He laughed. “Yes, you said that before.”
“Jack.” She jerked her head up and opened her eyes wide. She spoke in a voice filled with anguish. “Ye must show me how I can make the duke feel as I feel now. Shattered. Then he would do what I want him to.”
“Does that mean, right now, you would do what I asked you to do?”
“A-aye.”
“You would be wanton with me?” He grazed the top of her cleft through her nightdress with the knuckle of his middle finger. Her eyes closed again.
“Ungh.” It was a grunt.
“You would marry me?”
Her eyes popped open, wide with alarm. He spoke quickly. “I’m just asking since that’s what you want from the duke. A marriage proposal.”
“If . . . if ye said ye would only continue doing what yer doing now if I accepted ye, I might be very tempted,mo luran. But nae.”
He felt something. A strange little pain of his own. A twinge in his gut. But he winked and adopted a light, teasing tone. “Well, then it’s good I’m not proposing to you.”
“Aye.” She took a deep breath. “’Tis good. I must do what . . . is best, after all . . . for Kinmarloch, for my people. I must marry for duty.”
“I don’t think,” he said softly, flipping his hand and putting a bit of pressure on the top of her mound with the heel of his palm, his fingers continuing to trace her seam through her nightdress, her thighs falling away from each other. He could feel some wetness already seeping through the cloth.
“Ye dinnae . . . think what, Jack?” She was gasping, her eyes hazed.
“Right now, I don’t think you are in a fit state to be trained for anything, Helen.”
“N-nae?”
“No.”
She shook her head. “Ye . . . must . . .”
“I think I must give you some relief. So you can concentrate your mind on giving rather than receiving pleasure.”
Her voice was a harsh whisper. “Some relief, Jack.”
He took his hand off her mound and shifted over and patted the blanket next to him.
“Get in the bed with me here.”
She turned and slid up toward the head of the bed, lifting her legs up off the floor and bringing them onto the mattress. The countess had done what he had told her to do. And oh, how he liked it.
“A trifle eager, aren’t we, my lady?” He chuckled as he drew the blanket over her and put a hand on her waist to pull her even closer.
The chuckle broke the spell she was under. She stiffened and jerked away.
“If our situations were reversed, Jack, I widnae be making sport at yer expense.”
“Really? You would be kind and ease my need?” Sweeping the blanket off his lap, he grabbed her hand and wrapped it around his half-hard cock and moved her palm and fingers up and down. Ungh. Her calluses gave his shaft a rough friction which was almost unbearably arousing.
Her eyes were wide. “I—ye know I know naething of this—”
He leered. “Are you frightened of my cock, Helen?”
Again, her jaw jutted. She curled her fingers around his hardening member, independent of his guiding hand.
“Ye know I am frightened of naething. Except empty bellies for my people.” She gave him a fierce stroke. Too fierce. Far too fierce. She might tear his cock off if she became any fiercer. She was dangerous, this savage countess of the Highlands.
