The Fire Lord's Lover - 1 (25 page)

   Dominic collapsed onto a stool. "Take her back outside to the other healer. She needs a splint on her right leg that time will heal. I must conserve my magic."

   "Aye, sir."

   "You." And he focused his eyes on Cass. "Take the boy to get some food. Then return to me. I have need of you here."

   He would not berate her, then. Just remind her of her duty to her husband. He looked tired beyond endurance. "Have you eaten?"

   He frowned. "I can't remember."

   "Faith, it is past noon." She spun around, almost barging into the soldier, who stared at her with widened eyes. "Why are you still standing here? You heard the general. Come along, Henry." And she snatched up the boy's hand, dragging him in her wake.

   Whispers followed her as she made her way through the makeshift camp but she paid them nary a mind. Her husband needed her. She took him a bowl of soup and loaf of bread, watched until he'd eaten it all. "Do you feel better?"

   "Yes. Send in the next one."

   And that was how it went for the rest of the day, Dominic healing with blue fire while Cass fed him when his strength seemed to falter, until dusk shadowed the corners of their tent.

   "Enough," she finally announced, sending the few remaining injured to the other healers. "You cannot do more without risking harm to yourself."

   "You are one to talk."

   Cass frowned, hands on hips. "Dominic, you look dreadful."

   "Look in a mirror, my dear. I wager I look better than you."

   "I took a tumble; that's all."

   "Your face is black with soot."

   Cassandra's hands flew up to her cheeks, but since her gloves had already been blackened beyond repair, she could not wipe her face clean. She glanced down at her torn gown and grimaced, knowing the back of her skirts looked far worse from her slide down the rubble. But saving those children had been worth it. It had helped her with the guilt she felt at causing this entire fiasco. If she had just spoken with Dominic first, he wouldn't have challenged his father. And Mor'ded wouldn't have lost his temper and flamed a ribbon of black through London.

   "I suppose I do look a sight. But I saved five children, Dominic. Although I should say four, since you are responsible for the recovery of the girl."

   He raised one silver brow.

   "It is worth a bit of soot, don't you think?"

   He moved so quickly with that elven speed and grace of his that Cassandra barely blinked before she found herself in his arms.

   Shadows flickered across his face, highlighting his high cheekbones, his square jaw. "You have taught me to care for others again. That is worth more to me than a bedraggled wife."

   Before she could take mock offense at his description of her appearance, he swept his lips down on hers, making her stomach flip, causing her to rise to her toes. Cass clutched his shoulders and he gathered her closer, his hands exploring every inch of her torn dress.

   When he pulled his mouth from hers, some of her soot had transferred onto his pale skin. "It doesn't matter what you're wearing, my dear. You always look beautiful to me."

   Heavens, would she ever get used to such romantic remarks from her once rigidly composed husband?

   "But I suppose you want to be clean, anyway. It will probably take me all night to scrub the soot off you, so we'd best be on our way."

   Cass felt her cheeks heat, imagining such a thing, but she couldn't stop the eager nod at his words.

   Dominic led her from the tent and they both stopped in astonishment as the crowd in the makeshift camp suddenly broke out in cheers. Although her husband didn't betray a hint of it on his handsome face, Cass knew he must be feeling just as confused as she by the outburst.

   But as they walked through the crowd toward their mounts, it became clear.

   "Thank you, my lord," said the old man who'd witnessed Dominic's squelching the blaze.

   Dominic did not have the chance to object to the honorific when the boy next to him echoed the same words.

   The children Cass had rescued brought her a ragged bouquet of flowers, and although she suspected they'd snatched them from someone's garden, she took them and buried her nose in the blossoms—for the first time that day smelling something other than smoke.

   Henry led the children away, but not before he gave Cass and Dominic a bow worthy of the most elegant courtier.

   It took them some few minutes to reach their horses as they made their way through a throng of healed people eager to praise them with kind words, and in Lady Cassandra's case, reach out just to touch her.

   But finally Dominic swung her up in the saddle, his face shadowed with concern, but his lip twitching into an almost smile. "You have made the people love you."

   "You are the one who healed them."

   He swung onto his horse in one smooth movement. "At your bidding."

   "You are not the kind of man to be forced to do anything you don't want to."

   A few of his men surrounded them so he did not reply, but as they rode back to the palace, she felt his eyes upon her again and again.

Fifteen

As it had been that morning, the palace corridors and salons lay quiet and empty, so Lady Cassandra had no witnesses to her disreputable state. She winced to imagine the scathing gossip she would have supplied for the court.

   Especially after Gwendolyn opened their apartment doors and saw her mistress. "My lady!" she gasped. "Ye look… famous!"

   "I've always known you were a hoyden at heart," teased Cass, "despite your flamboyant taste in dress."

   Gwen glanced up at the general and lowered her voice. "Ah well, I don't care for them black dresses of yers, so one less is no loss. I heard ye went into the city to help with the fire and I have warm water waiting for ye and—"

   "She will not require your assistance tonight," interrupted Dominic.

   "But, sir, it will take a good scrubbing to remove… Oh." Gwen turned a beet red and fled to her room.

   "She is more intelligent than her years, Dominic."

   He started to undo the buttons on the back of her bodice. "I told you it was a bad idea to hire servants."

   Cass led him into the bedroom by the simple expedience of his nimble fingers, because he would not cease in popping out her buttons. She closed the door behind them and locked it for good measure.

   Her bodice fell to the floor, followed even faster by her skirt, which had been held up only by her girdle, which somehow her husband had managed to remove without her even noticing. Before he could start on the ties of her stays, Cass stepped over to the bath, which looked half-full. "We cannot submerse ourselves. We have so much soot that we will be sitting in black soup."

   "We?"

   Cass lifted her chin. "Despite your elven propensity for avoiding dirt, you're rather smudged yourself."

   His eyes glittered and he started to remove his soiled garments. "Then, indeed, we shall wash each other."

   "I'm sure you're too tired to—I can manage the task myself."

   He peeled off his breeches and fastened those dark eyes on her, proudly displaying the fact that he wasn't too tired to make love to his wife. He looked like some Roman statue with that perfectly sculpted, pale skin glowing in the candlelight. Muscles ridged his flat stomach, rounded in his shoulders and arms. The bit of soot across his cheeks and brow only made him appear more rugged.

   He crossed the distance between them with but a step and to her embarrassment she felt like swooning. Within moments he had joined her undergarments to those already on the floor and had his hot skin pressed against hers. Dominic held her for a moment, then began to pull pins from her hair until its heavy weight fell about her shoulders. He easily lifted her in his arms and stood her in the tub. The water barely reached her calves, but it was
cold.

   "Close your eyes and hold your breath," he warned, then dumped a bucket of heated water over her head.

   Cass sputtered in surprise, but truth be told, it felt delicious. And when he began to soap her body, she could only close her eyes in sheer ecstasy. His big hands started with her hair, massaging her scalp until it tingled. Gentle fingers washed the grime from her face, lingering on her lips before slowly sliding down her neck. He paid extra attention to her breasts, which she felt sure hadn't acquired a speck of soot, but she couldn't complain when her nipples tingled from the attention. His hands lowered to her stomach, crept around her back, as if he sought to explore every inch of her with this new slippery sensation. When he caressed her bottom she moaned, heard his soft chuckle in response, but she kept her eyes closed, delighted with this new experience.

   Dominic washed her legs with long strokes, forced them apart with a gentle nudge. And then he finally slipped his big hand between her legs, the pleasure of it making her knees tremble.

   "My magic has been drained near dry," he murmured. "There will be no fireworks tonight. Just me."

   "That's all I need, Dominic."

   He chuckled again, joined her in the tub, his hot skin warming the chill that had started to creep over her, his fingers still petting her. Her pleasure caught her by surprise, a sudden contraction that ripped through her body in wave after wave of glorious feeling.

   Dominic rinsed her with another bucket of water, and she opened her eyes.

   "Your turn," she said, the huskiness of her voice making it sound odd to her own ears.

   He said nothing in reply, just watched her with those black glittering eyes.

   Cassandra could not dump the water over his head though; she couldn't reach that high. But he took it from her and managed the task himself, his head thrown back as the liquid sluiced down his skin. She retrieved the soap from a china saucer atop a small enameled tray and worked a lather in her hands before smoothing it through his hair. The wet length of it reached the middle of his bottom and now looked more silver than blond, a beautiful unearthly color. With the remaining soap Cass followed the same path he'd taken with her, paying extra attention to his lips, the nipples on his broad chest, the feel of his muscular buttocks beneath her palms. He had fine hair on his chest, down the length of his legs, with the rest of his skin nearly as smooth as hers.

   She looked her fill of every magnificent part of him.

   He hadn't said a word, indeed, had barely moved, so when she cradled his shaft in her hand his sudden groan startled her from her intense concentration. Dominic reached over and picked up the remaining bucket, dousing the both of them, and then she felt his hands beneath her back and legs. The room spun briefly, she felt the mattress of the bed beneath her, then his hard length inside of her before she had a chance to realize what happened.

   Soon, she no longer cared.

   Her husband pleasured her with long slow strokes, until the room spun again, and she didn't know which way was up. A slow warmth spread inside of her. When he arched his back and drove deeply with uncontrolled thrusts, that warmth flared to breathtaking satisfaction.

   They lay still for a time, trembling with exhaustion.

   Dominic finally rolled her to the middle of the bed, snuggled his face against her neck, and fell instantly asleep.

   Her husband had been wrong. He'd said there wouldn't be fireworks tonight. But she'd seen the most marvelous display, all behind the lids of her eyes.

* * *

Lady Cassandra woke with a start, sensing something amiss. She disentangled herself from her husband's arms, threw on a robe of watered silk, and walked over to the window. The distant sounds of hammers met her ears; the sight of fresh wood beams stretching upward met her eyes. She needn't have worried about returning to the damaged area of London, for it appeared the worst was over if rebuilding had already started. Then she realized that the sun hung low in the sky.

   "We slept all night and half the day through," she murmured. Cass went back to the side of the bed and studied her husband for a moment, making sure he still breathed. He must have drained himself beyond exhaustion, for she'd never seen him sleep so soundly or for so long.

   She tiptoed to the door and closed it softly behind her. "Gwen?" she called.

   The girl popped her head around the doorway of the dining room. "Oh, my lady. I didn't want to wake ye, but it's near dinnertime and ye missed breaking yer morning fast and the noon meal…"

   Cass's stomach growled loudly enough to halt the girl's words.

   "Fiddle," said May, following the other girl out of the dining room with a silver tray in her arms. "Ye can see she needed the rest and if ye stop blathering, she can eat."

   Gwen gave the other girl a disgruntled look but nodded.

   Lady Cassandra did appreciate May's quiet manner, but she valued Gwendolyn's penchant for gossip even more. Had Mor'ded discovered that she'd helped Breden's half-breed escape? "Dinner can wait just a moment, May. What's the news about the palace?"

   Gwen's hazel eyes regained their usual sparkle. "La, nothing's happening in the palace… The Imperial Lord still hasn't come out of his room and half the court's following his example." She dug into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a crumpled pile of papers, handing one to Cass. "But in the city, the dodgers are scattered on the streets like snow."

   Cass scanned the cheaply printed circular. A cartoon of a soldier, his pointed ears hugely exaggerated beneath his cockade hat, knelt before a tiny woman who held a dripping heart in her hands. Beneath the drawing read the caption, A discovery tha
t hath shocked the cit
.

   Her stomach growled again. Angrily this time. What would happen if Mor'ded saw this? Would he laugh it off or wonder if she had indeed captured Dominic's heart?

   Gwen handed her another one, this time a drawing of a small woman with a torn dress and bedraggled hair, leading several children from a burning building, and this one read,
The champion's new wife.

   And another one, with the soldier's hands over a severed limb, with the next drawing showing it reattached and healed. Cass wondered if Dominic's magic could truly do such a thing.

   Each successive circular proved to be more outlandish than the last.

   "These are highly exaggerated," muttered Cass.

   "Ah, but don't ye see?" piped Gwen. "It just shows how much the people love ye and the champion."

   They'd had no choice but to help the people. But it had brought more danger to Cass than she could have imagined.

   "Cook heard about what ye did in the city," said May, holding out the tray as her own offering. "She made all the champion's favorites but didn't know yers, and said she hopes she guessed rightly."

   From the delicious aromas coming from the covered dishes, Cass didn't doubt Cook's decisions.

   "There's lots of chocolate," whispered Gwen with reverence.

   That did it. Cassandra could no longer ignore the demands of her stomach. She curled the papers in her hand and took the tray from May, who allowed her mistress to carry it without protest, used to keeping out of Dominic's notice.

   "If you see any more of these circulars," whispered Cass as Gwen opened the door to her bedroom, "please burn them."

   The servant gave her a puzzled look, but apparently she'd grown used to her mistress's odd demands for she quickly nodded and hushed May to silence when the other girl's mouth opened.

   The door snicked shut behind Lady Cassandra, and she set the tray and circulars next to the bed.

   Dominic sat up with a start, raking the hair away from his face.

   "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

   He wiped a hand over his stubbled jaw. "Good morning."

   "Um, that would be evening."

   One silver brow rose. "I must have drained myself more than I thought—"

   "No, no, do not get up." Cass put the tray on the bed, crawled in beside it. If she hadn't been so hungry she wouldn't have been able to ignore all that smooth expanse of muscled skin. Thankfully, rumpled bedding covered his lower half. "The danger is over, judging by the rebuilding that's been going on, so I don't think we're needed in the city anymore. And Gwen reports that neither the court nor Mor'ded have left their rooms, so no one will note our absence."

"My duties…" he mumbled.

   "Can be put off for a day." He still needed to rest, and besides, she wanted him near. Would he ignore his duties for her? "Cook said she made your favorites," she added, uncovering some of the dishes.

   He sniffed, and both their stomachs growled together.

   Cass laughed and stabbed a fork into beef covered in a thick gravy, held it up to his lips. He dutifully opened and chewed with blissful intensity, washed it down with a glass of wine from the tray.

   "This is my favorite dish," he said.

   She waved her hand at the shiny silver. "Apparently they all are."

   Dominic picked up his own fork and eagerly uncovered one plate after another, sampling from each. "What's the occasion?"

   Cass kept her face smooth. "I'll tell you after we eat."

   And they both fed each other from different plates, snatching their own mouthfuls in between, until Cass leaned back in pure satisfaction and waited for Dominic to finish.

   Watching him eat shouldn't have given her so much pleasure, but it did. He moved with such grace that each sweep of his hand, every bunch of his muscular arms, delighted her. And Lady Cassandra felt content for the first time in her life. She wished it could last, that they could share many more quiet meals together.

   He wiped his mouth with a napkin and slowly sipped his wine, his eyes studying her from head to toe. "Take off that robe."

   "No." Cass gave him a smile to soften her reply. "You've grown entirely too used to giving commands, General Raikes."

   "Please take off that robe."

   She laughed, a long peal of notes that made his lips twitch. When a full smile curled his mouth, Cass had to stop herself from nearly
tearing
off the silk and instead gathered her robe more tightly about her shoulders. It should not be possible that he could be any more beautiful than he already was. But his smile changed his features and lit his eyes until he near glowed. She squashed down the butterflies in her stomach and wished she could make him smile all the time.

   "I can be quick," he drawled.

   Her breath caught at the sultry look in his eyes. The devil couldn't be more tempting than this man. "There's… there's something I have to show you first."

   Cass sat up and started putting the covers back on the dishes. She retrieved the circulars from the table and handed them to her husband. While he looked them over, she went to the door and called the servants to clear the tray and clean up their bath from the night before.

   She noticed that the water had indeed turned into a black soup.

   Gwen and May performed their tasks quickly, keeping their heads bent and their eyes down. Lady Cassandra sighed. She really must get Dominic used to the presence of servants; they couldn't always be sneaking about.