She'd barely had the thought when Jo became aware that Cam had been easing her tunic up her back and encountered the binding that kept her breasts flat and helped her with her disguise. She expected him to ask what that was about and whether she'd broken her ribs in the beating she'd taken, but instead she felt cold steel against the skin of her back and the binding suddenly gave way. A heartbeat later his hands had shifted around to clasp and cover her aching breasts so that he could squeeze and caress them.
Not so disappointed, she thought dizzily as he suddenly rolled her onto her back and lifted her tunic as he shifted down her body so that he could claim one nipple in his warm mouth.
Why wasn't he disappointed? She wondered with confusion. Or at least startled? And why did that feel so damned good?
Jo moaned as he tugged at her nipple with his lips, drawing all the excitement presently bouncing through her body to that area. That excitement only increased when she felt his knee slide upward between her legs and press against the core of her through her braies. So she almost moaned with disappointment when Cam suddenly raised his head and asked, "Joanne or Josephine?"
"What?" She stared at him blankly.
"Yer name," he explained solemnly. "It has been driving me mad the last two days since I discovered ye weren't a boy. Every female name I could think of that might fit has gone through me thoughts, Joan, Joella, Joanna, Jocelyn, Jo-"
"Joan," she interrupted, and asked, "You knew I was a girl? How--?"
"I saw ye preparing to bathe that first night," he explained, shifting up her body to settle his weight on his side, leaving his hands free. "Ye let yer hair down, removed yer tunic, and then unwrapped the binding and all that beautiful bounty spilled out and I kenned ye could no' be a boy." Lowering his head then, he claimed her lips even as one hand settled over some of that "beautiful bounty" to palm and caress her.
Joan moaned into his mouth at the combination, her back instinctively arching to thrust her breast more firmly into his caress. She released another moan, but this time one of protest when he once again broke their kiss and stopped caressing her. Jo reluctantly opened her eyes, expecting another question, but then blinked them quickly closed and raised herself slightly, her upper arms rising instinctively above her head as he tugged her tunic up from where it had gathered above her breasts and pulled it off. She started to lower her arms then, instinct making her reach to cover her breasts, but Cam caught her wrists before her hands could finish the action, and pressed them down on the ground on either side of her head as he kissed her again. He shifted over her as he did, not pressing his weight into her, but urging his knee up against her again and allowing the springy hairs of his chest to brush across her sensitive nipples.
Jo gasped and writhed beneath him, legs shifting restlessly before closing around his knee and urging him on, even as she arched to allow her nipples contact with his flesh. She also sucked at his tongue when it shot into her mouth, wanting to keep it there. She had no idea if that was the right thing to do and didn't care, it felt good. But she nearly bit his tongue when one hand left her breast and ran down to slide beneath the waist of her braies until he could cup the center of her.
While his knee had been nudging her there, ratcheting up her excitement, his hand against her bare skin was shockingly intimate and Jo went still, uncertainty claiming her as the shock allowed clarity briefly in to warn her they were messing with fire. This was how babies were made and she had no desire to die on the birthing bed, some part of her mind reminded her. But then his fingers shifted, one pushing in to run along her embarrassingly damp flesh and Jo gasped, her hips jerking at the caress and her mind losing track of the warning it had tried to sound.
With him touching her there, Jo didn't even notice that his other hand had stopped caressing her breast to work at her braies until he broke their kiss and left off caressing her. As he shifted to his knees between her legs, she realized that her braies had been pushed off her hips and were halfway to her knees. Even as she noted that, he caught her legs by the ankles, raised them before him and quickly removed the leather pants.
When he tossed them aside, Jo stared after them wide eyed and almost reached to drag them back with some vague intention of pulling them back on, but then Cam set her legs down on either side of him again. She turned her attention back to him just in time to see his face duck out of sight between her thighs.
"Wha--ohhhh!" she cried out as his mouth took over what his fingers had been doing moments ago. His lips, his tongue, even his teeth came into play as he explored a part of her that no man had ever got near before, and Jo was quickly undone. The ability to think seemed to leave her altogether as sensation took over and her whole body rocked under the assault. Some part of her was vaguely aware that her head was thrashing, rolling back and forth in the dirt as she emitted high, loud, senseless sounds and clutched at his head.
When Cam tapped her hand gently, Jo realized she was pulling at his hair and immediately eased her grip, not wanting to hurt him, but that was the extent of what she was capable of. The man was driving her crazy with what he was doing. But then she felt something pressing into her that was too firm to be his tongue and she glanced down with confusion to see that his head was still buried there and she could still feel his lips and tongue working, but now--Oh, his finger, she thought vaguely, her hips dancing under the tune he was playing as he pushed one finger into her at a maddeningly slow speed.
Her hips rose and thrust and tried to force him along, but he was determined to control this and simply eased his finger back out before letting it slide part way in again. His tongue and lips worked madly as he did, plucking at her until she began to moan and wail so loud that she became aware of it. Jo bit her lip then, trying to silence herself, but that was impossible. She wanted to scream with the need claiming her, wanted to cry out, beg and demand by turn that he bring an end to this madness, and that he never stop. And then it was as if something snapped inside her, some string she had never known existed, and in snapping it released a wave of pleasure so strong she briefly shimmied and convulsed under it. It was while she was still convulsing that Cam left off what he was doing, rose up between her legs, clasped her thighs and drove himself into her.
Jo's pleasured cries turned to a shriek of pain as he encountered and slammed through her maiden's veil. Her mother had told her it was different for each woman, that some hardly felt more than a pinch, while others felt as if he were tearing through a thick layer of skin. For Jo, it was the latter option. She definitely felt more than a pinch. In truth, she would have compared it to someone stabbing her with a blade. Not that she'd ever had that happen, but if she had, this was what she imagined it would have felt like.
Much to her relief, Cam stopped moving when she cried out. They were both still for a moment and then Jo forced her eyes open to look at him uncertainly. He stared back briefly, and then shifted one hand from her thigh to slip it between them just above where they were joined. When he began to caress her again, she nearly released an exasperated sound, quite sure he wouldn't be able to stir up any interest after that shot of pain. But she'd barely had the thought when she felt the first stirrings of her rekindling desire.
Cam still didn't move, remaining fully imbedded in her as he patiently worked to rouse her once more, and in the end it was she who began to move. The pain not quite, but almost forgotten, she began to shift against his shaft, knees rising and heels digging into the ground as she began thrusting into his caresses, unintentionally riding him as she sought that release he'd already given her once.
He let her have her way for several moments, but then Cam gave up caressing her and clasped her hips to control her movement as he began to thrust in and out of her, in and out. At first Jo was disappointed and even a little frustrated, but then he shifted and changed the angle somewhat so that his body rubbed against her core and she closed her legs around his hips to egg him on. This time when she found that release she sought and cried out, Cam cried ou
t with her, his hands tightening on her hips and holding her tight against his body as he poured his seed into her.
Chapter 5
JOAN STRAIGHTENED FROM CHECKING ON THE pheasant she had roasting over the fire and glanced to Cam's sleeping face for about the hundredth time. He was still sleeping soundly and the sight made irritation flicker through her before she turned to pace to the water's edge and back. She then did it again. Jo had been pacing all day, ever since he'd made love to her.
All right, it hadn't been all day, she acknowledged silently. Cam had collapsed next to her after they'd both cried out with release. Lying on his side beside her, he'd then thrown one leg over hers and one arm across her chest and promptly fallen asleep. Jo had actually slept too for a little bit. She hadn't been able to help herself. Her body had been trembling and weak in the aftermath of what they'd done and she'd just dozed off there with him. She didn't think she'd slept long though. The sun had still been creeping upward in the sky when she'd woken up sometime later.
Jo had remained where she was briefly, listening to Cam's steady heartbeat next to her ear, but then had eased out from under his arm and leg and got up. The first thing she'd done was dress, and rather quickly too. The worry that Cam might wake up and see her naked making her move with more speed than grace. Then she'd sat beside him, berating herself for acting like such a ninny. The man had seen her naked, most intimately in fact, and yet she was going to go all shy about his seeing her again?
She'd followed that up with berating herself for letting him do what he had, or for doing it with him, since it wasn't like she hadn't been a party to it. Joan had reminded herself that she didn't want to get with child, and that she had no desire to be some dalliance for a noble, and that a dalliance was all she could be to Cam. Certainly nobles didn't marry commoners. That depressing lecture had taken quite some time and left her feeling deflated. Not that Jo had started imagining marriage and happy-ever-afters before that. Still, the cold hard truth was often difficult to swallow and after the incredible passion she'd experienced, being brought down to earth so abruptly was much like falling out of the tree had been. She'd landed with a nasty bump.
Feeling cheap and even a little angry then, Jo had taken herself off to find wild berries to break her fast with. Despite the depression hanging over her, or perhaps because of it, she'd suddenly felt hungry. She'd taken her time, finding enough for both she and Cam in case he was hungry when he woke up. It was on her way back to their camp that Jo had spotted the pheasant. Once again, her slingshot had come in handy, but this time she hadn't had to chase the bird up a tree. It had still been on the ground when she'd shot it. But she'd broken its neck for good measure the moment she reached it, to avoid what had happened the night before.
Cam had still been sleeping when she'd returned to camp, so Jo had plucked and cleaned the bird. When she'd finished, Cam was still sleeping with no sign of stirring, so she'd started another fire, and cut down two large Y-shaped branches to stick in the ground on either side of it and a third straight branch to skewer the pheasant on to lay across the first two branches. She'd been eating the berries she'd collected ever since while pacing and occasionally turning the pheasant. The sun was now past its zenith and on its downward journey; the berries were long gone, the pheasant was done, the fire was dying, and Cam still slept.
Sighing, Jo paced to the water's edge again, her eyes wandering to the waterfall. It was beautiful and the idea of stripping and standing under it to wash had been tempting her every time she'd looked at it. The only thing stopping her had been the fear that Cam would wake and see her. But he was showing no sign of that happening anytime soon, which was a bit worrisome really. If it weren't for the occasional snore that slipped from him, she would have feared he was dead.
Jo had no idea why he was sleeping so long, but then she had no idea about a lot of things. Like how had she ended up under his plaid with him, sleeping on his chest? And why had he not told her that he knew she was a girl and not the boy she was pretending to be? She might have been a little more prepared for his advances had she known that. Although, to be honest, she might not have been; the last time she'd seen her reflection she hadn't exactly been attractive so wouldn't have imagined he'd lust after her.
Perhaps soaking her face in the cool water last night had rushed her healing along and she looked like herself again, she thought suddenly, and knelt at the water's edge to peer at her reflection in the rippling surface. Joan watched a frown pull her brows together as she got a look at herself. While the swelling had gone down a bit and the bruising appeared more green and yellow than black now, she still looked like hell and had to wonder what had moved him to want to bed her.
Sighing, Jo straightened and got to her feet. Another glance at Cam showed him still sleeping. She was beginning to think he would sleep right through the rest of the day and into night. The only thing she could think was that it was because he was still healing. Perhaps they had overdone it yesterday, traveling so long. Perhaps they should have waited an extra day for him to heal, or at least kept their traveling down to half a day or something. She would have to talk to him about that when he woke up, Jo decided and glanced to the waterfall again.
She had never seen a spot as beautiful as this one, and wasn't likely to again unless she stopped here on her return journey. Even then it was doubtful she'd find this spot on her own. Unfortunately, Jo hadn't taken note of where they'd left the trail. So if she didn't bathe in the waterfall now, she would probably never get the chance again.
Glancing over her shoulder, she noted that Cam was still sound asleep, and then she began to disrobe. She would be quick about it, Jo promised herself.
CAM OPENED HIS EYES TO A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY, stretched and yawned and then winced as the stitches in his back pulled a little. They'd done that a time or two last night while he was tupping Jo, too, he recalled and the thought made him glance to the side for her. She was no longer sleeping beside him . . . and wasn't in the clearing, he noted, after sitting up to glance quickly around.
Frowning, Cam got to his feet and pushed his hands through his long hair to get it out of his eyes as he looked around for any clues as to where Jo had got to. The smell of freshly roasted meat drew his attention to the pheasant over the cooling ashes of their fire. That made him relax a little. Only then did Cam admit to himself that for one second, he'd feared perhaps she'd been upset by what he'd done and left while he slept, setting out on foot alone.
Cam grimaced at the guilt that suddenly beset him. He hadn't forced her, he knew, but he had been rather aggressive that morning. He'd also caught her half asleep and no doubt completely unprepared for his advances since she was pretending to be a boy. On top of that, she had been completely inexperienced. That had quickly become obvious, even before he'd broken through her maidenhead. In fact, it had nearly made him stop at one point, but she'd felt and tasted so delicious, and she'd been so responsive that he hadn't been able to reign himself in.
Damn, he thought, Jo had a lot of passion in her. She'd moaned, writhed, gasped and cried out like a wild thing as he'd pleasured her, and it had all just made him want to pleasure her further, wring more cries and pleas from her sweet lips. The memory was enough to make Cam hard all over again, and he glanced down at himself, grimacing when he saw the dried blood on his shaft, further proof of her innocence.
Not that he'd needed to see the blood to believe it, he thought, and decided a quick dip was in order and then he would go in search of Jo. They needed to talk. He didn't know what he would say, but was pretty sure that at the least he owed her an apology. Not only had he taken her innocence, but he'd neglected to withdraw or do anything else to protect her against getting with child. That last part was alarming. He liked Jo, a lot. In fact, he liked her more after knowing her these few short days than he'd liked any woman he'd known, even his wife, whom he'd lived, slept and dealt with for a year. He didn't know why. Perhaps because he'd relaxed and talked with her as a friend when
he'd thought her a boy. He'd never spoken so freely with a woman before, but felt, even now, that he could talk about just about anything with Jo.
Whatever the reason, the fact was that Cam liked her and had no desire to see her grow big with his child and then die screaming as she tried to push it out of her body. He should have left her alone, or failing that, used a pig's bladder. That was what he had been doing since his wife's death. He'd carried around a pig's bladder and when the need arose, tied it around his shaft with twine to prevent spilling his seed in a woman.
Unfortunately, the bladder had somehow torn while he was with the tavern wench. Cam wasn't sure how that had come about. He'd discovered it on waking up in the morning. He'd had a sore head at the time, and hadn't been pleased at the discovery. He'd hoped for more than one night in the tavern wench's arms, but he wouldn't risk it without the bladder, so he'd mounted up and left, expecting to catch up with his cousins the next day. Instead, he'd run into Jo and her attackers. He wasn't sorry. Frankly, he would pass up a dozen attractive barmaids for one Jo any day. So, in the end, the bladder tearing was a bit of good fortune, he thought with a grin . . . Except for the fact that he hadn't had it to use with her, some part of his mind reminded him, making his grin quickly fade.
Sighing, Cam pushed his thoughts aside and headed for the water to clean up. He was nearly to the water's edge when he realized that someone was already in it. Pausing, Cam stared. Jo stood under the waterfall, half turned away from him. Her eyes were closed, head tipped back, hair appearing almost alive as the water caught it and moved it about, streaming it over her shoulders and body.
She was beautiful, he acknowledged as his eyes ran over the curves on full display. Her nipples were erect, hardened by the cold water, he noted, and her hands were gliding over her body to aid the water in cleaning her. Water nymphs could not be more beautiful than Jo was to him in that moment and Cam stood, simply staring for a moment, watching enviously as she cupped her breasts and lifted them slightly, as if offering them to the water rushing over her. When she then released them and slid one hand down over her stomach toward the apex of her thighs to clean there, Cam couldn't stand it anymore and hurried into the water to cross to the falls.