24. Winnie

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

WINNIE

R eginald takes the winding roads with even more reckless abandon than usual. Alaric has climbed in the backseat with me, and the air between us hums with possibility. But the first time one of the car’s wheels leaves the road, I break through that barrier to grip Alaric’s knee so hard that I must leave crescent-shaped gouges in his flawless skin.

He watches me with that vicious, predator-like intensity that makes it almost impossible to stay on my side of the car. Reginald has to notice that something’s changed between us, but he says nothing as he hurtles us through the countryside. Alaric places his hand over mine on his knee, his cool fingers caging in mine, and that touch alone is enough to make my stomach butterflies swoon.

By the time we finally rattle over the bridge and into the inner courtyard, I’m a puddle.

Alaric exits the car with inhuman speed. My heart sinks as I panic that he’s running from me again, but then his face appears at my window to open my door for me and pull me from the high footplate into another dizzying kiss. The moment his lips devour me again, heat flares from my core.

He breaks our kiss to pull me inside. Reginald offers to light the fire in the drawing room, but Alaric shamelessly orders him to light the fire in my room instead. Reginald disappears, leaving the two of us standing in the Stabby Chic room.

My chest tightens with nerves. I’ve never done this before – I’ve never crossed a line with a client, or been with someone who felt so utterly out of my league. I feel like I’m back in university, fumbling in the darkness.

“Thank you,” I whisper, “for pretending to be my fiancé. Hopefully, we won’t see them around again and we won’t have to?—”

“I will be your betrothed any time you wish.”

Betrothed. Another of Alaric’s old-fashioned words that somehow sounds hot as fuck in his rich, rumbly voice. It’s a word that’s so essentially him – dripping with history and meaning and power .

“Um…”

Alaric’s eyes are fathomless voids. “You may change your mind about tonight, Winnie. I will never force you to do anything against your will.”

“I never thought you would.” The panic rises inside me again. “Are you backing out? Because you can, you know, if you don’t want…”

“No.” His dark eyes drink me in. “I am trying to commit every moment to memory, so I may revisit this night long after you’re gone.”

That might be the strangest and most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.

“And when I have you naked beneath me,” he continues, his eyes blazing a path over my heated skin, “your beautiful body mine to explore, I shall no longer be able to control my hunger for you.”

And that’s definitely the hottest thing.

I swallow down the lump in my throat.

Reginald glides silently through the room. He places a lit candelabra on top of the teddy bear shelf and slips away into the shadows.

Alaric holds out his hand to me. “My wife, come to bed with me.”

Come to bed with me.

My wife.

His words burn across my retinas in neon colour.

And even though it’s pretend, even though three months ago I was imagining myself as someone else’s wife, I can’t help the sizzle down my spine as I play over his words.

I pick up the candelabra and place my other hand in his. Alaric’s fingers curl around me, cool and smooth and steady. “Let’s go to bed, husband.”

The word slips out before I can stop it. Alaric’s eyes hood, and his fingers in mine are rough, possessive.

I know we’re teasing each other, carrying on the game of pretending we did for Patrick and Claire, but I’m surprised how much I like the sound of the word on my tongue.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Winnie. This night could be a disaster. Is already a disaster.

But somehow, I can’t quite believe that.

I grip the candelabra so tight my hand cramps. I’m trembling all over as Alaric leads me through the labyrinthine castle to my tower staircase.

He doesn’t speak, but something stirs in him, his body humming with skittish energy, as if preparing himself to hunt me down in case I bolt. I sneak looks at him every few steps, tracing the strong curve of his jaw, the dark curls flopping over one eye, those fathomless eyes that are always fixed on mine.

I want this.

I want him.

The voice that’s been shouting at me since I arrived at Black Crag that falling for him is a bad idea has fallen silent. Or maybe the want pulsing through my veins has drowned her out.

At the foot of the staircase, I swap the candelabra to my other hand and gesture for him to go first.

“As you wish.” Alaric steps up to me, his pupils swallowing the flickering candlelight as he places a possessive hand on my back and scoops me into his arms.

“Alaric, you can’t carry me! I’m not a stick like Claire. The staircase is narrow. You might trip.”

“I know every inch of this castle. I will not trip.” He takes a step. “And you should not compare yourself to Claire. You are ten times the woman she is.”

“Rude. I may have been eating a few too many of Reginald’s pastries, but I’m hardly ten times?—”

Alaric silences me with another searing kiss, his lips firm and possessive as he carries me with no effort, as though I weigh less than a feather. He ascends the staircase. I keep the candelabra held in front of me so I don’t accidentally set him on fire as he burns me from the inside with his lips.

By the time we reach the top, he has kissed away every last niggling doubt. My body is a wobbly jelly of want. He sets me down, taking my hand and leading me into the room before shutting and locking the door behind him.

Alaric leans against the wood, breathing hard.

I set down the candelabra and place my hands on his shoulders. His mouth quirks, but his eyes flick to the door, a debate over something raging in his head.

“Winnie, I know I said that I wanted a night with you before I told you my secret, but we can’t do this until you know that?—”

I hold up a finger to his lips. “You asked me what would make me happy. This, you, tonight – that’s what I want. I don’t care about your secret. There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me kick you out of bed tonight.”

“That’s not true. You have to let me tell you?—”

I shut him up with a kiss. Every sensation amplifies – the roar of the fire warm on my back, the coolness of his body as he presses himself against me, the taste of winter spices and haunted places in the rough, breathless kiss that has us both panting, the hard length of him pressing against my thigh.

Is he…um… that big?

“You are tough to resist,” he murmurs, his hands gripping my arms.

“So don’t resist.”

His lips crush against me, breaking through every last bit of willpower that I possess. My hands slide into his hair, tangling my fingers in those long curls. A low groan slips from his lips, and the sound of it melts the butterflies in my stomach into a pool of hot lava. He wraps his hands around me, pressing us together so I can feel his chest press against mine with every ragged breath, and spins me around so I’m the one with my back against the door, his weight against me, caging me in. As if there was any chance I’d run from him.

His lips trail down my neck as he laughs, his lips vibrating against my skin and sending goosebumps down my body. “If I would have known that destroying your ex is the way to get you into bed, I’d have brought out the testicle stringing rope on the first day.”

A laugh bubbles up inside me, bursting warm against his lips. “That’s a lie. You didn’t want me when we first met. You thought I was an annoyance sent by Reginald to colour-code your teddy bears and throw away your swords.”

“Winnie, from the moment I smelt you in the pub, you have possessed me utterly. I am already yours.”

His voice is so serious, it makes my heart hum in the back of my throat. “Next thing you know, you’ll tell me that you’ve organised all your paintbrushes by size, and you’ll have my panties on the floor.”

“Are you telling me that if I talk about the benefits of clear storage containers over opaque, I will finally see what you’ve been hiding under your blouse?” His hands skim the hem of my shirt.

“Lord Valerian, you don’t need to talk that dirty to me.” I place my hand on the toned plane of his chest, pushing him back so I have enough space to peel off my shirt and toss it to the floor.

I can’t believe I did that.

I’ve never stripped in front of a guy before, never made such a bold move. And now I’m standing here with my cute purple lace bra, fighting the urge to cover my lumpy bits, second-guessing my boldness.

Alaric’s eyes feast on my body, as if he’s been alone in this castle for centuries and has forgotten what tits look like. I stop feeling nervous and self-conscious, and start wanting him to look at me some more.

“Winifred.” He whispers my name with reverence as he reaches for me. I gasp a little at his cool touch as he runs his fingers delicately, slowly over the lace of my bra, across my stomach, over the curve of my breast. Softly, gently, trembling as he holds back something .

I shiver at his touch, wanting more than slow and light. I want him to devour me.

I grab the back of his head and pull his lips to mine, tasting his spicy winter scent as he pushes me against the door with such force that the wood creaks. The sumptuous fabric of his old-fashioned coat does little to hide the hard lines of his body or his arousal.

That’s more like it.

There are way too many clothes on both of us.

Keeping my lips on his, my fingers make their way down his chest and to his belt, trying to undo the leather contraption.

What the heck? Is this thing from the seventeenth century? Why so many clasps and things?

Alaric laughs into my mouth before pressing his forehead to mine. “Let me help you with that.”

As soon as the dreaded belt falls to the floor, I meet his gaze, falling into those dark, fathomless eyes. My chest fills with helium as I make quick work of unbuttoning his pants and unsheathing his cock.

Um, excuse me, how is this thing real?

I try to wrap my fingers around the shaft, but barely get around it. I pump my fist, slowly, stroking his length, feeling the raised vein and beautifully-shaped head, already wet with his desire for me.

“Winnie…” Alaric moans, his eyes drifting shut.

“Lord Valerian, it is an injustice that you’ve been hiding this away in a draughty old castle,” I scold him as I stroke him again. “The women of Argleton should have been worshipping this .”

“There’s only one woman I want,” he growls, his lips crushing mine. His hand cups me behind my head, fingers winding in my hair as I stroke him and try not to worry about how he’s going to fit inside me.

A string of German curse words leaves his lips as he tilts his head back. I love him like this, stiff Alaric all undone by me. I drop to my knees, coming face to face, well, face to purple head, with the literal monster he’s been hiding all this time.

It’s even more glorious to look at – hard and swollen, with those lovely veins running down the length of it. Slowly, I lick the tip, lapping up the bit of precum that has gathered there. It tastes like him, like winter and darkness.

“Winnie.” He says my name like a prayer as he grabs the back of my head, running his fingers through my hair. Usually I hate when guys do that, but with him, it’s different. I like him on the edge of control, all tense and wound up and dangerous, because I know he’ll never hurt me. I’m safe with him .

“You like that?” I ask, swirling my tongue just along his head.

“Very much,” he says, his words shaky.

Relaxing my throat, I slowly take in his cock, inch by exquisite inch, relishing in the feel of his thighs vibrating around my face as I take him as far as I can go. I lick and suck every bit of him, well, the bit I can get in my mouth, which honestly isn’t much.

The way his thighs shake and his muscles clench and he raggedly calls my name makes me want to keep going, but he fists my hair, forcing my head back so that I’m looking up into his dark stare.

“As much as I love the feel of your mouth on me, I am the one who in charge. I need to know how you taste before I come undone.”

I don’t protest as Alaric scoops me off the floor and drops me on the bed.

He steps out of his trousers as he comes at me. He shrugs off his coat and tugs off his shirt, tossing them carelessly aside so he’s standing over me, completely naked. It’s my turn to drink him in.

I didn’t know it was possible for a human to look like a Michelangelo sculpture – all ropy muscles and smooth, marble skin. The burns from the other day have completely healed. Some part of my brain whispers that that’s impossible, but I’m too enchanted by him to care.

The only part of him that isn’t raw Renaissance perfection is the jagged white scar stretching from beneath his armpit.

I sit up to trace my finger over it. “You never told me what this is,” I whisper.

“A killing thrust,” he replies.

Is that a metaphor?

“But what does that?—”

My words die on my lips as Alaric jerks me to the edge of the bed and peels away my palazzo pants and purple knickers. My skin sizzles wherever his cool fingers touch me. He spreads my legs wide, dips his head low between my thighs, and inhales deeply. If Patrick had ever sniffed me, I’d have kicked him off the bed, but when Alaric does it I feel like a goddess. Especially when he growls out, “Fuck, Winnie, you will drive men to ruin. I bet you taste just as sweet as you smell.”

I can’t even tease him about swearing because he pries my thighs further apart. His heated gaze meets mine as he leans over me, lips inches from exactly where I want them to be. “You deserve to be worshipped, Winnie, and I’m not stopping until you come all over my tongue.”

I whimper, ready for him to devour me. But he doesn’t move, a slow smile crossing his face.

“You say that you deserve to be happy. Will this make you happy?”

“Y-y-yes.” I buck my hips against him, trying to make him stop talking and give me what I’m aching for. But I should have known that Lord Alaric Valerian has finely honed the art of seduction as he has all other artistic pursuits, and I’m to go along with his deliciously devious plan.

“Then tell me that you deserve it. Tell me that you deserve this worship, or I won’t suck on this beautiful swollen bud,” he says, trailing a finger down my wet centre. His lips quirk in that glorious half-smile of his.

“Worship me,” I manage to breathe.

“Good girl,” he growls before diving his tongue straight into my centre.

A gasp leaves my mouth as my body quivers under his touch. My whole back is alive with goosepimples as he drags me across the linen duvet, lifting my hips off the bed so he can devour me all the easier.

And he does devour me. That’s the only way to describe the wanton relish with which he feasts between my legs, the way his tongue laves over me, sucking and nibbling and licking until I’m a mess of nerve endings and pleasure and want .

His eyes never leave mine. Those two obsidian orbs are a direct line to his soul as he watches every moan, every twitch, every time I clasp the duvet or arch my back off the bed.

The intimacy of it makes me feel like I swallowed a hummingbird. I want to look away, but for a moment I believe magic is real because Alaric has me bewitched.

He wants to see everything. He wants to watch me fall apart.

Stars form behind my eyes as he picks up the speed of his tongue, adding in his fingers to the same rhythm as he hums against me.

My head falls back, my orgasm building low and warm in my stomach, the butterflies dancing their mating dance.

Alaric moans against me, sucking my clit into his mouth.

Sparks fly through me, and I let out a low moan, my whole body pulsating as I come around his greedy tongue.

He laps up every bit of me like I’m the sweetest dessert before kissing a trail up my stomach and stopping at the lace of my bra.

“I can’t believe this infernal contraption is still on,” he murmurs, laying a trail of cool kisses across my breast. “Still, I am grateful it is flimsier than a corset.”

RIIIIP . With one hand, he tears the fabric, and the two halves of my bra fall to my sides.

“Alaric,” I gasp, looking up to meet his grin. “That was my favourite bra.”

“I’ll buy you a new one. I’ll buy you all the frilly, lacey, not-corsets you desire as long as I can keep worshipping you and making you mine, wife .” Alaric folds himself over me, holding himself off me with his elbows on the bed, his legs tangled with mine and the length of him nudging my hip. He nuzzles one breast, stroking the other with those strong, cool fingers.

Why is he still so cold ? Between the heat of the fire and the amazing things he’s doing to my body, I feel like I’m lying in an oven. But then his mouth clamps around my nipple, sucking hard enough to send a jolt of fire through my chest.

My hips move against him, grinding, seeking the heat that he stokes inside me. I’m hot enough for both of us.

Alaric laughs his rumbling, delighted laugh as he stares at me in rapturous wonder. He rolls my nipple between his fingers. “You like that, Winnie?”

“Yes,” I murmur as his lips slide to the other nipple, giving it the same wonderful treatment.

“I want to feel my cock inside you,” he growls, his eyes locking with mine.

“Wait a second, um…protection?”

“You are safe with me.”

“No, I mean, grab the condoms from my bag,” I manage to squeak.

“Condom?”

He looks genuinely confused.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know what a condom is?”

Alaric shakes his head. “Is this the…contraception?”

I roll my eyes. I can’t believe I’m having this conversation. “Yes, Alaric. It’s a latex cover for your penis, so that you don’t get me pregnant or give me any diseases.”

“I assure you, I am free of disease.”

My shoulders sag. “Okay, and I’ve had a negative STI test, too. But I went off the pill, so we still need to…Hold all your filthy thoughts, my lord.”

Alaric rolls off me and I slip off the bed. I feel his eyes boring into me as I cross the room, and can’t resist giving my arse a wiggle that results in a low moan from the bed. I riffle around in my toiletries. I keep all my travel things organised in a clever case with individual compartments for everything, and Patrick and I used to use condoms before I went on the pill, so there should be…

Ah-hah! Winnie the organiser wins again! And there, I grab a strip of gold packets and head back to the bed. Alaric has rolled over, resting on one hip, the other knee raised, watching me with curiosity. I kneel beside him and lay out the gold packets like an offering.

How can he not know what a condom is? But he’s the one who asked about ‘the contraception’? And if it’s been so long since he did this with anyone, how is he so good?

He looks down at the packets, then fists himself, his lip twisting with confusion.

“You intend to crown it with gold?”

I laugh, shaking my head as I open the packet, throwing it to the side and taking out the latex.

“No, this goes over your cock. It stops any little Alarics from getting out.” I slide the latex over his shaft, stroking him slowly.

“So you cannot become with child?”

“So you don’t knock me up, yes.”

Alaric’s eyes drift closed, lashes tangling together as I roll the condom as far as it will go. Candlelight flickers across his cheeks, highlighting his sharp cheekbones and the cruel slant of his lips. He lets out a sigh that aches with wanting.

His eyes fly open as he grabs my hips, pulling me back to him so our lips meet again. He crushes my body with his, rolling over me until I’m beneath him again, skin against cool skin.

“Now you are mine ,” he whispers, his voice tight with hunger and everything he’s held back.

I can taste myself on his tongue still, and it’s kind of hot, thinking about how much he enjoyed himself. I lap up his tongue and press further against him, letting him know how badly I want this.

How badly I want him.

I lean back into the pillows. A dark curl flops over Alaric’s eye as he notches himself between my thighs. His monster cock nudges at my entrance, sending a flicker of unease along my spine.

“I don’t know how you’re going to fit,” I say, worry creeping into my voice.

“We take it slow,” Alaric whispers as he kisses my forehead. “The night belongs to us.”

And then I’m no longer worrying, no longer thinking , because he’s pushing inside me, and it’s tight, so tight, but he feels amazing. I press my legs into the bed and breathe through the stretch as he works his way in, a little at a time, swallowing my whimpers with his kiss. His fingers knit in mine, and he murmurs beautiful words that make me feel powerful even as more than my body is cleaved into pieces.

“Winnie, you are made for me,” he moans, gripping onto the headboard. “You are perfect.”

“I cannot believe—” My words become gasps as he drives his hips forward, filling me to the hilt.

He was the one who was supposed to be vulnerable, but right now, I’m the one whose heart is splitting at the seams. I’m the one who feels the prick of tears behind my eyes even as my body revels in the magic of him.

And then he starts to move. He draws out slowly and thrusts back in, piercing me with an exquisite sigh that makes me wonder if he’s not being vulnerable now, too, if he’s not trying to show me a piece of him that no one else has got to see.

“I’ve got you, Winnie.” His body cages mine, his fingers squeeze, his lips tease along my jaw. “You’re safe with me.”

“Alaric,” I moan, not realising how beautiful those words could be. I meet his rhythm as he thrusts hard inside me, each stretch more exquisite than the last.

“That’s it, Winnie. Take me, take all of me,” he growls, sliding his fingers between us and using my own wetness as lubrication as he rubs me in rough, teasing circles while he slams into me. “Come undone for me.”

I do. Every last knot inside me falls open. I’m exposed – mind, blood, sinew, organs, heart…it’s all laid bare for him. His teeth scrape against my neck and my whole body shakes as my orgasm erupts. I call out his name, grinding my hips to meet his over and over again.

He follows me in a slew of German curse words before he stills against me. Even through the latex, I feel him spilling into me. I moan again, my heated pussy almost unable to take any more.

Alaric drags his lips from my neck. Even though he’s just come, the hunger in his eyes is wretched . His body shakes, as if there’s something he still desperately wants but he’s holding back.

He’s being gentle with me, because he knows that monster cock of his could ruin me.

The heat he’d stoked inside me starts to burn again as he trails light, cool kisses over my breasts and then up my neck, his shoulders shuddering as he licks and nips at the spot where he grazed me on that first night we met.

“You’re amazing. Do you know that?”

I find it hard to speak, hard to breathe , while he’s still inside me, his monster cock giving the occasional little jerk. “We had sex, Alaric. I didn’t discover a new dinosaur or win an Olympic gold for pole dancing.”

“You may have done those things. I lost myself for a moment there.” He grips my chin, forcing me to meet his dark stare. “But then I opened my eyes, and here you were. Not an illusion, but real. Winnie Preston in my bed, writhing beneath me and calling my name from those pretty lips. Magic.”

“Technically, it’s my bed.”

“ Technically, all things in Black Crag Castle belong to me.” His eyelashes tangle together as he blinks. “Even you.”

His words send hot fizz down my spine. “I’m yours tonight.”

“Then if you are mine, tell me that you know you are amazing.”

“I can’t say it while you’re still inside me,” I manage to squeak.

That infuriating close-lipped smile bears down on me. “Say it.”

I sigh. “Fine. I’m amazing.”

Alaric’s head bobs down, sucking my nipple into his mouth until I gasp and writhe some more. “I did it. I did what you said!”

“You did,” he laughs, looking up at me. “That’s my good wife.”

I cry out in protest as he slides out of me and leaps from the bed. Alaric peels off the condom, staring at it with a wrinkled nose before tossing it in the rubbish bin beneath the table.

“You’re supposed to tie the end so Reginald doesn’t get a gross surprise when he cleans the room,” I tell him.

“Reginald has dealt with far worse things,” he says as he disappears into the bathroom. I lie on the bed, warm from the fire and my two orgasms, missing the reassuring weight and coolness of him. I hear the water running.

I guess the condom was too much, and he needed to clean up.

My eyes feel heavy, and I swear I could go to sleep right here. Maybe the dreams wouldn’t even bother me tonight…

But before I can drift off, Alaric is back. He scoops me off the bed, pressing me into his chest as he carries me across the room.

“Alaric, what are you doing?” I squeal.

The scent of lavender permeates the air. He walks both of us into the shower, his broad shoulders almost touching the sides of the glass door. Warm water sluices over us. He leans me against the wall, running a soapy flannel over my sore and heated body.

“I never said I was done worshipping you,” he murmurs, his fingers darting between my legs again.

“You don’t have to,” I whisper.

His dark stare locks on mine. “But I want to.”

He holds me against that wall, kissing my protests away as his fingers work their magic until I come apart for him once more. Only then does he finish soaping down both our bodies. He turns off the water, grabs a fluffy towel from the stack, and wraps me in it before carrying me back to the bed.

I grip his wrist as he sets me down. “I know this is usually the time when you get up and do things, but I need a night off. Someone wore me out.”

“I understand. You must rest.” He pulls the covers up to my neck and lays a chaste kiss on my forehead. He picks up his coat and starts for the door.

“Alaric?”

He turns.

I lift up the corner of the duvet. “Will you stay with me tonight?”

“I do not sleep during the midnight hours.”

“Fine, then will you lay beside me and stare at the ceiling while I sleep?”

He smiles, dropping his coat and pulling back the sheets. There’s a slight heat in his skin from the shower water as he presses against me, his arms wrapping around my waist.

“I will stay because it pleases you,” he whispers in my ear. “This is a bad idea, but I cannot say no to you, Winnie.”

“Why is it a bad idea?”

“You will find out tomorrow. First, you must sleep. But when we speak in the evening, I hope that you will remember that you invited the monster into your bed.”