Chapter Thirty-Eight
This was going to be difficult for Aubert, but there was no help for it.
As always, Gaharet had seen to the heart of things.
Edmond settled his hand on the small of Isobella’s back, guiding her away from the dais.
Aubert blocked his way. He tensed, searching Aubert’s face. Were they going to have a problem?
Aubert shoved the sack containing the spell book at him. “Best to keep this safe and tucked away.” His voice was gruffer than usual, and his struggle to let Isobella leave the room with Edmond, in the tension in his shoulders. “Isobella can put a ward on it to protect it.”
Edmond nodded. He could not deny he was relieved it was not him being separated from their mate.
That he would not have to lie here in the hall by the fire, unable to sleep, knowing his mate might well be lying with another man.
That they had agreed to share her, that Isobella had affirmed she was a mate to both, that his brother trusted him with Isobella were the only things tempering his brother’s instincts.
And that of his wolf. Were he in Aubert’s stead, he could not claim he would have been as calm, as accepting.
His wolf would have been clawing out of his skin.
He met his brother’s gaze. “You will have your time with her, brother. I vow it to you.”
Edmond meant it. For he suspected, once he was alone with Isobella, it would be all he could do to keep his hands off her.
To not claim her body and her heart. He would see his brother have the same opportunity.
Edmond had already marked her. In the forest, in Constance’s cottage.
Their mate bond would not be complete until Aubert had done the same. He would see it done. And soon.
Edmond led Isobella from the hall and down the corridor to Gaharet’s usual chambers.
“Is he going to be okay?” There was concern in Isobella’s eyes. “It doesn’t seem right we’re leaving him on his own. I mean, that he’s not with us.”
That she did not want to leave his brother behind, that she felt the wrongness of it, did not want his twin hurting any more than he did, eased some of the tightness in his chest.
Edmond opened the chamber door and ushered her inside, closing it behind them. The oil lamps were already lit, and coals glowed in the brazier in the corner. On the table sat a platter of salted meat, fruits, cheese and bread, and a jug of wine and some goblets.
Edmond dropped the sack on the table beside the food.
“I will not lie to you, Isobella. It is going to be a difficult night for Aubert, but we will have already drawn attention. Once Faucher has recovered from whatever caused him to lose his wits, he will be looking for any reason to come after you. I do not know how things are in your twenty-first century, but it is not usual for a woman to have two… husbands at the same time. Lothair might look the other way if it suits him, but others will not. And Faucher has a lot of influence with the church.”
She sighed. “It’s not so different in the twenty-first century. Having more than one partner at the same time is unusual and kind of frowned upon by most.”
He leaned in and cupped her cheek. “Aubert understands it is for the best. I promise you, as I vowed to him, you will have your time with Aubert.”
She stared up at him with those big brown eyes of hers.
“Believe me when I tell you, he wants more than anything to be here right now. Do not doubt that for a single moment.”
She needed to know that. He needed her to know that, and so did Aubert. The last thing they wanted was for her to doubt either of them. They had come this far. He was not going to let her slip away because they had not stated their intentions clearly enough.
“Here.” He opened the sack and removed the grimoire. “I think Aubert is right about this. We should put a ward on it. To keep it out of the wrong hands. Can you do that? For I certainly have no talent as a witch. More likely to turn myself into a toad.”
She giggled. He liked it when she smiled.
“I don’t know if that’s actually possible.
Although…” Her expression darkened. “With Cordelia, one can never be too careful.” She slid the grimoire in front of her.
“I think I’m going to need a dagger. I’m not keen on blood magic, but it is powerful.
And something about me being a werewolf seems to have amplified my magic.
A bit of my blood might give the ward an extra boost.” Her brows pinched, and her expression grew distant.
“I wonder if it has something to do with the Langeais wolves being Cordelia’s creation.
If some of her magic flows in all our veins. ”
Edmond pulled the dagger from the sheath in his boot and handed it to her, hilt first.
Isobella shook herself, taking it and cutting her finger. “I swear you have an endless supply of these things. How many do you have?”
“That is my last one. Here. I have many more back at my keep.”
He eyed the drop of blood on her finger, tensing as she squeezed her finger and let the blood drop onto the grimoire. If what she had done with the tree roots in the forest and with the burn nettle in the village was gentler magic, what was she capable of with blood magic?
She closed her eyes and chanted her spell.
It made the hair on the back of his arms stand on end, listening to her speak words of protection, of warning.
Then her voice faded off to a whisper, and she opened her eyes.
There was a subtle hum around the grimoire that had not been there before.
A ward. He eyed the book. If he were to pick it up…
She handed him back his dagger. “It won’t kill someone because they touch it, but they won’t be able to take it from me without breaking the ward. Breaking any ward hurts and is noisy. Cordelia would’ve had a ward on it. My guess is that’s what killed Didier.”
He grabbed the hand she had cut with his blade.
The cut was already healing, but the blood remained.
He closed his mouth around her finger and sucked on it.
She gasped. Edmond swiped her finger with his tongue, and her little gasp became a moan.
The air between them crackled, the lingering desire from this morn sparking back to life.
The sudden tightness in his breeches, with a stranglehold on his cock, not unexpected.
He released her finger and stood, her wide eyes following him as he circled the table.
He had already bitten her, but it had not been how he had imagined claiming his mate.
No soft words, no intimacy, only the desperation, her stuttered breaths and the stench of death in the air.
This was his chance to revisit it. Rewrite the memory for both of them.
Make it special. Something to remember for all the right reasons.
He took her hand and led her toward the bed.
Aubert would not deny him this. Would expect him to care for their mate in whatever way she needed.
What had happened in the training room had hung between them on their journey from the keep.
Not only the pleasure they had wrung from her but their confessions, the acceptance that the three of them belonged together.
She needed the confirmation of it. The consummation of their mate bond in the most intimate way a man could be with a woman.
Not for her body, but for her heart. If Aubert were here, Edmond would expect nothing less of him.
What their mate needed came before everything.
Isobella stood before Edmond, the large bed with its plush covers behind her, and licked her lips.
Her body was too hot, her clothes too tight and the air thick and heavy with promise.
Edmond was going to make love to her. It had been in the race of his pulse from the moment Gaharet had offered them his chambers.
In the caress of his hand on the small of her back as he’d guided her from the hall, and in the heat in his eyes as he had sucked the blood from her finger.
The grimoire, Cordelia and everything outside of this chamber faded into the background like white noise.
Isobella wanted Edmond to make love to her.
The only thing she wanted more was for Aubert to be here too.
She placed her hand on Edmond’s chest, the pounding of his heart beneath her palm racing as fast as her own.
God, I’m so nervous.
What if she didn’t orgasm with Edmond? The big O had always proved elusive.
She had high expectations with Edmond after what had happened in the training room.
But what if she didn’t? Would it still be good?
She’d enjoy it anyway, of course. Like she had in the past. Though, she hadn’t really enjoyed it.
It hadn’t lived up to her expectations, her fantasies.
Edmond cupped her face with his big hands. “You are thinking too much, chaton. Feel, not think.”
He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, oh, so gently.
Another gentle kiss had her knees trembling.
Then he took her mouth with his, teasing her lips apart.
The roar of blood in her ears, the rush of heat to her body, drowned out her insecurities, until they slipped away.
For such a big man, for one who could be so savage on the battlefield, there was a tenderness about him that stole her breath.
His fingers snagged in her hair, and he deepened the kiss, tasting, teasing, but so tender. Never had a man treated her like this. Like she was the most precious thing in his world. It undid her. She unraveled in his arms.
He released her mouth and pressed his forehead to hers, his breath ragged. “Is this what you want, Isobella? Us? Me? If it is not, speak now, for if I go any further, I do not think I could hold myself back.”
He was asking, as if her body wasn’t already telling him what she wanted.
That she was all in. He could take her. He far outmatched her in size.
Here in the tenth century, no one would care.
But he didn’t, and he wasn’t rushing her.
No, Edmond asked, and he would retreat if that was what she wanted.
It was in the way he held himself back, in the stillness between them as he waited for her answer.
Her heart swelled in her chest. For Edmond. For Aubert.
She stepped out of the circle of his arms.
Edmond closed his eyes. He sucked in a breath and released it with a heavy sigh and nodded. “I understand.” He backed away from her, keeping his eyes closed.
“I don’t think you do.”
Isobella undid the laces on her boot and slipped it off.
As it hit the floor, Edmond’s eyes snapped open.
She’d always had a choice. Had always stepped into the arms of her previous lovers willingly, but never had it been so unfettered.
Never had she owned that choice like she did now.
It was liberating, and it was powerful. This was the way it should be.
The way it was always meant to be between two people who loved each other.
That she had never experienced this before told her everything.
Isobella’s second boot joined the other on the floor. Edmond’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t move. She tugged at the laces on either side of her dress, loosening them enough that she could slip it off over her head. Edmond’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and his musky scent intensified.
She grabbed the hem of her underdress and dragged it over her head.
It fell to the floor in a rustle of fabric.
Her chemise followed, then Isobella stood before him naked.
She’d never been brave enough to do this before.
Strip and ask for what she wanted. Being with Edmond and Aubert, she never questioned her courage.
She was free to be brave without censure, without ridicule or dismissal.
Edmond and Aubert trusted her abilities. They never mocked her ideas. They believed in her. When she was with them, she believed in her. With Edmond and Aubert, she could conquer the world.
A growl rumbled up in Edmond’s chest, and dark shadows flitted in his eyes. His wolf was close.
“Edmond, I want this with you. Here. Now. More than anything.”
Her words galvanized him into action. His boots, his arm and leg braces he discarded, tossing them with reckless abandon about the room.
His sword belt, his chain mail and his padded garment he threw over a chair, followed by his tunic.
Edmond fumbled with his laces, his breeches snagging on his erect cock.
Then he ripped them down his legs, stumbling in his eagerness as he pulled his feet free and tossed them aside.
He was huge. He was glorious. And he was hers.
Edmond grinned, looking for all the world like a man who’d won the lottery.
He stalked toward her and scooped her up in his arms. She squealed, then laughed as he dropped her on the bed, his smile infectious.
He followed her down, caging her in with his body, with his arms, and dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose.
“I thought you wanted me to stop,” he rumbled.
She wound her hands around his neck. “No. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
“Ah, Bella.” He kissed her, tugging at her bottom lip as he pulled away.
“You are our mate.” He planted soft kisses along her jawline, then nuzzled the curve of her throat as his hand slipped to cup her breast, his impressive erection hard and hot between them.
Then, he flipped them so fast it made her head spin. She squealed, then laughed again.
“Let me look at you.”
She eased herself up so she was straddling his hips, and as Edmond’s heated gaze scorched a path over her body, something shifted inside her.
The reticence that had always held her back.
The fear of being vulnerable and opening herself up to ridicule evaporated.
She no longer had a reason to hide, to keep herself small.
Edmond would never hurt her. She arched her body, begging him to touch her. Entrusting herself to Edmond’s care.
“So beautiful.” He reached up to palm her breasts. “Know this, Isobella. There is nothing on this earth that could ever make me stop loving you.”