The Bargain (12 page)

Suddenly, a large hand covered her mouth and pulled her up against his hard body. His hand brushed hers away from the door and ripped the keys from her grasp.

Fear coursing through her body, Aleysia kicked her assailant hard. He grunted but did not release her. No matter how hard she tried to jerk or pull away, it was no use. His arms were like steel bands about her. She was abruptly lifted into the air and flung over a bare shoulder.

Her head jarred against his hard back with each step he took down the spiral staircase. Then a door to a chamber opened, and he kicked it closed once on the other side. A moment later she was tossed unceremoniously onto the bed.

Aleysia scrambled to her feet.

"Do not move an inch," Renaud said between gritted teeth, his chest rising and falling with his fury. He wore just his braies, nothing else. His eyes held no warmth whatsoever.

She had never seen anyone look as fierce as he did in that moment, and she feared for her safety. How could he be awake after drinking the draught? "Let me leave, Renaud."

"I will not!" He swore loud enough to wake the dead.

"Release us. Please have mercy, my lord."

"Have mercy?" He ran a trembling hand through his hair, his jaw clenched tight. "Your pretty words will not save you. I should have known better than to trust you."

Who was he to speak of trust? "I trusted you, and look what you did to me. You tell me you will keep Adelstan safe, and instead you take him to his death."

His eyes narrowed. "You tried to poison me."

"Poison?"

The side of his mouth lifted in a snarl. "I smelled the herbs, Aleysia. How do I know they were not deadly?"

"It was a sleeping draught, not poison. Certainly, you cannot believe that I would kill you?" she asked, offended he thought her capable of such a deed.

She saw the confusion in his eyes, but she also saw the mistrust. "Either way, you sought to escape."

"I told you before that I would do anything to save my brother— anything short of murder."

"Aye, you did warn me. But I did not believe you would go to such lengths. Tell me, is that why you pretend to enjoy my touch? Is that why you moan and sigh, playing the whore every time I take you to bed?"

Though she wanted to refute what he said, she did not. He didn't need to know the truth—that she burned for him, and wanted him all hours of the day and night. That she had not needed to act one bit, because he had brought her immense pleasure, the likes she may never experience again. It was her shame, for theirs was a future that could never be. Let him believe what he would, because nothing she could say or do would make up for it now.

She came to her feet and walked toward him. He put up a hand. "Do not come near me now, Aleysia."

She ignored his demand, her gaze shifting over him, his broad chest, the corded muscles of his abdomen, the huge bulge at the base of his thighs that the braies could not hide.

Arousal flooded throughout her body, making her nipples hard and her woman's flesh damp. Even his scent excited her, and now as his gray eyes stared into hers, so untrusting, she yearned to have him.

She went up on her toes and kissed him.

He was unresponsive, so repulsed, that he even went so far as to step away. "Do not touch me, Aleysia."

She removed her gown, letting it slide to her feet. His jaw clenched and he looked away.

She took the step that separated them, and wrapped her arms around his neck, her body pressed flush against him. Every muscle in his body tightened, his hands still at his sides.

She kissed his neck, and felt the hair on his body stand on end. Her tongue flicked the lobe of his ear, sliding inside, then along the ridge.

His cock jerked against her stomach and she hid a smile. She caressed him through the material of his braies, his hard length growing longer, thicker with every second. He could say he did not want her, but his body betrayed him.

With a growl he pushed her back on the bed, flipped her over, and pressed his cock against her opening. Her heart pounded loud in her ears as he slid into her slowly, filling her completely, stretching her. She gasped at his size, at his fierce strokes, pushing her into the mattress with each thrust. Nothing at all gentle, but she found it exciting, her hands clenching into the bedding at her sides with each hard stroke.

She lifted her buttocks higher, shocked how full she was in this position. So deep, so satisfying.

Renaud's balls tightened, his seed ready to spew. A part of him wanted to punish her—this woman who had betrayed him so. Bring her to the brink of climax and then withdraw, leave her wanting and aching.

He would never trust her again.

When her breathing increased, he knew she was close to climax. Trembling, he pulled out and she arched her back, trying to follow him.

Her scent permeated his nostrils, the musky fragrance making his cock that much harder. He brushed the head of his rock-hard cock along her wet, swollen folds.

She looked over her shoulder at him, her green eyes dark with passion and frustration. Good, he wanted her hurting. He cupped her breasts, weighing them in his hands, playing with her nipples, rolling them between his fingers and thumbs, pulling, pinching. "Renaud," she whispered, the word a plea. "I need you."

She arched her back while a deep-throated moan escaped her full lips.

His cock rested against the cleft of her ass, probing against her hot, wet slit. "What do you want, Aleysia?"

"I want you to take me."

"Take you where?"

"You know."

He could hear the frustration in her voice, the desperate need. Releasing one breast, he brushed his fingers down her stomach, through the dewy curls of her sex. Two fingers slid into her heat, and she sighed, moving her hips against him.

He toyed with her button and she cried out, moaning, her inner walls contracting around his fingers.

"Please," she said, and he could wait no longer. He put them both out of their misery by sliding his cock into her slowly, his cock head brushing against her womb.

It only took a handful of strokes and he came, flooding her passage with his thick cream.

They stayed connected for a second, her slender back rising and falling as she fought to gain her breath.

The pleasure he had known earlier when they had first made love was no longer there. Instead, the reality of what she had done, and what she would do in the future, had him up and out of bed. He pulled up his braies and walked toward the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked, now sitting on the edge of the bed, her hair shielding her breasts. She looked like an angel.

So innocent.

So beautiful.

So devious.

"I am going to check on my prisoner, but I shall return."

She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut a moment later. He could see her disappointment. Did she think that a quick tumble would change anything?

"My father was right. A man should never trust a woman. I will never again trust you."

He tied her to the bed.

Aleysia could not believe Renaud had gone to such lengths to make sure she did not escape, but he did. He had left the chamber for only a few moments to check on Adelstan, and when he returned, he'd tied her up—her arms and legs bound to each corner of the bed by strips of silk. She had tried without success to loosen the knots, but it seemed her efforts had the opposite effect and drew the material ever tighter.

Thank God she had put on an under tunic before he'd returned. Being tied up naked would have been even more humiliating.

"Surely you do not intend to leave me like this?" she asked Renaud, who was busy testing the binds.

Silence met her question as he moved to the end of the bed and tried the bind there.

"Why do you pretend not to hear me?"

"I choose not to hear any more of your lies."

"Do you intend to leave me like this?"

He shrugged. "I have not decided yet, but for now, this should hold."

"For how long?"

"For as long as I desire."

"I will scream."

"And I will shove a rag into your mouth." He crossed the room, opened a chest and rummaged through it. "Ah, this will do." He pulled a beautifully embroidered kerchief from the chest and proceeded to roll it into a ball.

God's breath, he was actually going to do it! "I will not scream. Do not stuff that in my mouth, Renaud. We will never return to Braemere. I swear it!"

"What am I to do with you?" he asked, almost to himself, as he tossed the kerchief aside and planted hands on his narrow hips. His gaze traveled from hers, slowly down her body and up again. Her nipples tightened under his regard, sending an ache straight to her swollen lower lips. Even her core tightened in anticipation of his long cock stretching her.

How fine he was, his body in profile, half his face cast in shadow, his hair still mussed from their lovemaking. The man was sex personified. The hair on her arms stood on end, remembering the feel of his hard length within her. How strong, powerful, and desirable he was.

His gaze found hers. How tortured he looked, this man who could bring grown men to their knees. A man whose name caused an entire Saxon army to flee for safety.

A man, who, for whatever reason, desired her. "Release me, Renaud."

The sides of his mouth lifted in a wolfish smile. "So you can betray me again?"

"I will not betray you."

"Will you not?" He laughed without mirth. "You would as soon I was dead than sleep with me."

"Nay. That it is not true."

"How do I know that, Aleysia? You lie so prettily. You give pleasure, then drug me within the same hour... only to use your body to make me lessen your punishment."

"I will not do so again. I swear it, Renaud. If you let me go, I shall do whatever you say."

His gaze shifted over her. "Whatever I say?"

The tone of his voice was silky soft yet dangerous.

"Aye," she replied.

He stepped toward the bed, his fingers brushing along the inside of her bare ankle, up toward her knee, bringing her gown up as well.

She swallowed hard and licked her lips, which had gone suddenly dry. Her traitorous body thrilled at his touch.

"I could do whatever I wished to do," he said, his fingers climbing higher, along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, dangerously close to the folds that grew wetter by the second. "What do you think of that, Aleysia?"

"I did not take you for a man who was prone to rape."

He smiled wolfishly. "I have no need to rape a woman. They come to my bed most willingly."

The words made her angry and extremely jealous. "You are quite arrogant."

His fingers slipped over her folds, along her sensitive button, causing her to gasp aloud. She tested the binds, which held her fast. "You have me at a disadvantage."

To her horror her body reacted to his caress, her insides growing hotter. His touch grew more intimate, his thumb working in tandem with his fingers that spread her folds, a long finger slipping inside her tight heat.

"You are so wet, Aleysia. Could it be that you desire my touch, after all?"

She shifted, the movement drawing his finger in deeper. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from moaning.

He added another finger, moving them slowly in and out. His thumb brushed her tiny nub again and again.

She closed her eyes, unable to look at him or the knowing smile on his lips.

Yet her body betrayed her as she grew closer to climax, his fingers working faster, stroking, until she was arching her hips.

She heard sounds outside the door, and for a moment thought it might be her heart, until she felt Renaud's fingers slip from her.

"No," she said, twisting against the bonds, her need so great that even the feel of her tunic over her sensitive flesh made her bite her bottom lip.

He held out a hand as he listened, and then as the sound of footsteps passed by, he returned to the foot of the bed. It seemed she was not the only one aroused.

Untying the cord of his braies, he stepped out of them. She swallowed hard, staring at his long, thick cock, which seemed to grow as she stared.

He touched himself, his long fingers wrapping around the girth, sliding up and down again, over the round, plum-sized head, which filled with blood, the color a deep purple. Then down they slid, over and over again.

Watching him made her skin burn and her heart pound.

She shifted on the bed, trying the bonds again.

Licking her lips, she watched as he climbed onto the bed, directly between her thighs, still stroking himself.

She could not believe it when her insides clenched. She had been so aroused from when he had touched her, and now watching him had pushed her over the brink. She needed release—needed his cock buried deep inside her.

He leaned over her, his long hair brushing over her stomach as he licked a nipple. How soft and velvety his tongue was, so smooth as it laved first one, then the other. Meanwhile his cock brushed against her cleft.

She arched against the binds. "Release me."

"No," he said, sucking hard on a nipple while playing with the other.

"Renaud, I need you to take me. I need you inside me."

He looked up at her, a pleased smile on his lips. "Not yet."

Placing a kiss on each nipple, he moved down her stomach, kissing her there before moving further down. Her breath caught in her throat when his tongue flicked over her clit. Over and over again he worked the tiny bud, the perfect amount of pressure that had her begging for him to take her.

"Renaud, please. I need you."

He looked up at her, his gray eyes intense.

"Please."

He went up on his knees and grabbed her beneath her buttocks, pulling her against him. Taking his cock in his hand he guided the huge head into her opening, moving inch by inch inside her, all the while watching as he sank slowly into her heat. Her muscles tightened around him, and she spread her thighs as much as possible against the binds, pushing her hips up in order to take him deeper. She sighed when he thrust home.

Seconds later Renaud slid in and out of her, his strokes sure and even. She came immediately, and cried out, wishing she was free of the binds, but instead she was helpless as her body rode out the pleasure.