“Could you love me, ladyfaire?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she answered candidly.
“But do you like me more than when I first brought you to Glengorm?” he wondered. His warm hazel eyes searched her face.
“I might,” Cicely said, “if you did not smack my bottom publicly.”
“Might I do it privately?” he teased, and chuckled when she blushed.
“You are unseemly, my lord,” Cicely scolded him, suddenly shy.
He took her hand in his; raising it to his lips, he kissed the back of it, and then, turning the hand about, he kissed both the palm and the wrist.
“Oh!” Cicely exclaimed as a shiver of pleasure traveled down her spine.
He drew her close, still holding that hand, placing it upon his chest over his heart. He smiled gently at her. “You are a prize to be treasured, ladyfaire. I am going to teach you to fall in love with me now that Sir William has solved the problem of the laird of Fairlea for us.” Then he took her face between his two hands and began to kiss her slowly, his warm lips traveling over her face first, and then reaching her lips.
Cicely sighed. She was simply helpless to this man’s kisses. She kissed him back, feeling his heart beneath her hand begin to race. He released her face, one arm slipping about her waist to bring her even closer to him, the other lightly caressing one of her small round breasts. Cicely stiffened. Not even Fairlea had been so bold with her.
“Nah, nah, ladyfaire,” he crooned against her mouth. “Am I the first then?”
She was speechless with the emotions now overcoming her. Jo had never shared with Cicely the intimate details of her courtship, andCicely had never asked, fearing to intrude upon her friend’s privacy. Was he supposed to be touching her? Should the hand cupping her breast feel so good? “Should you be doing this?” she finally managed to gasp. “You are not my husband. Oh, Blessed Mother!”
“It is part of courtship, ladyfaire,” he told her gently. God’s balls, her breasts were so sweet. Perfectly round and firm, yet soft. Unable to help himself, he pinched her nipple lightly. His cock was already straining against the fabric of his breeks.
“Please,” Cicely said, “I did not know, my lord.”
His hand fell away from her breast. So Fairlea had not gone as far as caressing her. That was to the good, for then his were the first hands to touch her. And now no others would. She was his alone.
“Why have you stopped?” Cicely asked him.
“Because I would not frighten you,” he told her. “No man has ever fondled you, my ladyfaire. But I long for much more. Do not, I beg you, keep me waiting too long.”
“How can you know I have not been touched before?” Cicely demanded.
“Did you not tell me‘I did not know’? Had another touched you as I did you would have known that after the kissing came the caressing, ladyfaire,” the laird said.
“I am not easily seduced, my lord,” Cicely said.
“Nay, you are not easily seduced,” he agreed, his hazel eyes twinkling at her. “If the truth be known you have been extremely difficult to approach.”
“You are a rogue,” Cicely told him.
“Aye, I am,” he replied, close to laughter now. “But I suspect you are discovering that you like a rogue.”
“You had no right to kidnap me, my lord,” she said sternly.
“My name is Ian, and as I fully intend winning you over, ladyfaire, I should like to hear you say my name.”
Cicely looked directly at him with her big blue-green eyes.“Ian,”she said.
“How sweetly you say it,” he replied. “Soon you will cry out my name in passion, my ladyfaire. We shall bind our bodies together, and you will cry my name.” His gaze had suddenly become very intense.
“I am a virgin, you must know,” Cicely said nervously, stepping back a pace. “I know nothing but that if you become my husband I must submit my body to you for whatever purposes you devise. I do not know if I am ready to consider such a thing.”
Now he laughed at her proper speech, which he suspected she had been taught by some priest.A woman must submit. Coupling is for the purposes of procreation only.“As you submit to me so will I submit to you, ladyfaire. And there will be pleasure between us, for while the Church wants more souls to baptize, there is no reason we cannot enjoy each other while we give them what they want,” the laird told her. “For now, however, I am content to learn all I can about you, and you must learn about me.”
Lord Grey returned to the hall. “Maggie is well, and says we must have more bairns,” he said, grinning delightedly. “Our son is strong, but I would like Father Ambrose to baptize him before we return to Ben Duff. And if you two will stand as his godparents, both my Maggie and I would be honored.”
