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Most convenient, Annabel decided as she finished and straightened. Staring out over the water then, she took her courage in hand and admitted, "I am the younger sister. Kate was my parent's firstborn."
She sensed Ross approaching behind her and added quickly, "However, she was disowned and so I am now their eldest daughter."
Annabel could feel him at her back and wondered that he'd removed his boots so quickly. When his hands settled on her shoulders, she bit her lip and simply waited.
"I already kenned that," he admitted, his hands sliding around her waist.
Annabel instinctively tried to turn then, but his hold on her prevented it, so she merely glanced over her shoulder to ask, "You already knew what?"
"That you were not the eldest."
She frowned. "Then why ask?"
"To see if ye would tell the truth," he admitted.
"Oh." Annabel turned forward again with a little sigh, glad she had opted for the truth. But then she frowned and glanced around again to ask, "How did you know?"
"People talk," he said simply.
"Did you know when you married me?" she asked, sure he hadn't.
But he nodded solemnly.
Annabel turned forward again, uncertain as to what she should make of that. Finally, she asked, "Then why did you marry me? Why not declare the contract broken?"
"Because I wanted ye."
The words were simple enough, but made absolutely no sense to Annabel. He'd wanted her? Why? She was overlarge, untrained and unskilled. Why on earth would he want her to wife?
"Why?" The word slipped from her lips, sounding as bewildered as she felt. Much to her amazement the chest at her back vibrated against her with his amusement, and then his hands slid up from her waist and Annabel glanced down with shock as his large, rough hands slid over and cupped her breasts through the cloth covering them.
"Because I wanted ye," Ross repeated by her ear as his hands began to knead the soft flesh. To add to her confusion, he also began to do something to her ear, nibbling and sucking at it in a way that was as exciting as what he was doing to her breasts. The combination of the two caused a strange fluttering in her stomach and lower.
"Husband?" Annabel said uncertainly, and then gasped when one of his hands dropped down to slide between her legs through her gown. He cupped her there and used his hold to lift her out of the water and back against him so that Annabel could feel a hardness pressing against her bottom.
Releasing his hold on her other breast, Ross then urged her head back and around to claim her lips in a kiss that was nothing like that first one they'd shared on their wedding night. Their first kiss, the one after the wedding ceremony, had started softly and built in intensity. This one was a deep ravaging from the start that had her grabbing for whatever she could get her hands on to help her remain grounded and upright. She ended up covering one of his hands with her own, and reaching back with her other to clutch at the plaid at his hip as his tongue delved into her mouth.
Annabel did not notice the hand he had used to turn her face to meet his dropping away until she felt cold air on her breasts and realized that he had used it to tug the ill-fitting neckline down. Breaking the kiss, she glanced down to see that her breasts had spilled eagerly out and he was now catching one in his hand and squeezing it eagerly.
"But 'tis Wednesday," she moaned as Ross tweaked one nipple, sending shafts of excitement shooting down to where his hand still cupped her between the legs. " 'Tis against the law to commit the bedding on a Wednesday."
Annabel was very sorry to have to say that, for truly she was enjoying what he was doing.
"There is no bed here," Ross pointed out by the ear he'd returned to nibbling when she'd broken their kiss, and then he set her back on her feet in the water so that he could shift the hand between her legs. He did not take it away as she'd first expected, but used it to quickly tug her skirt up with a couple of jerks so that his hand could snake beneath it and slide between her legs without the gown in the way.
It was a most effective maneuver, Annabel acknowledged, pressing back into him with a moan as his fingers danced over flesh that had never been touched before, even by herself. Perhaps that was why her skin reacted so wantonly, swelling eagerly beneath the caress and nearly dancing to his touch.
"Husband?" she gasped uncertainly, unable to prevent her hips from shifting into his touch as excitement built in her.
"Aye?" He left off caressing the breast he'd been attending and shifted his attention to the other breast, squeezing and kneading that eager flesh now and Annabel moaned and then turned her head in search of his lips again. It was a great relief when his mouth covered hers, and she opened wide for him, welcoming his tongue's thrusts. Her own tongue did battle with his briefly, and then she settled for simply sucking on it as the kiss continued.
Annabel was clutching at the arm of the hand between her legs now, urging him on as he drove her to a frenzy with his caresses, but she was completely unprepared for the sudden insertion of what she thought must be a finger down there. It startled a cry from her as the excitement in her ratcheted up another unbearable degree. Annabel had to tear her mouth from his to prevent biting his tongue and once she had she simply twisted her head against his chest, breathless, nonsensical pleas spilling from her lips as she rode his hand, and then the building tension between her legs suddenly exploded through her body, tearing a scream of pleasure from her lips as she convulsed with it.
Chapter 6
Annabel's body was still pulsing with her release when Ross suddenly scooped her up and carried her out of the stream. The hem of her skirt slapped wetly against her legs, but Annabel didn't care. She was too stunned by what had just taken place.
In all the lectures from the abbess and Father Gerder, as well as all the whispered conversations with the other oblates, not once had anyone mentioned that what she had just experienced could take place. And that was just shocking, she decided. Many women would go to their marriage bed with less fear and outright terror did they know it could be like that. In fact, she was now feeling a bit cheated that Ross had got her sotted so that she did not recall their first time together.
Her thoughts scattered when Ross knelt on the furs to lay her on them and then began working on the ties of her gown. Flushing, she grabbed for his hands to stop him, suddenly shy at the thought of his seeing her unclothed. Which was ridiculous, she supposed, when she realized that her breasts were already out and that her skirt was tangled around her hips.
Noting the question on Ross's face, and unwilling to admit her foolish feelings about being completely nude in front of him, Annabel did the only thing she could think to do, and the one thing she truly wanted to do . . . she kissed him. Annabel pressed her mouth to his and, much to her relief, he responded at once, taking over and urging her lips open for a full kiss.
Sighing her relief into his mouth, Annabel slid her arms around his neck and held on tight as he eased her back onto the furs, his body coming down on top of hers. He still wore his plaid, so it was something of a surprise when she felt his hardness between her legs. Having experienced the pleasure of his caressing fingers down there, Annabel was not worried and eased her legs apart, moaning when his shaft immediately slid across her damp flesh, reigniting her earlier excitement so freshly sated.
The sound seemed to encourage him, and her husband did that again, and then a third time.
"Please," she groaned, her legs shifting restlessly before wrapping instinctively around his hips. Annabel could not have said what she was actually pleading for, but her husband gave it to her anyway and her eyes shot open with shock as she discovered just what everyone was talking about when it came to the pain of the breaching. Dear God, it felt as if he'd slid his sword into her, and Annabel became aware that she was making little gasping grunts of pain and cut them off at once as Ross halted, still planted inside her and lifted himself up enough to look at her face.
