One knee came down on the bed, then the other. This time he heard her gasp and he met her eyes again, seeing what he had missed before.
“You are afraid?” he asked doubtfully.
Her nod surprised him, especially when he clearly recalled her telling him the morning after with heavy sarcasm, “Do I look dead?” when he had stupidly asked if he had killed her.
He began again. “Surely you know—”
“I know.”
“Then what do you fear? Think you I am different from any other man?”
She made a choking sound that produced a quick frown from him. But then he looked down at himself and conceded grudgingly, “Aye, mayhap a little different.” The sound turned to strangling, and brought his brows together more sharply. “You do not have to belabor the point. And you have withstood my size once without dying, as you were so quick to tell me. So what do you fear?”
“I—I suppose ’tis the unknown, of—of not knowing why you were so impatient to have us alone here.”
He stared at her incredulously. “Not knowing…lady, why else would I send you to bed?”
“But your impatience—”
“What do you expect when the one woman who now belongs in my bed keeps herself from it? Abstinence I can deal with as well as any man if needs be, butforcedabstinence does not suit my nature. Better you know it now. I do not like being denied something I want.”
And then he frowned again, realizing how cleverly she had got him to admit to wanting her, getting her compliment after all, when all he really felt was momentary lust. It was only lust, was it not? Certainly. Any woman would do to satisfy this craving, even thoughshehad caused it. Then why had he forced her to leave the festivities below, when he could have slipped away for a few moments with any likely wench and not have been missed in such a crowd?
He was startled from his thoughts by her fingertips on his brow. “Why do you do that?” she asked.
“What?”
“Frown so often, for no apparent reason. Do you know I have never seen you smile?”
“You want smiles, lady, you should have married Walter,” he replied sourly.
“Aye, he does have a certain merry charm, that one—but I married you.”
“So you did, but why did you? And I want the truth this time, lady, for ’twas not a matter of me or Rothwell being your only choices. You had ample opportunity to put me aside since you returned here.”
“But you heard what I told my vassals. Thatwasthe truth, Ranulf. I felt you were the better choice for Clydon.”
“And yourself?”
“Clydon comes first.”
It had taken her a moment to answer, and the answer was most unsatisfactory. But he supposed he had better not hold his breath either, waiting for compliments from her. She had never in any way given him reason to think she wanted him for herself. She was the first woman he had ever met who did not look at him with at leastsomeinterest, sexual or not. And he had married her, a woman who showed fear when she should not, boldness when she should be afeard, a woman who would rather avoid him, especially his bed, when other women fought to get into it. Well, she was in it now, and whether she liked it or not, he would have her.
“Are you still afraid?” he asked tersely.
“Nay.”
“Good, because you have put me off long enough with this silliness.”
“I do not think ’twas—”
“Christ’s toes, do not arguenow, lady!”
She made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle, but he did not care anymore. He had held his lust in check this long because, in truth, he did notwanther to be afraid of him, at least not in bed. But as he talked her into relaxing, that fluff of hair between her legs had drawn his eyes repeatedly. Black gloss against pale white skin, ’twas a magnet for his eyes—and his touch, which he gave into now.
She sucked in her breath sharply as his finger slipped inside her. But that was not why Ranulf progressed no further. She was dry, without a drop of moisture to encourage him, something else he had never encountered before.
Even knowing what was to happen, she had not been ready for him, nor was she now, a frustrating development considering his own need had not diminished in the least. And what did he know about arousing a woman, especially a lady? Most timeshewas the one not ready, not the other way around. But he should have expected this from a woman who was so completely indifferent to him.
