Nicholas smiled at his him. Did Lawson truly understand how hard life would have been for them if Phillip had lived? He would thank him tomorrow. They would also discuss tomorrow what to tell the king. Tonight was his and Julianna’s.
He finally spirited her away from the great hall to his room. It was much smaller than hers but it was warmer and the bed coverings were fresh.
They stepped inside and he bolted the door then caught her in his arms.
“I’m free. I almost was not.”
“But you are,” he said and smiled at her, pulling her closer. “You are free to be my beloved in the presence of God.”
“How do you know I will have you, knave?”
His smiled deepened and burned, flaming his eyes. He moved his smoldering gaze over her curls piled up around her head. His heart was stirred by one of them breaking free and falling past her jaw. He wanted to kiss her there. “You will have me, again and again. You will do with me what you want. I will not even touch you if you wish it.”
“Hmmm,” she purred against him. “We shall see.”
She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. He was glad, for he would never force her.
“Be my wife, Julianna?” he asked, growing serious.
“Aye, Nicholas,” she agreed, smiling as if this were the happiest day of her life. “I will.”
He lifted her in his arms and carried her to his bed. He wasn’t completely sure what to do. He had only ever been with Mattie, and only for two years. He should have asked Torin, even Bamburgh.
No matter, he thought, leaning down to kiss her warm, honeyed lips. He would figure it out.
“My fire,” he whispered, coming up for air and setting her down on his bed. He pulled off his doublet and shirt and moved over her. “There has not been a day in my life when I have not loved you.” He settled in beside her and took her in as if she belonged there, against him, around him. “Some days were harder than others. Some when I thought loving you ever again was impossible.” He removed her overcoat and pulled at the laces of her stays and finally freed her from it. He ran his hands up her sides bringing her shirt along, and then tugging it over her head. Looking at her made his hard body move over hers like a salacious lick. When she lay beneath him, bare and more beautiful than his heart could endure, he sank on top of her, with the remainder of their clothing a flimsy barrier between them. “But after the battle,” he told her, sweeping his voice against her ears, “after all the dust of it settled, I found myself hopelessly unchanged.”
He traced a path with his tongue and his kisses down her neck to her breasts. They were like small, round apples waiting to be devoured. “Julianna,” he said, breathing hard on one. He closed his eyes. “My heart quakes at the thought of you.”
And it did. He’d wanted her for so long that being with her didn’t feel real.
She tasted real enough when he stretched his tongue over the pink nib at the crest of her bosom. She groaned, so he did it over and over, sucking her in, rolling her gently between his teeth. He made her writhe beneath him and rub her crux over his confined shaft.
She wanted him free and so she smoothed her palms beneath his hose and over his arse, squeezing, shaping, tugging.
Unable to continue another instant without being inside her, Nicholas ripped off his boots and the rest of his clothes, and climbed into the bed.
When she saw him fully naked, she gasped and then covered her mouth with her hands.
He stopped moving toward her and gave her a look of concern. “How are you feeling?” he asked, wanting to make certain Phillip was not in her head.
“Better than I ever have before. ’Tis just that I look at you—all of you—and I cannot believe you are finally mine.”
He lifted her voluminous skirts and settled down atop her. “I feel the same way, my love.”
She pulled him closer, wedging him deeper against her and curled her legs around him, resting her feet on his back.
He rose up, keeping his palms pressed down on the bed. He smiled and moved over her, letting her feel the full length of him. He bent to kiss her mouth, run his tongue over the contour of her jaw. The movement of his hips pulled little sounds from her throat. He wanted to run his hands down her body, touch, her, feel her.
“I cannot wait to finally make love to you, Julianna,” he told her with a sensual smile only she could pull from him and pushed against her wet entrance.
She was everything, and he had everything stored up for her—years of love and of forbidden passion. He broke through slowly, clenched his jaw, and then promptly pulled back out and spilled his passion on her belly.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Julianna watched thelove of her life do his very best not to lose control over himself, but he did and she smiled, loving that she had such an effect on him. They waited a little while after he cleaned her up and then she waited for him to come back to bed. When he did, she crawled on top of him and gazed deep into his eyes. “Nicholas?”
“Aye, love?” he asked, rubbing the backs of his knuckles over her cheek.
