Chapter 9
Rowan
Somewhere between those woods and the gates of the estate, the man I had gotten to know over the last few days had disappeared, and in his place was a man I had not met yet. A man who stood tall, with his shoulders back and his head held high.
Yum.
Caelan glanced at me, an appraising look on his face, before a sexy smile crossed his lips. It sent shivers all the way to my toes. He smirked before turning to a guard.
“Inform Jesmina of my return,” he said in a commanding voice that brooked no argument. The guard nodded, absently, but his attention was upon me. His astonishment was clear on his face, and I don’t even think he heard the order sent his way.
“Who even are you?” I asked Caelan cheekily, grinning at him as we entered the castle.
He looked at me from the corner of his eye. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Don’t you? The man I just saw was not the man I met in the woods.”
“The man you met in the woods is only really known to yourself and one other. Aenan, my brother. You are the only pair I can be myself around.”
Warmth filled my chest, happiness spreading at his words. I like you too. I was curious why he felt that way, though. “Why are we the only two?”
He glanced in my direction, seeming surprised that he’d shared the thought. “I guess… it’s because I don’t have many friends.”
“And is that what we are?” I whispered. “Friends?” What if I want more?
He didn’t answer me. Instead, he took me by the elbow and hurried me down a hall. I had the sudden thought that he couldn’t wait to be rid of me and had somewhere else he needed to be.
His long strides ate up the carpet runner and I ran to keep up with him.
Up the stairs and along the hallways, then up some more stairs.
I tried to remember all the twists and turns, but was horribly lost. Tapestries and window seats all started to look the same.
Finally, he paused in front of a door and turned to me.
“I would very much like for us to be friends, Rowan, if we aren’t already,” he said hesitantly, answering my earlier question.
He was just a bit cute when he was all formal like this, so I answered him in the same way, a small smile flirting with my lips. “I would very much like that as well.”
His smile lit me up, making me feel things friends really shouldn’t.
“This is your room,” he said, opening the door.
I stepped inside, my mouth falling open.
It was huge. A suite of rooms, really. The door opened into a large sitting room.
Plush sofas and elegant chairs were arranged to encourage intimate conversation and a large fireplace with a thick wooden mantel took up one end of the wall, a fire already flickering behind the grate.
Through an open doorway, there was a bed.
A great four-poster that sat so high I was sure I would need a step to get in.
I made to move towards it before noticing Caelan still stood in the doorway.
“My room is just down the hall,” he said, waving a hand. “One door down.”
“Okay.” I was confused as to where this was leading.
“I’ll let you settle in,” he said. “Someone will be along shortly to help you.”
I took a step towards him, certain he was about to disappear and that I would never see him again.
I don’t know where the fear came from. He moved towards me at the same time, and that fear changed to anticipation.
I was sure he was about to kiss me. But, at the last second, he scooped up my hand and placed a chaste kiss to the back of it instead.
Butterflies of disappointment swarmed in my abdomen.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, before slipping out of the room and closing the door softly behind him.
My brows fell as soon as he was gone and those butterflies turned into birds, bashing against my sternum.
It wasn’t the kiss I’d been expecting. Hoping for.
Over the last three days I had often imagined what it would feel like to taste his lips.
To touch his face, and the body beneath.
Secret little thoughts I had kept to myself as I followed along behind him, admiring the view.
I had a new appreciation for leather pants.
A sigh tumbled out of me, taking those birds with it, and I leant back against the door, jumping when a knock sounded right behind my ear.
“Hello?”
The handle twisted and a freckled face popped into view. “Milady.” A housekeeper quickly bobbed a curtsy before looking at me curiously.
Milady? She hurried into the other room before I could mumble a reply.
“The water will be here soon, milady.”
My brow furrowed. Water?
Closing the door again, I followed her into the bedroom.
It was the same size as the sitting room, and needed to be, as the great bed took up much of the space.
Off to the side, wedged into the window nook, sat a large copper tub.
It was there that I spied the… What should I call her?
Was she a maid? Her stark white apron seemed to suggest so.
“My name is Rowan,” I said, hoping for an introduction.
“Yes, milady. You may call me Jesmina.” She looked me up and down shrewdly.
I looked down too. I still wore Caelan’s cloak, so undid the clasp at my neck and it fell to the ground in a whoosh. Jesmina scooped it up and placed it over a chair before I even had a chance to move. She retreated to the armoire and started to rummage inside, laying some dresses on the bed.
“What will you wear, milady?” she asked, digging about in some drawers I’d only just noticed.
“Oh.” I looked down at my jeans. They were filthy, covered in dirt and grime and God knew what else. The rip in the knee had only gotten bigger. “I – I’m not sure. You decide.”
“Come, sit. Sit.” She beckoned me to a chair near the fire. It was a double-sided fireplace, open to both rooms.
When I sat, Jesmina began unlacing my boots at once. “Oh, I can do that,” I said, sitting forward.
“Nonsense,” she tsked. She had my boots off, my socks stripped and placed with the cloak, when a knock sounded at the door. “Come in!” Jesmina called out.
A trio of boys came rushing in, buckets in hand, and started to fill the tub. They rushed back out again before I could even stand. Jesmina moved to the bath and poured something in that smelt like lavender.
The boys came back again and poured another six buckets, the lavender-scented water steaming. When they rushed out again, I stepped to the doorway. “Where do they go to get the water?” I asked.
“Just down the stairs at the back of the hall. His Lordship has a bathing chamber. It has a hot spring that runs through it all year round.”
“Is it terribly far?” I asked, looking at the tub. It would take another two trips to fill it.
“Not that far, no.” As if to prove the point, the boys came rushing back in, buckets in hand.
Before long, the bath was ready, and the boys had departed. Jesmina was waiting – for what, I did not know.
“Do you need assistance undressing, milady?” she asked.
“Rowan, please. And no – no, thank you, Jesmina. I can take it from here.”
She continued to stand there, though, and I grew uneasy, wondering what was going on.
“Your clothes, milady. I will take them to be laundered.” She had the cloak and my socks already folded over her arm.
Oh. Looking around the room, I spied a wooden screen and stepped behind it to remove my clothing. There was a chamber pot, and I eyed it suspiciously, wondering what it was doing there, when it suddenly occurred to me. The buckets. There was no indoor plumbing!
Great. I rolled my eyes and huffed out a sigh. Something I would have to get used to.
“Are you all right, milady?”
“Yes! Nearly done.” I hurried to undress in case Jesmina thought I needed help after all. Each item of clothing I slung over the screen was quickly whisked away, until all that was left was me and the empty chamber pot.
“Is that all, milady, or do you require help into the bath?”
“No, Jesmina, I’m fine, really. Thank you for your help.” I waited until I heard the door close before peeking out from behind the screen, then quickly making my way across the room and sliding into the bath.
The warm water was like heaven. Not too hot, but warm enough that it instantly melted away the lingering soreness that had settled into my muscles after three days of walking. My calf muscles were going to be huge.
There was a small wooden stool with a bar of soap beside the tub. I sniffed the soap, happy to discover it was also lavender-scented, and lathered it between my hands before rubbing at my skin. I scrubbed and scrubbed and then scrubbed some more, washing away three days of filth.
I repeated the process with my hair, washing until it fairly squeaked before finger-combing it as best I could and twirling it into a bun.
I secured it with a pin, leaning back and staring at the ceiling.
My shoulders relaxed as I let out a long breath, and the tension I hadn’t even known I carried melted away.
The sound of the flames dancing within the fireplace soon had my eyes slipping closed.
“Rowan? Are you in there?”
Eek.
Water sloshed over the rim of the tub as I sat up, desperately looking for a towel.
Only the faint glow of the fire lit the room, though, and I couldn’t see one.
A light bobbed in the other room, coming closer and closer, so I sank back down into the cooling water, trusting I was sufficiently covered.
“In here,” I responded, though I gathered Caelan knew that as he appeared not a second later.
His eyes swept around the room, and I took that brief moment to take him all in before he found me in the shadows. He had washed. His jaw was clean-shaven and his clothes were new. They were much like his old ones, though his pants looked less… leathery.
He pulled up short when he noticed me in the tub. “You’re not dressed! You should have said something.” He turned to go.
“Wait! Please.”
Pausing, he turned his head back to me, one eyebrow raised in query.
“I… I don’t have a towel.”
Realising my dilemma, he glanced about, spotting the errant towel on the chair. He retrieved it and stepped closer. In the low light of the fire, I watched him from under my lashes. Need pulsed through me as I suddenly remembered his kiss – both the one on my hand and the one I’d imagined.
He paused a few steps from the tub, placing the towel on the stool. “Was that all you needed?” he asked in a gravelly voice. One that did wicked things to me.
I gulped.
Be brave! Be bold!
But I didn’t know how. My skills in that department were woefully lacking. Caelan must have sensed my hesitation, because he crouched down beside the bath so we were nearly eye level and asked me again, “Was there something you needed from me, Rowan?”
Now or never.
Mustering my courage, I sat up slowly, my breasts cresting the top of the water until my nipples were peeking out from just below the surface.
The liquid lapped at them like a lover’s tongue, kissing those peaks with each forward and backward motion.
His eyes latched onto them, and they grew harder under his gaze.
“Kiss me,” I said.
Begged.
Pleaded.
Caelan didn’t hesitate. He launched at me like a coiled spring let loose. His lips fused to mine, his hand sliding around the side of my head to hold me still.
It was heaven. A hundred thousand stars exploded inside of me, lighting up my skin, pouring through my veins.
Three days! Three days I had been wanting this. Wishing for his touch. Longing for his lips. But now, with his sweet taste pressed against my mouth, three days suddenly felt woefully insignificant. It felt like I had been waiting my whole life for this moment.
Waiting for him.
I moaned, deep within my throat, and he increased the pressure, forcing me to open my mouth, stroking me with his tongue.
I moaned again, reaching up to clasp his neck, my fingers twirling through his hair.
His other hand moved beneath the water, clasping my hip as he angled my head to deepen the kiss.
I’d never been kissed like this before, and I never wanted another to kiss me like this again.
Only him. There would only ever be him.
Leaving my mouth, he trailed kisses along my jaw and under my ear. More moans escaped me, sounding like pleas.
“Sensitive here,” he purred, nuzzling my ear. “You like that, little bird?”
My lips parted in a sigh of pleasure and shivers erupted all over my body.
He chuckled, his warm breath whispering against my ear, causing more.
He trailed hot kisses down the side of my throat, nipping and sucking as he went.
I grew restless, my desire pooling, threatening to engulf me.
I had never been turned on like this before by any man.
From simply a touch. A kiss. Squeezing my thighs tight, I clutched a handful of hair on the back of his neck and pulled him to my mouth.
“You want this, Rowan?” he asked, the words whispered against my lips. His hand slid down my hip and understanding pounded through me. I nodded into his kiss, but he pulled back to look at me, his grey eyes dark with desire. “I want to hear you say it, little bird.”
What am I saying? I couldn’t remember his question. Anything. Just don’t stop.
He chuckled. “I need to hear you say you want this, Rowan.” His fingers trailed over the junction of my thighs, slowly caressing the folds there.
“I want this,” I repeated, kissing him hard. Burning up inside.
A low groan sounded against my mouth, and his kisses became feverish. He ran a finger up the very centre of me. “Open your eyes,” he commanded, pausing over my ball of nerves.
My eyes popped open, locking onto his, our breaths mingling as I panted in expectation.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he ran his finger around me, his gaze never leaving mine.
It was so intimate I wanted to look away, scared at the feelings it evoked.
But my hips had other ideas and pushed up against him as the pressure built inside.
Mewing noises dripped from my lips as he continued to torment me.
“Caelan,” I rasped.
“I know,” he said, nipping at my mouth. He slid his finger back down and straight up inside, pressing down on my nub with his thumb as he did.
It was so unexpected, yet so deliciously right, that I exploded.
I clamped down on his finger, pulsating and clenching, shuddering through my orgasm.
I think I stopped breathing. I definitely stopping seeing, for my eyes had rolled back in my head.
A warm glow pulsed within my chest, and I clutched his arms, holding him tight.
“Breathe, Rowan,” he said, pressing soft kisses to my face. I sucked in a breath, my eyes straining open and latching onto his.
Slowly, he withdrew his finger, and with the softest of kisses to my swollen lips, he whispered, “To be continued.”