Chapter Sixteen #3
She did not think she could get her clothes off fast enough.
Finally naked and a little surprised she had not torn something in her haste to shed the clothes, Annys stepped into the bathing tub, one large enough that she could submerge her body, covering it with the heated water and soothing the ache in what felt to be every muscle in her body.
She rested her head against the lip of the tub, grateful to the kind person who had softened that edge with several folded-over drying clothes.
A deep sigh of pleasure escaped her and she closed her eyes.
It was the scent of food that pulled her from her light sleep.
Annys opened her eyes to find Harcourt kneeling by the tub, dipping a corner of the washrag into the pot of soap.
When he started to wash her arm, she blushed, finally awake enough to be all too aware of her nudity, of being in her bath while a fully dressed Harcourt looked on.
Then she told herself not to be so foolish.
They were lovers now. She had no secrets from him.
“I am nay sure this is such a good idea,” she said when he nudged her forward so that he could wash her back.
“I would love to turn this into something more than a bath,” Harcourt said, smiling faintly. “And I suspect I will pay dearly for my good behavior, but I mean to gently tend to my woman tonight.”
“And I am your woman, am I?” She caught her breath at the warmth in the intense look he gave her.
“Aye, and I am inclined, verra strongly inclined, to keep ye as my woman for a verra long time.”
“That wouldnae be an easy thing to accomplish.”
“But one I am giving a great deal of thought to.”
“I am nay sure I can be naught but a lover ye visit now and again.”
“Not my plan. I dinnae want that, either.” He tugged her arms away from her breasts to wash them.
“I want more than a lover, Annys. I want a partner, a wife, but there are things which must be sorted out and I am trying to give ye no promises until I ken for certain that I can keep every single one of them.”
“For now, ’tis enough to ken that ye want to.” She rose up enough to brush a kiss over his mouth. “Now, to keep us from misbehaving and allowing that food I smell to turn cold, tell me what ye did today.”
Harcourt told her about the tunnel he, Geordie, and Dunnie had found.
Her interest and bursts of amusement over the tale he told helped him keep hold of his control as he finished bathing her.
It was not as easy to hang on to his control as he dried her off and dressed her in her night shift, but he kept reminding himself that he had a plan.
Sitting down and eating eased his hunger for her a little because it kept him busy and distracted from thinking about making love to her.
A hearty meal fulfilled another hunger he had gained after a full day of work as well.
Each of them had done so much today that there was a lot to talk about.
Harcourt knew this was what he wanted, what he needed.
He had not lied to her about that; he was determined to find a way for them to be together like this for a very long time.
Annys finished her cider, set the tankard down, and decided it had been a very long time since she had felt so good.
That it was on the night of a day spent preparing for an attack was certainly odd, but she could not deny the fact that she was actually happy, filled with a pleasant languor.
She looked at Harcourt who was watching her with a hunger her body rapidly responded to, and smiled.
For tonight, she saw no harm in thinking only of herself, her own pleasure, and to pretend that all was right in her world.
Harcourt stood, took her by the hand, and tugged her out of her seat and into his arms. His need for her strengthened immediately, but there was also a saner, calmer sense of rightness within him. This was where she belonged.
He kissed her and savored the way her body pressed against his but his control was slipping away fast. “I wanted this to be a slow, sumptuous loving,” he said as he began to remove her night shift.
“Mayhap that will come later.”
Despite blushing as she lay naked on the bed in front of him, she watched him shed his clothes.
He was beautiful to her although she doubted he would like her using such a word to describe him.
He was all women said a man should be, she thought, yet they rarely found.
He was strong, his muscles easy to see in his every move as was the grace he was probably unaware of.
Though he was tall, all his limbs and his torso were of a size to appear perfectly matched.
He was neither pale nor dark but a faint golden color, his skin looking as if it had been kissed by the sun and inviting her to touch it.
A neat, light vee of black hair decorated his broad chest, a thin line of it began just below his belly hole and went straight down to where it thickened around his groin.
His manhood jutted out from his body, hard and pointing right at her, and she smiled.
Then she opened her arms to welcome him when he joined her on the bed.
Annys lost herself in the pleasure of his kisses and soft caresses, in the warmth of his skin beneath her hands.
By the time he slipped his hand between her legs, she was eager for that intimate touch.
A murmur of disappointment escaped her as his back slid out of her reach when he spread kisses over her body and down her belly.
She reached to pull him back but then his hot mouth replaced his seductive fingers.
Shock ripped through her at such an intimacy, but she had barely acknowledged it when passion burned it away, along with the last tenuous scrap of her modesty.
When she felt that tight ache in her belly grow, she opened her mouth to demand he join with her but did not get to say a word.
Harcourt reared up and joined their bodies with a thrust strong enough to make her slide up the bed.
She grabbed his arms to anchor herself as he bent his head to kiss her.
She gave herself over to the pleasure of being surrounded by him, his heat warming her inside and out.
Despite her efforts to hold on as long as she could, to savor the rush of delight his lovemaking produced, her release mercilessly tore through her and she cried out his name, hanging on tightly as he found his own a heartbeat later.
Although it took a while before he could even move, Harcourt finally rose from her arms and cleaned them both off.
He crawled back into bed when he was done and pulled her back into his arms. He sighed with contentment when she curled her body up against his.
It had been fast, a little furious, but to his relief, mutually satisfying.
He kissed the top of her head and decided that, after he had rested for a while, he would try again to achieve that slow, sumptuous lovemaking he kept promising her.