Medieval 02 - Forbidden

as tools of war.
    Erik knew that you didn’t love me. He knew that you wouldn’t marry me if you remembered .
    And he knew how much you desired me .
    Duncan desired her still. False or true, witch or woman, leman or wife, she made his body burn for her with all the fires of hell. The violence of his need overwhelmed everything.
    Even betrayal.
    Gradually Duncan realized he was standing in front of Amber’s door, his fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there. He knew only that he must be inside with her.
    The door to the bedchamber made no sound when Duncan pushed it open. The candles had burned low. The hearth held little more than embers. Draperies around the bed gleamed darkly as he drew them aside.
    Amber lay in uneasy sleep, the covers twisted and her hair a tumbled golden cloud spread across the pillows. For an instant Duncan saw her as she had been in the bath, her breasts gilded with water and reflected fire. He had wanted then to be like the fire licking over her.
    He still wanted it.
    Duncan released the draperies and began stripping off the heavy battle clothes he had worn throughout the day. When he was as naked as a candle flame, he drew back the draperies again and lowered himself into Amber’s bed.
    Slowly he reached out to touch her. Just before his fingertips brushed her lips, he remembered what had happened in the solar—Amber white with pain, hardly able to stand, and Cassandra’s cool words describing what had happened.
    She feels your rage. Beating her with a whip would cause less pain .
    Yet Amber hadn’t flinched the second time Duncan had touched her, when his concern for her pain had been greater than his anger at her betrayal.
    For a long time Duncan lay motionless, torn between desire and anger. Instinctively he divided his mind as though Learned, yet without Learned understanding of the danger to himself of what he did. A divided mind would soon curl back upon itself like a leaf shriveled by fire. And like a leaf, the mind would wither and die.
    Duncan forced himself to concentrate not on his bleak rage at being betrayed, but rather on his desire. Then he focused on Amber’s passion for him, a passion she had never been able to conceal.
    Erik knew I wanted you…dawn after a lifetime of night .
    The thought of being wanted like that again swept through Duncan. All that held him in check was his fear of hurting rather than arousing Amber with his touch. He wanted her hungry, not beaten, as wild for the joining of their bodies as he was.
    A wave of heat burst through Duncan as he remembered what if was like to thrust into Amber, feeling her body close around him, holding him with tight, sultry perfection.
    Breathing a word that was prayer and curse at once, Duncan speared his hand into Amber’s hair until her scalp lay warm against his palm. The burning focus of his mind was desire. The corrosive shadows he held at bay served only to make the fire even hotter by contrast.
    Amber awoke into a torrent of passion. She needed no candlelight to tell her who was lying next to her, his body hot and hard, his need too great to be described in words.
    “Duncan. My God, your hunger…”
    She tried to breathe, to talk, but all she could do was shiver as her own body changed to meet his with the speed of a falcon leaping into the sky.
    “You tremble,” Duncan said roughly. “Pain or desire?”
    She couldn’t speak for the waves of his desire breaking over her. Then his hand swept down her body, seeking answers in another, surer way.
    The sultry riches that greeted him nearly drove him over the edge.
    He moved over her with catlike swiftness, opening her legs and thrusting into her even as she arched up to him. The hot perfection of the joining undid him. With a raw cry of completion, he poured himself into her.
    But it wasn’t enough.
    He wanted to fuse their bodies together, wanted the fire to burn forever, wanted…
    Amber.
    Duncan lowered his mouth to hers and began to move again, driving into her, joining with her in the only way he would permit himself, burning with her in the heart of his fire.
    And when neither could burn any longer, they slept in the ashes of their shared passion.
    Their nightmares were also shared, a thousand cold shades of darkness and betrayal, vows that could not be kept without forswearing other vows, rage at what could not be undone, a primal hunger for all that could not be…
    Slowly Amber withdrew until she no