Chapter Thirty-Four

“I CAN’T BELIEVE this is happening,” Adalene whispered as she watched the gathering in the gardens from the window of her bed chamber.

“What is hard to believe?”

She whirled to find the Baron there, dressed in his finery as a groom—her groom. Her eyes warmed at the sight of him. She couldn’t believe he was going to be her husband.

He explained some of what happened on the ride back home, but they had little time because he rode out with the men and Odette stayed with her inside the carriage. They were in a smaller and lighter carriage so they could ride back quicker for the wedding preparations.

He also told her that she could still withdraw during the ceremony if she wanted to. That was Fabian, alright.

But his aunt was right.

However preposterous she thought everything was, it was stupid to let the opportunity to be with Fabian, with no opposition and no other women to get jealous of, go.

Of course, she told him so, and he sent a rider ahead of them to get the chateau ready for the ceremony when they arrived. He wanted them to be wed as soon as possible.

“How did you convince your aunt and the duke to accept your decision to marry a…a commoner?” she asked him now. She had been waiting for him to enter the bedchambers. She was burning up with her questions.

“We are lucky. It is timely. Some of the Lords have already been instructed to make use of trade to gather funds for the Duke’s military endeavors against the English. The others wanted to think this is foolish and that the king and queen will be able to pay from the treasury. But it seems the treasury has been running low since after the wars of the royals the past thirty years. The duke has noted, thank God, that towns that have affluent merchants these days seem to be the best guarded against skirmishes. Money eliminates said town from the threat to rebel against the crown. You see, when—”

“People have money and food, they have nothing to complain of, and they have money to pay for guards,” she said. They had already talked about this sometime in the last few days after they stayed in bed talking after—or between—sex. “But what does that have to do with our marriage?”

He smiled. “Don’t be impatient. I’ll get there. The Duke wanted to test the theory within a larger scope—France has wine and timber and textile. We can trade with the Italian merchants. I have backed him up all the way with this idea before I was made into a Baron and since then have started aligning my province with this project.”

“Ahh, so that’s why you kept asking me those questions about taxes.”

He nodded. “Yes. It happens that Lady Veronique’s father did not want to have anything to do with this. I already aggravated the man when I chose to employ arrows in military training for the men. He clung to the old ways.”

“Your men, the knights, are training with arrows. What’s wrong with this?”

“Some find this act treasonous to the principles of chivalry, and yet hundreds of knights have continued succumbing to the common man’s bows. I want my men to have a means of defense and offense. But whatever the reason, the Duke saw the wisdom of me marrying someone, a commoner, who knows how to read and write and keep numbers and can travel with me to trading stations when necessary. Most of all, you will not hinder my actions because you don’t happen to have a father who opposes the Duke’s and my decisions.”

“Like Lady Veronique,” she said, already excited at the thought of holding threads and exquisite fabrics, and the gowns she could make with them.

“Precisely. But…” He smiled as he kissed the knuckles on her hand that he held. “I’m not marrying you for those reasons, and you must know it, ma bichette. I just presented our case in a package that will make our arrangement acceptable to the powers that be. This will protect you. Do you understand?”

“Then why did we have to leave in haste? Is it because of Lady Veronique’s family?”

“Yes. The Duke wanted to avoid unpleasantries. The Lady’s mother is a far relation to the queen. And yet…” His eyes glittered with tenderness. “And yet, I do not care about all that. I just want you to be my wife. I would have other reasons to give the Duke to justify my marriage as long as I can keep you.”

“Oh, Fabian.”

“I love you, and I always sought to marry for love. Lady Veronique was wrong to think I would want to marry her. The Duke already knew this, but he said there was pressure from Moranville, so he asked me to think of something if I want to get married my way. Is this still hard to believe, ma bichette? That I want to marry you?”

“I love you, too. I hope I make you a happy husband.”

He took her in his arms. “You…have already made me happy many times,” he said huskily before kissing her hungrily. And as from the first time, heat spread from their lips to their bodies.

“My gown…” she whispered. They were about to go out in a moment, and she was already in her wedding finery. But she would never tell him to stop. “Be careful, Fabian…”

“I’ll take care of you,” he said while opening his surcoat and unstrapping the belt on his breeches.

“Oh, Fabian. Is our life always going to be like this?” she asked him as she laughed softly near his lips.

He grinned as he took his rock-hard cock out. “I hope so.”

And Fabian made good on his promise.

He made her sit on a pillow on the edge of the desk in the corner of her room. She helped him raise the hem of her skirts, and he spread her thighs wide open with deference.

“Beautiful…” he whispered before he lowered his head and clamped his lips to her mound to suckle.

She moaned, her head thrown back, her body arching towards him. As his lips sucked at her, the tip of his lips flicked at her pleasure bud, and she could actually feel herself getting soaked with the juices produced by her lust.

He did not relent, suckling, drawing her inside his mouth as hard as he could, until she was begging and pleading and panting hard.

“Please…” she whispered as she felt her face and neck warm up with delicious arousal. “I want you, my Baron. I want to feel you inside me. Now.”

He straightened up and set her feet against his thighs. He bent a little and then maneuvered his head’s cock towards her slit. That was the only warning she got. He then slid in fast, inch-by-unrelenting-inch, until he filled her, stretching her tight to the fullest.

They groaned hard, together.

“This is going to be fast, mon amour,” he whispered as his eyes locked on her eyes.

“Fast,” she whimpered as she held on to his powerful shoulders. “I want fast, my Fabian.”

And he did go fast, slipping in and out, hard and full, and slick with her for she was already so wet when he pierced her with that throbbing meat of his.

They both groaned hard and panted and cried against each other at each powerful and pleasureful thrusts. The slapping of his skin against her skin filled the room with their pants.

He caught her mouth and kissed her hard. Hard and rough, his kiss and his cock, and she was soaking with her juices as he pierced her roughly, faster, deeper.

She exploded, and he took her small scream inside his mouth.

He pounded at her and made her pleasure unbearably exquisite, and she rolled into another climax. That was when he climaxed, too, and they rode the waves together, writhing and convulsing as they held each other tight. They touched down from that glorious experience kissing.

He held her for some time more as they got themselves together. The different cadence in the noise below alerted them that they had to get ready, fast. And after cleaning up, they soon had their clothes straightened.

“Are you ready to be a wife to me and love only me, ma bichette?” asked the Baron on raised eyebrows as he held his hand to her when they felt and heard the gathering outside the door.

He was teasing her, but she could not speak right away because of awe.

Be the Baron’s wife…be the only woman he will love…forever.

“There was no other man before, my Fabian. You are the only one. So… yes, with all my heart.”

END