Page 45 of The Rebellious Countess
Mon Dieu, but he hurt. Nothing had gone right from the moment he’d said“I do”to this woman. She was a menace to the cause. A thorn in his side, wiggling deeper and deeper into his flesh until she pierced his very heart. He’d known he loved her for quite some time. He wasn’t a complete fool.
Then again, maybe he was, because he’d thought he could ignore the tug of his emotions, the draw of her mind, body, and soul. Then she’d gone and saved him.
He hadn’t seen her throw the knife, but he’d seen where it landed with deadly aim and precision. The act still baffled him, what lady of thetonknows how to throw a knife? For that matter, where had she kept the knife?
He found that thought sexy as hell. Máira Blair was not raised to be part of the dangerous life a wife of his would lead. Máira was gently raised to attend parties of theton, take strolls in Hyde Park on the arm of her titled husband as their children ran around them giggling and laughing at the loving antics of their parents. Simply put, Máira deserved the love match he led her to believe she was getting.
She deserved more than a filthy, bloodied fool wearing a stolen French uniform. He rode with her on the front of magnificent beast that wasn’t his, while trying to keep his cockin check under the caress of her sumptuous arse.Mon Dieu, she was going to drive him mad with lust.
The prickling of the stallion’s ears brought his attention to their surroundings.
“Someone’s coming,” he whispered in Máira’s ear, and pulled the horse off the path, deep into the forest. A few moments later, he heard the chatter of a man and woman. The worried tone of the woman’s voice reached him before her the words in his native language.
“What if we didn’t leave in time? What if the babe becomes sick?”
“He will be fine, Lizette. Do not worry,” a man responded. Elias assumed he was her husband.
“How do you know? All those people looking for shelter could have brought the ague to our village. What if they contaminated the water?”
Her husband’s voice softened. “Let’s not bring trouble where we do not need it. You and the baby will be safe at your parents’ house.”
Elias could see the couple dressed in the attire of country peasants. They were younger than he and Máira, and the woman was holding a baby in her arms as it nursed on her breast.
“What about you?” she asked. “Who will keepyousafe?”
The young man kissed his wife’s hair as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and looked down at the infant. “Your love will keep me safe. Would you like to stop and remind me of just how much you love me?” The young man’s eyebrows waggled and his wife giggled. “You are insatiable. It hasn’t been an hour since I showed you how much I adore your cock down my throat.” She batted at her husband’s hand as he attempted to bring hers to his crotch. “Besides, your son needs to eat.”
Every nerve ending in Elias’s body came alive. It was bad enough that he’d been forced to relive every move and countermove of the fight of his life in an effort to distract himself from the feminine form making his own cock want exactly what this woman was discussing. If he had to endure watching the act, he wouldn’t be able to keep his body from showing Máira just exactly how much he desired her to repeat her performance. No woman had unmanned him the way she had, and his base needs were hammering against his restraint, challenging his will to keep it at bay.
“How about I show you exactly how much you mean to me as I eat that sweet cunny of yours.”
Máira’s breath hitched.
The young woman giggled and swatted at her husband. “Maybe when we stop for the night and your boy isn’t making me feel like a milking cow.”
“You could never be mistaken for a cow. The sweet Lord gave you curves to drive a man insane.” He planted a kiss on her cheek and wrapped his arm under his wife’s to help support the child in her arms. “Why don’t we stop for the night.”
Damn, if they stopped?—
His wife’s joking disappeared. “No, I fear if we rest so close to the village, we will expose our son to the ague that is destroying it. We must continue.”
The smile the man gave her was indulgent, yet his own worry was evident. “As you wish, but I must insist on carrying that little man as soon as he is done eating.”
The baby burped in her arms and drew the couple’s attention back to him. Despite their circumstances, they appeared content. Something in that look pierced Elias’s heart, making him realize everything he was giving up. Before Máira, no woman had made him want what this couple had, and yet he could picture her with a suckling babe at her breast as he held them both in his arms.
No. The job was his family. The men of his crew were his children in need of guidance. They were also his brothers-in-arms, despite the treachery of Billy and Jack. Most of his men, although sketchy when bringing a woman around, were dependable when trouble was at hand. As a man he didn’t have to watch his back—his family had it.
Yet still…this couple had given him a glimpse of what he was missing.
Elias and Máira sat in silence long after the couple passed. When he was certain they were gone, he directed their horse out of the woods.
“What illness would drive them from their home?”
“I don’t know.” It was a lie. When Hag had held him tight for the first time in years right before they left, she’d whispered the name of a contact close to Mont Saint Michel who could guide them across the bay to the prison. A trustworthy man who would have a specific medal for him, and him alone. Then she’d warned about a fever sweeping across the countryside, driving people from their homes because the ague was killing the strongest of men.
The sun was high in the sky now, and by the sounds of her stomach growling, Máira was as hungry as he was. “We’ll be stopping to eat soon.”
Máira shook her head. “I’m fine.”
