Chapter 15

CHAPTER15

“Ahh! Get back. Get back. No… the blood.” Such shouts emanated from the room next door that Rachel jolted awake in her bed.

Her duvet slipped from her body, and she looked around the room in a panic, for a minute not registering what was truly happening.

“Muskets. Too many. Gunfire.” The shouts continued from the chamber next door.

Rachel looked at the door connecting her room to Daniel’s, recognizing his voice. Once again, he was shouting in his sleep.

“Daniel?” she called as she scrambled out of bed.

In her haste, she slipped on the edge of her bed sheet and fell to the floor. She took the bed sheet and the dressing gown that had lain across the foot of the bed with her, so she ended up entangled in them.

“No, no. He’ll die. I can’t save him. I cannot do it.”

Daniel’s voice grew so loud that Rachel kicked the bed sheet and the dressing gown away, hardly caring about what mess she left them in.

She reached for the connecting door and slid the bolt back, then took hold of the handle, praying Daniel wouldn’t have locked it tonight. To her relief, the door opened before her. As it swung wide, the view of him in his bed made her blood run cold.

He hadn’t bothered to shut the curtains. The silver light of the moon shone through the window brightly, making the entire four-poster bed seem lit in the eerie light of a specter. Daniel thrashed from side to side, the sheet no longer on his body at all. He’d kicked it off, revealing the buckskin breeches he’d worn to bed, but nothing else. His torso was completely exposed. One hand wound itself in the pillow beneath his head as he pulled at it.

“He’s dying, he’s dying!” he cried out. His breathing was labored, his chest rising and falling sharply.

“Daniel?” Rachel ran around the bed, hurrying to his side.

He flinched away from her in his sleep, his eyes tightly shut. Now standing so close to him, she saw sweat beading on his forehead, wetting his dark brown hair.

“Please, Daniel, you have to wake up.” She pushed at his shoulder, trying her best to rouse him from his nightmare.

He cowered away from her, his great frame looking strangely odd as it hid like a child.

“No, you can’t hide now.” Rachel scrambled onto the bed, following him and pulling at his shoulder again.

His body abruptly moved in his sleep, turning toward her.

“Ah!”

Rachel was knocked back onto the bed. With her back flush to the mattress and her head hanging over the edge, she stilled as he moved above her. One hand pinned her down easily, the fingers splayed around her waist.

“Daniel!” she called to him, gripping his biceps.

At once, his eyes shot open. The whites of his eyes were instantly noticeable in the moonlight. Those eyes darted over her as his breathing continued to come in great stutters.

“Rachel? How…” He realized what he was doing and released her waist, moving his hands to rest on either side of her instead. “I did it again, did I not?”

“You did,” she said with the smallest of smiles. “Your body, it goes into defense mode when you’re sleeping, does it not?”

“It had to.”

He closed his eyes and turned his face away, but he was still hovering above her. His hips were so close to hers that Rachel was abruptly aware of just how bare both of them were. Her nightgown was gathered around her thighs, with the sleeves slightly pulled down. His torso glistened in the moonlight, showing the sweat that had beaded there too.

“Sometimes, I had to be ready,” he whispered.

“In the middle of the night? You had to be ready for an attack?”

“You were never safe, Rachel. Never.” He still didn’t look at her. He moved his weight to one hand and turned his body, lifting his hips far away from hers. “I’m sorry. You know I’d never hurt you.”

“I know.” She sat up a little, following him. “You said you were never safe. Is that how you always were in battle? Always on edge?”

He didn’t respond this time. The brief window he’d opened to her had shut down again. His sharp cheekbones were pronounced in the moonlight, and his jaw ticked as he turned completely away from her. He moved at once, lifting himself off her.

Feeling cold without him so near, Rachel followed him, taking his shoulder before he could climb out of bed.

“I will not ask anymore, I promise,” she whispered.

He stilled on the edge of the bed, his feet dangling above the floor. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his breathing heavy.

“I’m sorry you suffer like this, Daniel.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry. It is hardly your doing,” Daniel scoffed, shaking his head. “It is men’s doing. We create reasons to fight one another, then become animals as we maliciously tear one another down.” His breath hitched. “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to…” He gestured behind him on the bed, clearly thinking of how he had pinned her down again.

“I hardly minded,” she said with a small smile. “Did you see me try to escape? I did not. All you did was move over me. Hardly a bad thing in my eyes.”

The sudden smile on his lips warmed her and gave her encouragement. She sidled forward until she sat beside him on the bed, nudging him with her arm.

“How is it you have managed to make me smile now, of all moments?”

“Well, at least I have my uses,” she teased.

He didn’t quite laugh, but he smiled a little more. “Thank you. For waking me.”

“You left the door open this time. It was a good thing too, as your shouts were so loud. If you hadn’t left it open, you would have had me banging on that door relentlessly in an effort to wake you.” She gestured toward the connecting door.

“I may have left it open after remembering what passed between us yesterday,” he whispered.

Rachel smiled just at the thought of it. Now that they were completely alone, barely wearing anything, so much could happen between them. Even as excitement coursed through her body, she yawned, her tiredness overtaking her.

“Well, that excited you,” he drawled.

“I didn’t yawn in reference to that!”

“Of course, you didn’t.”

“Daniel.” She nudged him with her shoulder, prompting him to laugh at last. “I cannot help being tired.” She glanced back at the tangled bed sheets as an idea occurred to her. “I could stay.” As she looked at him, she saw his eyebrows shoot up. “Just to sleep,” she explained hurriedly. “If you have another nigh terror, I could wake you again.”

“You’d do that?” Daniel sat straight, staring at her. “You’ve seen more than once just what happens to me now. Why would you want to be around that?”

“Daniel.” She frowned, confused by his words. “You are still you. You do not frighten me.”

When he said nothing but continued to stare at her, she took charge of the situation. She scrambled back onto the bed and tugged up the bedsheet, so it lay properly on the mattress, then tucked herself under.

“It’s a big bed,” she commented, “it can easily fit the two of us. If you do not mind me taking up some room in here?”

“I don’t mind at all.” He followed her, moving to the head of the bed and slipping under the covers beside her.

She didn’t dare touch him, fearing that she’d been so bold already he could refuse her at any second, but she lay on her side and turned toward him, with the pillow tucked up under her head. He mirrored her position, turned toward her, with his eyes flitting over her face.

“I’ll stay for a while,” she whispered. “Sleep, Daniel. You will not have another nightmare.”

“You do not know how many times I have made that resolution, yet the shadows come anyway.” He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes.

The apparent resolution that he’d never be free of the night terrors made her heart ache.

Rachel wasn’t sure how long she stayed awake, staring at him, but it was long enough for him to drift off to sleep. His breathing grew soft at first, then suddenly became labored. When his face twitched, it was plain that the nightmares had returned.

Uncertain of what more to do, Rachel scooted closer to him and put her hand on the middle of his chest, her palm on his bare skin. The effect was immediate, with his face turning toward her in his sleep.

“Shh,” she whispered softly and bent down, placing a kiss on his chiseled cheekbone. “Nothing’s wrong in the world at this moment, Daniel.”

At once, his breathing grew softer again, and his face no longer twitched. Shocked she had made a difference, Rachel lay down again, but she didn’t move her hand off his chest. She kept it there so there was some constant connection between them.

* * *

When Daniel awoke, the sunlight was strong on his face. First, he turned his head toward the window, realizing he hadn’t bothered to close the curtains the night before. It was a bright sunny day, and those rays fell on his body with heat, though it was not the only place warmth came from.

There was a warmth in the middle of his chest, from someone’s hand. He looked down sharply, realizing where Rachel was. She was fast asleep beside him with her hand on his torso.

Her fingers were outstretched, completely at ease as she touched him. Her eyes were closed, and her full lips were parted a little. Her honey-hued hair tangled around her head and fanned across her pillow.

I didn’t have another nightmare.

The realization had such warmth spreading through Daniel’s chest that he raised his hand and rested his fingers over Rachel’s. It was the softest of touches, but enough to wake her up. She yawned a little, and her eyes fluttered open.

When their eyes met, she smiled.

“It worked,” she whispered. “You were about to have a nightmare once, but I managed to stop it.”

“What did you do?” he asked in curiosity, his eyes darting over her.

He was intoxicated by the sight of her in the morning sunlight, with her shoulders exposed, as her nightgown had shifted in her sleep. The mound of one of her breasts peeked through, and he gazed at it for longer than he should have, his imagination running wild.

“Ah, that would be telling,” she said mischievously and closed her eyes again. “My secret to keep.”

“Secret?” He felt playful as he rose up on one elbow. “Looks like I’ll have to think of a way to get that secret out of you.”

“I am immune to your charms,” she claimed playfully, then chewed on her bottom lip.

“Completely, eh?” He leaned toward her, an idea occurring to him. “I think not.”

He pressed his lips to hers in a kiss. It was chaste at first, soft, almost fleeting, then as he angled his head, deepening the kiss further, she mewled into his mouth with pleasure. That sound was enough to make his resistance to her melt away.

He moved over her, melding their bodies together. Her hands wound themselves in his dark hair, and she pulled at the strands playfully. The sensation shot pleasure through him.

Moving over her so he rested his weight on both elbows, he deepened the kiss, parting her lips and tangling his tongue with her own. She responded at once, with one of her legs rising past the side of his hips. Startled by the pleasure that shot through him at that movement, he ground his hips against hers.

That moan escaped her again, muffled by his own lips.

He couldn’t resist her, not anymore. He wanted to show her something of pleasure, something of what could pass between them if they surrendered to one another completely.

Reaching down between them, he tugged at her nightgown, pulling it up around her hips. The entire time, he kissed her, either on the lips or down her neck and across her chest, nipping playfully at the side of her breast when he was bold enough to tug her nightgown to the side.

She held him to her at all times, still tangling her hands in his hair.

When her core was exposed, he took her knee past his hip and pushed it higher with a firm touch. She gasped, their eyes meeting. He waited to see if she would tell him to stop, but she didn’t. Her cheeks were flushed, and one of her hands gripped his bicep, anchoring their bodies together.

“Tell me to stop at any time,” he whispered, then moved his body down.

“What are you doing?” she murmured, sitting up a little as he moved his lips down to her hips.

“Trust me,” he whispered playfully and kissed a line from her navel down to her mons.

She gasped again, then fell back on the pillows, practically wriggling in pleasure. Overwhelmed to have such power over her, he reached for her core, but not with his fingers.

He moved his lips to her center and kissed her there. The first touch made her gasp and cling to the sheets beneath her. The way her body arched off the bed made Daniel wild, longing for more of this feeling, of taking her and giving her pleasure.

He raised his hands and held her thighs, opening her completely to him, then kissed her in her most secret of areas, pleasuring her until she was quivering beneath him. The moans that escaped her filled the air. She tried to stay quiet but couldn’t. Those sounds alone had his length stirring, standing to attention for her, though he didn’t intend to take her yet. Now was about her, to introduce her to pleasure.

Her head thrashed to the side, and her breathing grew more labored. It told Daniel what he needed to know. He moved one of his hands and slipped a finger inside of her, continuing to kiss her nub.

She arched off the bed again.

“Daniel…”

She shuddered with pleasure as he continued to pleasure her, not once stopping with his kisses or the movement of his hand. When she came down from her high, panting on the bed, he moved up her body, hovering over her.

“I… I didn’t know it would feel like that.”

“There’s much more we can do,” he promised her and leaned down, ready to kiss her again.

She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him in for that kiss, melding their bodies completely together. Both of her legs wrapped around his hips, and their loins pressed together. The only thing that separated the two of them was the breeches he wore. If he shifted them down his legs, even a little, he could slide inside her and show her how a man and wife truly come together as one.

“Daniel?” she whispered.

“Yes?”

He took hold of the neckline of her gown and shifted it down, revealing one of her breasts to him. He kissed around the curve of her breast then moved to the areola. He must have distracted her, for she writhed at the sensation and said nothing.

“You seem rather thankful for me being here last night,” she said eventually, her playful tone making him chuckle against her breast.

“That wasn’t just my gratitude, Rachel.”

His hand trailed up her inner thigh, reaching for her core a second time. When his fingers found her, her hands gripped his shoulders, and she smiled widely. As he slid his fingers in and out of her, those thrilling moans escaped her lips.

“Is it not your turn? To feel something,” she murmured.

Her boldness sent a streak of pleasure to his groin, reaching down to his length.

Ah, the temptation of it…

“You shouldn’t tempt me, Rachel.” He reached down and kissed her on the lips again as his fingers toyed with her.

She writhed in his grasp, clearly bucking her hips toward him in the need for more.

“Why not?” she asked. “What’s so wrong about a husband and a wife doing this? I’m fairly certain the vicar stood in that church and practically encouraged it.”

He laughed and trailed more kisses down her body, paying more attention to her breasts once more as he opened the laces of her nightgown completely, shifting it down to her waist. Her chest rose and fell with her fast breaths.

“Nothing wrong at all in this,” he murmured, then kissed her breasts again, moving his hand faster.

“Please, Daniel, it’s your turn to feel something.”

Her pleas took control of him. He moved his hand from her and brushed his hips against hers, so his length pressed against her core, but his breeches blocked them from one another. The friction made them both moan, the sounds breathy in the air around them.

Maybe I could take her completely. All I’d have to do to avoid having children is pull out…

He could picture it so easily, pushing down his breeches and sliding into her. It might hurt at first for her, but he’d be certain to make sure she enjoyed every minute of it. He’d make her reach her pinnacle again, writhing with that same pleasure.

He was about to kiss her when there was a sharp knock on the door.

“Daniel? Are you in there?” It was Anne.

“Dear God,” Daniel muttered and struck the bedhead.

A few minutes more alone with Rachel and he could have had everything he’d dreamed of.