Jacq's Warlord (39 page)

That got his attention.

Leaning back, she rolled the twin orbs like Chinese Ben-Wa balls.

He fell back against the mattress, sweat dotting his upper lip. “Jacq?”

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She liked the way uneasiness crept into his voice, and she knew he hated not being in charge.

“Rufus, surrender is your only option.” She licked her lips and rolled her hips, watching his eyes glaze over.

“Damnation, Jacq!” He gritted his teeth, and she felt the muscles of his abdomen bunch against her.

“Say uncle.” She almost felt sorry for him.

“Why?” A frown drew his eyebrows together.

“It means you surrender…to me.”

A fearsome scowl drew his eyebrows together and she squeezed his balls again.

“Uncle!” he cried out.

Another slow roll of her hips, and she felt him involuntarily flex against her pussy.

She groaned, helpless to prevent her own moist response as she melted against him.

“You can’t touch me.”

Red flags of color rose high on his sharp-edged cheekbones. “Uncle,” he gritted between his teeth. “Finish it, Jacq.”

“I will, lover,” she promised with a smile that didn’t seem to make him any more comfortable. Opening her palm, she released him. He sighed in relief…too soon.

She urged his hands up next to his head and pressed them into the mattress. “These stay here.”

With a seductive smile, she sat perfectly still atop him, waiting for his eyes to meet hers. When they did, she put her hands on her breasts. She lifted them, circling and squeezing, then wet the tips of her fingers and played with her nipples, twirling and tugging until they grew into impressive points. Then she leaned forward and traced his flat, male nipples with the wet tips of her own, circling, flicking until his chest rose and fell like bellows.

With her breasts still firmly in hand, she rose up and traced a path from his lips, which remained obediently unpuckered.

“You really are a very good boy!” Then down his neck to the curly hairs on his chest. Circling in the hairs she teased herself by letting them wind tightly around the turgid tips.

She closed her eyes and bit her lips, knowing he watched intently as she pleasured herself. She worked her way downward, dipping each nipple into his navel, scraping his belly until she felt him quiver.

The muscles of his abdomen were hard and ridged, much like his straining shaft pushing between her breasts as she moved even lower. She paused and glanced up at his face, gratified to see the muscles of his neck bulging as he held his head up to watch her.

“Your patience shall be rewarded.” She trailed a nipple along the length of him, then circled the red-blue head before pressing into the eye at the center. Then she 217

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squeezed her breasts around him and rocked up and down, sliding the velvet-encased shaft in and out of her cleavage.

His head fell back, and he groaned loud and long.

Slipping lower still, she captured him between her palms and held him, a captive to her whims. She dipped her head to taste the white pearl she had wrung from him.

“God’s blood, Jacq! You’ll make me lose control,” he gasped.

Suddenly, Jacq wanted more for herself. “Rufus?”

“Yes, Jacq?” he gasped, his hands twisting in the sheets.

“Uncle!”

As though a starting gun had fired, Rufus flipped her on her back and covered her, chest to toes, before she could draw her next breath. “I haven’t any liking for your form of torture.”

“It got you here, didn’t it?” she said, easing apart her legs to make room for him.

“This ending was never in question.” His cock butted against her pussy.

Jacq wriggled her hips, helping him slide between her lips. “You think I couldn’t have held out longer?”

He shook his head. “Your need perfumes the air.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That’s so not romantic.”

“I know nothing of romance. But I do know fucking.”

Her mind might have pouted at his frank language, but her body gushed its approval, coating the broad, plump head easing inside her. “Think you know me?”

“Never fully. That’s what makes possessing you such a challenge. But I know you like this.” He flexed his hips and drove inside her.

Jacq’s breath left her and her hands curved around his buttocks, her nails raking his skin as he started an
un
-gentle rhythm, searing her inner walls with heat and girth.

“Sweet Jesus, Rufus. I never tire of this. You fill me so completely.”

Never missing a stroke, he said, “Your body or your heart?”

Both.
But she left it unsaid, closing her eyes to protect herself from his sharp-eyed gaze. Instead, she clung tighter to him, as though trying to meld her body to his and make them both one.

Rufus, too, stayed close, his chest pressed to her breasts, his belly curving with each thrust, but his legs remaining stretched alongside hers.

Their climb was languorous, a slow blending of bodies as they savored each other’s bodies and the changes that marked their path to the summit.

Jacq gauged his progress by the tightening of his thighs and buttocks and the rasping quickness of his breaths.

His nostrils flared and his cheeks reddened. A slick sheen of sweat broke on his forehead and between his shoulder blades.

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When his features grew strained, she cupped his face with her hands and leaned up to kiss him. “I don’t want gentle anymore,” she whispered.

Rufus groaned and pulled out of her. He rose to kneel between her legs and held out his hand, helping her to rise and straddle his lap.

Facing each other again, Jacq wrapped her arms around his shoulders and lowered herself on his cock. She shivered and gave him a lopsided smile. “I’m going to need help. I’m already shaking.”

His smile was one of pure male satisfaction. His hands clasped her bottom and he lifted her up. “Don’t spend your energy. Let me do the work.”

Of course, she couldn’t let him do everything. His sexy short thrusts set her heart revving into overdrive. She couldn’t help the little grinding motion she made at the end of each downward glide. Her clit swelled with each scrape of his short and curlies.

Soon, they both heaved and slammed together, their bodies slick with sweat, their groins swimming in the fluid that trickled from deep inside her. The slap of their skin where their sexes met, only added to the sexy sounds that filled the air around them.

And god, the scents.
Sweat, arousal, his musk, hers. Even the damp bedding told the tale of their wild sexual battling.

As excitement built deep inside her belly, Jacq once again framed his face. Every hard edge, every scar was dear to her. She’d never known a man could be this beautiful as he lost himself inside her body.

His arms crushed her close as his hips slowed their upward thrusts, but she was still climbing up. She threw back her head and cried out, slamming down against his lap one last time, spearing herself on his hard cock. Her orgasm trembled through her, sucking the air from her lungs. As darkness folded around her, she let go, trusting his arms to hold her as she fell.

* * * * *

Afterwards, Jacq smiled lazily, legs splayed slightly, as Rufus leaned over her on one elbow, combing the curls of her mons with his fingers. He parted the downy hair and brushed the two sides. The curls fought submission and sprang instantly back into place.

“Is there no part of you that isn’t stubborn?”

She snickered. “Nope.”

His gaze went to her face, and he was suddenly serious. “What words can I give you, Jacq, to make you want to stay with me?”

She held her breath, her heart lodging in her throat.

He smiled crookedly before continuing. “I would make you my wife and we could spend many a fine night battling to see who will force the other into submission.”

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She closed her eyes briefly before she smiled back at him. What was she expecting?

His avowal of undying love? “Why Rufus, what woman could resist a proposal like that?”

“Will you?”

“Resist?” she asked teasingly.

“Marry me,” he commanded, his voice hoarse.

Her smile faded. “I’m not sure I would be the best wife for you, Rufus. Don’t you see?”

“No.” He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss into the palm. “Help me understand.”

Her fingers curled around it. “You’ve made a name for yourself. When Duke Henry becomes the king, he will likely want to reward you with a rich wife. Wealth is important to you and to the people here. Her gold will see you through famine and war.

I bring nothing. Not wealth or noble blood. I’m not even English.”

He climbed over her, settling on his elbows—his face above hers. “It matters not to me.” He kissed her forehead, her left eye then the right.

His kisses did funny things to her resolve, but Jacq fought against her own desire.

“I would be giving up everything I’ve known for an unknown world.”

“But you know me.”

“Yes, I know you.” She pushed back the hair on his forehead and tucked it behind his ears. Rufus might never give her the words she wanted to hear, but his eyes betrayed his love for her. She framed his face with her hands before rising slightly to kiss him tenderly.

“What is your decision?” The big guy sounded worried.

“I’ll stay and be your wife.”

He inhaled deeply and nodded. “Good, then I do not need to burn the book.”

“What?” she shoved him back and jackknifed to a sitting position.

“I will not burn the book,” he repeated, leaning on one arm.

“You would have burned the book?”

“Yes, I would have done anything to keep you by my side.”

“I suppose that should count for something,” she said, frowning as she lay back down beside him.

“No, you don’t see.” Something in his voice changed—it was gruff, almost choked.

She looked at him, questioning.

“I would have done anything…” he said, his brows meeting in a fierce frown,

“because I love you, Jacq.”

So unexpected, a tear slid down the side of her face and she wiped it away, laughing. “Where did that come from?” She glanced away, ready to look anywhere but at him. She’d waited what felt like forever for him to say the words and now all she wanted to do was blubber.

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“Jacq?”

She pressed her arm over her eyes to hide from him. “Yes, Rufus?” she asked, feeling foolish for hiding.

“Jacq?”

She moved her arm slightly and cracked one eye open.

He was staring down at her with a tender look on his face. “Come here.”

“Yes, Rufus,” she said, her voice small. She lowered her arm and stared at the smile that quirked one side of his mouth. Then she flung her arms around his neck. “I lo-ove you,” she sniffed.

He sighed and hugged her tight. “I know, Jacq.”

* * * * *

Rufus awakened to Jacq rustling in the covers beside him. In the dim light slipping through the cracks in the shutters, he stared down at his woman. How fortunate his people were to have found a woman of Jacq’s caliber, cunning and heart.

She stirred in her sleep, making little waking snuffles and moans. A play of emotions crossed her face as she passed from dream to awareness. When a tear leaked from the edge of her eyelid, Rufus knew she was awake.

His chest tightened. “What is this?” he whispered, wiping the moisture away with his thumb. “A tear on the eve of your wedding?”

A single eye cracked open, and a frown furrowed her forehead. “How can anyone be happy this early in the morning?” she grumbled.

“Hmmm. Does the early hour bring you to tears?” He brushed aside a stray tendril and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“It’s not that.” Her voice ended in a choked sound, and Jacq buried her face against his bare chest, tears dampening his skin. “Oh, Rufus.”

He shook his head. Where was his unconquerable Jacq? He had thought asking her to marry him would make her happy. When her tears continued to fall, he pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her hair. “What could possibly be so terrible that my brave warrior is reduced to tears? Show me that dragon…I will slay it.”

She pushed against his chest and leaned back to give him a shaky smile. “Since when have you become chivalrous?”

“Since the woman I love has consented to be my wife.” He trailed his lips across her cheek to nibble at her earlobe. Then he rolled to his back, pulled her over him and smoothed her midnight-dark hair away from her wet face. “Now tell me, why are you sad?”

Fresh tears filled her eyes and dripped onto his neck. “I always thought my father would be at my wedding.”

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Her tears burned against his skin. “I would give you the world on a golden platter, but I don’t think I can give you that. Are you having second thoughts about remaining with me?”

She shook her head. “No, not at all. It’s just I worry about him. He wasn’t well for a long time. Now, he’s probably making himself sick over my disappearance. I wish I could tell him I’m all right.” Jacq stroked Rufus’ cheek and pressed her lips to his in a feathery-soft kiss. “And I wish he could know about you.”

Rufus caught her fingers in his and held them against his chest. If he could, he’d take her pain from her. She obviously loved her father deeply. “He must be a very special man to raise a daughter such as you.”

“He is.” Jacq sighed. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve already resolved myself to the fact I’ll never see him again. I don’t know why I’m so weepy.” She laughed. “Perhaps you’ll make a timid woman of me, yet.”

“No thank you, milady. I love you as you are, strong and relentless. Especially in my bed.” He kissed her hard, and then smacked her backside. “Now, get up, my lazy time traveler. We wed tomorrow and there are arrangements to be made.” He was relieved when she perked up, the sadness disappearing from her eyes. Rufus’ nether mind perked up as well.

A slow smile curled her lips and she ground her hip against his shaft even as she complained, “I’m marrying a real monster—a morning person. What was I thinking?”