Scold's Claim Read online

  The rhythm picked up, and he reached out to hold the chair and remain in place for his wife's ministration. He didn't dare move, didn't dare think to disrupt this. It'd been far too long, and the last time, he couldn't see her as she worked his length with her sweet mouth. He could see her now. Her crown of golden hair shimmered in the firelight. Her skin flushed and glowing. Her lips, swollen and glistening with both her saliva and the viscous fluid that practically wept from him as he waited. Her mouth was stretched wide around his girth, and though she could only take in about half his length before he felt her choke reflex force her to draw back, the grip she kept with her fist served in combination, and there was no part she didn't stimulate.

  His hips began to undulate on their own accord, and without effort, Io managed to meet him stroke for stroke. His sack tightened and sweat broke out across his body. There was no way he could continue without it killing him. Twice he tried to pull from her mouth, but each time she stayed latched.

  "Io, I cannot," his warning ended on a cry as with each heartbeat his seed pumped from his body. Still Io didn't pull back or even pause in her motion. Her mouth continued to pull him in as deep as possible then slide back until only the head remained resting on her tongue. Her hand, too, never faltered, and as the last of his climax rippled through him, her touch made its dissipation slow in completing.

  Not until the majority of the erection eased did Io release him from her hot mouth. Xavier waited for his head to stop spinning, and when he finally looked down at her, she was sitting back, wiping at her face with a napkin, the smuggest look on her face he ever thought to see.

  "Io, I…" He'd never asked or required Io to take his seed in this manner. Actually he'd never had any woman do such to him. He'd always thought he preferred to see the thick, white cum spread out on flesh.

  "You should eat, Xavier," Io said, reaching down and lifting her cup from its protected place on the floor and taking a long drink.

  "Io?"

  "That was different," she went on as if she couldn't see him struggling with what she'd done. "I rather enjoyed it, though. Not as much, I think, if we had not been interrupted." She smiled at him again, and despite having spent so hard his balls throbbed, his cock twitched. "Come, sit here and eat with me." She patted the place on the chair next to her and Xavier sunk down, his legs no longer able to keep him standing.

  The chair was large but not large enough for them to share side by side. Io took it upon herself to move into his lap. Her weight and warmth settled over him like a blanket, and tipping his head back, he let his eyes drift shut. He'd take a moment to savor every single thing he felt.

  Chapter 6

  "Be quiet."

  Io started awake at the hash whisper. She remained still, pretending to sleep, but listened for any sound indicating danger.

  "Shut your mouth," Landon growled out. "You forget, again, who is the body squire in this house."

  "I do not forget who gave up on our lady before two days were done," Thomas hissed back.

  Xavier stirred in the chair under her, and Io held her breath until he stilled.

  "She should have whipped you to death. Put a log on the fire and get out," Landon snarled.

  From beneath her lashes, Io watched the two squires move around the room. Thomas stoked the fire and set on a few logs before he collected the tray still full of food.

  Xavier never woke again to eat after their shared pleasures, and Io at some point joined him in slumber. However, with the two bickering, a cold chill, even Xavier's body heat couldn't fend off, settled on her.

  She'd known Landon disliked her, even as they made their way to Bainsport from Dramore, Landon was barely polite. Io thought it was because she'd sometimes taken the duty of Xavier's dress, but more often when she didn't help, Xavier dressed himself. His squires helped only when Xavier wore his armor or his practice leathers. Still, Landon seemed to resent her very presence. Thomas, on the other hand, gave Io any of his spare time and ability. If he was not training or at lessons, he was helping move a piece of furniture or rushing to help put up the paper or skins to keep out rain. Thomas was a good five years younger than Landon, and Io couldn't say if it was his age, where he was in his training or his nature which created the difference in the two.

  "We should go, before we wake them," Thomas said, keeping his voice low. With tray in hand, he headed for the door.

  "I should wake him. Then he can toss her on the floor where she belongs. Look how she treats him. Like he exists for no reason other than her comfort." Landon didn't keep his voice low and Io heard the venom in his tone.

  She closed her eyes and held her breath as he passed by the chair following Thomas out. She could hear those in the hall speaking, but what they said she didn't make out. Once the door closed, she bit down on her lip to keep the sob from sipping. Why did these people hate her so? She'd done nothing to any of them. She treated them all as best she could, and they hated her. Hated that Xavier wanted her as his wife.

  Her hands shook as she looked for a way to set them on the chair to leverage herself out of Xavier's lap so at least no one thought she saw her husband as little more than a bed, stool or bench to her. Certainly, when she was worried or frightened, she rarely found comfort any place but in his arms. Now, though, she wondered how that looked. Her sitting on her husband's knee like a stupid child rather than the woman and wife she should be.

  Io set her hands, braced her arms and lifted her hips to set her foot on the floor, but as soon as she broke contact with his body, his hand clamped down on her hip and pulled her down.

  "Settle, Io," he said softly, forcing her to sit back in his lap. "I will deal with that soon. You will pay no attention to his comments or his criticisms. He is no one who can judge you. He is no one to judge what I allow or want."

  "Why is he this way toward me?" Io felt the tears burning in her eyes.

  "It matters not," Xavier said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him before shifting to make them both a little more comfortable. "His reasons matter not at all. And they will not excuse him from the consequences of either his words or actions."

  "Xavier, he is your squire. You have given years to his training. You cannot go without his aid and what he knows to do. Thomas alone cannot serve you as well."

  "I have given him years of training and he repays this with disloyalty. His training is for not, if he never learned loyalty is more than an oath of words. It is an oath of the heart and mind. It is a promise those around you can trust you do as you swore to do. I want no one in my ranks who cannot be trusted to remain loyal, even if they do not agree with every decision."

  Io lay her head on his shoulder and pressed her face into his neck. "I am sorry. I did not want this."

  "Io, this is not your doing."

  "I only wanted it to be Sabrina. Not your mother, not someone from the house. I thought—" How was it she'd broken down the bonds Xavier once had in his house? It wasn't normal. She'd been in more than a few when a wife was set in and she'd never seen anyone act against the woman. Not even when the lord's mistress was set out for a time did Io hear someone complain as Landon did. Complaints about learning a new way of doing things or a new pecking order, but not a cry to have the woman replaced.

  "Io," Xavier said, sliding sideways so he could look her in the face. "It is no surprise to me it is more than the Blakes, or even my mother behind everything which has happened. There is no way given the different attempts on your life, that one person could be behind this."

  "How can you know? How? Will I have to see everyone who has a life here put out by you because they do not like or agree with me? I do not what that. It must be only one person. A person not from the house."

  "Io, I know because of the things done. You only see the end goal, your demise, but, Io, locking you in was not the same as trying to poison you. It was not the same even as pushing you down the steps. Each of those took a different level of boldness, and access to you. Plannin
g and knowledge went into some of the acts, others were more opportunity. No one could know I would tell you to read from a book you kept in that room, even that you kept it in that room. There was no planning. But when I went to the kitchens, knowing Charlotte paid the fishmonger, there was a deliberateness to accessing something no one would see or smell, to putting so much on your plate one small bite would have sickened you to death, and to making sure no one else might have eaten from your plate."

  "One person might have…" Io tried again to convince them both, but Xavier only shook his head.

  "I might give you one person encouraged all the acts. And if such a person exists, I will find them. But more than one person actually committed these crimes, and we will find each of them, and they will all be held to account."

  Io clung to the hope it was all one person, or even one person directing others. If Xavier found the one behind all of it, he'd not have to set out everyone else because no one would be directing them to act against her. At worse, she might have to see a few people lose their home because she wasn't what they wanted for their lord.

  "Three people is a lot," she muttered.

  "I fear it will be well more than three, Io. I suspect to ensure there is no disloyal man or woman residing in this house. I will be filling the dungeons and the gallows for some time. I would have such people gone now when I can keep the threat they pose to a minimum rather than when their treacherous behaviors could cost me in battle."

  Io could understand Xavier's want to make sure his people were true to him and the crown. It'd be far more than only her life lost if they were not. But Xavier worried overmuch, was speaking in terms of taking caution to extremes. No one in this house was disloyal to him. If it turned out a few people were involved, Io would make no protest. Ask only he set them out with some pay and means to find a new house. Perhaps wait until spring before making them go.

  "You will leave me to handle these matters, Io," Xavier said, a clear warning in his tone. "You will tell me immediately if you hear anyone say threatening things. If someone makes you feel threatened."

  "Xavier," she whined a little. She didn't want to be a bearer of tales. People talked. Words did no harm really. And how could she feel threatened with an army standing at the ready to walk her across the hall?

  "Io, you will speak up."

  She took a deep breath and let it out with a heavy sigh. "Very well. If I must."

  "Yes, you must," Xavier confirmed and then leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Should I see you to bed?"

  "You do not enjoy me here?" She'd a suspicion if she moved to her room, he'd not join her tonight, and for all the men keeping her safe in the hall, she wanted Xavier near.

  "Actually, I enjoy you here thoroughly," he said, lifting his arse up a bit so Io felt his erection under her.

  Io ground down and felt a heat flame to life at the sound of his moan. More than ever knowing she made him make those sounds, knowing and believing she was the only woman who could, created a feeling of equality.

  Io never thought for a moment she'd ever take another man to her bed when she left Xavier. She'd never felt the things Xavier made her feel before, and she'd been in the company of a great number of men for years until Xavier made his claim on her. To her, no other man would ever make her feel as she did when Xavier commanded her body. She'd left this house expecting to spend the rest of her life with only memories.

  She left thinking Xavier would replace her with Sabrina Blake, and even if Xavier didn't take the woman to wife, he was a man. Io always understood men to have no special preference. Any woman would suit to satisfy such needs as a man might have. Only when she left their marriage bed, Xavier couldn't find one woman he wanted to slack his lust on. Not one, and he'd admitted to seeking one out. He'd admitted to seeking out someone to take her place, if only for a moment. But he'd found no one he wanted. No one, save for Io, could stir his body, arouse his lust, make him moan and pant. Make him want to please the way he pleased her so well.

  "Io," he said, making his lips tickle her neck. "You are going to make me forget my pledge to wait until you truly know your worth. The value I place on you."

  "Xavier," Io said, turning on his lap to straddle him. "I do know. I know well now." She reached down and took hold of the pendant resting between her breasts. "Xavier, you think of me. Even when I do not please you, you give me great consideration. You would not if you cared nothing for me. If I was someone you found to have only one purpose." She settled deeper into him. His cock still out of his pants from their last round of pleasure bumped up against her thigh. She lifted and pulled her skirts free so she could cup him between the folds of her own sex.

  "Io," he started, then moaned and she rocked forward over his ever hardening shaft.

  "I did not see it before. I do not know why. Perhaps I was afraid to believe anyone could want me, would consider me always for the whole of my life. Would not set me out or abandon me. I am not afraid of these things now, Xavier. You consider me, you came for me, you did not waver in this commitment." She rocked her hips forward again when her natural weight caused her to slide back. This time his hands gripped her at the waist and pulled her down hard. She was beyond ready to feel him inside her. To join him in this intimate thing they shared, that only they could share.

  "Show me, Io," he ground out as he helped her slide back and forth along his length. "Show me you will not forego these pleasures, even if I am not there to give them to you."

  "I prefer them with you," she countered even as she began shoving her skirts away.

  "Show me, Io. Show me." His hand left her hip and found the stays holding her dress to her body.

  As her fingers began to work at the swelling nub, he worked loose the laces until the dress gave up her breasts. Even as he reached for the right, Io took hold her left tit and squeezed it hard before taking the puckered nipple between her fingers. The fingers at her clit mimicking what she did to her breast.

  A sharp tug on her hair made her tip her head back as far as she could, and when the pressure from the pulling didn't let up, she arched her back to find some relief. This thrust her breasts forward and Xavier's mouth covered her flesh before she could inhale again. His suckling started gentle. He held a good portion of her tit in his mouth as his teeth scraped over and under, but he released the initial bite and set his focus on the nipple. Sucking and laving until the pleasure became almost painful, then kissing and nipping until she was again longing to feel the pain. When he'd have pulled his head away completely, Io let go the breast she played at, grabbed a fistful of his hair and forced him back. Never once did she end the strumming of her fingers at her sex, and when Xavier managed to move to the breast she'd abandoned, he started there with a sharp bite.

  The sensation nearly tipped her over the edge. He began rocking under her so his cock stroked in time with how he sucked at her. The orgasm rocked her body so hard it almost hurt, and before she caught her breath from the first wave, a second washed through her. She felt as if she was being lifted but couldn't say if it was from the pleasure or not until the thick head of Xavier's cock nudged at the opening.

  They didn't utter a word, gave no clues to each other and still Io's downward push was met in perfect time with Xavier upward thrust. He was buried as deep inside her as he could get, and with her fingers steadfastly working at her clit, it took only two strokes for yet a third wave of pleasure to nearly drown her. Just like at the seashore, she couldn't manage to get enough air into her lungs. His every upward movement drove the breath she took in back out. Her head spun and spots appeared before her eyes.

  "One more time, Io. One more time." Xavier's voice seemed far away, but as she so often and easily did, she obeyed and one more pleasure filled wave broke over her. She fell forward, gasping for breath; Xavier continued driving his cock into her hard and fast.

  Little more than a limp body, Io did her best to hold herself up enough he could move. She did somehow find the strength to clench her sex
around him, and while she couldn't be made to take even one more bit of pleasure, she knew if she could he'd give it to her before he gave in to his own.

  "Xavier, take it. It is your turn. Take it. Show me what I do to you." She said the words knowing they were much the same as his, and though she couldn't command him, he often gave her anything she might request. This night she requested his bliss, and this night with only two more long, deep, hard strokes, he complied, releasing his seed in hot spurts so Io felt them coat her inner walls. He shuddered under her then went slack.

  Both of them took a few moments to catch their breath, wipe sweat from their faces and find a comfortable seating arrangement in the chair. Still a tangle of arms and legs and clothing, Xavier clasped his arms around Io so tight she squeaked out. He chuckled but loosened his hold. His hand swept up her back and then forced her head down on his shoulder where he could nuzzle his cheek against hers. Io managed to refrain from complaint over the rough stubble only because he stopped nuzzling to kiss her softly every place he could reach.

  "I love you, Io," he whispered in her ear. "Do not ever think I do not."

  Io couldn't speak to his words. She wasn't sure at all what he meant. Perhaps he only stated differently he did want her and would think of her. Whatever he meant, Io was committed now to accepting Xavier wouldn't falter in his want and need of her.

  Only sometimes commitments were hard to hold to and people sometimes did not always act in the best manner.