He laughed softly, and leaned forward to bite the nape of her neck. “Do you like this?” he whispered in her ear. Then he tickled it with his tongue.
“Aye!” she said. “But I want to kiss you, and I want to see your face when I pleasure you, my lord.” Her hips pressed against his belly tauntingly.
“Then do what I tell you without question,” he instructed her, withdrawing himself from her and quickly turning her onto her back. “Wrap your legs about me, ladyfaire,” he said, and when she did he plugged her with his hard, steaming cock as he pulled her gown open so he might bury his face between her breasts. “Aye, that is better,” he said. Then, lifting his head slightly, he clamped his lips about one of her nipples.
Cicely squealed as his tongue encircled the nipple until it was so stiff she thought one more sweep of his tongue would cause it to snap off. His teeth grazed the sensitive flesh, and then he sucked hard on her breast until Cicely was moaning with the excitement she felt. When he transferred his attentions to her other breast Cicely thought she would expire from the fire he was kindling within her.
But then, having roused the second breast, he began to lick her torso with his tongue. The tongue probed beneath her breasts. Itswept slowly, slowly across her warm, smooth flesh, sending tingles of heat down her spine. Raising his head, he leaned forward and began to kiss her mouth with slow, hot kisses that left her breathless. His tongue found hers, fenced with it, sucked it sensuously, subdued it.
Cicely couldn’t move, she was so weak with her own desire. Her entire body felt boneless, though her raised legs clutched at his torso. When he began to move again within her she sighed a long sigh. She wanted to cling to him, but he raised her two arms above her head, one hand holding them prisoner as he pumped and pumped and pumped himself within her. It was as if he wanted to subdue her totally, and would not be content until he did.
“Ian!”she whispered to him.
“Say nothing,” he growled. “I would hear only the sounds of your pleasure, ladyfaire.” Then he fucked her harder and deeper than he ever had before.
Cicely suddenly realized that for the first time she had no control at all over her body. It absorbed his lust and begged for more. Her breath came in short, fierce pants. Her head spun as she found herself climbing, climbing, and then as quickly plunging down into a warm pool of heated desire as stars exploded behind her tightly closed eyes. Whatever was happening, she didn’t want it to end. She screamed softly as she peaked, and realized that what had been was even now draining away as his love juices spurted within her body to fill her with his seed.
“I love you so damned much,” he groaned into her tousled hair.
“I love you, my bold border lord,” she responded. “Do you think we have made a child?” Her legs fell away from him, and, moving away from her, he reached out to pull her to a seated position so she might recover herself. A brief wave of dizziness overcame her. Cicely let it subside, then drew her skirts down modestly and tried to straighten her hair. “We have never before made love of an afternoon, nor have you had your pleasure of me outside of our bedchamber,” she remarked.
He chuckled. “I saw you in the hall at your tapestry, and you looked so delicious I found myself wanting you,” he told her. “Aye, we have surely made a bairn from this day’s work, for I believe you have drained me of all of my seed, my sweet ladyfaire.” Then he kissed her mouth again.
But despite his love and all of his reassurances, the lack of her dower kept nagging at Cicely. It wasn’t right that the Gordons had been given a portion of it, nor that the king retained the remainder. Oddly, she did not begrudge the queen’s cousin Beth Williams whatever James Stewart had taken from Cicely to add to the girl’s dower. Beth was a sweet-natured girl who would be a good wife to Fairlea. In truth she was the perfect wife for him, because she had fallen in love with him. And in time that laird would come to realize the treasure he had in Beth Williams.If a bit more gold had been all that was needed to soothe Andrew Gordon’s pride over what had happened and assure the happiness of the queen’s cousin,Cicely thought,I would have given it to her myself.
But she hadn’t. And seeing the need at Glengorm for her monies, Cicely fretted more and more. True, the king had promised he would return her dower when the queen birthed a son, but Cicely didn’t want to wait. She would write to her father and tell him what had happened. Hopefully he would aid her. And she would send her letter by one of the Douglas men-at-arms so her father would receive her message quickly.
Ian was not pleased by her plan at all. “Why can you not wait until the queen has her bairn? It’s sure to be a son this time, and the queen will see the king keeps his word to you, ladyfaire.”
“The king has four sisters,” Cicely reminded her husband. “If Jo births another daughter I will never see my dower again. These are not James Stewart’s monies, my lord. He did not promise me a dower. My father, the Earl of Leighton, dowered me. He deposited my dower with a reputable goldsmith. The king took it, and I want it back!”
The laird shrugged. He would not prevent her from correspondingwith her father. She was unhappy enough at the lack of her dower, and perhaps a message from her father would calm her. He was certainly not going to replace the monies he had put aside for her. He had other children to consider, especially Cicely’s half sister. “I’ll send Fergus to carry your letter, and await a reply,” he said to his wife. “Will that suit you?”
She flung her arms about his neck. “I knew you would come to understand!” And she kissed him enthusiastically.
He didn’t understand, but if it made her happy to think he did, then so much the better, the laird thought to himself. He sent for his younger brother.
“How would you like to take a little ride?” he asked Fergus.
“How far?” his brother demanded, already suspicious.
“England,” Ian answered.
“England is just over the border,” Fergus said dryly.
“To Leighton, Cicely’s family home,” the laird responded. “She is sending to her father regarding her dower. Now, I know he’s not going to restore what the king took, but if it will make her happy to write to her father about it and receive his counsel in the matter, then I cannot complain.”
Fergus nodded. “Actually he might be able to help, although I will agree with you that he’ll not replace what James Stewart stole.”
“Watch your mouth!” the laird cautioned his younger brother.
“Well, he did,” Fergus retorted. “The money wasn’t his. It was Cicely’s father’s until she wed, and then it should have been yours. Aye, I’ll take her message to her da.”
Cicely wrote to her father explaining how the king had seized her dower and used it for his own purposes. That the queen had gotten him to agree to restore what remained when she birthed her son.But what if she does not have a son?Cicely wrote.What am I to do, Papa? Ian says it does not matter to him, for he loves me, but it matters to me. This lack has made me feel worthless. Please tell me what I should do.She then went on to tell him of her life at Glengorm, and of how happy shewas. When she had finished she folded the parchment and sealed it, pressing the little signet with the Leighton coat of arms into the hot wax. And the next morning Fergus Douglas departed for England.
When he returned to Glengorm just over a month later he had an unhappy tale to tell them as they gathered in the great hall of the house. Cicely’s half sister, Catherine, had died the previous winter, just after her second birthday. Cicely’s stepmother, Luciana, had lost her reason, although at first no one realized it, given her normally volatile nature. She had attempted to poison her husband, Cicely’s father, but fortunately Donna Clara had learned of it before it was too late, and saved Robert Bowen’s life with an antidote.
“But your da will never be the same again,” Fergus told Cicely. “He is weak, and unable to walk more than a few feet at a time, poor man. And it is difficult for him to reflect for too long. Your eldest half brother has come home from court to help.”
