Medieval 02 - Forbidden

knew that she was pouring oil rather than water on the fire of his need.
    “Show me how to ease you,” Amber said urgently. “I can’t bear the hunger tearing at you!”
    The sound Duncan made then was indeed that of a man in torment. His hands swept down Amber’s body to her hips. Strong fingers clenched there for an instant, sending pleasure lancing through her. Before she could do more than take a swift breath, his hands were sweeping down her legs to her feet and then back up again.
    Amber hardly noticed the cool bite of autumn on her legs, for the anticipation in Duncan was spinning through her, driving out all else. When his hand pressed between her legs, tested the liquid heat of her body, and found it ready, his wild elation speared through her.
    With it came a piercing pleasure that was hers,for in the act of withdrawing his touch, he flicked over the aching nub of her own need. Instinctively she sought another such caress, twisting beneath Duncan in silent demand.
    “Aye,” he said savagely. “I can wait no longer either.”
    His hands clamped on Amber’s thighs, stilling and opening her at the same instant. In the next instant he drove into her.
    A searing pain clenched Amber’s body, only to be burned away by the fierce pleasure that pulsed through Duncan as he felt himself fully sheathed in her. Then came a moment of utter stillness and disbelief.
    Duncan struggled to control the wildness hammering in his blood, but it was impossible. Amber was a velvet fire surrounding him tightly, caressing every bit of his aching length. With a broken sound, he began to move, driving for completion within her body.
    His release broke over Amber like a storm. She let out a long, ragged sigh and closed her arms around him, feeling both the ecstasy and the wildness pulsing through him into her.
    Yet as soon as the last pulse was spent, there came not peace, but unhappiness. Duncan rolled aside and saw what he feared he would—his lover’s blood bright on his body.
    “ I hurt you ,” Duncan said through his teeth. “God’s wounds, I never meant that! What is wrong with me? I’ve never been like that with a woman!”
    “Nay,” Amber said, touching Duncan’s cheek. “I’m not hurt.”
    “You’re bleeding!”
    “Of course. ’Tis the nature of virgins to bleed when they first take a man into their body.”
    The look on Duncan’s face would have been amusing, if he hadn’t been so clearly horrified.
    “You were a virgin?” he asked roughly.
    “How can you doubt it?” Amber asked, half smiling. “You wear the truth of it like a crimson banner.”
    “But you responded so quickly, so wildly, like a falcon that has been flown many times.”
    “Did I?”
    “God’s teeth, yes!”
    “I wouldn’t know,” Amber said simply.
    Duncan closed his eyes and measured the extent of what he had done. She had been a virgin, she had given herself to him…and he had given her nothing in return but pain.
    He was certain of it. He had felt the tearing instant as clearly as she must have, but he had denied it even as he had felt it.
    If I take Amber’s maidenhead, I will marry her .
    With or without your memory ?
    Aye .
    I will hold you to your vow .
    With fingers that trembled, Duncan pulled Amber’s clothing into place so that she was fully covered.
    She watched with troubled eyes, not understanding. His touch told her that he was angry and sad and disgusted all at once, but touch alone couldn’t tell her why.
    “Duncan,” Amber whispered. “What is wrong?”
    He looked at her with eyes that were more dark than light, more shadowed than she had ever seen them. His mouth was twisted with the same dark emotion.
    “You were untouched,” Duncan said harshly, “and I rutted on you like an animal. God’s teeth, I should be whipped!”
    “Nay! You didn’t force me.”
    “I didn’t pleasure you, either.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Amber’s look of confusion did nothing to restore Duncan’s self-respect.
    “The pleasure you knew in Ghost Glen,” he said, “you knew none of it today.”
    “I knew your pleasure most keenly today. Is that wrong?”
    Duncan made a growling sound of disgust and turned away, unable to bear the sight of himself reflected in her anxious golden eyes any longer.
    “Dark warrior?” Amber whispered.
    The raggedness of her voice haunted Duncan. The merest touch of her fingers on his wrist chained his great strength.
    “Tell me what I’ve done wrong,” she