Page 98

She fell asleep pretending that he was with her, and awoke hours later to find him hovering over her, his hand covering her mouth.

Her body went stiff with shock, and then when he released her, she threw her arms about his neck and just held on.

He was warm, and he was safe, and he smelled like⁠—

Straw.

She lifted her head off his shoulder and looked up into his face. “John, how did you get back into the castle?” she whispered frantically. “What if someone saw you? What if⁠—”

“No one saw me,” he said, caressing the side of her face, and then her hair.

“You came back,” she murmured, looking up into his strong face.

As she traced the scar down his right cheek, she felt her emotions overwhelm her. He had risked everything for her, and she wanted to risk everything for him. She pressed her lips to his scar, and felt him go rigid in her arms. Her mouth worshiped the hurts he’d sustained in his hard life, when he’d thought himself unwanted by his family, when he’d thought himself alone.

She didn’t want him to be alone anymore.

He was breathing heavily when her light kisses traveled across the stubble covering his jaw.

“Elizabeth—”

She silenced him with a kiss on the mouth. His lips, so firm and smooth, finally shaped themselves to the pressure of hers. She held his face in her hands and pressed her mouth to his over and over, memorizing the texture and the touch.

And then the taste. She angled her head and deepened the kiss. He groaned, but did not take control, just allowed her to do as she wished.

And she was so grateful, so appreciative. He understood her as no man ever had. She tasted him with her tongue, darted into his mouth and retreated over and over again, until she could feel him trembling. She ran her hands through his hair, fisting them in it to hold him to her, although it was unnecessary. He was grasping her by the waist, sitting by her side on the bed.

It wasn’t enough. She was desperate to be closer to him. Dressed only in her smock, she climbed to her knees, letting the coverlet fall around her.

She finally broke the endless kiss, her lips tender and trembling, to stare into his eyes.

Then she pulled the smock up her body and over her head, leaving her naked.

He inhaled sharply, and his hot gaze traveled down, lingering on her breasts, and especially at the curls that hid her womanhood from him. She pulled the leather tie that held her hair plaited behind her, and it slid across her back and over her shoulders.

He would have reached for her, but she spread his arms wide, so that she could touch his chest. She’d seen the wonders he could perform with a sword, and now she wanted to see even more. She pulled the belt loose at his waist, and it came free, along with his scabbard, which she let fall gently to the floor. She pulled him to his feet beside the bed and rose to stand with him. He was wearing a black doublet and hose, which must hide him in the shadows. But it made him look different than he had as a simple bailiff with a splint covering his bare leg beneath his tunic. Now he looked like a knight, like a baron.

And it thrilled her to know he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Naked, she moved around him, loosening the laces of his doublet, helping to push it up his body as he pulled it over his head. Next came his shirt, and she slipped her hands beneath it to touch the bare skin of his chest while he fumbled trying to pull it over his head.

“I watched you bathe the other night,” she whispered, when the handsome expanse of his chest was before her, the ring hanging over his heart.

While his hands slid down her arms, he gave her an arched brow of surprise.

“I wasn’t asleep,” she continued. “I watched you disrobe, and I studied your body with a curiosity that rather shocked me.”

“I hope I measured up,” he murmured against her ear.

She sighed as he spread kisses down her neck and pulled her against him. Her breasts were pressed to the hard heat of his skin, and they ached with an insistence that drove her farther in this wicked display of her need for him.

She slid her hands down the slope of muscles that played across his chest, through the feathering of hair scattered there, down to the belt to which his hose was tied. She undid each point with a tug, and the fact that he shuddered each time sent an answering wave of desire through her. She felt alive with the need to join with him, to be one with him. Her skin itched with it; her mind was consumed by it. When she was able to push the last of his garments off, she stared down at his engorged penis, which brushed against her body, making her shudder.

He lifted her chin and searched her eyes. “Do not be afraid, sweetling.”

She gave him a wicked smile. “Oh, fear is the last thing I’m thinking about.”

When he returned her smile in relief, she kissed him again, pressing herself to him, feeling the promise of his erection caught between them. His big arms crushed her to him, as if he needed to be closer. His kisses were wild and passionate, and the brush of his chest hair across her sensitive nipples helped fan the rising flame that her need had become. She reached to touch his penis, but he only allowed it for a moment.

“Ah, sweetling, I want this night to last, and your touch is sure to hasten my pleasure.”