Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Rebecca woke in the darkness, her tired, damp body draped like a too-small blanket over Dorchad’s muscular perfection.
How many times had they made love? She couldn’t remember, for the night had blurred into one long luxurious fusion of both sides of their pleasure.
The chieftain had taken complete control of her, and commanded her to do things she’d never even considered with a lover.
He made everything seem perfectly natural, as if they’d been created solely to make each other happy.
As she’d obeyed him he’d rewarded her so generously she’d almost drowned in satisfaction. Already she adored him, heart and soul.
He can’t love me back, but that’s fine. I can give him what he wants, and he completes me. That little pang of sadness was also something she accepted. Nothing could ever be perfect, especially for someone like her with needs that went beyond the ordinary.
Opening her eyes, Rebecca sighed and lifted her head to discover her lover was watching her with his drowsy dark eyes. For a moment all the grimness seemed to have vanished from his handsome face, making him seem much younger.
“Did I wake you?” she murmured.
“I dinnae sleep much.” One of his big hands caressed her nape, and then followed her spine down to her buttocks. “In slumber you make sounds like a wee kitten.”
She tapped his chest. “And you, sir, talk in your sleep.” His brows furrowed.
“But I can barely hear you. Also, I squeak instead of snoring.” Her grandparents had thought that endearing, but they didn’t know why she did.
“It was part of the injuries I had from the accident. Something hit me in the face and broke my nose.” She rubbed her fingers over the little bump in the center of her bridge.
“That’s why it’s a little crooked, too.”
“I like your nose.” His fingers skimmed over the surgical scars on her lower back. “You suffered so much, and yet come to me so willing for more.”
“This isn’t suffering.” As he made a grumpy sound she sighed. “Not in the way you mean. What we do together makes me so happy, more than I ever thought it would.”
“Another should treat you better,” he countered. “Why dinnae you wish to be with a man who shall love and cherish you?”
“That can be smothering. I speak from experience.” She shifted off him and turned onto her back.
Although she would always love her grandparents, at times her life with them had been suffocating.
“People who cherish you too much don’t trust you to think for yourself.
They want to protect you and make all your decisions for you, even after you reach adulthood, so that there’s no possibility of anything bad happening to you.
So you don’t learn or grow, you exist in a cage built by their fears.
Do you know that this is the very first time in my life that I’m doing what I want? ”
“You’re a good woman, and deserve the same in a man.” He turned his head to look at her, his expression shuttered. “I’ll never be that for you, Rebecca. I’ll but hurt you over and again.”
“No, no. You’re not hearing me.” She shoved herself up and straddled him, angry with herself for not making him understand what she was. “If I bite you—and I believe I already did, several times—would you assume that I want to devour you like a meal?”
“I presume naught with you after tonight,” he said, his tone dry now.
“And if I do this…” She lifted up, curling her hand around his shaft as she positioned herself above him. “Would you think I wanted to rip this part of you off your body?”
His eyes glittered with that icy heat she loved. “Say what you mean.”
“I need what you do to me, and you want to do it to me. It’s not harmful, but it’s scary and thrilling and I’m gushing wet again just talking about it.
See?” She pushed his straining cockhead between her slick folds.
“So while you’re inside me, you’re pleasuring me and I’m pleasuring you.
Even if we bite each other. Even if I take you deep inside me like this and you start thrusting hard because you’re excited.
I know you can hurt me badly. I also know you never will.
” Impaling herself on him so suddenly forced a cry from her lips.
His big hands gripped her thighs as his voice went low and rough. “You trust me too easily.”
“You don’t trust yourself. If you like, I can be the one to tell you what to do,” Rebecca assured him as she planted her knees and worked her pussy slowly up and down his thick shaft.
“I can tie you to our bed and do whatever I like to you. It’s not what I desire, but I’m willing if you are.
Would you think I’m hurting you if I did something like that? ”
Dorchad’s eyes filled with burning heat, and he clamped his hands around her waist and flipped over with her, drawing her legs up over his shoulders and plunging deep into her core.
“So you’re giving yourself to me entire,” he said, growling the words. “You’re mine to do with as I wish, ever and always. Your flesh, mine to mark.”
“With my willing consent, yes.” She arched up as he hammered into her, taking each stroke of his cock into her clenching sex with fierce delight. “That is what I’ve dreamed of being. A plaything for my lover. For you. Yours and only yours.”
Dorchad bent his head down, touching his brow to hers as he looked into her eyes. “If you thwart me again, I shall see that you cannae sit with comfort for a moon.”
“That goes both ways, you know.” She couldn’t catch her breath, he was fucking her so fast and hard and deep. “Don’t ever lie to me, my lord.”
He kissed her as she shattered with the force of her emotions and climax, and then he stiffened over her as he jetted again and again, filling her with the warm silkiness of his seed. They ended up curled together on their sides, both of them watching each other.
He’s as blown away by this as I am.
“May I touch you with my mouth, my lord?” When Dorchad grunted she scooted down and rolled over onto his legs, nestling herself there as she kissed his wet cock. Plying her tongue along the now-stiffening length of his shaft, she tasted both of them blended together.
“Hold.” He lifted her face as if to study it. “You need sleep, bed wench.”
“I need to make you tidy before I do.” She watched him as she licked him from root to tip. “You like my mouth on you, too.”
“Too much.” He tangled his hand in her curls. “Did you thus for your other lover, then?”
He sounded almost jealous, and that made a strange possessiveness rise inside her. “No. I hardly did anything with him. I didn’t trust him enough.”
Dorchad dragged her up and kissed her, and folded his arms around her. “Sleep.”
Rebecca did exactly that, but when she woke in the thin morning light she discovered she lay alone in the chieftain’s bed.
She buried her face in her arms for a moment before she got up and saw her clothes folded in a neat pile on a side table.
Beside them steam rose from a mug, and the sunlight from the narrow window slit sparkled on a bowl of just-washed fruit.
The sight of the meal made her relax a little.
He’d left her breakfast, which seemed almost like an apology for not being there.
She washed up before dressing, and saw the marks that spending a night with Dorchad had left on her body.
Small bruises and suck marks, which might have shamed another woman.
Not her. She viewed them with intense satisfaction, as they were silent testament to his promise to her.
He’d left his mark on her, but he hadn’t made her bleed.
He never would. She knew that in the depths of her being.
Taking the mug of brew over to the window, she stood and basked in the sunlight for a moment.
His chamber in the stronghold overlooked the lists, and from there she could see Dorchad standing beside the center circle where four men were sparring.
Of course he had his duties, and she couldn’t expect him to wait for her to wake up before going to work.
It just would have been nice if he’d woken her for a good-bye kiss.
At the same time she knew expecting that was foolish.
He can’t be that kind of guy.
The door to the chamber abruptly opened, and Rebecca turned to see Sgathan carrying in two buckets of hot water, which he placed on the floor by the wash stand.
He then gave her a brief but intense look-over, his gaze lingering on her face as his brows drew together.
It seemed like he almost didn’t recognize her, which was silly. He’d seen her plenty of times.
This must be the first time he found a girl in his brother’s room.
“Good morning,” Rebecca finally said, setting down her tea.
“Indeed.” He came over and walked around her, studying her from all angles. “You spent the night with my brother.”
“I did.” She saw no reason to deny what was obvious. “Is that a problem for you?”
The seneschal tensed. “Dorchad doesnae trifle with females.”
“Other females. Not me. He trifled with me.” The way he flinched when she said that was almost like the reaction to a sudden, painful slap. “Maybe you should go down to the lists and talk to him about this. I’m sure he’ll reassure you it was consensual.”
Sgathan suddenly strode forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her down into the chair by the banked hearth. It was so sudden and unexpected that Rebecca didn’t resist, although she got her fists ready for whatever else he had planned.
“Did my twin behave like a beast with you?” the seneschal demanded as he jerked up her sleeves and inspected her arms, paling when he saw the soft bruises from Dorchad’s fingers. “You’re marked. Did he use his nails or teeth, or take you in an unnatural manner?”
He wasn’t angry, he was frantic, Rebecca realized.
She took gentle hold of his hands. “No, your brother didn’t bite or scratch me. I bit him a few times, but he likes that. I’m not sure what you mean by unnatural, but everything we did together was natural for us. Why are you so afraid?”