Chapter Nineteen #3
He shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “It is good that you haven’t.
The group was started by William Marshal about a hundred years ago.
He took the best knights in England and used them as spies and assassins, among other things.
It was a covert group that worked together in order to keep England safe.
It is difficult to explain, but Executioner Knights can be guards for the king.
Or they can spy on adversaries. Or they can assassinate someone who is putting someone very important in danger.
They do things that are secretive and sometimes distasteful, but they do it for the good of all.
Yet no one knows who they are. That is the most important thing.
There are those who would like nothing better than to destroy an Executioner Knight and all they stand for. Their enemies are vast.”
She was watching him closely. Then she tilted her head back as if something had just occurred to her.
“You’re one of them,” she said softly.
Titus nodded. “I am,” he murmured. “Not even my mother knows. I never told her because I did not want to worry her. Also, the fewer people who know, the better.”
“But you are telling me.”
“Because you are my wife,” he said. “It is important that you know who and what I am, and whom I truly serve. Surprisingly, it is not my father. The past few years, I have been serving the Earl of Pembroke.”
“Does he know who you are?”
“He does, but only because he helps Morgen de Lohr from time to time by placing knights with men that need watching,” he said.
“William Marshal was the Earl of Pembroke many years ago. Now, it is Aymer de Valence because he married Marshal’s granddaughter, though the command of the Executioner Knights has passed to the de Lohr family.
But Lord Pembroke is still involved. I’ve been serving him because he is directly involved in the struggle against the king and the king’s foreign courtiers. ”
“Then what you do is very important,” she said. “But why are you telling me all of this?”
He rubbed her arms gently. “Because I must leave on the morrow,” he said softly. “There is a great deal happening with the king and his warlords, and I must go to the Welsh marches.”
“To Pembroke?”
“Nay,” he said, shaking his head. “To Lioncross Abbey Castle, seat of Morgen de Lohr. I bear a message from my father, and there are other things I must tend to, but I do not know when I will return. All I can tell you is that I will return as soon as I can, and you will live here with my family for now. But knowing I have you to return to… it will keep me going, Katia. You will occupy my thoughts day and night until we are together again.”
She smiled at him, putting her arms around his neck and pulling her down to him. “I suppose it would do no good to ask if someone else can complete this task for you,” she whispered.
“Nay, love,” he murmured. “It must be me. I am the de Wolfe born to do this. It is my duty and my destiny.”
He heard her sigh, giving up an argument she knew that she had no possibility of winning.
“Then I will not ask you to be less than what you are,” she said.
“I would never ask you to shirk your duties. But know this—you will be all I think about until I see your smiling face once more. Just know… know how proud I am to be your wife, Titus. And how very much I love you.”
He hugged her fiercely, feeling tears sting his eyes that this glorious creature should be so devoted to him.
He worshipped her, of course, but to know that he was so loved in return was something he never thought he’d experience.
He was greatly relieved with how well she had taken the news, but he suspected it was because she really didn’t know the danger he was in every moment of every day when carrying out his duties.
Perhaps it was better that way. He didn’t want to frighten her.
But he did want her.
In the worst way.
Titus kissed Katiana fiercely, suckling her lips, tasting this woman he couldn’t get enough of, but very quickly his kisses turned heated.
His hands began to roam. That lush, beautiful body was beneath his palms, and he explored it openly.
He began unfastening the ties of her simple garment, better with ties this time around and not too rough, loosening them enough to pull her bodice down and expose her right breast.
Katiana cried out softly as his mouth clamped over a tender nipple.
She began to pull at his tunic, trying to undress him, and Titus helped her.
He wanted her as badly as she wanted him.
They were insatiable for one another as it was, taking any opportunity to be intimate, and this was a perfect moment.
As Titus’ tunic came off, he yanked her bodice down further to expose both luscious breasts.
Mouth on her succulent nipples, he pushed her back on the bed and flipped up her skirts. Katiana was fumbling with the ties of his breeches, and he had her skirts up about the time she pulled loose his ties. His breeches slipped down to his mid-thigh as he wedged himself between her slender legs.
His big arousal pushed at her, and Katiana’s eager hands moved to his big erection as she guided him into her.
When he felt her slick, wet heat, he thrust firmly into her, listening to her yelp with pleasure.
She was exquisitely tight and hot, and he thrust again, feeling her legs wrap around him and draw him in deeper.
His arms went around her, holding her tightly against him as he began to move.
Titus’ mouth was on hers, kissing her deeply, as he made love to her on the bed that creaked and groaned under his weight.
Touching her, tasting her, meant more to him with every encounter, as if it was feeding his very soul.
He felt things for Katiana that he had never felt in his life, for anyone, feelings of attraction that he couldn’t control.
It was more than the act of sex itself. It was a demonstration of emotions that had completely overtaken him.
It was an expression of love that was timeless and honest.
Katiana was incoherent in her passion, feeling every thrust with the greatest of pleasure.
He was so big, and plunging into her body so deeply, that his movements were driving her toward a swift release.
Titus had spectacular form, and she was learning to crave him.
Her body, when she was near him, would cry out for him.
They couldn’t even sleep in the same bed without making love two or three times a night.
They couldn’t get enough of each other.
Titus’ thrusts grew harder, firmer, and he ground his pelvis against her every time he plunged deep.
He suckled her nipples as he thrust, listening to her groan with pleasure.
It was a beautiful and powerful joining, and after one particularly deep thrust, he felt her release around him as gasps of rapture escaped her lips.
Still, he continued to make love to her, feeling another climax a few moments later.
With that, he could no longer stop his own release.
Titus spilled himself into her sweet body.
He found himself wishing his seed would find its mark and that Katiana would bear him a son.
A son with his size and strength and his mother’s kindness and intelligence.
He knew she would make a remarkable mother, and he considered himself fortunate to have married such a magnificent woman, one he loved with all his heart.
One he was loath to leave.
God, he missed her already.
“Titus?” she asked breathlessly.
“Hmm?” he muttered, eyes closed as he lay on top of her.
“Do you suppose we should be packing your bags instead of doing this?”
He started to chuckle, his body shaking with mirth. “Nay,” he said flatly. “I can pack my bags in just a few minutes. We have plenty of time to do this.”
“For the rest of the day?”
“For the rest of the day. Or at least until my mother comes looking for us.”
With a giggle, Katiana wrapped herself around him, arms around his neck, holding him tightly even though his weight was bearing down on her, smashing her into the mattress.
But she didn’t mind. She’d waited her whole life to feel the man in her arms, and she wasn’t going to let him go so easily.
But as she shifted, she caught sight of something on the back of his left bicep.
She’d seen it before, but she’d never asked him about it.
From her angle, she could just see the edges of it.
Her fingers traced it.
“What is that?” she asked. “I’ve noticed it before, but I’ve never asked you about it. It looks like someone drew on your arm.”
Titus glanced over his shoulder even though he knew what she was talking about.
“That is the de Wolfe mark,” he said. “In ancient times, something like this was called a stigmata. It is an image that is made with needles upon the skin. Then ink is put in the needle wounds that make the mark permanent. It is the de Wolfe’s head, the mark of the grandsons of William de Wolfe of Castle Questing. We all have it.”
“Will our sons have it?”
He shook his head, shifting so he was nuzzling her neck. “Nay,” he murmured. “Only the grandsons of William de Wolfe. It is the thing I am the proudest of, next to you.”
Those sweet words were enough for Katiana to latch on to his lips again, overwhelmed with emotion.
Titus brought it out in her, and she in him.
They continued to make love until Kristiana knocked on the door around the nooning hour, looking for her sewing kit.
After that, they were forced to separate.
But it had been the best morning of their lives.