A tingle raced up his thighs and his balls felt heavy and tight, and he upped his pace and pounded her faster, delving deep with each thrust as he held her in place. She cried out and shuddered, her body tensing as she found her release. Her soft whimpering as she came down from her peak drove him over the edge, and he pumped into her with a groan, spilling his seed in her most private, naughty hole.
After they caught their breath, he arranged her on his lap in the water, holding her and unable to resist keeping a possessive hand on her stomach. A child. She was carrying his child and he smiled against her hair, imagining how she would look months from now, her belly heavy and swollen. Ah, he couldn’t wait, and he decided to tell her as much.
She laughed. “I don’t think you’ll want me then, Galien. I will be quite fat.”
“You will be quite beautiful, Claire, and if you ever call yourself fat, I will give you a sound thrashing and make you stand in the corner with your punished bottom on display.”
“Will you be upset if it’s a girl?”
“Why ever would I be upset? I’d love to have ten girls, spirited girls with long dark locks like their mother.” He tugged on her hair for emphasis.
“The same reason all men want sons, silly. Don’t you wish to produce an heir the first time?”
He patted her stomach. “I wish for a healthy child, a boy or a girl, it matters not. We have plenty of time to create a large family, my wife.”
“You want a large family?”
“Aye,” he said, nodding. “I had my cousins growing up, and a few foster brothers too, but I was an only child and found it lonely at times. I always wished for a real brother or a sister. Did you like having six brothers growing up?”
She trailed her fingers through the dark curls covering his chest. “I suppose so. I did like having a large family. We took care of one another, and no matter where I went, I always felt safe knowing one of my brothers was close by, watching me.” She chuckled. “Always ready to scold me and run off to tattle to our parents.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t have given them reason to tattle, Claire.”
She peered up at him, batting her eyelashes. “But, my lord, however would I have had any fun?”
Restraining a smile, he tapped the tip of her nose. “I cannot wait to interrogate the duke of Leuthold and get him to tell me all about your naughty antics as a child.”
Epilogue
The keep bustled with activity, all the servants putting forth their best efforts for the duke of Leuthold’s visit. Claire sat in the great hall on the first evening of her reunion with her brother, feeling as if she had come to the end of a long and difficult journey. She shared a trencher with her husband, and Leuthold sat to his right at the long table. Their heads were bowed together as they discussed some trivial matter about the training of knights, a subject that bored her to tears. She smiled at the two men though, certain she had never been so happy in her life.
After they finished their talk of knights, Leuthold began telling tales about her childhood, per Galien’s request of course. He started with the time she decided to live in a tree, and how it had taken hours to locate her in the forest during a fierce rainstorm. Claire pretended to ignore them as they laughed over her antics.
Her brother sat back and regarded her with amusement after a while, giving Galien that same look she recognized as one of pure brotherly evil. She’d seen that look growing up, and it meant he was plotting something—something more sinister than regaling her husband with ridiculous stories, many of which contained extreme exaggerations.
“It’s time you both know the truth about your marriage,” Leuthold said, a twinkle in his eye. “Judging by your happiness, I don’t see the harm in telling you about your father’s plot.”
“My father?” Galien asked, his brows drawing together.
“Aye. Your father sent me a letter listing his concerns about Minrova, his chief concern being your refusal to marry and produce an heir. He felt his time was growing short and he asked for my assistance.”
Claire grasped Galien’s hand, anxious to hear the rest of Leuthold’s story.
“I had been writing letters to you, Claire, only to receive no response. I worried for your well-being after Diterich’s death. Well, I worried for you before his death, but there was naught I could do to help you then. I decided to order Galien to marry you, sweet sister, after he visited Leuthold and Idecided he was…”
“Suitable enough,” Galien cut him off, as if they’d had this conversation before.
“Aye,” the duke said with a smile. “Suitable enough.”
Galien laughed and glanced at Claire. “You should also know this brother of yours extended my holdings into the valley to North Wenzton to compensate me for having to spend the rest of my life with his spirited sister. I believe those were his exact words.”
The two men laughed while Claire glared from one to the other, trying to be angry over the bribe but failing. She found herself smiling as relief filled her, because at last the truth had been revealed, and it lifted her spirits that Leuthold did care enough about her to see her married to a decent man, a man whose tender love and firm guidance cleansed her heart of all the hurt she endured during her first marriage. Now Diterich and his cruel family remained but a distant, fading memory.
She covered a yawn, exhaustion sweeping over her. The babe growing inside her left her tired at the end of the day, and sometimes she napped after the midday meal, unable to keep her eyes open even when the sun streamed through the keep’s windows.
Galien put an arm around her and gathered her against his side as he rose up. “Please enjoy the minstrels while I put my wife to bed. She must be growing a fierce warrior inside her with all the extra sleep she’s requiring of late.”
“Nay, not a warrior,” she said. “A little beast.”
He smiled down at her as he led her from the hall and upstairs to their chambers. Her lady’s maid was waiting, but Galien dismissed Erwyn because he enjoyed helping his wife prepare for bed. He stripped her of all her clothing and helped her don a thin white shift.
“Rest now, sweet Claire.” He kissed her forehead and placed a hand on the swell of her stomach.
She peered up at him and felt her eyes growing heavier as another yawn stole over her. “Will you wake me up later when you return, my lord beast?” She giggled at the faux stern look he fixed on her.
“Aye, I will wake you later. I think you require a lesson in how to properly address your lord husband. A very firm lesson, indeed.”
She drifted to sleep, murmuring, “Firm lesson, yes. I believe that’s exactly what I require, my lord.”
The End
