The Apprehension (Unexpected Circumstances 6)

“I love you, Alexandra,” he said quietly. “I have failed you regardless but no more. I will be at your side, making sure you do not come to harm. I will not entrust my most prized possession to anyone else to guard. Never again.”

His arms tightened around my shoulders for a moment.

“There are times and places where I am not welcome,” I reminded him. “There are traditions…”

“To hell with those traditions,” Branford said simply. “I will not be parted from you.”

I thought about this for a minute.

“What if I go to the chapel to speak with Father Tucker?”

Branford cupped my cheeks and tilted my face to his.

“You have something you must confess?” he asked. I could see the wry humor in his eyes.

“Perhaps,” I said, and I smiled through my blush. “I do sometimes have…lustful thoughts.”

“Do you now?”

I nodded.

“Who is in your lustful thoughts?” Branford’s hot breath danced around my ear. “For if it is anyone other than me, I will have him drawn and quartered immediately.”

“Branford!” I cried out. “What a horrible thing to say!”

He only shrugged.

“It is the truth of the matter,” he said.

“It is a good thing only one man invades my thoughts.”

“Hmm…”—his mouth brushed over mine—“and who would that be?”

“You,” I whispered. “Only you…ever…”

“Good.”

He rolled back on top of me, and his knees pushed my legs apart as he entered me again. His movements were different as was the look in his eyes as he claimed me again and again that night. There was no desperation or rush, only the two of us wrapped up in each other.

We were protected—the army of Seacrest would join with Silverhelm and shield us from any attack. We might not be prepared to go to war, but we would be able to defend ourselves and would no longer have to bow to pressure from Hadebrand. Edgar had been shamed in front of the other nobles, and word of his part of the treachery against Silverhelm would spread quickly. He would no longer be allowed to cross our borders to make demands, threaten, or harass us.

There was one other thought that reverberated through my head as my husband’s body entered mine over and over again, and this was the thought that caused my lips to turn up into a smile as sensations flooded my body.

I was not barren.

Branford’s seed filled me again, and this time I joined him in prayer.

And that was when I knew there was still hope.

Chapter 2—Tenderly Promise

Every time I closed my eyes, my thoughts were haunted by images of flames. My nostrils still burned with the smell of acrid smoke. My emotions were everywhere—part of me mourning the loss of one of the few people I had considered a friend while also consumed with anger over what she had denied Branford and me all this time. My anger was not even singular, for I was as angry with myself as I was with Janet.

“What is filling your mind?” Branford asked softly. He laced his fingers through my hair as he held me against his chest.

“How could I have been so foolish?” I replied. It was the thought that had been running through my head over and over again. “After…after she said those things, and I thought back to all the times she would make sure I drank...”

I took a deep breath and brushed my fingers over the soft hairs that made a thin line down the center of his stomach. His skin twitched beneath my touch, and I splayed my hand out on his abdomen.