Page 56 of My Warrior
Her face grew hot as the blood surged in her veins. No one had ever said such a thing to her. It was unthinkable. Yet she quivered, imagining the subtle strain of his lips and tongue upon her breast. A shaft of desire as sharp as an arrow shot through her. She offered small resistance as he tipped her back against one arm, sliding his other hand across her ribs and drawing back the kirtle to bare her.
She felt the tickle of his rich mane upon her breast a moment before his mouth came down upon her nipple. He tugged gently at first, and then drew her firmly between his lips until she felt his power all the way to her toes. Nothing could have prepared her for the ecstasy of his tongue as it moistened her flesh and seemed to suck her will from her. To her horror, she actually groaned in complaint when he stopped to speak again. She was appalled to discover she’d tangled her own desperate fingers in his hair.
“Tell me, Cambria,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck, “why did you follow me? Did you think to betray me to the rebels?”
Cambria froze. His words struck like a clear bolt of lightning on a black night. She suddenly realized what he was doing. The knave was torturing her for information. He wasn’t here as her husband tonight. He was on a soldier’s mission.
She felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. Her own husband didn’t trust her.
Cursing herself for believing he could possibly be overcome with lust for her, she growled with the fury of a trapped animal and thrashed upon his lap. Although the pain of this rack had been sweet, it had obviously been contrived to elicit a confession from her, and that she wouldn’t forgive. Now she had no intention ofeverrevealing why she’d come. He could rot in hell, as far as she was concerned. Somehow she had to steel herself against his persuasion. Somehow she had to resist him and maintain control of her body.
That control lasted a good dozen heartbeats after Holden reached down determinedly and lifted one of her legs over the far side of his own, inching her kirtle up over her spread knees.
Cambria knew she was in danger. She began struggling anew, trying to bring her legs back together, but Holden’s held them apart. When he pulled her back full against him, she was immobilized more from the shock of the iron-hard evidence of his desire beneath her than the bands of his arms around her.
Holden felt her stiffen. He’d hoped she wouldn’t notice the effect she was having on him. A woman could too easily have an aroused man at her mercy. Lord, he thought as he boldly stroked his fingers along her inner thigh, closer and closer to the soft down between her legs, perhaps he wouldn’t win this fight after all. It felt as if the seams of his hose were about to burst.
“Why?” he murmured raggedly. “Why have you come?”
Cambria arched away from his seductive touch and clamped her mouth and her eyes shut as his hand hovered but inches from her nest of woman’s curls.
“Answer me.”
Cambria’s pride screamed at her to resist. She opened her mouth to protest, but when his warm palm pressed down against her loins, the words that came out were not what she intended. “Ah, God,” she moaned, despising her own weak will. “Will you cease if I tell you?”
Holden bit the inside of his cheek. She was so hot and wet and tempting, he wondered who was the more tortured. He spoke with difficulty. “Tell me,” he replied, keeping his hand firm against her.
“I came, like I told you, to watch your back,” she whispered hastily, eager for release.
He didn’t release her. “At one time, you wanted a dagger in my back,” he reminded her, easing up slightly on the pressure. “You’re certain you didn’t come to aid the rebels?”
She frowned, only half capable of coherent thought. How could he think that? She was laird of her clan. Why would she aid the rebels? “That’s a stupid question.”
“Answer it.”
She balked, but when Holden let one finger delve momentarily between the folds of her womanhood, she smothered a shriek and could not reply quickly enough. “I didn’t come to aid the rebels!” She almost wished shehadbetrayed him, and, God, she wished he wouldn’t touch her there.
“You came to protect me?”
“Yes, damn you!” Bloody hell, why wouldn’t he remove his hand?
Holden was silent for a long while, digesting what Cambria had said. If she was this adamant about Owen’s guilt and his threats, if she was so sure of it she’d left her precious Blackhaugh to follow her husband into battle, could there be some truth to her fears? He needed to find out what had transpired during her capture.
“Tell me everything about that night at the inn.”
“You didn’t listen before,” she said with a scowl. “Why would you listen now? Why should I waste my time?”
He curled his fingers down over her nest of curls again. Faith, she was a stubborn woman. “Because if you don’t, I’ll do wonderful, terrible things to you till you beg for my caresses. You don’t want that, do you?” Lord, what was he saying? This was the strangest interrogation he’d ever conducted.
Cambria didn’t doubt his threat. She’d already had a taste of his warfare. “All right, then. Let me go,” she sulked.
Holden tossed her skirt back over her knees and helped her up, still clutching to one of her wrists so she wouldn’t flee.
She told him what she knew, naturally omitting details that might incriminate her, or embarrass her, or make her seem the least bit less than perfectly innocent. And for once he listened. At least, she supposed he listened. In the dark, he might have been dozing off to her discourse, for all she knew.
When she finished, Holden spoke quietly, like the calm before a maelstrom. “Guy and Myles told a different story. They heard you threaten to kill Roger.”
She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Kill Roger?” she squeaked. “I suppose…that is, Imayhave said…”
