Page 81 of Suddenly a Bride
“At this rate, why isn’t someone trying to killme?” Geoffrey said dryly.
“Martin was a loyal servant of the Langstons,” Edmund continued. “I know he said he feared for his life because of the earl’s threats, but he could have been lying.”
Gwyneth hesitated. “You said he was the one who gave Elizabeth the castle profits, did you not? Well, I had a conversation with Mrs. Haskell about who she believed started the rumors about Elizabeth’s death.”
“Gwyneth,” Edmund began.
“I know—I should not be discussing such things behind your back, but the Langstons are my kinsmen, and I am embarrassed by their behavior. I had to know, and I trusted Mrs. Haskell to tell me.”
“And what did she say?” her husband asked guardedly.
“She says the guilty person wasn’t fool enough to tell her his lies, but in her opinion, it could only have been Mr. Fitzjames.”
Edmund shrugged. “He was always my first choice; who else had been proven to be under Langston control? Yet I felt that I would rather keep an eye on him than banish him from the estate and wonder how desperate that might make him.”
Geoffrey grimaced. “And speaking of the Langstons—”
“Harold,” Edmund said with a nod. “Getting himself put in jail might have been deliberate, so I’d have to come for him.”
“I don’t think he is a bad sort,” Gwyneth said. “The servants tell me his arrogance has quite receded. I’ve actually had a pleasant conversation with him once or twice.”
Edmund scowled but said nothing.
She went to stand beside him and linked her arm through his. “You have many potential enemies, Edmund, and that’s just right here. Could there be others from your soldiering days, men who’d want to see you fail?”
“None that I’ve seen lurking about Swaledale. And I would have heard if strangers had come here to live. Geoff was keeping watch on a man who came to our wedding, then appeared on our land the next day, but he has not been seen again. For now, we shall concentrate on the people we’ve mentioned. Geoff, keep an eye on Ludlow, while I take Langston. We shall both watch Fitzjames.”
“I did see Prudence at the castle recently,” Gwyneth said. “I’ll watch for her.”
Edmund glanced down at her. “You are not to put yourself in danger, Gwyn.”
She smiled and leaned against his shoulder. “I promise.”
As they stared into each other’s eyes, her smile died at the passion that she could read in him. As if from far away, she heard Geoff clear his throat and bid them a good evening, but then her senses forgot everything but the heat in Edmund’s eyes and in his touch. Roughly he lifted her and set her on the edge of the bed, spread her legs and pressed himself against her, regardless of the garments bunched between them.
There was no slow fondling, no gentleness, only a feeling of sinful excitement. Kissing him deeply, she pulled her own skirt back and felt him unbuttoning his breeches. She started to slide back on the bed, but he only pulled her closer to the edge and entered her swiftly.
Moaning, she linked her legs about his hips, felt his hands slide up her thighs to cup her backside. She was no longer even resting on the bed but held to Edmund’s body by his incredible strength. He lifted and brought her down over and over. She felt the tension in his thighs splayed beneath her, the hardness of his arms where she gripped him. The hot fever of release called to her, and the rubbing of his hips against hers made her blind to everything but her aching need. Edmund gave a final groan and buried himself deep inside her. Feeling the flexing of his muscles as he climaxed, she realized that she wasn’t ready to join him.
She found herself dropped back onto the bed, his perspiring head resting against her neck.
Should she tell him she had not experienced…everything? But then he lifted his head and trailed his cheek along her bodice. She tensed, squirming against his penis still buried inside her. He lifted his laughing eyes to her and then gently bit her nipple through her garments. When she gasped, he nibbled at the other one and tweaked the first with his fingers.
“I am wearing too many clothes,” she said, trailing off into a groan as he sucked hard on her nipple.
“I can work around such hardship,” he murmured, and then reached between their bodies to stroke her.
With his mouth teasing her breasts, his hand pleasuring her, and his erection thrusting hard inside her, she erupted in a quick climax and smiled through her satisfied stupor as he did too.
Feet still braced on the floor, Edmund put his hands on the bed and looked down at her. “This did not make me totally mindless, Gwyn. You are to let Geoff and I deal with whoever is targeting me.”
She gave him a slow smile and reached beneath his shirt to feel the hard muscles of his abdomen. “I hear you—althoughIam quite mindless. I am so mindless that you could easily take advantage of me again.”
With a groan, he left her body and crawled up on the bed to sprawl on his back. “You are an insatiable woman.”
A woman in love, she thought to herself. She just snuggled against his side and said a little prayer that someday her husband would fall in love with her.
~oOo~
