as she was carried a few steps and then hauled up and against a tree, Alaric’s face inches from hers as he held her tight, knowing she would slip free in a second if she could.
Rough bark scraped her shoulderblades through her dress, hair wild and tangled as it fell across her face and her breath sawed in her lungs as Alaric trapped her there with his body.
“How dare you run from me-” Alaric ground out, his voice stony with anger, those golden eyes now darkened to bronze and narrowed on his prey.
Hanna could not find words, breath… anything. Her body seized with fright as her worst nightmare looked her straight in the eye.
“Speak, woman,” said Alaric, shaking her lightly by the shoulders as she sobbed pitifully.
Then, it all came tumbling out in a rush of words, a dam of pain and shame bursting as every dark thought tried to speak as one. And Hanna fought the urge to fall into his embrace, curl against his chest and beg for mercy.
“He said he would tell… You saw us... I was so scared.”
The words came, but no sense was behind them. She knew not if Alaric would understand.
Alaric narrowed his gaze, watching her intently as she spoke through the tears.
Then, when she finally stopped for a shuddering gasp of air, he leaned forward and rested his forehead lightly against hers, turning to speak softly, soothingly into her ear.
“Hush, Hanna, please.”
A gasping sob clawed its way up her throat at the tender tone of his voice, her heart aching at the thought that it might be the last time Alaric spoke to her.
“Did that dog Emsley say he would tell me you were laying with him? Do you really think I would believe a cretin like him over my own wife?” rasped Alaric, his voice suddenly harsh, swiping his hand roughly over her cheek and caging her back against the oak tree behind her.
“I … what?” Hanna managed to stammer, confusion swirling in her mind.
Of course she thought that, she had completely believed that was what would happen.
Alaric cursed, turning his face from Hanna’s and gritting his teeth as his arms caged her in with his wrath.
“I told Emsley exactly what I thought about the horse shite he was trying to feed me.”
Hanna merely stared, struck dumb at the vehemence of his words.
Alaric continued. “He cannot be allowed to behave like this. Others might have looked away, but I will not. He will never claim the boy as his own, I won’t let him.”
The last words Alaric ground out while staring straight into her eyes, his hands tightening with the rush of emotion she saw on his face.
Hanna gaped, disbelief warring with the hope blossoming in her chest.
“I told Emsley I have already claimed him. You and the boy are mine!” Alaric shook her again, his eyes flashing hot, as Hanna clung to his shoulders, her body going limp as his words started to penetrate the terror that had surged inside of her.
“I told him too, he was at risk of suffering a deadly fall from his horse while out hunting if he chose to stay. It would be much safer to leave for the continent.”
And then Alaric was kissing her. He cupedher face, his fingers tangled in her wild hair, kissing Hanna as if he would devour her whole.
She started trembling, the shivers running across her whole body.
The man wanted her, even after he knew the truth? Alaric had threatened a nobles life to keep her and James safe?
When Alaric pulled back his expression was different. Dark almost, as if the animal inside him has finally made itself known.
He bared his teeth, his hands finding the tie at her gowns neckling and with a sharp twist he ripped the cord loose, tugging down the bodice and cotton stays so that her nipples were bared.
Hanna was panting, her body frozen even as heat flared in her belly, desire twisting like a snake low in her hips.
Alaric ran his thumbs slowly across the heaving mounds of her breasts, watching with satisfaction as her nipples tightened with arousal in the cool.
His hands went to her waist, and his mouth to her ear.
“Are you mine, Hanna?” he whispered low and deep, his words brushing against her skin. “I want all of you, your body, your heart, every thought in your head, I want it.”
She shuddered, that rush of heat gathering into a molten ball that ached between her thighs.
He pulled back, leaving her momentarily bereft.
“Are you my woman?” Alaric snarled, more forcefull now, as he kicked her legs apart and stepped between them, reaching down to hike her skirts and petticoats up in bunches up around her waist.
Hanna nodded quickly, her breath hitching and catching with the last of her crying fit and sudden nerves.
Alaric cupped her bottom under her skirts and hiked her up to wrap her thighs around his hips, trapping her there against the tree.
“I want to hear you say it,” he growled, unbuttoning his breeches with a sharp tug so that he could free his hard cock to press against the wet heat of her core.
Hanna arched in his arms as he bucked against her, reaching down to guide the head of his shaft against her nub and spearing himself through her folds.
Hanna’s thighs trembled where they clasped his hips, her body begging for him to take her as she ground herself against him desperately in return.
Alaric’s teeth flashed with satisfaction, leaning forward to nib her throat as he hitched her higher in his arms, his cock teasing the entrance of her core.
“I want you to say it, Hanna. I want to hear you beg for me to fuck you here in my forest, I want your pleasure ringing out for anyone to hear.”
Shame flared in her cheeks but she was so needy, so wanton that she stammered the words. “I am yours… Please-”
“Louder,” Alaric ordered, nothing himself into her heat and pulsing there, stretching her as she clenched around the emptiness she needed filled.
“Please, Alaric,” she sobbed, her eyes pleading him now, “I am yours, please take me.”
Alaric reached up to hold Hanna in place by the base of her throat, watching her ferociously as he flexed his hips and impaled her in one deep, hard stroke.
She gasped in relief, begging him for more as she shuddered in bliss.
Alaric groaned low and hungry with each rough, demanding thrust, his gaze devouring her as her breasts bounced and her skin flushed, his hand tightening in ownership as Hanna started to moan helplessly.
Alaric took her lips for a moment then he shuddered in her arms, his thrusts suddenly fast and hard until he stroked deep and held himself there, pulsing inside her as Hanna felt the heat of his seed fill her.
He sagged against her for a breath, his teeth and lips on her shoulder as he shivered through the last of his climax.
“I want to see you full with my seed,” he whispered, shocking Hanna as he lowered himself to his knees and guided her thighs over his shoulders, spreading her cunny with his fingers so that the creamy mess of his pleasure spilled out and ran down her thighs.
“Every inch of you is mine,” he groaned, spreading his seed through her folds and pushing his fingers inside while she squirmed as her torture rose again.
“And I want you to come undone on my mouth, Hanna, I want to drink every drop of your pleasure, just as you took mine,” and then he buried his head between her thighs, licking her clean of his spend as he tasted her heat, dipping his tongue into her channel then up to her bud, leaving no part of her unloved as she gripped helplessly to his shoulders, his hair, her hips bucking against him as pleasure stole her senses, took over her body completely.
Alaric rumbled his approval against Hanna’s sensitive flesh, sucking hard now, his fingers digging bruises into her thighs as he held her tight through the spasms of her crisis, the heat that had built in her core scorching its way out through her limbs and ripping a cry from her throat that sounded as if far away, the throws of her pleasure rushing over and over as he licked and sucked every once of sensation from her body.
Hanna gasped in shock and dazed relief as Alaric slowly lowered her to the ground with him, rolling himself so that she was plastered against his chest and they reposed in the soft grass of the glade.
After a long moment had passed, their breaths and heartbeats steadying as they lay together, he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, cupping her cheek and guiding her eyes to his.
“Why do you always run?” he asked in a soft voice, his eyes earnest as they searched hers.
“I don’t know,” Hanna whispered in a small voice. “I just… I don’t know what else to do, things get too much for me, I -”
“You don’t have to run any more, Hanna,” said Alaric, kissing her forehead and pressing his face close to hers.
“Unless you are running to me.”
Hanna said the words then, without thinking.
"I love you."
Alaric went rigid beneath her. For a horrible moment, Hanna thought she had made a terrible mistake. Then his arms banded around her, almost painfully tight.
"Say it again." His voice was raw.
"I love you," she whispered against his chest. "I didn't mean to, I didn't want to, but I do. I love you, Alaric."
He rolled them over in the carpet of leaves, caging her beneath him, and she saw his eyes were suspiciously bright.
"I've loved you since the first moment I saw you," Alaric said fiercely. "Since you were crying in my forest and I knew that you were mine to protect. Mine to cherish. Mine to love. I've just been waiting for you to feel the same."
Hanna felt her heart stop. “You saw me? That day?”
“Yes,” he said simply, threading his fingers through hers and pressing his lips to her hand.
Hanna took a deep breath, letting all the hurt and fear leave her body as she breathed it out.
"You have me," she promised. "Heart and soul. I'll never run from you again."
"Good." Alaric kissed her deeply.
"Because I'd catch you, and we both know how that ends."
THE END