Now she refused to answer and the look of fear in her eyes hurt. “Why did you not tell me? Was the reason you came to my bed only to get with child, or was there something else?” I could see the fight she had within herself before she answered.
“I wanted the child. I wanted to be free of men and their control. Four years I was wed to a man who could not bear to touch me. I was alone and apart from everything I loved and I had no say in the matter. Now my father wishes to marry me to a man older than he is…”
“That will never happen. Did you not hear me? I will never let you go?”
“And what does that mean your majesty? Will you hide me away in one of your castles? Am I to spend the rest of my life watching the same scene play out over and over again? I will not be your whore, ow…”
I grabbed her face and pulled her into me. “Do not say such things. I have not asked that of you have I?”
“And what if you marry what then? When your council pressures you into marriage to some foreign princess where will that leave me?”
“No one will pressure me into anything I make my own rules. I have no need of a foreign princess, my kingdom is secure and my coffers well full. Do not speak.” I shushed her when she opened her mouth to rail at me again.
“Answer me milady, do you feel any affection for me?” She bit her lip and looked down towards the floor. “We will stand here all day if we must my love. I’ve waited four years for you, what’s a few minutes more?” At that her head came up and instead of fear there was wary hope in her eyes.
“Four years…what…what does that mean?” I took her trembling hands and lifted them to my lips.
“It means my love, that while you were wed to my brother, I held a very special tender for you in my heart. It was the reason why I stayed away from you all that time. Had I known how miserable I would’ve, no…I never would’ve betrayed his trust. Nevertheless I cannot deny that I am glad he never had you.”
“Nothing to say?”
“I’m, I have no words my lord. But what does it all mean?”
“It means my love, that you are not going anywhere. It means that I will do all that is within my power to keep you with me.”
“But, how can that be? I was your brother’s wife. The gossip will be horrendous. It could destroy us both.”
“Not if we marry.” I had to hold her up after that.
“Come, you’ve had quite the morning you need to rest.”
Lifting her in my arms I took her to my bed with all intent of putting her there to rest, but she looked up at me with her heaving breasts and her wide-open eyes and I was lost. Leaning over I kissed her luscious lips. Once, twice, and then she opened and teased me with her tongue.
“Will you truly marry me Julian?”
“Yes.” I covered her body with mine, wrestled her garment out of the way and slid into her wet cunny. As always all my misery went away once we were joined. The morning’s foolishness faded from my mind and all that mattered was she and I.
“You’re carrying my son.” I would’ve given my kingdom if asked to hold onto the feelings those words gave me then. The love, after so many years of cold emptiness was overwhelming.
Since father’s death I had locked myself off from everyone, never letting anyone close. Even my brother and sister, whom I loved in my own way, had not touched me this deeply.
The women I’d bedded were just a necessity, an answer to a basic need, but this, being here with her, inside her, with my little son or daughter taking form in her womb was more than I’d ever hoped for.
“I love you Cecile.” Her tightening around me along with the fresh tears in her eyes as she drew my lips down to hers were answer enough until she gave me the words. “And I you.”
“I know.” I pulled her chest into mine as our bodies rocked together, and knew I held my heart in my arms.
Epilogue
King Julian
***
I stay close these days as her time draws near. Her ladies in waiting make quite the fuss about my being underfoot, especially now while she was at her bath, but I had an unreasonable fear of leaving them out of my sight, her and my unborn child.
She was so beautiful, her belly extended, her titties swollen and I remembered how tender her nipples had been just a half hour ago when I sipped at them while she rode me.