“Do you think about it and the answer will come to you.”
“I have done that already, and no answer comes clearly to mind. I would prefer it did you tell me.”
“Very well.” She glanced around to be sure no one was within hearing before meeting those penetrating violet eyes again. “I did not enjoy it.”
“Enjoy what?”
“Youknowwhat,” she hissed.
He started to grin but thought better of it, then made the mistake of saying, “Wives are not supposed to enjoy it.”
Reina stared at him, wondering what he would do if she hit him over the head with something. “Who told you that piece of witless nonsense? Nay, let me guess. A priest, and you believe everything priests tell you. Clodpate! A priest is not God. He is a man, subject to the same mistakes as all men. Half of them commit the same sins as we do. SweetJesú, use your common sense. Nay, better yet, ask any wife here what she thinks of that antiquated drivel. But do not expect me to like being treated less than a whore.”
He certainly knew whathiswife thought of it. He watched her stalk away and had to force back his laughter. Christ’s toes, she was feisty, even when she blasphemed. So she wanted to be pleasured? His humor faded. How was he to manage that when he feared touching her with his passion, as tiny and delicate as she was?
Chapter Twenty-seven
Reina crept quietly into the chamber. A night candle had been left burning, giving her enough light to cross the room to the aumbry. She set her basket of medicaments down there and quickly unfastened her mantle.
Ranulf slept on. She did not like it that he had left the bed curtains open. The slightest noise could wake him. But from what she had seen thus far, he was a sound sleeper.
It had been a relief to be called back to the village, though the reason had given her many hours of worry. The baker’s sister had taken a fall and had begun to miscarry. But working half the night, and using every remedy she could think of, Reina had gotten the danger down to a mere possibility of losing the baby, which the woman was prone to anyway. If she stayed off her feet for a time, until the baby was well set, she still might carry this one to term.
The relief had come from having an excuse to avoid her marriage bed that night, at least until Ranulf was asleep. She still could not believe she had actually told him what she had in their last conversation. After thinking about it, she had been horrified to realize how it must have sounded to him, and only surprised that he had not laughed in her face. He must now think she lusted after him, or at least that she lusted after the pleasure he could give her, which was even worse. Men never doubted their own prowess, so what else was he to think? Certainly not that she found fault with his jump-on, jump-off technique. Oh, curse and rot her loose mouth.
She yanked open the aumbry, then winced at the creak of the hinge. A stirring of the sheets behind her made her quickly tug off her bliaut without bothering with the laces, carelessly tossing it and her mantle into the wardrobe. She considered making a pallet for the rest of the night. She considered curling up right there on the floor where she was. She didnotwant Ranulf waking, not for any reason, but what excuse could she give come morn if he found her sleeping on the floor?
Her chemise was a tighter fit requiring unlacing. She began to work on the ties in the dim light, but froze after a moment with the sound of Ranulf’s voice.
“Come here, Reina.”
Her heart where her larynx should be made words terribly difficult. “In—in a moment—”
“Come now.”
The order given in that particular tone carried her feet forward. She could only hope he was not completely awake, that he only wanted assurance that she had returned safely, and then he would go back to sleep.
She stopped a few feet from the bed. “Aye?”
She did not even see his hand move. One moment she was being dragged across him, ending up lying flat on her back beside him, and the next, she heard her chemise ripping.
“What—what are youdoing?” she got out, too late. Her shift tore down the middle, too.
“What you requested,” he answered in the most reasonable tone. “You said we should both be naked. I am already in that state. You were taking too long to get there.”
“And that gives you leave to just—”
Her furious question was cut short. She was surprised she had been able to say that much. He had not called her to him for conversation. His mouth moved over hers with a fierce possessiveness, and then so too did his body.
And yet this timewasdifferent. His thrusts were not so quick and pounding. There was a languor to his movements, a heady undulation that set off a maelstrom of delicious sensations deep inside Reina. And his lips did not concentrate only on hers, but moved over her face, finally to one ear, andthatintensely pleasant feeling sent such a jolt through her, she bucked under him, driving him deeper into her core—which effectively ended his thrusts.
Her eyes flew open as she heard his roar, and she wanted to scream,Not yet, but he was done, and looking down at her now with primal satisfaction in his gaze. That alone gave her the urge to kill him. He had brought her closer than ever this time to what madehimroar, only to leave her with that aching frustration gnawing at her gut again, her nerve ends raw, her mind sizzling with impotent fury.
He rolled to his side with a sigh. “I did it again, did I not?”
“Aye, you lummox,” she bit out between clenched teeth. “That you did.”
“I am afraid I was not quite awake. Do you say so, we can try again.”
