Chapter 14
There were many reasons Greer had not wanted to tell Drake she was a maiden prior to their joining. Even still, in this moment when he remained frozen over her—his body locked and rigid, his gaze wounded—she regretted her omission.
He tried to pull away, but she held onto him regardless of the way the small movement stung at her center. “Dinna go,” she begged.
He shook his head, his eyes haunted. “I shouldna have…”
“Ye dinna know.” She curled her legs around his waist to secure their bodies together more firmly. “And ’tis already done.”
“I hurt ye.” He caressed her face. “If I’d have known…”
“If ye’d have known, ye’d no’ have had me at all.” It was one of the reasons she hadn’t told him.
He didn’t reply, which she took as confirmation that she was correct.
“’Tis already done,” she said again.
His brow furrowed, his expression anguished.
She shifted her hips upward, nudging their joined bodies together.
There was some discomfort in doing so, but she knew it would pass.
Peasants didn’t soften stark truths by bandying about niceties the way nobles did.
Greer knew well what to expect when she lost her maidenhead.
And Drake was the man she wanted to give it to.
He was the only man she would ever deem worthy, the only one who would likely be kind about the process.
“I wanted it to be ye.” She searched his gaze. “Ye’re the only man who has ever looked at me with respect, the only man I—” She was saying too much. Instead, she shifted against him despite the additional pinch around the foreign feel of him inside her. “Touch me, please.”
A muscle worked in his jaw, but he ran his hand lightly down her body, leaving a wake of pleasant chills in his path as he found the little bud nestled in her sex where their bodies joined. The contact was as a flash of lightning to her system, instantaneous and thrilling.
“Aye,” she whispered. “Like that.”
She moved under him as he brought fire back into her blood with his ministrations, and as the seconds passed, the soreness gave way to the first tingles of pleasure. A gasp passed through her lips with surprise and delight.
Drake’s fierce expression relaxed somewhat, and he carefully drew his hips back as his finger circled over the highly sensitive nub. A tease of friction rippled wonderfully through her. She leaned her head back with a moan.
It was then he truly began to love her, first with careful flexes of his pelvis until they were both groaning with restraint and then with hard, aggressive thrusts. Greer held onto him while the maddening flickering touch of his finger worked over her as he pushed within her.
Suddenly, it was more than she could take.
The tightening in her body snapped, and she cried out at the exquisite waves that swept over her.
Her release was magnified from what it had been before, her pleasure continuing to climb as Drake’s pumping increased in speed until, at last, he jerked against her.
He ground out a roar, and every muscle flexed in an appealing show of strength and lost control as his release overtook him.
His cock spasmed inside her as he spilled his seed and clung to her, his heart thundering against her own. The pleasure of his climax within her left Greer gasping with the enormity of her fulfillment.
They remained clasped in one another’s arms, staring into each other’s eyes in wonder as their breath calmed and their erratic pulses slowed to a steady rhythm.
Drake’s dark eyes were fathomless, something Greer felt herself tipping into, eager to lose herself in it forever.
Her body was languid from the force of their loving, and her mind was more at peace than she could ever recall it having been before.
She wanted to stay in this moment for the rest of her life, where she was loved, where she was happy, where she was safe.
But she couldn’t. Not when Mac was still in the bowels of the castle.
The realization was like a splash of cold water.
Drake pressed a kiss to her lips. “Marry me, Greer.”
She stared up at him incredulously. “Do ye jest?”
He withdrew from her and lay at her side. “Nay. I want ye to be my wife.”
Her confusion at the sudden question was short-lived when she remembered who this man was at his core—one of chivalry and honor. And she was the maiden he had deflowered.
“Ye dinna have to do that.” Heat scorched her cheeks.
“I want to.” He didn’t say it with vehemence, as if a man agreeing to a mission. He said it tenderly, like a lover. Like a man who meant every word.
Her heart crumpled in on itself.
It was so tempting at that moment to agree to his request, to imagine herself on his arm, dressed in a fine gown, visiting the nursery in their manor filled with bairns. All their bellies full, and their hearts light—together.
“My da is dead,” she said. “Ye’ve no angry father to come after ye.” She meant it as a joke, but it fell flat in the quiet room.
Because she wanted to agree, to live the life she envisioned in her mind. Free from hunger and fear and loneliness. But she couldn’t. At least not yet. Not until she had rescued Mac.
Unease knotted in her stomach and warned her it might not be as easy as she anticipated. She hoped it was just fear affecting her thus. And how could she not be afraid with so much at stake?
“Ye dinna need to tell me yer answer now,” Drake said quickly. “Think about it and give me yer answer, aye?”
Greer nodded. Hopefully, by the time he asked again, Mac would be home, and she could explain everything without fear of losing her opportunity to save her brother.
Drake drew her into his arms and held her against him, embracing her in warmth and strength. She savored the safety there in his embrace, with the leather and spice of him mingling with the sensual aroma of their loving. Exhaustion pulled at her, promising a sweet and blissful sleep.
But she had to slip out tonight to find the guard.
She remained where she lay long after Drake’s even breathing told her he was asleep. Staying awake had been torture when she wanted nothing more than to melt against him but holding sleep at bay was necessary. If she gave way to slumber, she wouldn’t wake until daylight touched the room.
Nay, Mac would not spend another night in the dungeon.
She regrettably withdrew herself from Drake’s arms and silently pulled her clothes on, her gaze fixed on him to ensure he did not rouse.
He looked young with his face so tranquil in slumber, the hard lines of the life he’d endured softened by sleep.
It made her ache to climb across the mattress and kiss his sleep-warmed lips.
Heart heavy, she quietly took up the purse he’d given her with the fifty marks and slipped out the door.
A whistled tune broke through Drake’s sleep. He’d slept deep enough that he wished to linger a little longer. The bed was soft and comfortable, and he was not due to watch the castle’s guards train until noon that day.
He rolled to his side, his hands reaching before his mind even recalled why.
Greer.
He peeked an eye open but didn’t see her lying at his side. The night before played back vividly in his mind. Every detail, sensual and tender alike.
He had asked her to marry him. Contentment warmed his chest.
He had asked her to marry him.
Granted, she hadn’t agreed to wed him, but he’d allowed her time to think about it, lest he frighten her off like a skittish deer. The whistling in the room continued.
“I dinna think ye’d be up so verra early.” He finally opened his eyes and grinned as he pushed himself onto his forearms.
Bean grinned at him and gave him a cheerful wave.
“Good morrow, Master Fletcher. I actually slept a mite later than usual. The door appeared locked last night.” He turned to the heavy wooden door of the bedchamber with a slight frown.
“But then when I checked back later, it wasn’t.
Mayhap it was stuck.” He shrugged without concern.
“I dinna get to bed until late as a result.”
Drake looked discreetly around the room for Greer. Bean would have said something if he’d seen her, for certes. Even as Drake glanced frantically about, he couldn’t help the flicker of guilt at having locked poor Bean out of their room.
But where had Greer gone?
“I thought ye’d go to the village with the other squires,” Drake said cautiously.
Bean froze. “How did ye know they went to the village?”
“I’m no’ so old that I dinna remember such things.” Drake sat up in bed, recalling his youth when he’d wanted to be a squire, back when his da had been alive, and the possibility of being a knight was not some far-off dream.
Drake and the lads had been thick as thieves as they scoured the village for whatever trouble could be found. He’d been only an observer himself but knew how it went about regardless. And what it was like to be the moral outlier.
“Have ye seen Greer?” he ventured cautiously.
“Nay.” Bean turned his attention to Drake’s chainmail in his lap, his hand hovering over the linked metal where he held the oiled polishing cloth. “I dinna stay out with the other lads. They dinna like me.”
“They dinna know ye,” Drake protested.
“Even the ones that have tried to get to know me.” Bean sighed and rubbed at a spot on the chainmail. “’Tis why I was sent with ye. To get me away from the other squires. And the knights. They dinna like me either.”
Drake regarded the lad for a moment, his chest tightening for him.
Even now, Drake still struggled with people who did not care much for his virtues.
It was the kind of thing Drake would ordinarily approach Bean about and put a reassuring hand on the lad’s shoulder…
except that beneath the sheets, Drake was entirely naked.
“’Tis hard to walk the line of justice when so few see its purpose,” Drake said from where he lay beneath the safety of the sheet. “Especially among those who should hold honor above most.”
“Ye too?” Bean looked up, his eyes wide. “People dinna like ye either?”
Drake scoffed and shook his head. “I dinna much care for them, myself.”
Bean grinned. “Me neither.”
It was Drake’s turn to offer a casual shrug. “Then why fret about what they think?”
Bean nodded to himself. “My da has said the same to me before as well.”
“The chainmail is already well-oiled from when ye did it last time, lad.” Drake indicated the caul in Bean’s hands. “Will ye see to bringing up some ale and pottage? Today will be busy, and we will need sustenance.”
“Aye, of course.” Bean hopped off the stool and practically ran from the room, leaving Drake blessedly alone to wash and dress with haste. The last thing he needed was Bean questioning why he’d slept naked.
Greer’s disappearance, however, consumed Drake’s thoughts.
Where had she gone?
Now that he was alone to think it over, unease curled around his gut. Had she decided to leave the village after all? Had she traveled all night?
His pulse quickened. What if she had been attacked? What if she was injured?
He tugged on his chainmail in preparation for meeting the guards on the battlement for practice when his door swung open and clicked closed. “I hope ye were able to find a bit of bread as well. I’m hungry as a beast—” He turned around to greet Bean and fell silent.
It was not Bean standing beside the closed door. Lady Calver tilted her head with interest at what he was saying, her expression bemused. She wore an elegant gown the color of blood with flecks of gilt thread that dotted the silk in a pattern like stars.
“Braw men always do have insatiable appetites.” She arched a brow.
“I thought ye were someone else.” He stiffened into a soldier’s stance. “Forgive me, my lady.”
“There’s no’ anything to forgive.” She smiled coyly. “Relax.”
But he did not relax. Having the lady of the castle in his bedchamber could implicate him in a way that would compromise his entire mission. Destroy all his dreams.
“Is there something I can assist ye with, my lady?” he asked.
Her lips curled up in a smile. “There is.” She walked around him, inspecting him the way one might a horse at market. “Ye appear hale and hearty. A fine representation of a man.”
He said nothing, not liking where this was going.
“My husband has many mistresses.” She let the statement hang in the air like a suggestion.
A sudden thought jarred through Drake. “Including yer ladies-in-waiting?”
The coquettish expression on her pretty face remained, but her eyes went hard. “Why would ye ask that?”
“They seemed the likely source,” he answered smoothly. “Are we no’ having a discussion that invites the opportunity for questions?”
The muscles of her slender neck flinched.
“We are. But it isna my husband I’d like to discuss.
’Tis ye.” She stepped closer. “I can satisfy ye better than the peasant woman ye came upstairs with last night.” Her gaze slid toward the bed where the sheets were still tossed about as if she could read what had happened there.
Drake took a step back. “Forgive me, but she is all I need.” He kept his gaze distant, past the noblewoman lest she take his direct eye contact as interest. “I intend to marry her.”
“Do ye fancy yerself in love?” She gave a hard, bitter laugh. “Ye’ll find such things foolish and a waste of energy. When yer heart is broken, and yer cock is hard, come find me.” With that, she spun away from him and swept from the room.
Bean entered a few minutes later with a tray of bowls of pottage, a few eggs and two mugs of ale clutched in his hands. He sniffed the air. “It smells like perfume in here.”
The lad missed nothing.
Drake didn’t bother trying to explain. Not when the lad would only ask more questions.
Instead, he sat at the chair by the fire and indicated the seat opposite him.
“Let us make haste with breaking our fast. I want to arrive in time to see the guards train.” So he would know what he had to work with.
At least for the mission that Lord Calver assumed him to be there for.
What Lady Calver said about her husband’s mistresses dug at Drake’s thoughts. It was obvious from her reaction that Drake had been correct about Lord Calver’s affairs with her ladies-in-waiting. Lord Androll’s daughter had been one of those ladies-in-waiting.
The idea of Lord Calver with a young woman brought on a shudder of disgust.
But some women were drawn to power. Even still, all options would have to be exhausted before Drake rested his assumptions on the Earl of Calver. Not when the man was of such incredible wealth and his support to the crown so important.
Such accusations would not be taken lightly. And if incorrect, there was no recovering from such a fault.
For now, Drake needed to set his sights on appearing to train the guards while subtly finding any additional information he could on Lady Eileen’s death.
And, of course, figuring out exactly what had become of Greer.