A reaction he knew well for there was nothing lacking about his muscles, or his manhood.
His prowess could match the best of men.
Oft were the nights he could choose amongst a fawning swarm of comely maids, each one eager to lift her skirts and discover if the rumors about his mastery at pleasing a willing wench proved true.
And never yet had one left his bed disappointed.
Only he remained unfulfilled, his ease taken, but his soul more needy of sustenance than before. The kind of nourishment he’d never find with such light-skirts, however skilled in carnal passion.
His lady drew a sharp breath then, obviously realizing he’d released her wrists and that her fingers, no longer spreading the salve over his ribs, now explored the taut, hard-muscled flesh just above his waistband, the line of fine, dark hair arrowing beneath it.
“Oh!” She jerked her hands from his abdomen, two bright spots of color staining her cheeks. “I didn’t intend… I mean-”
“Surely you have touched a man’s body?” He lifted a brow, watching her. “You are a widow, and chatelaine of this stronghold. Hospitality duties alone deem that-”
“Assisting visiting noblemen with their baths is different,” she rushed to say. “Such courtesies mean nothing. This, just now…” She made a fluttery motion with her hands and herarisaidslipped off her shoulders. Digging her hands into its folds, she clung to the woolen wrap as if it were a shield.
But she didn’t pull it back up around her shoulders.
Instead, she lifted her chin and met his gaze. “I have never skimmed my fingers along a man’s body hair, good sir.”
Marmaduke almost choked on her frankness. Her bluntness shot straight to his loins, and he could no sooner ignore the insistent pull there than keep himself from enjoying the creamy expanse of flesh now exposed above her gown’s plunging neckline.
“You are a woman of plain speech,” he managed, his voice two shades gruffer than he would have liked.
“So I have been told.” She glanced toward the windows where the full fury of the storm now battered the closed shutters. The night’s damp chill warred with the peat fire’s gentle warmth and challenged the sputtering flames of the wall torches. “I suppose it is one of my greatest faults.”
“Not a fault, my lady. I would say it’s refreshing.” Marmaduke watched her as she stared at the windows. He let his gaze drift over her, admiring the clean, proud line of her profile, the straightness of her back, and the fullness of her breasts. The cold air, or perhaps something else, caused her breasts to rise, the movement revealing their hardened peaks.
Sweet crests that beckoned to him, enticements so close to the top edge of her gown a mere flick of his fingers would release them.
He swallowed thickly, wished the front flap of his tunic still covered his groin, the pesky evidence of his arousal.
“Well, then.” He kept his gaze on her, deciding to be as direct. “Did you mind touching me thus?”
“It was not wholly unpleasant,” she said, her voice barely audible above the lashing rain.
Not wholly unpleasant?
Marmaduke fought back a disgruntledharrumph.
“I found it most pleasant.” He drew himself to his full height. “Pleasing enough to ask you to do it again.”
Her brows shot upward. “Skim my fingers along your body hair?”
The bold wording grabbed fast to his maleness and squeezed.
A firm, rousing grip.
“Rub more of the salve on my stomach,” he ground out, amazed his voice didn’t crack.
“And,” he added, the unquenched throbbing in his nether parts urging him to press his good fortune, “you may slide your fingers to wherever, or whatever catches your favor.”
Most especially the sizable specimen of man-flesh she will find if you peel down your hose for her, the devil whispered in his ear.
Marmaduke breathed deep. Her scent wafted about her, light, feminine, and way too tempting.
“Lady, the good saints themselves would weep if they knew the great comfort your hands afforded me just now.” He spread his arms wide and nodded to the little bowl sitting so innocently on the nearby table. “Will you not continue until all the healing salve has been used?”
