His gaze moved over her; in fact, it seemed that all he could do was stare at her as if remembering the night before and the delectable taste of her upon his tongue. Something about the woman was addicting, infiltrating his senses like a fog. Since the moment he’d touched her last night he’d not been able to shake her. This morning, the sensation had only grown worse and it threatened his control where she was concerned. He could have simply taken her and he still didn’t understand why he hadn’t. It unnerved and distracted him, translating into a brusque manner.
“We have no bath here,” he told her, watching her face fall. He realized he didn’t like that expression on her face, not one bit. “But… I will see what I can do. Mayhap there is something you can use for bathing.”
“Thank you,” Emllyn said. She meant it. He turned to leave but she stopped him once more with a rushed and breathless question. “What… what do you intend to do with me?”
Devlin paused at the door, his gaze penetrating. “Are you certain you want an answer to that question?”
That was a terrifying response and her fear returned. “What I mean to ask is if you intend to send me home or if you intend to keep me here… with you.”
He came back into the room and shut the door. “I amnotsending you home,” he said with finality. “You stowed away on a fleet you had no business sailing upon. You knew that. You knew there were risks. Now you belong to me. You, lady, are the spoils of war.”
She had to make a conscious effort not to gasp. “But I am of no real use to you,” she said. “I am not a knight with money or a rich lord. I have nothing of value.”
“I beg to differ.”
She knew what he meant. Everything in his expression suggested it and he’d intimated the same thing last night as he’d laid on top of her and threatened her with his body. She could see, in that instance, what he intended for her.
He’d intended it all along.
God, it was horrifying.
“So you intend to damage me beyond repair,” she said, her voice trembling. “I fail to see who, exactly, you are punishing by humiliating and degrading me. I have already told you that my brother does not care what you do.”
Devlin had to admit that he rather liked it when she stood up to him. She had spirit for an Englishwoman, which was surprising to him. He’d always thought the English female to be a weak and foolish thing. But her spirit gave him an unintended response– it fed his lust, a flaming thing that apparently ignited at the slightest provocation where she was concerned, and hewas upon her in three big strides, his big hands digging into the tender flesh of her upper arms. She gasped as he pulled her against his broad chest.
“It is not humiliation and degradation,” he breathed. “It is the way of things, woman. You evidently do not understand the concept of being a captive.”
Emllyn tried to push away from him, but it was difficult. She’d never been held like this in her life, or even touched like this by a man in her entire life, so the feel of his taut, warm body against hers wasn’t a sensation of disgust. Not exactly. With horror, she realized that she rather liked it.
“I understand,” she said, struggling. “I know you can do as you wish and you probably will.”
He didn’t let her go. “Mayhap I will,” he said. “I’ve not yet decided. Shall I tell you what I should do to you?”
That frightened her and she yanked one arm away. “Tell me not,” she hissed. “I do not wish to hear your vile scheme.”
“It is no scheme, I assure you,” he said. “What I would do to you is domination, pure and simple. It would be my punishment to your brother and to every damnable English who has ever set foot upon the green fields of Eire. I would dominate you day and night, and any other time that strikes my fancy, and I would pump you full of my seed until I beget you with child. Even then, I would continue to join my body with yours until the child is born and when I gaze upon my Irish son of an English mother, I would bed you again until you deliver unto me another son and still another. I would breed an army of sons from your body, sons that will sail upon England and wreak havoc. You, my lady, would be the mother of an army of Irish rebels that will kill your countrymen just as they have killed mine. You would be my brood mare.”
Horrified, Emllyn wrenched herself from his grip and slapped him across the face, as hard as she could. But for aman that size, it hardly moved him. She would have done better striking a mountain. Realizing that her rage had no effect, she tried to bolt away, to run, but he caught her from behind and threw his arms around her so that she was facing away from him. Her sweet, soft body was pressed back against his and Devlin could feel himself growing hard for the want of her. It was purely a physical reaction from his body to hers, as a man to a woman.
And what a woman she was.
“You do not like to hear that, do you?” he whispered, his lips by her ear. “Then I will tell you more. I would kiss you so forcefully that you could barely breathe. I would strip away your clothing until your tender, white body was nude for my pleasure. I would suckle your breasts, where you would nourish our children, and your want for me would match my own. Heat would bloom between your legs as your body prepared for mine. Then, I would push your legs apart and I would join with you, my manhood finding save haven within the folds of your womanhood. And you would love me.”
Enraged, but also more aroused than she was willing to admit by what she considered his filthy description, Emllyn let out a scream of pure frustration as she tried to pull away from him.
“Stop!” she demanded. “I will hear no more!”
A lick of a smile creased Devlin’s lips. He was rather enjoying her anger. “You will hear all of it, my fine lady,” he murmured, his hot breath in her ear causing her to shudder. “My strokes within you would be long and powerful as your body begged for my seed. Your legs would open wider to me, your body would ache for me, and I would answer the call. The warmth in you loins would become a raging fire and my mouth… you would learn to love my tongue, lass… would feast upon you. When the fire in your loins became a raging inferno, it would erupt into a burst of sparks and your entire body would convulse withpleasure along with mine. My seed would go deep into your womb to find its mark.Here.”
He suddenly put his hand on her lower belly, pressing hard, and she gasped and bucked at his touch. She wanted him away from her, but after what he’d just whispered into her ear, perhaps she didn’t want him so far away. His words, hissed in rage and lust, had done something to her. There was a fire in her now, one that made her heart race and her palms sweat. He must have known that because he began to suckle on a tender earlobe.
“Do you feel me?” he whispered, teeth gently tugging at her ear as he gripped her belly. “Do you already feel my seed as it settles into your womb? I will be all around you, and within you, and you will belong to me. Never ask me again what I intend to do with you, lass. Now you know. And youwilllike it.”
Stunned into an erotic daze as he suckled her earlobe, Emllyn heard his words but she couldn’t seem to do anything about it. She should have been fighting him, biting and kicking, but she couldn’t manage it. He’d used nothing more than words and his touch to convey his intentions, but he might as well have burned them into her flesh. He was stirring things within her that she’d never felt before. When he suckled on her earlobe firmly and she shuddered with delight, he laughed low in his throat.
“So you like that, you English vixen?” he murmured. “Mayhap youarea whore, after all.”
Emllyn’s eyes flew open. Quick as a flash, she balled a fist and hit him in the forehead so hard that his head snapped back. That caused him to loosen his grip and she made a break for the lancet window but Devlin was right behind her, grabbing her as she tried to throw herself from the ledge, three stories above the jagged rocks and crashing sea below. Perhaps she wasn’t truly trying to kill herself more than she was simply trying to get away from him, but the result would have been the same. Now, he hadher around the waist, her arms pinned, as she fought against him.
