Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Tarass dropped down on her, spent from a climax that left him completely satiated and more than ever in love with his wife, something he still found surprising and sometimes terrifying. Never had he expected to find love and perhaps the terror that he could lose her was the reason why he thought he’d never love. He didn’t want to deal with the God-awful pain of losing someone you loved.
The thought of Lord Polwarth actually taking Snow from him not only infuriated him, but terrified him as well. Not that he would ever let it happen, but then he had not been able to protect his parents from being killed.
He would not lose his wife. He would take her away to his mum’s land and people and live there if necessary. He would let no one take her from him.
Snow’s gurgling stomach had Tarass rolling off her to lay beside her, his hand reaching out to lace his fingers with hers.
Snow sighed contented and locked her slim fingers with his strong ones, needing to be joined with him one way or another.
“You need to eat, wife,” Tarass said, his breath beginning to calm.
“Aye, we’ll eat and then be ready to make love again,” she said with a soft sigh, the last tingle of climax fading away.
Tarass turned on his side to look at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her bottom lip plump from biting back some of her moans, and passion still lingered in her lovely green eyes. She was a beautiful woman, even more so after making love.
“I please you that much, wife, that you can’t get enough of me?” he asked with a slight chuckle.
Snow reached out and rested her hand against his jaw. “You please me so much, husband, that I truly feel you will grow tired of me making demands on you.”
Tarass turned his face into her hand, his lips faintly brushing along her palm before he kissed it, sending a brief quiver through her. “I can put your fear to rest, my dear wife, since that shall never happen.”
“You say that now, but—”
Tarass kissed her silent. “No buts, wife. If anything, it will be you who grows tired of my demands.”
Snow giggled. “Would you care to wager on that?”
He laughed along with her. “I don’t think that’s wise, since we may kill each other trying to win the wager.”
“Or we may have a gaggle of bairns,” she said, the thought pleasing her.
Tarass smiled, favoring the thought, though her rumbling stomach had him responding to that. “Time to eat.”
Snow grabbed his arm when he let go of her hand and went to move off the bed. “Tarass.”
He didn’t like the worry he saw on her face that only moments ago was wearing a smile.
“Whatever happens, I want you to know that my love for you grows stronger with every minute and every hour of the day, and no one will ever take my love for you from me.”
His heart swelled with joy hearing how much she loved him, but his stomach clenched with worry that she sounded as if she feared she would be taken from him.
He leaned over and kissed her gently. “I’m glad your love for me grows as rapidly and strong as mine for you. And if I must remind you every day for the rest of our days that I will never let anyone take you from me, then I will. You are mine, wife, now and always.”
Tarass held his wife’s hand as he guided her to the dais in the Great Hall the next morning. He and Snow were looking forward to sending Cleric Norman on his way and was disappointed when they found him absent from the hall.
“He hasn’t been seen yet,” Maude told Tarass when he asked her about the cleric. “He was shown to a cottage, but complained about Ann’s screams. Her first birth wasn’t an easy one. The cottage he occupied was next to hers.”
“Is she and the bairn well?” Snow asked with haste.
Maude smiled. “She and the tiny lad does well, m’lady.”
“And the cleric?” Tarass asked, a pang of worry stabbing at him at the thought of Snow screaming in agony to deliver their bairn. He didn’t know if he’d be able to abide hearing his wife suffer in so much pain.
“He insisted on being moved as far away from the screams as possible, my lord,” Maude said. “He was placed in the only other available cottage.”
“Gilbert’s cottage,” Tarass said, thinking of the seasoned warrior that had passed peacefully in his sleep while he had been away.
Thaw’s bark alerted Snow to his return, Nettle having taken the pup outside after Tarass had forbid Snow from rushing out of bed this morning. She had been glad, since he had teased her body, all of it, senseless with kisses that had her exploding in not one but two climaxes.