He laughed again. To make matters worse, his splayed fingertips inched lower, from the curve of her buttock to the joining of her thighs. Katherine gasped when he began to tease her virgin’s canal.
His jaw flexed so hard it looked as if it might snap. His gray eyes blazed. “You are ready to come! Who were you thinking about!”
“Leicester!” she shouted, lying, knowing it would enrage him.
He thrust her hard away from him and she fell across the bed. “Damn you! I knew it!”
Katherine lifted herself to her hands and knees, panting. “He offers me more than you,” she gasped throatily, knowing she was goading him, but unable to stop herself. She knew what was going to happen, and she wanted it—fiercely. For her sanity had fled the moment he had revealed himself to her.
Liam towered over her. “What does he offer you? What, Katherine?” he roared. “Other than his big cock?”
She knelt on her haunches, aware of his gaze darting to her swinging breasts. “Kenilworth.” It was an exaggeration, hardly the truth.
Liam stared, laughed once. “You are a fool. The queen will behead you if you become his wife. Behead you andtake from him all that she has given him. Do you understand me, Katherine?”
She eyed him defiantly. “You are just jealous because he can give me more than you. Because he is noble and worthy, while you are naught but a pirate, naught but Shane O’Neill’s son.”
His nostrils flared. “Can he give you more?” He jerked her hand forward, grinding her palm against his loins. Katherine gasped at the huge, throbbing feel of him. “’Tis said he is a big cocksman—but then, so am I. Do you wish to compare us, Katherine—before making your decision?”
Katherine moaned, incapable of speech, the muscles knotting so painfully in her thighs, high up inside, that finally she cried out. Liam pushed her onto her back and she fell willingly, knees open. Their gazes met. Katherine was well aware of being shameless. She was well aware that she was about to lose her dearly cherished virginity. Somehow, this night, she no longer cared.
Liam grabbed her knees quite hurtfully, forcing her legs farther apart. “You push me too far,” he ground out, staring at her. Abruptly he reached down and thrust his forefinger deep into her, until he was stopped by the membrane that branded her an innocent. Katherine gasped, his name on the tip of her tongue, arching up against him. He did not move now. Katherine began to moan unashamedly, thrashing from side to side.
“So Leicester did not get to you yet.” Suddenly he palmed her hard. “Nor will he, Katherine. Do you understand me?”
She blinked up at him, realizing what he had just done. “You bastard!” she shrieked, sitting up and trying to yank his hand from her. But he was unmovable. “You—you think to examine me? Like some physician? Damn you!”
“’Tis becoming harder and harder to believe that you are convent-reared,” he taunted. He suddenly slid two fingers inside her and Katherine inhaled, going motionless.
“Lie down,” he ordered, “and we shall finish this now. Not that Leicester will care if you are not a virgin. But I’ll be damned if he will take what I have marked as mine!”
Although Katherine wanted nothing—nothing—morethan to have Liam’s huge penis, stiff and hard, inside of her, his words infuriated her. She rose up on her knees, her fists banging hard upon his chest. He caught her wrists, laughing at her, which only enraged her more.
“I do not belong to you,” she hissed. “I belong to myself, and one day, to my husband.”
Liam laughed with real amusement then, jerking her forward so that she was in his embrace. “Darling,” he murmured, his tone seductive now, “I hate to tell you this, but no other man will marry you after we are through.” A moment later his mouth covered hers, forcing her lips open with sheer, male domination.
He had thrown ice water upon her, not dousing her desire, but forcing reality to intrude upon her. She wanted this abominable, despicable man. She wanted him to thrust inside her, to plow her as a stallion does a mare. God, she did. But she truly did not want to be a whore, not his, not Leicester’s, not anybody’s. She wanted to be a wife. She wanted a husband, a home, and her own babies—and she had yearned for these things for many years, far longer than she had yearned for Liam’s powerful body and his burning touch. She tore her mouth from his. “Stop,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
He held her face in his hands, panting roughly. “No more games,” he rasped.
“No,” she wept, turning her face away. “Oh, God, what is happening to me?” She choked on her sobs. She no longer knew herself. The woman who had emerged this night was a total stranger. How could she want him so much?
“God’s cock,” he cursed, gripping her chin and turning her to face him. “Now you decide to play the virgin?Now?!”
She gazed into his blazing silver eyes. Then, helplessly, she looked at his perfectly shaped mouth. “I cannot,” she whispered hoarsely, her gaze pleading when it met his again. “Oh, God, I am so wicked, Liam—I want you.I want you. But I cannot give you my virtue, I cannot.”
He stared at her, his mouth twisted anddownturned, in both disbelief and disappointment. “These games can kill a man,” he finally said, harsh and rough.
Katherine swallowed. “I am dying, too,” she whispered.
Their gazes collided. Something sizzled and flared upon the impact. Katherine’s eyes widened when he pushed her down, onto her back. She started to protest—even as her thighs opened. He murmured, “Hush,” touching her mouth with one of his fingers. Katherine closed her eyes and nipped it, trusting him.
Liam bent over her, kissing the sides of her face softly. Then he growled, the sound impatient, and an instant later his tongue was deep inside, rapacious and plundering. His hand stroked between her legs, his thumb between the heavy, throbbing folds of her sex. Katherine cried out. A moment later she felt his tongue there. Her desire exploded, and she wept and keened at once.
Liam lay beside her, pulling her into his arms. He gave her no respite. Katherine was still dazed when he took her hand and molded it around his naked penis. Her eyes flew open and she gasped. Liam gripped her tightly, making her stroke his huge, hard, slickly swollen length. Katherine’s eyes widened in fascination, her pulse beginning to pound. She looked from his face, strained and rigid, to his manhood. She had dreamed of touching him before. This was reality—and far better than any dream. Without thought, her grip tightening, Katherine bent and kissed the ripe, plumlike tip. Liam gasped and arched off of the bed. She pulled his hand from hers and stroked him somewhat awkwardly, until his own hand guided hers, showing her what to do. Within moments Liam cried out.
Katherine went into his arms, atop him, whimpering. He hugged her once, hard, and whispered, “’Tis all right. I will take care of you again, love.”
