“He was willing to end my life so he could continue to amass his wealth.”
“Some men are like that. You are not to worry, though. This information will help us with your plea to the Witan. You may very well have your answer within the next few days if enough of them are here.”
“Thank you, Toste. You are a lout in many ways, but thank you for doing this for me.”
“Ah, I do so love backhanded compliments,” he said. “I wonder how you are going to thank your knight for this latest chivalry.” He pressed her back against the wall.
“A silken scarf?” she offered.
“I have way too many silken scarves already,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “By the by, Esme, why did you leave the woodcutter’s hut? Your ‘punishment’ was not yet over.”
She tilted her head at him in question. “You left all my clothing on the chair. I assumed that was your silent message that I was free to leave.”
“I was giving you a choice, dearling. I thought… I hoped… that you would wait for me there.”
She slapped his shoulder. “You rogue! You did no such thing. As far as I knew, you were never coming back.”
That surprised him. “You thought I had abandoned you?”
“Of course I did.”
“Heartling,” he said—and he could see that she liked that endearment ever so much and made a note to himself to use it again—”I would never abandon you.” That was as much as he intended to say at this time. Later, he hoped he would be in a position to say more.
“What are you doing?” she squealed as he lifted her gown by the hem up to her waist and began to undo the laces on his braies.
“It is not a question of what I am doing, but what you are doing,” he said against her mouth. He kissed her deeply, till she was slack with surrender, then explained, “You are welcoming me home.”
With that, he lifted her off the ground by the buttocks, arranged her legs around his hips and entered her moist folds with an exultant, “Yea!” And she did welcome him then with hot, rhythmic embraces of his hard staff. It was the best kind of welcome, in Toste’s opinion.
A short time later, when they leaned against each other, panting out their mutual release, she eyed him suspiciously and asked, “Is that another one of women’s favorite sexual positions?”
“Yea. Wall-sex,” he said. Then quickly added, “But do not tell anyone about it.”
“You are such a scamp.”
He looped his arm over her shoulder and kissed the top of her hair as they walked back toward her bedchamber. “That is another of my best assets.”
“You have many of those assets, do you?”
“Hundreds.”
She laughed, then asked, “Will you and Vagn both be coming back to Evergreen with me, to head my troops… assuming we get the right answer from the Witan?”
“Nay. Vagn has other irons in the fire.”
She arched her brows at him.
“A babe.”
“Really? How wonderful! I mean, I assume it is wonderful.” Her face clouded over then. “You and your brother have never been separated… except in death. Will you be going with him?”
He shook his head.
“Will you come to Evergreen with me, then, to be my castellan?”
“I am sorry, but I want more from life than that. Vagn’s ‘death’ taught me much about what is important in life. I will not be your hired soldier, Esme.” Toste was about to add, but I will be your husband.
Before he could get those last words out, however, Esme’s face suffused with the red of outrage and she shoved him away from her. “Once a lout, always a lout!” she proclaimed as she stormed away from him.
He thought about going after her and making a formal declaration of his intentions. But he wanted everything to be just right before he asked her to wed with him. One more day… two at the most… and he would make everything right.
And after she accepted his proposal, he was planning on suggesting a different type of sex to her—a favorite of most women, hahaha. It was called cock-in-mouth sex.