“Thanks to you, my lord. If I have a son, one of his names will be Francis!”
“God’s nightshirt, lass, dinna go sentimental on me now! Ye know I can’t abide milk-and-water lasses!”
She flung her arms about him and kissed him full on the mouth, much to Bothwell’s surprise. It was a lovely kiss, and her mouth tasted of sweet wine. Standing back, she looked up at him and said boldly, “Take me back to my husband, my lord. ’Tis time for us to retire for the night.”
Bothwell grinned. “I suspect Alex will never know the great debt he owes me, Velvet.” Then he escorted her from the alcove back through the Great Hall to the high board where Cat and Alex were still talking, never having really missed them.
“I shall not tell him if you don’t, Francis,” she replied pertly, and he grinned at her again, winking conspiratorily.
The piper was now playing a livelier tune, and some of Lord Bothwell’s men were dancing while others had begun to dice, kneeling upon the floor by one of the fireplaces. Cat now joined them, to Alex’s surprise, but Francis only smiled.
“She’s a great favorite wi’ my men. They would die for her as would I,” he said.
“Somehow it will resolve itself happily for you both, I know it,” Velvet soothed him. Then she turned to Alex and said, “I am tired, my lord. Shall we retire now, or would you prefer to remain and dice for a bit?”
“I’ll stay for a while, sweetheart,” he replied, and she curtsied and left him.
Alex stayed only for a few minutes with his cousin drinking another cup of heady wine. Then the Border lord, claiming fatigue, took Cat off, and there was no excuse for him to remain. It would hardly do for the world to see him but newly reunited with his wife and avoiding their bed.
Dugald had waited for his master and quickly aided him to undress, being eager to gain his own bed and Pansy’s company. Alex chased his serving man off when he had disrobed and, having completed his ablutions, tiptoed into the bedchamber. A fire burned low in the large fireplace, and the room was toasty warm. Slipping quietly into the big bed in an attempt not to disturb her, Alex was very startled when Velvet, fragrant, warm, and quite naked, slipped into his arms with a purr.
He was stunned. “Ye’re not wearing a night rail,” he gasped.
“Nay, Alex, I’m not,” she teased him.
Instinctively his arms tightened about her. Jesu, he thought, her skin is so damned soft and smooth. “Velvet …” His voice was slightly strangled as he sought to keep himself under control.
“Yes, Alex?” Her tone was bland and innocent.
“What is it ye want of me, Velvet? For God’s sake, lass, I’m only human!”
“What do I want of you?” She began to laugh softly. “Dear God, Alex, I should think that would be obvious. I want you to make love to me. Here. Now. Tonight, my darling.”
She snuggled closer to him, pressing her round breasts against his furred chest, leaning over to nibble on his ear, and he groaned. She was driving him absolutely mad, and he suspected she knew it. What had happened to change her in these few short hours?
“You took my virginity in this castle almost three years ago, my darling. We began our marriage here. I want to begin it again in this place, Alex. Can you understand that?”
He hadn’t suspected this sentimental side of her, but he didn’t care any longer. All that mattered was that his beautiful wife, his wife from whom he had been parted for so long, was offering herself to him, and he wanted her. Pulling her hard against him, he found her mouth and kissed her with all the hunger that had been building up in him for the last two and a half years. He kissed her until she was breathless, and her mouth was bruised with his ardor. In defense she parted her lips beneath his, and his tongue plunged almost violently into her mouth to love hers with a fierce abandon. Their tongues were like two burning silk banners that twined and intertwined over and over again.
Rolling her beneath him, he caught her face between his hands. “Look at me, Velvet!” She slowly opened her eyes and gazed directly at him. “I love ye, lass! Do ye understand that? I love ye!”
“I never stopped loving you, Alex,” she answered.
The unsaid words lay between them, however:Inever stopped loving you, Alex, but I loved another also.Still, she was trying, and in time he hoped he could erase the memory of Akbar from her heart and soul, if not her mind. “Ah, lass,” he murmured, caressing her cheek with the back of his fingers while his other hand smoothed her forehead. Then his mouth descended on hers again, kissing her tenderly this time, re-learning her sweet lips. He trailed a line of kisses down her neck, lingering in the hollow of her throat where he could feel the pulse leaping beneath his lips. His slender fingers slipped up to tangle in her soft hair, while the finger of his other hand turned her face to him.
Gently he nipped her little chin with his teeth, then kissed the corners of her mouth. Velvet pushed her tongue forward to lick at him, and, delighted, his own tongue gave battle. They teased and played thusly for some minutes, enjoying the game and learning to relax once more with each other. Finally he nuzzled one of her ears, running his tongue around it.
“Ye’re absolutely delicious, lass,” he murmured with hot breath in her ear. Then one of his hands captured a breast, and, turning himself, he sought the other breast with his mouth. While the first hand kneaded and fondled, his mouth began a most delightful torture of the second breast. He sucked softly at the nipple, but gradually he began to draw harder upon it, then he nibbled tenderly, sending little darts of desire through her.
She shifted beneath him almost skittishly. It had been so long since she had been loved. For a moment she felt disloyal, but to whom? To Akbar who she was bound to by an Eastern marriage and a child, or to Alex who was her only husband before the God of her own faith? It was too confusing a puzzle to struggle with, she thought. She must concentrate on the here and now, not on what had been.
Wiggling away from him, she said, “I want to love you, my darling.”
“Ye are loving me, Velvet,” was his reply, but she laughed.
“Nay, my lord.Youare loving me.” She pushed him back against the down pillows. “Now, I shall love you!”
Before he realized what she was about, Velvet turned herself about, and, grasping the half-hard shaft of his manhood in one hand, she bent her head and took him in her mouth, while her other hand sweetly caressed the pouch of his sex. For a moment Alex was frozen in shock. He had never taught her such a thing! Where had she learned it? The next emotion to slam into him was a wave of raging jealousy.Akbar!She had learned this from him! She had taken him between her honeyed lips and driven him to madness as she was surely going to drive him.
