Medieval 02 - Forbidden

here you ache.”
    The warm, teasing exhalation of Duncan’s breath caressed Amber’s knees.
    “There?” he asked.
    “No,” she said huskily.
    But Amber, too, was smiling, for in shifting position Duncan had brushed accidentally against her.Though the contact was barely more distinct than a breath, it swept through her like dawn through night, touching every part of her, teaching her about her husband and herself.
    Duncan was enjoying his bride in ways that surprised even him. Though his hunger was a savage ache, it was chained by a greater need to explore the sensuous witch who lay watching him with smoldering eyes.
    Knowing that, Amber felt less anxious about playing a lover’s game whose rules were unknown to her. Nor did she fear any longer that Duncan wouldn’t take her.
    The need in him was all the greater for being so fiercely chained.
    “Are you certain this isn’t the place?” Duncan asked. “I’m told a woman’s knees are quite sensitive.”
    The words were accompanied by another immaterial caress that made Amber gasp, for she distinctly felt Duncan’s mustache as well as his breath between her knees.
    “Did you like that?” he asked.
    Amber nodded, making candlelight twist and twine like a lover in her long hair.
    “I can’t hear you,” Duncan said.
    “And I can’t feel you,” she said, watching him through half-lowered eyelids.
    “Are you bargaining with me, wife?”
    “Aye.”
    “Then tell me precisely where you ache and I shall soothe you.”
    Amber started to speak but her voice dried up.
    “I…cannot,” she whispered.
    Duncan saw the color rising from her breasts to her cheeks and understood.
    “I keep forgetting,” he said in a low voice. “You fly so high, so quickly, yet you were a virgin only hours ago. Forgive me.”
    “Only if you touch me.”
    Duncan’s head came up. He looked into his bride’s eyes and saw his own hunger reflected.
    Yet he wasn’t touching her.
    “You want me,” he said.
    The surprise in Duncan’s voice made Amber want to laugh and pummel him at the same time.
    “Haven’t I been telling you just that?” she asked.
    “But I thought it was my desire coursing through you.”
    “Sometimes, dark warrior, you have a very thick skull.”
    Duncan smiled and skimmed the back of his hand lightly over the triangle of dark golden curls.
    “Is this where you ache?” he asked huskily.
    The sound Amber made was ragged. The flexing of her knee was a silent invitation for greater intimacy.
    Yet Duncan wanted more. He needed it. He had to be certain to his very core that Amber was seduced by her own desire rather than overcome by his.
    “If you want me within your warm keep, you must open the gate yourself.”
    There was a hesitation, a broken sigh, and Amber shifted her legs.
    Duncan unfastened his mantle and cast it aside.
    “More,” Duncan whispered.
    Amber moved again, though a flush of color was once more climbing up her cheeks.
    With swift, impatient movements, Duncan undid his shirt and dropped it onto the floor. The hungry, approving look he received from his bride did nothing to cool the hot race of blood through his body.
    Nor did the sight of his bride lying half opened before him, her skin gleaming like a pearl against the fur.
    But it wasn’t enough.
    “Still more,” he coaxed.
    “Duncan…”
    The word was half protest and half demand that he cease teasing her.
    She shifted slowly, legs pale and elegant, trembling as she felt herself becoming more and more vulnerable with each motion of her legs.
    Just as Duncan bent down to caress Amber, he saw faint marks on the otherwise flawless skin of her inner thighs. When he realized how she had come by those marks, his mouth flattened into a bitter downward curve.
    “Your keep is still too well defended,” Duncan said. “The gate must be open wide. Very wide.”
    Amber’s cheeks were fiery now.
    “Why?” she whispered.
    “Last time I forced your legs apart,” Duncan said in a low voice.
    “Nay,” she said.
    “Aye!” he countered savagely. “I can see the marks left by my hands.”
    “But—”
    “If you would have me lie between your legs, you must make room for me willingly, knowing only your own desire.”
    Passion raked over Amber at the idea of once more having Duncan lie between her legs, of feeling ecstasy ravish him as he spent himself inside her.
    A pulse of pleasure leaped and burst within Amber at the thought. Heat radiated up through her whole body as a secret