“I need to talk with you. It is important.”
The glimmer of desire remained strong in his eyes and stronger than ever within her since finally declaring his love for her. She pulled the towel off from around her to drop at her feet. “Nothing is more important than having you inside me.”
Ruddock groaned beneath his breath, his wife’s petite, curvy body too luscious to ignore or deny. He reached out to grab her waist and pull her too him but her sudden sharp grimace had his hands falling away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked anxiously.
Sorrell turned her head, her eyes able to catch the edges of a bruise at her side and to the back. “I forgot about this. It’s just a bruise, nothing to worry about, but it is tender to the touch.”
Ruddock turned her gently and winced seeing the sizeable purple bruise that spread in a circle from her side to her back.
“I’m actually glad to see it. If it hadn’t been for the rock I fell on that gave me this bruise, I wouldn’t have been able to fend Coyle off as I did.”
Ruddock shook his head, not knowing what else to do and thinking he’d be shaking his head a lot when it came to his wife.
“I should leave you be and see that your bruise is tended to,” Ruddock said and snatched her up, his hand avoiding the bruised area, so that she instinctively wrapped her legs around him. “But I won’t because I want to be inside you as much as you want me there.”
Sorrell had been ready for him as soon as he had told her that he loved her. She needed this to truly seal their union, their love binding them as one.
Ruddock took her to the bed and dropped her down on it, going down with her since her legs remained locked around him. He pushed his plaid out of the way and settled his manhood between her legs.
“Don’t keep me waiting,” she urged, raising her hips in welcome.
He didn’t. He slipped into her.
Sorrell moaned at the slow ease in which he entered her. It was sheer pleasure feeling him slide little by little into her, waiting for that moment when he was fully sheathed in her, and the ride would start.
“You feel so good,” she groaned, gripping the sheets to either side of her, then biting down on her lower lips as he sank deeper and deeper inside her.
“Good God, I do so love you, wife,” he said and pulled out to slide slowly inside her again.
“That’s mean,” she said with a moan.
“That I love you?” he teased.
“That you torture me with such divine pleasure,” she said and groaned again as he settled once again deep inside her. “I am on the verge, please don’t be cruel and make me wait.”
“Never,” he whispered, and he didn’t.
It may have been a short and quick lovemaking, but it had been far from disappointing. It satisfied not only her body, but her heart as well. And when her husband threw back his head and roared, she smiled, knowing he felt the same.
They lay side by side afterwards, their hands joined.
When she shivered, Ruddock pulled the blanket over her.
“I hope your seed takes root fast, so I may give you a son this summer,” she said.
“What if I want a daughter?” he asked jokingly.
“She can follow not long after.”
He liked the thought and grinned. “You plan to keep me busy in bed.”
“In bed and anyplace else that strikes our fancy,” she said with a wink.
“You are a wicked woman, wife, and I love you all the more for it.”
A knock sounded as he kissed her, both unable or unwilling to respond to it.
“I’m so sorry, my lord, my lady,” Blodwen apologized, opening the door and entering after she had received no response. “I thought the room was empty. I came to see that the bathing tub was emptied and removed.”
“See to it,” Ruddock ordered and pushed himself off the bed, to lean down, wrap his wife snug in the blanket, and lifted her in his arms.
“We’ll be in our bedchamber,” Sorrell called out as he carried her to the door.
“Bring a comfrey soak for my wife’s bruise,” Ruddock ordered.
“I have it all ready. I’ll bring it at once, my lord,” Blodwen said and hurried the four stunned servants into the room to see to emptying the bath, their eyes focused on their lord carrying his lady from the room wrapped in a blanket.
Once in their bedchamber, Sorrell slipped on a soft wool robe lying on the bed. Blodwen probably having left it for her. It was too large for her, but it was warm and soft and that was all that mattered to Sorrell. She snuggled in it as she curled her feet up under it when she sat herself comfortably on the bed.