Even as Eric kissed her furiously, Isabel’s hands moved to his breeches, fumbling with the ties. When he realized what she was doing, he helped her. With the ties finally free, Isabel’s warm hands snaked into his breeches and sought out his semi-flaccid manhood. With the first touch of her soft hands, he knew he was lost. He couldn’t deny her.
He didn’t want to be denied, either.
Due to the chill morning weather, and because he was susceptible to the cold, there were myriad clothes on Eric’s body and Isabel helped him yank it off, unwilling and unable to wait. He was wearing a woolen tunic underneath everything, but it stopped at his hips, so he was unconstrained when Isabel yanked his breeches to his knees.
There was a powerful sense of urgency now, of a desire so fierce that they were overwhelmed with it. Eric lifted Isabel onto the stone bench of the window, pulling her legs apart and wedging himself between them. She threw her skirts back and wrapped her legs around his waist, taking gentle hold of his now-rigid phallus and guiding it into her warm, slick folds. Holding her tightly, Eric impaled her upon his manhood.
Isabel gasped with the pleasure of it, her arms going around him, her nails biting into his shoulders. Feeling the man within her fed her soul as air fed the lungs. Eric held her tightly, thrusting into her willing body. He couldn’t get enough of her, driving into her as she whispered heated words in his ear. Isabel’s hands found his bare buttocks, squeezing them, and he found it wildly arousing. With a few more thrusts, he quickly removed himself before he could spill into her body. Instead, he spilled on the floor. But fingers finished for her what his phallus couldn’t, and he silenced her cries of passion with his mouth as she found her own release.
As their passion cooled, their kisses transformed from wild and passionate to soft and gentle. Eric tasted her deeply, hishands roaming as he gently suckled on her mouth, moving under her garment, which had been loosened, and up her torso to her breasts. He fondled her nipples as their kisses trailed off. Isabel tossed her head back, her eyes closed as Eric toyed with her breasts tenderly. He finally laid her back on the bench and pushed her skirts up all the way, kissing her belly, finally suckling gently on her breasts.
Isabel let him. She let him do what he wished to do as the day around them went on. They could hear the men in the bailey, distant horses, the chatter of birds. Moments like this were a window into a life they could have, a life of normalcy as husband and wife. Moments like this were when Isabel was her weakest against his argument of marriage. When he took her yet again, she was a willing participant. As the man thrust into her, she found herself wondering if he would let himself spill into her this time and she would conceive that son he’d spoken of. He was usually careful about that, but sometimes he surrendered to his passion and released himself as God intended. Perhaps this time it was all a ploy to impregnate her so she would be forced to marry him.
Perhaps that had been his plan all along.
That thought had her resisting a little, wanting to move out from under him and accuse him of such a thing, but he felt her movement, and that only made him hold her more tightly. She moved again but that made him hit just the right spot with her, and she felt her release beginning, unable to pull away. She would let him do what he was doing—and no matter what her paranoia was thinking, her body had surrendered to him.
Herman.
Herlove.
The scolding of Douglas de Lohr was going to have to wait.
CHAPTER SIX
“If they loveone another, then you should be happy for them… right?”
Helen was trying to comfort Astoria, who had been inconsolable since witnessing the man of her dreams declare for someone else.Mira, of all people.
Misery Isabella Rosalie d’Avignon.
Miseryaptly described what Astoria was feeling.
The girls—all nine of them—were in the smaller ladies’ solar that was reserved exclusively for them and their lessons. They weren’t allowed in the large solar that had been used by the Earl of Axminster, and was currently used by Lady Isabel, nor were they allowed to wander the keep. Other than the two bedchambers they shared between them, the kitchen, and a few other chambers, they were limited to where they could go. The ladies’ solar was their main, and favored, gathering chamber.
A room that was seeing its share of drama at the moment.
“She seduced him,” Astoria wept. “Rather than allow him to make his choice, which was clearly meant to be me, she seduced him and forced his hand.”
Helen and Davina, the older girls, passed glances at one another. They both liked Mira—all of the girls did—so to hear Astoria speak so unkindly of her was distressing.
“Mira would not do such a thing,” Davina said. She was the more outspoken between her and Helen, and she and Astoria had, at times, pulled one another’s hair in rage. “Mira is not like that. Sir Douglas must have seduced her instead.”
Astoria whirled to her, tears on her cheeks. “How can you say such a thing?” she said. “You know that I’ve not yet decided about him. He must have taken my indecision as… as a rejection, and Mira took advantage of it!”
She was trying desperately to salvage her reputation. All of the girls knew she wanted Douglas. All of the girls knew Douglas did not have an eye for her, but Astoria made it sound as if she had the control.
But Davina shook her head.
“Astoria, I am sorry if you are sad about Sir Douglas and Mira,” she said. “But Sir Douglas never looked twice at you. He never looked twice at any of us.”
Astoria was starting to turn red in the face. “Obviously, that is not true if he declared his love for Mira,” she said. “He was looking atsomebody.”
“Just not you.”
Astoria shrieked, flying off the chair she’d been sitting on, slapping her open palms in Davina’s direction. But Davina moved out of her way, pushing her, and she stumbled into the table. She would have fallen had she not caught herself on a chair, but on the tabletop in front of her was a fork. Astoria picked it up and brandished it at Davina like a knife.
“How wicked of you to say such things,” she said. “You are lying about everything and I will punish you!”
