Read Online Strangclyf Secret by Mary McCall - Free Book Online Page A

fingers, stroking her heat. She moaned deep in her
throat, and he reached with his free hand to pull the string on his
braies.
    Without warning the tenor
of her moans changed. She jerked on his hair. He broke the kiss and
gazed at her distressed features. “Bernon, I think I am truly
getting sick.”
    He barely got the basin
under her head before she began vomiting. Her heaves lasted a good
long while. Then she moaned, begging him to kill her and be done
with the torture.
    She would never know how
much he wanted to accommodate her. He was stone hard and couldn’t
think of another woman at court who could possibly satisfy him. He
frowned at the thought. Who the woman was never mattered before and
he didn’t want it to matter now. He knew better than to allow any
woman such power.
    Could this need to have
only her stem from her response? ‘Twas probably the first genuine
response he had ever witnessed. She told him everything her hot
body did and felt in such an unsophisticated way that he couldn’t
wait to hear what she would say next. Her woman’s core had felt so
small and slick around his finger that he hurt with a need to bury
himself within her. Damn if he didn’t feel his release draw near
just thinking about it. He clenched his jaw.
    He could go on and take
her. She was his and ‘twas his right. He would be doing her a favor
too. She was so tiny that her first time was bound to be painful no
matter how careful he was. She probably wouldn’t even remember her
discomfort if he took her now.
    What was he thinking?
Bernon took a deep breath and wiped a frustrated hand over his
face. He had never taken a drunken woman before. He was not about
to start with this young innocent who belonged to him. He didn’t
want a complainer on his hands. Not only would he have to see her
after tonight, she would be the mother of his children.
    His thoughts turned to his
own mother. Funny.. .he couldn’t even remember her name or what she
looked like. He did recall the parade of men in and out of their
small hovel, having a baby named Balen shoved into his
seven-year-old arms, and waking to find her gone when he was
nine.
    What would have become of
Balen and him if William hadn’t caught him stealing bread and taken
the two brothers in? Seven-year-old Geno had already gone to live
with William, removing the embarrassment of his birth and presence
from immediate proximity to the Roman Curia. With William as a
father figure, the three boys grew up as brothers and received the
finest training in warfare available.
    Unlike Geno and Balen who
loved and enjoyed all women, Bernon saw his mother in every female
who crossed his path...until Maurella. As a naïve youth, he gave
his heart to the dark mysterious lady only for her to trample upon
it and scorn him. The night of their betrothal, he found her in bed
with another young warrior offering up her rosy body for perverted
pleasure. His innocent fiancée turned out to have more carnal
experience than all of William’s command combined. Two weeks after
he had broken off the betrothal, Maurella had the gall to claim she
carried his child. She had demanded justice from William. Thank the
Almighty his liege believed him when he said he hadn’t taken her.
Three weeks later he heard Maurella had died, trying to rid herself
of the child.
    Bernon frowned. Would
Barwolf so easily abandon or discard a child? He would not allow
it. The only truly decent woman he knew was Queen Matilda, and she
would probably gladly raise any child he sent to her. Now that was
a sound plan. Any children he had with Barwolf could be raised in
royal style then returned to Strangclyf when diligent care and
observation were no longer required. He would inform his bride when
the time came. She was submissive and she obviously trusted him or
she would not have come to him for help. She would obey him and see
the rightness in his decision.
    If he had to have a wife,
she wasn’t so bad. She was definitely raw material.