Alex suspected that the true reason she left Magnus was that she didn’t respect him.
“I tried to protect his own clansmen from him, but I couldn’t.” Glynis brushed a tear away with an impatient hand. “I saw him murder one in a fit of temper and another because the man objected to Magnus’s interest in his daughter.”
Alex cupped her cheek with his hand. “Magnus’s temper seemed fixed on you when we saw him at Duart Castle. Did he ever harm ye?”
“No. He knew that if he did, my father would come with his war galleys full of men,” she said. “Magnus didn’t want the trouble—but that was before I stabbed him and left.”
For all Alex’s sins, at least he’d brought Glynis far enough away to be safe from her former husband.
* * *
“Enough of this serious talk.” A slow smile spread over Alex’s face as he leaned over her, and his green eyes danced. “If ye have the strength to make love again before breakfast, I do.”
Letting Alex touch her all over in the dark of night was one thing, but it was broad daylight now.
“Ach, I’m sorry, lass,” he said, frowning. “Did I make ye too sore?”
She was sore, but not that sore.
“We could try other things,” he said, giving her a look so full of sin that it made her pulse flutter.
“I’m all right,” she said, her voice coming out high.
“Then what do ye say, Glynis? In for a penny, in for a pound?” Her breath hitched as he stroked the inside of her thigh. “When ye confess to the priest, the penance is likely to be the same, whether we do it two times or twenty.”
“Twenty times?” Her voice went higher still.
“Have ye changed your mind about this?” Alex asked, his expression suddenly serious. “Just tell me if ye have, and I’ll let ye be.”
“No,” she said. “I just didn’t expect ye to want to do it again.”
“Me not want to?” he said and laughed. Then he got on his knees and started unfastening the blanket from the tree. “It’s stuffy in here.”
Glynis watched the muscles of his back as he stretched to unhook the corners. Besides being able to ask her the most private questions as if he were discussing the weather, the man was completely unselfconscious about his nakedness. But then, he was beautiful.
The blanket fell to the ground, and sunlight washed over him. When he turned, the warm light kissed the skin over his sculpted muscles and glinted off the golden hair on his broad chest. Her gaze drifted downward, and she swallowed when she saw how ready he was to make love again.
“Come, let me see ye,” he said, tugging at the blanket she held to her chest.
She remembered how Magnus ridiculed her, saying her breasts were too small. It was the least of the sins for which he would burn in hell, but the memory stung all the same.
“Can’t we do this without ye looking at me?” she asked.
“Ye aren’t going to be shy now, are ye?” Alex folded his own arms across his chest. “We’ll stop right now if I can’t see. I’ve been looking forward to this for too long.”
“You were expecting me to go to bed with ye all along?” She was horrified.
“Nay, I wasn’t expecting it.” His grin grew wider. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t imagining ye naked.”
“That’s no the same thing,” she said.
“Of course, I did see ye last night, but the light was verra poor,” he said, making a face.
“My breasts are too small,” she blurted out. Her face was scalding.
“What fool told ye that?” He tugged at the blanket again. “Please, Glynis. I had my hands on ye enough last night to have a fair idea of what your breasts look like. Please.”
It was clear that the man was going to beg until she relented. When he tugged at the blanket again, she let go.
