“Answer me milady, do you feel any affection for me?” She bit her lip and looked down towards the floor. “We will stand here all day if we must my love. I’ve waited four years for you, what’s a few minutes more?” At that her head came up and instead of fear there was wary hope in her eyes.
“Four years…what…what does that mean?” I took her trembling hands and lifted them to my lips.
“It means my love, that while you were wed to my brother, I held a very special tender for you in my heart. It was the reason why I stayed away from you all that time. Had I known how miserable I would’ve, no…I never would’ve betrayed his trust. Nevertheless I cannot deny that I am glad he never had you.”
“Nothing to say?”
“I’m, I have no words my lord. But what does it all mean?”
“It means my love, that you are not going anywhere. It means that I will do all that is within my power to keep you with me.”
“But, how can that be? I was your brother’s wife. The gossip will be horrendous. It could destroy us both.”
“Not if we marry.” I had to hold her up after that.
“Come, you’ve had quite the morning you need to rest.”
Lifting her in my arms I took her to my bed with all intent of putting her there to rest, but she looked up at me with her heaving breasts and her wide-open eyes and I was lost. Leaning over I kissed her luscious lips. Once, twice, and then she opened and teased me with her tongue.
“Will you truly marry me Julian?”
“Yes.” I covered her body with mine, wrestled her garment out of the way and slid into her wet cunny. As always all my misery went away once we were joined. The morning’s foolishness faded from my mind and all that mattered was she and I.
“You’re carrying my son.” I would’ve given my kingdom if asked to hold onto the feelings those words gave me then. The love, after so many years of cold emptiness was overwhelming.
Since father’s death I had locked myself off from everyone, never letting anyone close. Even my brother and sister, whom I loved in my own way, had not touched me this deeply.
The women I’d bedded were just a necessity, an answer to a basic need, but this, being here with her, inside her, with my little son or daughter taking form in her womb was more than I’d ever hoped for.
“I love you Cecile.” Her tightening around me along with the fresh tears in her eyes as she drew my lips down to hers were answer enough until she gave me the words. “And I you.”
“I know.” I pulled her chest into mine as our bodies rocked together, and knew I held my heart in my arms.
Epilogue
King Julian
I stay close these days as her time draws near. Her ladies in waiting make quite the fuss about my being underfoot, especially now while she was at her bath, but I had an unreasonable fear of leaving them out of my sight, her and my unborn child.
She was so beautiful, her belly extended, her titties swollen and I remembered how tender her nipples had been just a half hour ago when I sipped at them while she rode me.
She turned and smiled with her hand covering our child protectively as the women wrapped the bathing cloth around her. Her hair hung down her back and her cheeks were nice and rosy from the heat of her bath.
“You’re dismissed. I will see to her dress.” They twittered and left and I rose from my seat to go to her. I used the cloth to dry her before seating her before the mirror to brush her hair dry.
“How are you feeling my love?” The ruby I’d given her at our marriage sparkled around her neck and so too did the diamond on her finger with the letters J and C intertwined. That, of all the chests of jewels I’d given her thus far, was the one closest to my heart as I too wore one just the same.
“I am well husband, the babe is most active this eve.” I laid the brush down and knelt at her side so that I could place my hand on the child. “Yes, the little one is in a hurry to meet her sire I think.” I kissed the place where my child laid with reverence.
It had not been easy getting here. There were some in my court who still held to the old customs of the church and thought it profane that I should take my brother’s widow to wife, unless I got a special dispensation of course. Bollocks to that. What good was it being king if I could not do as I bloody well please?
Some did not see it that way, but a threat of losing their heads or their wealth had silenced them quite aptly, and they were lucky enough to escape only with banishment from my presence. Luckily my bride was well liked and the uproar had been silenced without too much ado.
My supporters far outnumbered the naysayers as well, not that I cared a damn. There was no earthly power that could keep me away from her. We were happy and above all in love and all could see. It hadn’t taken much to silence the wagging tongues once her condition became known.