“I never know if you want me to kiss you or not.”
Though it was chivalrous of him to apparently give her the choice, she wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do, so she did what she wanted to do. Marion reached up with one hand and pulled him toward her until their mouths were a breath apart. She gazed into his eyes with as much courage as she could muster to let him see what she felt.
Alexander’s hands were in her hair and at her waist, pulling her in as his mouth pressed against hers. Their tongues found a familiar dance as her hands entangled in his hair, attempting to draw him even closer than was possible. Alexander broke the kiss and tilted her head back then traced sensuous kisses along her neck while his hand left her waist and reached up to cup her breast. When he squeezed, she gasped, the sound of which was quickly buried by his mouth closing over hers again. Marion was becoming slowly consumed by his passion and hers and the growing need to know more of this man and the liquid fire that pulsed through her veins every time he touched her.
“God, I want you,” he said as his mouth trailed across her cheek to her ear and down her neck again.
Aye, she wanted him too, but she was not about to admit it, and then the reality of their proximity and the fact that anyone could walk through the door, which she hadn’t noticed had been closed, washed over her.
“My lord, we cannot,” she said and stepped back from him.
His eyes were heavy with passion and his sensual smile was filled with the promise of all the delights Marion could imagine and more, considering she didn’t know very much about such things.
“I will let you go, Lady Marion, as long as you admit one thing to me,” he said in a tantalizingly steady voice.
“And what is that?” she asked as his eyes trailed the length of her, resting mostly on her mouth and breasts.
Meeting her gaze again, he closed the distance between them and brought his mouth to within an inch of hers. She couldn’t help but part hers, ready and wanting the next onslaught.
“You will tell me you want me as much as I want you.”
It was torture to say words like that to a lady of her years and status. Why would he want to make her voice it?
“Or else?” she dared ask.
His deep voice rumbled in a low growl-chuckle sort of sound.
“Or I will never kiss you again.”
What choice did she have? She was never good at being untruthful and doubted her muddled mind.
“I want you,” she whispered.
Alexander’s gaze fixed on her. He reached for her hand and raised it to his lips and kissed.
“Then I shall let it be known that I wish to court you,” he said and promptly left the library and Marion standing there with her jaw agape.
*
He must bea madman to have said such a thing without first establishing she’d had no formal attachment to anyone else. But he could not help himself. She had to be his for there was no way he could ever stand by and see her with another man.
Alexander met the queen and his sister on his way out of the castle.
“You will find Lady Marion in the library, Your Majesty, sister. See she is entertained while I catch up with the hunting party.”
He didn’t wait to see if they agreed; rather he made his way to thestable to where his horse waited and whinnied when he saw his master approaching.
“Not so fast,” Angus, the master stable hand, said. “Where do you think you’re going, m’lord?”
Alexander had always given Angus way to speak freely, but in this moment, he needed to see the king.
“Angus, I know you’re looking out for my well-being,” he said with a sigh, “but it has been quite some time since my fall.” It was an age at least. Alexander pulled his horse from its stall and mounted. “I plan to find the king and my brother on an important matter.”
The old man’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve the look of a woman’s influence about you.”
“A woman’s influence?” Surely that was an odd comment to make considering Alexander was donned in his usual trews, shirt, and tunic.
“Aye, m’lord. Someone has caught your eye, and I can see she has made you frantic which is not in your nature.”
