Chapter 18

It was not light yet. She stretched lazily against her husband who was fast asleep beside her. He hugged her to him; last night had been extremely satisfying for her. Eddard teased her and did not let her get away from their bed, not even when the maester asked him to go and attend to some affairs from Bear Island. She touched the marks she did last night; she had been fierce. Cersei recalled raking her fingernails over his back last night, she remembered sucking and biting at his neck possessed with desire. They had reason to; her lord husband had been given permission to bed her once again. His injuries were healed. Ned grabbed her from her needlepoint rooms. She was discussing something with one of the septas her aunt Genna had sent for the education of the girls when lord Stark entered the room. He bowed to the women in the room. Joanna and Arya were with her, they were playing by Septa Mordane, a dour woman who looked as if she had never been bedded. "My lady, I have an important matter I wish you to attend to." Cersei was puzzled and bewildered when he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. They climbed the stairs to their rooms. "I thought you wanted me to attend to an important matter?" She said with an inquisitive voice. He tightened his hold on her hand and tugged her to their bedchamber.

"I want you to attend to me." He said possessively and kissed her punishingly.

"Your leg?" She asked out of necessity rather than concern. She wanted him too. Luwin insisted on no riding, physical activities or any other activity that would exhaust him or make him reopen his sown wounds. Three weeks and three days, that was how long they had been without each other. She let him push her to the bed and tugged her hair free. She took him out of his breeches and enjoyed his length against her hand. "Do you want to fuck me?" She asked coyly.

He growled. "You are very crass my lady." He tugged at her dress. He was frustrated and tried to yank it out of her. "Let me." He rolled to his side and stayed in bed as she stood up and removed the layers of clothes that covered her body. His eyes darkened and she grew wet because of his lusty stare.

She teased and dropped every bit of cloth with a wicked smile. The only fabric that covered her small clothes. He licked his lips and pulled her to his lap. She ground her hips over his erection and moaned when he undid the laces at the back of her shift. He threw the piece of cloth by the doors and manhandled her breasts. She threw her head back. "Lick them now." She did not let him touch her while he was convalescing because she knew him and once Ned Stark was inflamed it was impossible to extinguish his fire. Once again Eddard proved her mistaken, for a brief second she thought back to eight years ago when she believed her husband to be cold and detached.

"What if I don't?" He said as he touched her nipples gently. She kissed his neck. "I'll make you a bargain my lord. You lick my teats and I will let you do with my body as you please.

She whined as she removed his tunic and breeches. "I do with your body as I please. It is mine own to do as I please." He said arrogantly.

Lady Stark smirked and deftly moved to her side. Ned watched as she touched his member. "Is your body mine my lord?" She did not appreciate his possessiveness.

"You have my whole body, my soul my lioness. I am yours." He said with those grey eyes that once held nothing but contempt for her and now looked at her as if she was a goddess. To this day she had never refused him, and never would if he looked at her with such desire, lust and love. Once that look frightened her, and now she rebelled in it.

She kissed his lips and nuzzled his cheek. "My lord husband should learn that lions always win over wolves." She straddled him and put him inside of her. She let out a strangled moan and rocked her hips rapidly over him. She had him pinned under her. No doubt Eddard could overpower her. He had done so in many occasions. She rode him hard and played with his nipples. Her lord husband had no wish to move from under her.

"Fuck Cersei, my love." He trashed and she moved faster. "You feel so good inside Ned. I don't want you come yet. Hold on. Don't come." She was feeling the tell tale signs of his impeding orgasm. He dug his fingers on her hips and his thrusts lost their tempo. Her own orgasm was building deliciously. He touched her little button; with a few skilled touches she came undone. She slumped over his chest and tried to catch her breath. He rolled them and pumped steadily into her, she felt the momentum build again. He kissed her, "Give me another child. I want to see your belly swell again. I want to feel one of our babies move inside of you." She trashed under him. His words did not surprise her at all. She kissed him more and more and felt her walls tighten around him. Their orgasms came at the same time.

Cersei traced her fingers over his nose and eyelids. He had her twice again. They were wild the second time. She did not want more children. Arya was their last child. Ned wanted another baby. He told her so again when he licked her cunt until she pleaded for him to lick her button. He pushed her to a wall and rammed into her trying to convince her. She remained unmovable. "No more children." She yelled when he tweaked a teat.

She kissed his jaw and moved her leg over his hips. He kissed and rolled over her. "About that child that you are going to give me? "He kissed the valley of her breasts and lowered his hands to her arse. She frowned. "No more babies. Arya is a baby."

"Arya's third name day is in three weeks. I hardly doubt she is a babe." Eddard said winningly.

"We make beautiful babies." He rasped. "You definitely enjoy making them." He pinched her arse and she smirked.

"You enjoy the process too much." She teased. "We have enough children. Jon will inherit Winterfell. Robb will be the lord of Casterly Rock. Tommen could make a name for himself in the Kingsguard or marry one of the princesses. He could marry Sansa Arryn and be the Lord Protector of the Vale. Joanna will of course marry a Martell in Dorne or a Tyrell from the Reach. Arya could marry a prince if the crown ever has a prince. She could be queen."

Ned frowned. "I will not allow my Kitten or my Wolfling to go so far south. Starks belong in the North." He stated. "Our girls are too young for you to be thinking about marriages and power alliances."

"It is never too early. I'll have you know that the queen wants princess Myrcella to marry our Jon." Ned frowned. "The princess would never fit in Winterfell."

"I thought so too." She tugged at his hair. "So you see my own husband how another child could complicate our arrangements."

She kissed his frown and he smiled. Ned kissed her neck. "Those are your arrangements not ours." He kissed her and murmured against her lips. "I can see the future and we are going to have another child." He said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. Cersei laughed when he bit her belly button.

Brandon Stark arrived two years and two weeks after Cersei's decision to not have more children. She did not appreciate her husband's smug smirk but she could not keep away from him. Cersei enjoyed fucking but while pregnant with this child it was intense. She wanted her husband all the time; at all positions and mourned the times he needed to travel away from Winterfell.

"Brandon." Cersei said when maester Luwin showed her the babe. Ned sat by her side and cradled their latest son. "This is our last." She said against the fluffy pillows. "He is perfect my love." She smiled and received his kisses gratefully. Bran was her sixth child and also her bargain chip. Cersei complied and gave Ned another child in exchange for something. She managed to make him agree to instruct Arya and Joanna in the arts of fighting. She kissed her son lovingly, Bran had given his sisters so much and he did not even know it yet.

Arya and Joanna would not be like her, they would have options. They would learn to fight and defend themselves. Bran, her baby boy gave his sister that gift.

She was in love with her husband, it did not happen at once. It built through years of patience on his part. Cersei realized she loved him one morning when Bran was four years old. Jon, Robb and Tommen went with their father to an execution. A deserter from the Night's Watch; the children had come back with grim faces. She soothed them and then went to her chambers to chastise her husband. He was not there, she asked after him and found him in the Godswoods. He should have not let the children go with him. Jon hugged her tightly when she put him to sleep. Robb asked all these questions about death and bad men and Tommen, her poor baby who was not even eight years old, too young. Eddard prohibited Joanna and Arya to attend she did not fight it because if it were her choice none of her children would ever see an execution.

He was praying to his Gods but he was crying. His shoulders shook with sobs. She had not heard him cry like this, not even when Joffrey died. Could her husband be this broken about taking a life? It could not possibly be. Eddard had killed, he felt remorse but this was not the first sentencing he served. There had to be something else. "Ned?" Suddenly she wanted to go back to Winterfell with her children.

Her husband stood up and wiped his wayward tears. Cersei could not bear to see him so broken. She ran to him and hugged her because whenever she hugged her children they seemed to get better. Ned held her tight and sobbed into her hair.

"What is it my love?" It was the first time she used the epithet. She did not think about it much. He did not look at her face. "It has been four and ten years since I lost my family to Rhaegar Targaryen. Benjen wanted to go. She was four and ten when she went to that tourney. I was her favorite. Everyone says how much Arya resembles her but Lyanna was not as strong as our daughter. She was foolish and I should have protected her. I should have known. A foolish girl who was in love with a dragon." She never heard him speak about his family with such sadness. He cried, she held him and was with him until he calmed down.

"I am so sorry my love." She whispered gently. "I do not like to see you cry. You are so strong, so brave, so good Ned. It was not your fault." She kissed his tears away and for the first time since they met in these same woods she looked at her husband with love. It only took her three and ten years and six children to comprehend how much Eddard Stark meant to her.