And it was in that moment the Sheriff decided to forego challenging Lady Margaret for leaving his lady.
She advanced toward him slowly. He just stood fixed with an urgent look of hunger in his eyes. Now he started to eye her slowly up and down appreciatively. Then she was suddenly inches away from him. She slowly loosened the laces on his tunic, then slid it over his head. She ran her hands over his chest, then touched him. Feather light. He picked her up and carried her back to the bed.
"My lady, perhaps this isn't the right time." He said. As much as he wanted her, he wondered if it would be safe. He soon had his answer.
"My Lord, I've waited for this a long time. I'm ready." She whispered, leaning closer to his ear. In that low cadence that drove him wild. He was all over her. She was a tigress. Which almost confirmed his suspicions of the poison theory. She was caught up in some strange exotic spell, and he was drawn into it. Unable to break free. He was, literally, weak in the presence of beauty.
They explored each other in the forest primeval, their fantasy unfurled in the Sheriff's private chambers of Nottingham Castle. And then, something odd. While he was on top of her, moving inside of her, she suddenly cried out. Not like the usual sound of joy, but that of fear and pain. He wondered what she was thinking. He stopped and looked at her, but remained silent.
"No. No….." she softly cried. That strange glassy fog started to slowly coat her eyes again. Far away. Distant. She whispered inaudible phrases. She was no longer looking in his eyes. At that moment, he believed that she wasn't even there anymore, with him.
"My lady?" he asked softly.
She continued to stare at his chest, or maybe she was looking at nothing at all. So distant. Her face made a grimace, as if in recall of an unpleasant event in time.
"My lady, you're safe now." He whispered to her.
This time she responded. She paused to look at him. She looked into his eyes.
"Oh my Lord. You saved me." She sighed. Suddenly conscious she needed to be better on guard.
"I could not rest my lady." He said as he smoother her hair.
"You are my prince…" she purred in his ear.
"And you….Lady Rhiannon. Are my Lady of Nottingham. Lady of my heart… or are you?" He smiled and kissed her.
"My Lord?" she broke the kiss and looked at him, puzzled.
"My lady, what I'm asking you is this: will you be my wife?" he looked deeply into her eyes.
Her eyes widened, she searched his face, incredulous. Then she smiled, her eyes glistened , but she wouldn't let the tears form. "My Lord. You were my reason for being." She paused a moment to catch her breath and closed her eyes. He was still looking at her when she opened them again. "I will my Lord." She breathed in a sigh. Her mind was racing though the Sheriff had no idea. She looked so content, so peaceful, so …..not at all like a woman who's infant had been stolen from her by a murderous insect recently! He quickly quieted that thought when he saw the smile spread across her face. He did not know. How could he have known that at that moment she was thinking – He must never know. Must never know. You must act just like nothing happened. Like the only man who's ever touched you, is this man on top of you, inside of you, and gazing into your eyes. Your dark prince. The one who just said he wanted to be your husband you fool! He must never, ever, know….?
She raised both of her legs off of the bed and wrapped them around him. "Now. Where were we?" she purred using that ridiculously sexy look she casts with her gorgeous green eyes again. He resumed and advanced slowly. She pulled him into her with her thighs. He knew then that she really had forgotten. Maybe she was trying to remember. That she might possibly have borne a child. Perhaps that was what the brief interruption was about. She wasn't pretending. But he'd missed her so much the long months they'd been apart, he couldn't bare to resist what she was offering him now. Part of him wanted to jog her memory. A face? A name? What did she know? The other part wanted to just forget it, let it lie. Spare her the pain of remembering. He justified his position on the matter by telling himself she was already suffering. He knew at that moment the real reason he was justifying it, was for his own selfish reasons. He needed her. And the rest of it could wait. For now, she is my lady. She wants me, and she shall have what she desires. Those were his thoughts as he continued .
She raised herself slowly. Thrusting her breast toward him. He bent down to kiss her breast, and licked her nipple. She arched her back and moaned. He moved inside of her, slowly. She breathed in a sigh, then began to moan softly "Mmm Sheriff…..take me."
The Sheriff truly believed his lady was the most passionate woman in all of England.