Imogen hesitated, terrified that she might hurt him, then slowly wrapped her arms around him, burying her hands into his hair.
“Oh, God, this has to be a cruel dream,” he choked out as he began to trail kisses with fervid haste along the line of her throat.
“If it is a dream, then may we never have cause to wake up.”
“Amen,” he sighed, and pulled her head down to his and smothered her parted lips in a searing kiss.
It was a kiss where spirits met.
Imogen knew in that instant that life and love were too precious to be wasted on the meaningless frivolities of doubts and fears. The only thing that mattered was right here, in the meeting and mating of their tongues, in the hands that tried to pull each other so close that she no longer quite knew where her body ended and his began. She let out a groan of raw desire, and Robert answered it with one of his own.
He would go mad if he wasn’t part of her. Now. Here. In a dungeon.
The thought froze him. It was impossible to think of savagely taking his beautiful Imogen on the straw pallet that was the only bed his meager cell had to offer.
He dragged his mouth from hers and drew her head against his chest, his breath coming in ragged bursts as he tried to gain control over his raging body. That control would have been more easily found if every inch of Imogen’s body wasn’t pressed against his, but he lacked the willpower necessary to put her away from him entirely.
He was only a man and even as his honor demanded he let her go, his achingly aroused body could no more put her from him than it could fly from William’s fortress.
When he thought he might be able to see her without falling on her like some ravaging beast, he gently allowed the tension in his hands to ease, and dared to look into her flushed face, her lips bruised from his kisses.
“Sorry,” he growled. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. Not here.”
“Why…why did you stop?” she asked in confusion, her mind still numbed by the raw desire that filled her to overflowing.
“I thought it was for the best.”
“You thought…” She pushed herself away from him and grabbed his head between her hands. “Why is it that you get to make all of the decisions? Why is it that you never ask me what I think, or never even think to ask me what I might want?”
Robert ran a finger over her cheek and along the damp fullness of her swollen bottom lip.
“Forgive me, but I don’t want to take you like a dog in heat on the stone floor of His Majesty’s dungeon.” He saw her flinch at the coarse expression, but he continued determinedly. “Imogen, I’m chained to a wall so that I can’t stand, or even crawl to the other side of the room. I’m not fool enough to believe that you can want to be with me like this.”
She lifted her face and placed a lingering, searing kiss on his startled lips.
“I love you. I want to be with you,” she murmured against his lips, her breath burning his skin as her words fired his heart. “I want to be held in the arms of the man I love. I want to be able to forget about the outside world, even if for only a moment. I want to forget that there might not be a tomorrow for us.” She groped for his manacled hand, lifted it to her breast and held it there by force when he made to move it away. “The only thing I care about is that you hold me as close as you can in the precious time we have managed to steal. Please hold me,” she whimpered, her voice breaking.
Robert groaned as he pulled her into a crushing embrace, not able to reject her generous gift. “I suppose I should be grateful that William saw fit to imprison me in a new fortress. Compared to the filth of Westminster’s, this is a paradise,” he muttered as he fumbled with her skirts so that his hand could touch the warm satin of her thighs. He groaned helplessly and closed his eyes as his hand ran adoringly from knee to hip. “You do know that you are entirely mad, don’t you?”
The cell filled with her sultry laughter. “Well, that would just about make us a matched set, then…” Her words were cut off by a gasp as his long fingers moved along the skin of her inner thigh and brushed the curls that protected her feminine core.
That protection proved entirely inadequate and Robert’s fingers found the treasure that they sought, sending shivers of ecstasy through her body. His hand resting under hers tightened around her breast, sending a shaft of pure fire to her lower abdomen.
“Oh, Imogen,” he murmured as he lowered his lips to capture her moans and whimpers of pleasure. He no longer dared to question the fate that had brought this woman to him and made her say that he was the man she loved, but he let out a growl of frustration as he tried, and failed, to pull her body under him. His chain clanked noisily as they tangled around them.
He dragged his lips reluctantly from hers. “Damn things,” he groaned as he tried to untangle himself, only seeming to tangle himself further.
Imogen pulled herself to one side, listening impatiently to the sounds of his struggle, trying to determine how they had him chained.
“Can you sit against the wall with your legs out in front of you?” she asked hoarsely. Taking Robert’s aggravated grunt as an affirmative; she placed her hand in the center of his wide, bare chest and gave it a gentle push. “Then do it.”
Robert hesitated only a second before complying. Imogen waited till everything was near silent and the only noise to be heard was the sound of his ragged breathing. She had to try and steady her own before she felt ready to do what she wanted to do for him.
She was going to show him just how much she loved him; she was going to show him the woman she had become because he loved her. She was a woman who was no longer so completely crippled by the past that she barely existed. Because he loved her.
Reaching out, she ran her hand up the length of his calves, the hair bristling under her fingers, creating an enticing friction. She smiled a little when she heard his sharp intake of breath as she placed a kiss on the rough skin of his knee, then one on the more-sensitive area on the inside of his thigh.
“I don’t have the stamina for this torture,” he said gruffly.
“Well, I have enough stamina for both of us,” she whispered, placing another kiss higher up. Her heart ached as she realized the truth behind his jest. The deprivations he’d suffered in the time they’d been seperated had changed him. He was leaner, not as strong; though the feel of him under her hands still made her ache with want. It didn’t matter. What she had planned required him to do nothing more than love her.
She lifted herself so that she sat astride his lower legs and, with an unembarrassed naturalness, she drew her simple dress up over her head.
“Good God!” Robert breathed out slowly, the air starting to burn in his lungs. He realized then just how inadequate his memories had been. Nothing could compare with the sultry angel who was bending over to kiss the base of his manhood. Her hair fell forward, moving over his skin in exquisite torture.
Imogen hesitated for a moment. After so long spent dwelling on the pain Roger had brought her, she expected to feel fear but instead of memories of her brother and his perversion, her mind was too full of Robert to be distracted by the past. Robert had freed her from it all.
His love had made her clean and whole.
There were tears in her eyes as she placed a kiss on the moist tip of his straining need. Robert found he couldn’t look away from the sight, and of their own volition, his hips lifted from the floor as a groan was torn from deep in his chest.
“Shhh,” she whispered soothingly, lifting her head to smile at him tremulously. “I will make it all better.”
Cupping him in her small hands she sat up and carefully guided him into the moist heat of her. The feel of the long, hard length of him pressing up against her almost sent her over the edge and for a moment she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to control herself. It took all of her strength to slowly lower herself till she was completely full of him.
She was so profoundly moved by the joy of their joining that it was a second before she could find her voice. Her hands were shaking as she lifted them to frame his face. Gently she rubbed her nose against his.
“Robert Beaumont, I love you with everything I have,” she whispered huskily. “You have taken all of my pain from me, made me whole. You gave me love, even when all I had to give you was my fear and hate. And, for all of that, I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
“Imogen…” Robert ground out through clenched teeth, but Imogen put a shaky finger on his lips to still them.
“But all I do have to give you—my life, love and body—are yours. Forever.”
Robert felt his heart expand till he wasn’t sure if his chest could contain it. He lowered his head and claimed her sweet lips in a kiss as he lifted his legs till his feet were flat on the floor. The movement brought the center of Imogen’s desire hard against the base of his erection. She gasped at the sudden change in sensation and Robert smiled hungrily against her lips as he shifted in her again.
“That’s right, Imogen, let it go. Let me watch your face as you come apart for me.”
She threw back her head, her hands curling into the hollow on his shoulders, as her body undulated against him. The long line of her throat beckoned to Robert in the candlelight and he lowered his lips to the pulse that beat wildly just under the skin. With a nipping kiss, he sent her over the edge, her moan sounding like music to his ears.
The silken wall of her sheath convulsed around him and it was then his turn to groan helplessly as his own desire was drawn from him. His large hands moved to cover her hips, sealing her against him, as wave after wave of his seed filled her.
They were both held suspended for a moment, then in a rush Imogen felt her heart start to beat again.
Robert’s head dropped back bonelessly against the wall and his arms moved around her damp back to hold her steady against him. Her ragged breathing played over the heated skin of his chest as she nestled her cheek against him.
She didn’t even mind the cold chains that trailed from his wrists over her back and buttocks. Just so long as she could feel him breathing underneath her, feel his big, capable hands moving softly over her back and his shrinking manhood still buried deep inside her, then she was happier than anyone had a right to be.
“I love you,” he growled softly and instantly found the peace that had eluded him for years. He was now doing what he had been born to do. He was loving Imogen.
She turned her still passion-flushed face up to his, her hand reaching up to trace the sensual softness of his lips.
“I love you too.”
Robert tightened his arms around her, trying to keep her close and safe from the rest of the world. It was a futile gesture, but for the moment it almost seemed possible.
If Imogen loved him, then anything was possible.
The three sharp knocks rang out but Imogen just held on to Robert more tightly. She didn’t want to leave. In this cell she had found love and for a few precious hours she had been able to live a dream.
Mostly, they had just talked. They had talked about silly things, about their childhoods, their dreams and mistakes. Robert had told her a little about his life as a mercenary, about its hard, unforgiving days and cold, lonely nights. She had tried to tell him a little about Roger’s games, but she had quickly stopped. He wasn’t ready to hear, and Imogen couldn’t help but be a little relieved. She wasn’t truly ready to bare all the secrets of her soul, especially not if they hurt him.
For similar reasons, she hadn’t wanted to tell him about the baby. She knew it would only give him one more thing to worry about when already he was trying to protect the world. But now she couldn’t hold it in. She frowned as she tried to find the words to tell him. “Robert, there is something I must tell you before…” she started, but he cut ruthlessly over the top of her with an urgent growl.
“You have to be safe, Imogen. Regardless of what happens to me, you must be safe. Claim complete ignorance; throw yourself at William’s mercy; run away. Do whatever it takes to make sure you stay safe. You are all I care about and if you let anything happen to you, I will…Well, I don’t know what I will do, but trust me when I say you don’t want to find out! Do you understand?” he finished furiously, making the dear words sound like a threat.
He shook her gently till she managed to choke out a startled, “Yes.”
“Excellent,” he breathed with a satisfied sigh, then stole one more heated kiss. Even after making love once more after their first heated coupling and having held her tightly in between, Robert still hadn’t had enough of her.
This time it was Imogen who ended the kiss.
“But I won’t abandon you,” she said with fervent determination, wanting him to understand. “I will only do what I believe to be right.”
Robert let out a rush of frustrated cursing at her obstinacy. “I should tie you up and give you back to Gareth stuffed in a bag,” he muttered with disgust, painfully aware of how powerless he truly was.
“I love you too,” Imogen smiled softly as she stood, quickly finding the dress she had discarded earlier and shaking the straw from the skirts.
Through worried eyes he watched as she pulled it over her head, enjoying the sight of her easy movements, but feeling sick to his stomach with the knowledge that in a cell there was nothing he could do to protect her. Even when he tried to stand up and pull her close he was defeated by the chains that held him. Hearing his struggle, she reached out a hand and clumsily found his bare shoulder, gently pushing him back to his knees before he hurt himself. She then tenderly touched his face in farewell, lingering as tears gathered in her eyes.
Robert grabbed her hand in both of his and placed a string of heated kisses on her palm. “I love you too, Wife, with all my heart, body and soul,” he said hoarsely. “That’s why I’m as worried as hell for you and ranting like a madman. I need you to be safe.”
Imogen pulled her hand away as the three knocks came again impatiently.
“I know,” she said, tears now falling freely down her cheeks. When she heard his moan of distress and the sound of his chains rattling as he tried to reach for her again, she knew she had to leave before it became too painful for them both. She turned quickly and felt her way to the door, opened it quietly and left without another word.