His ragged groan telling her that he had found her wet and ready for him while her moans became an outcry as she wrapped her legs around his hips so he could thrust deeper, faster.
Their shared climax bursting upon them so suddenly that she could but hold onto him for dear life, shaking, moaning—while Roger cried out her name as his body throbbed inside her and she felt the surging heat of his release.
His last shuddering groan spent against her parted lips while she clung to him, his breathing as harsh as hers and his heartbeat rampant against her breast.
She could not say how long they lay together as she gradually became aware of the hissing and sputtering of the logs in the fireplace and that her breathing had finally slowed and Roger’s as well…though he had not lifted his head, as if content to nibble playfully at her ear.
Tickling her and making her shiver while he gave a low laugh and shifted his hips against hers—which made her gasp and arch her hips.
“Och, wife, we willna get much sleep tonight if you tease me any further.”
“I’m teasing you?” she countered, though she smiled up at him when he lifted himself on his elbows to stare into her eyes, Roger smiling, too.
His face so handsome that she caught her breath and shifted again, which made him press his hips more insistently against hers.
“Aye, I see it now. You know exactly what you’re doing tae me as if you havna had enough lovemaking for one night.”
“Are you saying you’re tired, husband? Ah, well, if you’d rather roll over and go to sleep—oh!”
Julianna’s eyes widened as she felt him grow full and hard again, though in truth, she hadn’t expected anything less from a man whose physical stamina had astounded her from the start.
She giggled with anticipation, which made him laugh, too, though he sobered as he gazed down at the gown she still wore, Roger rubbing a leather boot against her bare leg.
“Hmm, what are we tae do? Shall we take a moment tae finish undressing first?”
Julianna was hardly aware that she had shaken her head at his husky query until he rolled over suddenly, taking her with him—and now it was she that straddled his hips, their bodies still joined.
“How…?”
“You shook your head no, lass—and a gown and some boots isna enough tae thwart me. Now lean down closer and give me a kiss.”
She did, happily, her long hair spilling around them as he grasped her bare bottom with his strong hands to move her up and down atop him.
His impassioned whisper against her lips, “I love you, Juli,” making her heart soar as everything else receded again…and it was only her and Roger.
CHAPTER17
“Three days gone and still no sign of the bastard,” Roger muttered to himself, wondering as he stood drenched on the high rampart if William had changed his mind and ridden north instead for Argyll and MacLachlan Castle.
That would have been the wisest thing for him to do, but why would his brother forego the satisfaction of persisting with the plan he had contrived to destroy Julianna? Such a change of heart wasn’t like William’s resentful nature at all.
All those years spent hating Roger for an accident of birth had finally reached culmination in the heinous lie he had spewed to Evander—who still hadn’t left the chapel. His other brother no doubt prostrate upon the hard stone floor with his arms outspread as he fasted and prayed in front of the altar…and waited.
Waited for William and the bishop to arrive or mayhap even for lightning to strike Roger dead for refusing to obey his demand that Julianna be taken to the dungeon—by God, had both his brothers gone mad? So it seemed, which made Roger clench his fists and lean against the rampart, narrowing his eyes for any sign in the distance of riders approaching.
Cold rain pelting him in the face and thunder booming on this grim afternoon that matched his mood entirely, though he had done his best to hide the desolation mounting inside him that within a few days—hours, even!—there was a chance he would be slain and a worse fate in store for Julianna.
She had no idea what he intended to do, and so it would remain until Roger could look Bishop Francis in the face and make his demand in an attempt to save her from torture and a heartless death as a proclaimed witch.
He held no illusion that Lanarkshire’s representative of the Holy Church in Rome would declare her innocent with two men speaking against her…Horas dead, but his jealous lies living on within Evander’s mind as well as William’s charge against Julianna right there in the chapel.
Every other man and woman at Douglas Castle could speak well of his wife and it wouldn’t be enough to outweigh the falsehoods perpetrated against her—och, he had seen as much already when the wet nurse and maidservants had testified to Evander in front of the altar!
Scowling in disgust, Roger focused again at the distant countryside shrouded in mist and rain as a deafening thunderclap seemed to shake the ground upon which the castle stood.
“Damnable weather,” he grated to the blond-haired warrior standing beside him, Alec Mackay a cousin from the far north where many of the Highlanders were descendants of Vikings who had invaded Scotland centuries ago. “Do you see anything?”
“Och, not in this mist. We willna hear them coming, either, the thunder’s so fierce.”
