“Do you love me?” she asked him wickedly.
“Aye,” he answered, surprising her, for she had not thought to gain her victory over him this easily. “I love you, wife.”
“If I had birthed a daughter would you still love me?” she pressed him.
“Aye.” He sighed. “I would love you no matter, Cicely, and my love for you weakens me, I fear.”
“Nay, Kier,” Cicely said wisely. “Love does not weaken a person. Love makes you stronger. The love we have for each other will but strengthen us, my lord. Wait and see. We are one now, and nothing—no one—can stand against us.”
And as she spoke the words he realized that she spoke the truth, and he was amazed. All of his adult life he had believed that loving a woman would make him weak. But perhaps it had been loving the wrong woman. Cicely was obviously the right woman. She stood proudly by his side, and was loyal to him. He sensed she would always stand by him and give him that same fealty. Leaning over her, he touched her lips with his, kissing her deeply. “I love you,” he told her when he broke off the kiss. “I will always love you, Cicely, my fair wife.”
“I know,” she responded to his declaration, maddeningly certain.“And I will always love you. We must send to the queen with our news tomorrow.”
“Aye,” Kier agreed, and then he recalled the king’s command to him. He was to remain at Glengorm until his wife had birthed a son. But once she had given him an heir he would be liable to heed the king’s call to arms whenever it was time. Part of him was excited that he could answer that call now. But another part of him prayed that the Highland chiefs would yield without further ado, so he might remain at Glengorm with his wonderful wife and their children.
Chapter 18
Afull year passed and Kier’s wish was almost granted. It wasn’t until the following summer that James Stewart planned his trip north into the Highlands. He had been king of Scotland for over four years. He had instilled just the proper amount of fear in his lords and earls with his swift and impartial justice. They knew now that this king would not be ruled by them, but rather would rule them. And while the Highlands remained relatively peaceful, the lord of the isles and his allies had had more than enough time to come to terms with James Stewart. The rest of Scotland was at peace, and beginning to show signs of true prosperity.
So the king sent his emissaries out to Alexander MacDonald, the lord of the isles, and to all the clan chieftains in the north, many of whom had not yet sworn loyalty to the Stewart king, inviting them to meet with him at Inverness in mid-July. To his irritation James Stewart learned that the MacDonald, upon receiving the king’s messenger, had sent out his own messengers ordering the clans to obey and join him at Inverness.
“This lord is overproud,” he complained to the Earl of Atholl.
“He is dangerous, which is worse,” the earl replied.
There were certain lords among the borderers that James Stewart wished to accompany him. He sent to Sir William, and Sir William sent to his son at Glengorm to meet him with his borderers at a designatedspot. Kier had been expecting to be called eventually, but Cicely was not pleased.
“The Highlands have nothing to do with us,” she said to her husband.
“The king is my liege lord, and he has requested a show of my fealty,” Kier told his wife. “You are no cotter’s daughter, unfamiliar with this duty. I have been called. I must and I will answer unhesitatingly.”
“Oh, I know,” Cicely grumbled, “but I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“A gathering of the clans at Inverness is not likely to be particularly dangerous, sweetheart,” Kier assured his wife. “The king will come with a great show of force. The MacDonald will come with a great show of force. Then they will make peace. Alexander MacDonald is no fool, I am told. Having kept James Stewart waiting for four and a half years, he will finally bend his knee, and then the rest of the northern clan chieftains will fall into line and follow suit. Everyone’s feelings will be soothed. We will eat and get drunk, and then go our separate ways when it is over. I’ll be home quickly enough, but you shall have to see to the haying and probably begin with the harvest before I am back.”
“I will,” Cicely promised him with a kiss. She found her current situation very different from what she had been taught to expect of life. She was the daughter of an earl, and had been raised by a dowager queen. Yet here she was, the wife of a simple border lord, concerned with her own children, haying, harvesting, and the well-being of a village full of good folk. She didn’t envy the mighty among whom she had once walked. She didn’t envy the queen who had yet to give her husband a son. And she was happier than she had ever been in all of her life.
“Will you miss me?” he teased her lovingly. Cicely had been right, he realized, when she had told him that loving each other would make them stronger. It had.
“Mayhap,” she teased back as she brushed her long auburn hair inpreparation for bed. He would be leaving on the morrow, and she was so used to his presence in her life now that she knew she would miss him dreadfully.
He took the brush from her hand and began to slick it down her tresses. “I am leaving Frang behind with a dozen men. The border has been quiet. England is at peace with us and busy with its own affairs. You should be safe.” Setting the brush aside, he wrapped an arm about her waist while his other hand moved to fondle her breast.
Cicely leaned back against him with a small sigh. The passion between them had not died, nor even mellowed after their son’s birth. It had grown deeper. “I’m safer with you by my side,” she murmured. Then, pulling away from him, she slipped her chemise off and lay back upon their bed, holding out her arms to him with a smile.
Perfect,he thought. Her body was simply perfect, even after the birth of two children. He straddled her and, leaning forward, licked a nipple. Then he kissed it before gathering her into his arms and kissing her as their bodies melted into each other. He ran his tongue along her lips, and she met the touch with her own tongue, which teased at his, playing a game of hide-and-seek within the warmth of his mouth. And all the while his big hand worked its way all over her body, caressing the length of her back, her rounded buttocks.
Cicely loved the hard body against hers. She clung to him, fingers digging into his shoulders as he touched her. But then, as she had come into the habit of doing, she pushed him back and, leaning over him, began to lick his body. Her tongue encircled his nipples. She grazed them lightly with her teeth. Kier lay back, content to be pleasured by his wife. Cicely worked her way across his chest, his torso, his belly with her tongue and lips, kissing, stroking, blowing lightly on the moistened skin. “You are delicious,” she told him, and then, reaching his manhood, she took him into her mouth and sucked upon him.
Kier groaned with delight. He had taught her to love him as he loved her several months after their marriage, when she had becomemore comfortable sharing her bed with him. To his surprise Cicely had taken easily to sucking his cock. She had shown no reluctance to licking the length of him, or playing with the ruby head of his manhood when she had pushed his foreskin back. Her teeth would graze over the sensitive flesh very lightly until he was actually shivering with his own excitement. Then she would open her lips and take him into her mouth, suckling strongly until he would beg her to stop. He far preferred releasing his juices into her tight sheath. “Enough, sweetheart!” he ground out in a rough voice.
Cicely released him, lying back so that he might pleasure her as she had just done for him. He had explained that it was better for them to both attain the same pinnacle of excitement before coupling, and if the truth were known, she loved having his wicked tongue stroking her love bud until it burst, and then licking it again until she was trembling with her excitement. Tonight he pushed his tongue into her and she sighed. He then pressed two fingers into the wet warmth, moving them back and forth until her juices flowed for him. Finally he mounted her, driving hard and deep while she met his every thrust, arching her body up to meet his. And then she could no longer control herself, for she wanted him so greatly. Her juices flowed copiously again, drenching his cock, while her sheath contracted and spasmed about him.
He was not satisfied. He would be without her for weeks, and he was not such a weakling or a fool that he would use one of the whores who would travel with the king’s army. “I want your ass,” he growled into her ear as he lay atop her. “Did Ian have it?”
“Nay,” Cicely answered him nervously. Jo had said he might want her that way one day. But why now?
“Good! ’Tis one virginity I shall have of you, sweetheart. I want you to do as I tell you, and do it when I tell you,” Kier said. “Roll over onto your belly.” And when she had he pushed several pillows beneath her so that her bottom was elevated for him, and her knees were beneath her. Kier ran his hands over the smooth, plump flesh. Just looking at it tightened his cock more, and it hurt.
