Warprize (Seven Brides for Seven Bastards, 5)(MFMMMMMM) (8 page)

Cedney couldn't swallow; her throat
was too dry. "I have not."

"So I suspected. That is why I am
willing to tutor you in the subject." He paused and was so still
for a while that snow collected an inch deep on his wide shoulders.
"Get that curiosity out of your blood with me. Naturally I want my
niece to be kept content in her marriage bed. And I can show you
the many ways to bring her satisfaction. If you would allow
me."

She studied the naughty gleam in his
eyes—something he tried to hide by half lowering his lashes. "You
would do that for your niece? Spend time here with me just to be
sure she is replete in the marriage bed? That is most generous of
you, Redbeard." She arched a scornful eyebrow. "And
selfless."

"Oh, I wouldn't claim it
was selfless." He smiled. "As I told you, I very much enjoyed the
sucking you gave me with that lovely tight," he leaned closer,
"soft-lipped mouth of yours. My balls are heavy just remembering
what we did. You and I. And thinking of what else we could do
together.
Not
playing chess."

She could hardly catch her breath.
"You...you have played with other men before?"

"I have not. But I must say I am
willing to explore with you. Somehow, the idea has become more and
more appealing since last night when my crest hit the back of your
throat and you greedily swallowed down a full load of my
cum."

"But what else can you
show me? How else can you tutor me?" Cedney shook the snow from her
hood, using the action as an excuse to slip away from him, as he
reached out again to touch her between the legs. "I do not wish to
use
my
cock now
before the wedding night."

"Why not?"

"I do not feel that would be fair or
honest to my lady bride. I cannot fuck freely with some other wench
the night before we say our holy vows before the monk." Ah, yes,
that was good, she thought. A pious desire for chastity from the
groom-to-be. Surely that would please the bride's uncle.

Rufus observed her thoughtfully.
"There are other ways to give and receive pleasure. As you already
know."

Perhaps he
could
teach her
something, she realized. If she was to keep her bride happy and
unsuspecting, then it would be important to know all the other
methods of pleasuring. That way she could convince her bride that
she was being savored and it might be sufficient for a
while.

Suddenly her bride's uncle moved
around her and placed two large hands on her buttocks. Cedney
froze. But only on the outside. His touch instantly ignited that
little secret flame within her body. Her breath formed a grey fog
before her mouth. "Rufus Redbeard."

"Yes, Cedney Bloodwynne?" He squeezed
her bottom in his hands.

She gasped, "Not here. People may
see."

"I care not."

"You will not put hands on me unless I
give permission, Redbeard."

"I know your secret, Bloodwynne," he
whispered.

Alarm roared through her blood and set
her pulse into a gallop. "You...you know nothing."

He did not immediately
take his hands off her bottom, but gave another playful squeeze and
suggested, in a throaty whisper, that, "A little spanking might not
do you any harm, my bossy young
lord.
"

She swung around to face him, and he
paled when he found the tip of her knife pointed at his throat.
"Try it, by all means, and see who gets harmed."

* * * *

Oh now he had a near rapacious need to
fuck her until she screamed his name and remembered that she was
indeed a woman.

Although he'd studied her all day,
looking for gestures and the little things that gave away her
femininity, Dom had found himself distracted instead, awed by her
ability in the saddle. Bloodwynne was a masterful horseman. Yes,
for a while he'd even forgotten she was a female, as they raced
side by side. But not for long. Whenever he looked into her eyes,
or riveted his gaze upon her mouth, he remembered.

Watching her ride astride that day had
only further increased his desire to claim her body. To have her
mounted on him the same way, leaping over a few fences with his
body beneath her and between her strong thighs.

When she fired her arrow it was always
a clean kill. She never missed. It was a strange feeling indeed,
this admiration and respect that swept him up in its warm clutches.
Women, in his opinion, were meant to serve man—his sexual needs,
his stomach's needs and his children's needs. Women should stay at
home and keep the fire burning while they waited for the return of
the men folk. They should not be riding to hunt and showing off a
high proficiency with dangerous weapons, not to mention a fearless
stomach when it came to spilling blood.

Yet this woman did all that and had,
apparently, done so for years.

Did she know anything about being a
woman, he wondered, or had that all been pushed out of her to make
way for the practiced masculinity?

She finally slipped her knife back
into her belt. "Now let's finish the hunt. Work first," and then
she shot him a sudden, teasing glance, "play later."

Dom felt his cock swell at the promise
in those words and his racing pulse stumbled. He suspected he would
have a very difficult time keeping his mind on four-legged prey for
the rest of the morning. But he bowed his head in a sharp nod. "As
you wish it."

"Yes," she replied firmly,
her gaze sharply exploring his face. "As
I
wish it. I am the lord here and
don't you forget it."

How could he not admire her bravery?
Her balls? This incredible huntress had him trapped in her aim, and
there was no escape from the tip of her arrow.

Chapter Eight

The horses clattered into the snowy
yard, dragging the cart full of animal carcasses after them. Cedney
leapt down from her mount and patted its neck. Once again the beast
had carried her safely through another productive hunt. She'd hoped
to prove herself today to Rufus Redbeard and he seemed impressed.
Good.

But there remained the way
he had touched her. His suggestion of tutoring. She did not know
for sure whether he still believed she was a man, but whatever he
thought her sex, Redbeard had made it clear he was attracted.
To
her
or to the
man she was supposed to be? Did it matter?

Of course it mattered, she chided
herself sternly. What if he gave her away, exposed her as a
woman?

And there was more that concerned her.
If he was truly the uncle of Lady Rosamund, would he act this way
with the man meant to marry his niece? She was more certain now
than ever that he was not the person he pretended to be. His
motives, therefore, could be wicked, dangerous to her
manor.

To encourage his lustiness meant
flirting with trouble, and she ought to keep herself above all
that, as she always did when it came to men who had dared make
their interests plain to Cedney. But this was different. Her
attraction to the man who called himself Rufus matched his to her
and it was not easily swept aside. They were drawn together by an
invisible, magical force. From first sight she was lost in his
powerful aura.

There was only one way to get him out
of her blood.

* * * *

"I would talk to you in my private
chamber, Redbeard."

He'd been brushing down his horse in
the stables and turned in surprise at the sound of that clear, firm
voice.

"I...want to show you
something."

It was only half an hour since they'd
returned from the hunt and, although expectation was heavy in the
air between them, he hadn't expected anything like this to develop
at least until evening.

Perhaps the young "lord" thought that
they would rouse less suspicion in daylight. Or else she was too
impatient for some of that tutoring he'd offered. Dom smiled and
followed her out of the stables. She walked ahead of him with that
long, confident stride—one she would never be able to manage in a
long, wool skirt, he mused. He tried to picture her hair grown out
and wondered if it had always been chopped short. It seemed likely.
She had evidently done the best she could to hide her good looks,
to roughen her edges.

It suddenly made him want to buy her
gowns, to pamper her from head to toe, to wrap her up in warm furs
and feed her with fruit basted in honey. No woman should have been
left the burden of this manor. She had handled it admirably, but
was she happy, content, fulfilled? His brothers would laugh at that
question, saying there was only one way for a woman to be kept
content. But Dom was the thoughtful sort. Indeed, that caring side
had often been his downfall.

His brothers frequently teased him
because of the gentle nature, hidden under his gruff exterior.
Admittedly it took him a long while to ponder his thoughts
sometimes, but it was worth it in the end, to get it all straight
in his head and to be sure he did the right thing. That way he
would never have any regret.

Now he turned his thoughts to this
strange woman trapped in a man's clothing.

One certain thing he knew already: he
would not cause Cedney Bloodwynne hurt or trouble, but if he walked
away, turned his back and did nothing, someone else may soon come
along and care far less about her and what she'd achieved. They
would take everything from her, perhaps even her life, because of
this trick she'd played. And it simply was not possible for her to
keep this up forever. Sooner or later the truth would come out. She
needed someone to stand by her, to protect her.

Not that she would agree, he thought
wryly. The woman still thought she had him fooled. Perhaps she had
played the part of a man for so long that even she believed it.
Certainly her fyrdsmen seemed to believe it.

Cedney took him through the great
hall, up a short flight of wooden steps and into her large private
room. The bed cover, as he'd noted last night, was a richly colored
tapestry—considerable luxury, and there was a woven cloth on the
flagged stone floor to add a touch of warmth underfoot. There were
even curtains around the bed to keep out drafts. Dom had seldom
seen such splendor. His father's fortress was a work in progress
and since it was inhabited only by men for some years there was
little in the way of comfort. But now that the brothers began
collecting wives the place bore more resemblance to a home. Dom's
elder brother, Salvador, had built his own castle some miles across
the fields from their father's manor, but that was a place as grim
as the temper of its owner.

"You referred to the fact that I have
a secret, Redbeard," she said suddenly, spinning on her heels to
face him. "So I decided I should show it to you. No reason to hide
it any longer."

He grinned slowly. "Indeed." With
fumbling fingers he began removing the brooch that closed his
cloak. "It is the only sensible thing to let me share your
secret."

But she remained still, watching him
with faint amusement in her eyes.

As his confused gaze circled the room,
it caught on a gleam of gold. Atop the table where last night they
had played chess, there was a small box with the lid partially
open. A sultry shimmer of light came from within, as did one half
of a stream of gemstones that lay like a languid snake in a coil
upon the table.

She gestured toward it with a limp
hand. "This, Redbeard, is the secret I wished to show you. Some of
it, at least."

His pulse slowed.

She shrugged off her mantle and tossed
it over the end of the large bed. "But I also wanted to offer you a
gift. In celebration of my forthcoming marriage to your
niece."

"Is it not I who should present you
with her dowry?"

"This is not a dowry." She strode to
the table and laid her hand on the lid of the box. "This is nothing
more than a token. A little thing to show my
appreciation."

Dom looked at her. If that was only a
"token" then Cedney Bloodwynne must be very rich. That meant she
was in even more danger than he'd realized. It also explained why
the woman went to such lengths to hide her true sex. No woman would
be allowed to keep such an inheritance.

"
This
is my secret," she said
firmly.

Apparently she meant to go on with her
lie. "I hope, for your sake, you don't go around showing your
precious jewels to all and sundry," he muttered.

"No,
Redbeard
." She came toward him and
as she tilted her face upward, cold, snowy afternoon light through
the window cast her features in silver. "I'm only showing them to
you."

One hand suddenly clasped his
balls.

"I trust you can be discreet and keep
them to yourself," she added.

Excitement surged within. Teasing,
arrogant, domineering woman. He tried to calm his desire as best he
could, but he was fast falling under this fascinating creature's
spell. "You ask a lot of me," he growled.