the rest of his life, starting as soon as she slept.
'Yes, and I will feel uncomfortable unless I can reciprocate.' She placed herself under his arm, and rested her face against his chest. His body thrumming, he laid back and held her close, vowing he wouldn't ask her to make him come, even while feeling her breaths on him and shuddering….
She began walking her fingers down his chest.
His nerves were screaming, his mind begging…
'Ah, God, yes!' His back arched, his whole body rigid, when she handled him.
She stroked him as they'd done in the coach, her grip hard, as he liked it. He couldn't make her stop—he was too far gone. Apologies in advance.
She moved so slowly. Tormenting him up and down. Hard, tight, but slow. Torture. Didn't matter. He'd still come. He'd be insane, but…
His voice low and wretched, he rasped, 'Whatever you do—whatever I do—doona take your hand from me….'
'I won't. But I thought,' she began in a whisper before flicking her tongue against his chest, 'I should lick and kiss you now?'
The thought of her licking his—
He erupted in her grasp, yelling out, heels digging into the bed and back arching, pumping his seed onto his torso. He reached around to seize her breast—clutching it, pawing it—and bent down to take her lips and tongue in a raw kiss. He ground against her hand, relentless, groaning between thrusts of his tongue, then tensing until there was nothing left of him.
It seemed hours before the world righted itself, and he finally stopped shuddering and released her breast and lips. 'Did I hurt you? Did I hurt your arm?'
'No, not at all,' she answered, her voice unsteady.
He put his fingers under her chin to bring her face up again, needing to know how she reacted to his total loss of control—and to her first sight of a man spending. Would she be disgusted? Upset?
No, her eyes were excited, her breathing rapid, as if she'd just witnessed a miracle. His brows drew together. He wasn't a modest man, but he didn't know how to feel about her expression of utter delight for him spilling in front of her. Should've been a means to an end, something that occurred as it would've in the coach, but she looked as though it was a trick she'd want him to perform every night for her. Worse, she looked at him… differently.
He pulled his shaft from her hand and his arm from under her, then left the bed, swooping the top sheet with him.
And he certainly didn't like that he had to wipe himself off while her gaze followed his every movement, her eyes wide and curious. He threw the sheet in the corner, then returned to bed. Not close to her.
If she noticed, she didn't act like it. She crawled to him, putting her head back on his chest. 'That was amazing,' she whispered.
'It's no' exactly a feat.'
'Why didn't you make love to me? Am I too small?'
'No,' he said, in half truth. He'd never thought he would curse his size before he'd been between her spread legs, glaring down at himself.
'Then why didn't you? Were you afraid to get me with child?'
'That's no' the reason.' He wished that was the reason.
'Then what?'
'You still have your virtue. Your future husband will demand that.'
'Husband? I don't know if you realize this, but being kidnapped by a gang of mercenaries severely curtailed my husband hunt.'
'You could go to America. Marry a rich man there.'
'I don't want to go to America.'
'I read your letters, Anna.'
She stiffened. 'Why are you telling me this?'
'I read the one from the railroader's daughter writing about her brother.' The brother had planned to ask Llorente for Annalía's hand. 'I've heard of their name before. They have more money than the queen. You could go there—'
'Aleix already turned down his suit.'
'Did he, then?' he said, his voice deadened. Why should that surprise him? Court had obviously lost his mind during those moments when he'd thought, What if I just keep her? Lost his mind thinking she might come to want him for more. 'Still, there are options, but only if you're…intact.'
'Would you demand that of me?' She rolled over on her stomach and propped her chin on her hand. 'If you were to be my husband?'
I'd take you any way I could get you, he thought again. 'I doona consider those kinds of things.'
'Why?'
'Because I never plan to marry.'
'Did a woman hurt you?'
'No.'
'I don't believe you. Why else wouldn't you want a woman to have all your own?'
'No woman's hurt me.'
'So the issue is that you don't want one woman. You want your harem.'
If she only knew…. After tonight, she'd ruined him. Her hands brushing her nipples as he took her with his mouth. Inward shake. 'Why settle for one when you can have many?'
'It isn't as if men stop having other women after marriage.'
With you as his wife, this one would.
'But it's been repeatedly explained to me that though a man might require others, he has the need to possess one woman to call his own, the need to protect her and any children they have. It must be so, because both marriages and affairs go on. If you ignore that need, you'll miss out on so much, MacCarrick,' she said softly but with conviction. She curled up next to his side again and laid her arm over his chest. His eyes briefly closed with pleasure.
'Enough of this talk.' Perhaps before he let her go, he would explain to her that not all men were like that. That she should expect better.
Let her go.
Let passionate, brave, beautiful Anna go. She'd come along as punishment, no doubt. For all his sins. She was his perfect torment.
'So after you reunite me with my brother, you will just leave me behind like all the others.'
He didn't hesitate. 'Aye.'
'Then I thank you for not ruining me further. Because I will have a family and children.'
Barely hiding his exasperation, he asked, 'Then why had you no' married earlier?'
'I won't tell you—you'll think I'm silly.'
'Tell me.' When she didn't answer, he squeezed her to him.
She sighed. 'I was waiting for someone…for someone I could love. I know you probably think it's a fanciful notion, but I've seen it.'
Court had too. His parents had been mad for each other. 'Then you could marry where you chose to?'
She nodded against his chest. 'In the beginning, yes, but I couldn't find anyone, so the choice was taken from me. After Pascal, I understand how vulnerable I am as long as I'm unwed.'
He'd avoided asking her about her future because he'd known he wouldn't like her answer, but now he said, 'What will happen to you once your brother retrieves you?'
She yawned, then murmured in a drowsy voice, 'He'll take me to Castile and get the family to find a husband for me who'll overlook the scandal. I suppose it won't be so bad.' She ran her smooth thigh over his legs, relaxing against him, her body warming for sleep. 'MacCarrick,' she whispered, drifting, 'if I'd known husbands touch like you do, I'd have been much more eager to wed.'
Court, the blackheart, the mercenary who'd sell his sister for a pound, just took a direct hit to the chest.
