He made every part of her tighten and burn. Madly, she almost held him there longer to find out if he spoke the truth. “Go,” she said on a ragged breath.
*
Gareth returned quicklyand escorted Rebecca, with Hereward in tow, carrying the nurse’s trunk, to a small home attached to the home of Tomas and his wife, Adara, who Tanon found out, was the comely pregnant woman from the village.
Left alone in the cottage, Tanon eyed her dusty, moldy surroundings. She sank to the bed, cringing when the mattress crunched beneath her. God help her, but she had to relieve herself, and after having to do the like behind the trees for the last se’nnight, she had so hoped for a proper garderobe. She looked at the front door, willing Gareth to open it, bringing something beautiful into this gloomy place. How was she ever going to survive here? She could throw herself at his mercy and cry until he took her home—tears had, after all, worked for her once. She worried her lip thinking of writing to her parents and begging them to come get her. She slammed her palm down on the mattress. Heavens, but she was made of better stuff than this, wasn’t she? Besides, she didn’t want to go home.Thatnotion came with a serious jolt, almost as shocking as the revelation that she didn’t want to leave Gareth. Besides, she had promised William she’d try to find happiness here. “I won’t fall to pieces.” She eyed the broom propped up against the wall and gritted her teeth. If she was going to learn how to be a wife, it was best to begin now. She stood up and reached for the broom when the door opened. Cian stepped inside, followed by Alwyn.
“Well, what do you think ofCymru, so far?” Cian grinned at her.
Tanon smiled and slid her gaze across the dirty floor. “It’s lovely,” she answered, not having the heart to say anything less.
Alwyn did nothing to mask his amusement as he looked around the cottage, and then at her. “Do you know how to use that?” He gestured to the broom in her hands and chuckled, making it quite clear that he doubted she did.
“Of course I do,” Tanon retorted, not liking his mocking tone one bit.
“I’d be happy to help you clean up the place,” Cian offered gallantly.
She softened her gaze on him. “Non,I can manage perfectly, thank you.” She swiped the broom across the floor to prove it and sent a cloud of crumbling rushes flying in Alwyn’s direction.
“Oh, dear!” She covered her mouth with her hand as he began to cough and wave his hands in front of his face.
Cian turned away and smiled as the grumbling giant left the cottage. “You’re certain you need no aid?” the young poet asked again when they were alone. Tanon shook her head, leaving Cian to stare at her for a moment before he left the cottage.
She smiled at the door and then pushed the broom across the rushes again, gently this time, and with familiar ease. Foolish Alwyn to assume she’d never swept before. She stopped and looked around the cottage. Then again, she’d never cleaned as much as this place would require. Gareth was untidy as well as arrogant. Why then couldn’t she stop smiling?
Chapter Sixteen
Gareth left Ioan’scottage and walked home as night settled over the glen. He set his eyes on his cottage and frowned. Hell, he hadn’t planned on leaving Tanon alone all day, but he should have realized his people had much to tell him. He’d been away from them far too long. He’d returned to Llandovery after his imprisonment in Dafydd’s dungeon, only to leave again soon after to claim his Norman bride.
He told them about Bleddyn’s death and the plot to turn King William against him. A plot birthed by his own countrymen. He had secured peace with the Normans, but the northern princes were a different matter entirely. Peace in that quarter of the land could only be found, it seemed, through battle. The sooner he met with his uncle, the sooner the fighting would end.
Tonight though, his people didn’t want to think of wars. They wanted to celebrate his return. He had almost denied their request, wanting to spend the night alone with Tanon. But he couldn’t refuse them. They needed a reprieve from their daily lives. They needed celebration.
He smiled and waved at the group of women carrying blankets and satchels of food toward the glen, and pushed open his front door. He wondered if his wife had banged her head inside the carriage while they traveled. She was used to finery. He was certain her chambers at Avarloch were larger than his entire house. It was thoughtful of her to pretend fondness for his home. She was, above all else, polite.
Gareth had always known he’d been born to a warrior’s life. His wife would be expected to live that life with him. He’d never thought anymore about it. But when he stepped into his cottage and saw the scrubbed floor, he felt a measure of pride that near brought him to his knees.
He walked quietly to the bed. Crouching at the edge, he simply gazed at his sleeping wife. Here she was, a seemingly delicate lady with the fortitude of a warrior. Her clips had long since fallen from her hair. Coal black curls hung limply over the beguiling contour of her jaw. He smoothed them away, familiar with the heavy tightness in his chest that came whenever he looked at her. She’d endured sleeping on a thin pallet on the forest floor for over a se’nnight without so much as a sigh. She’d been attacked and watched men die not a foot away from her, and she hadn’t begged him to return her to the safe arms of her father. He dumped her in a filthy house, and she cleaned it. A smudge of dirt shadowed her chin. He wiped his thumb over it. He looked at her hands, swollen and red from scrubbing. Bringing them to his lips, he kissed each finger. She should be sitting on a throne enchanting hapless men with her dimpled smiles. Selfish or no, he didn’t care. He wanted her here with him. Every time she smiled at him, she swept his heart away to a time before he’d come to understand the hardship of war. He wanted to protect her, make her laugh, make love to her.
Her eyelids fluttered open slightly.
Gareth traced the perfect line of her brow with his finger.
She gave him a sleepy smile that would have doubled him over if he weren’t already hanging over her. “I’ve missed you.” She stretched and then grimaced in pain. Reaching behind her, she pulled a stiff sliver of straw out of her back.
“I’ve missed you too.” He leaned down and kissed her eyelids.
“You have?”
“Aye,” he whispered close to her lips. He climbed onto the bed, above her, splaying his palms on either side of her head. “I fear I think of you too often.” He kissed her smile and then her chin, grazing his teeth down her throat. “Forgive me for leaving you all day. Everyone needed me…”
Tanon tunneled her fingers through his hair and pulled his face back up to hers to meet his gaze. “I understand the need for you, husband.” And she did. His smoldering smiles had excited her from the first night in the great hall. His kisses and his gentle, teasing touches made her desire him in the most basely primitive ways. Ways she wasn’t even sure she understood, but wanted to explore. Every nerve ending seared for him, every muscle clenched at his nearness.
She had been wary at first of his feral appearance, anxious about his touch, certain that he would ravish her as soon as their vows were spoken. In the forest, she was sure the savage would finally show himself and tear away her virtue with careless disregard. But Gareth’s kisses left her wanting more of him. His control made her even more curious to discover what he might do when that control snapped. She didn’t want to wait any longer.
She closed her teeth around his lower lip and sucked softly, tasting him. Her hands reveled in the awesome strength of his banded arms. When he lowered his weight on top of her, a tremor quaked her to her soul. He captured her mouth, sweeping his tongue over hers like a scalding flame. As his passion grew more urgent, Tanon tested her boldness by stroking her finger along the broad curves of his shoulders, his back, and then his hips. He pressed into her, grinding an erection as hard as forged steel against her warm, wet niche.
“Wait.” She pushed her palms against him.