Page 57 of My Warrior
Unprepared for the growl of anger from Lord Holden, she was even more unprepared for his next move. In one moment she was standing beside him, and in the next, he had picked her up off her feet and tossed her onto her back across the fur-covered pallet. His palms pressed her shoulders hard into the mattress.
“You little liar,” he said tightly. “I’ll have the truth from you, the entire truth, if I have to torment you half the night!”
Holden felt furious with her now, enraged with her deceiving tongue, hurt by her betrayal. He dropped his hands to the neckline of her threadbare kirtle and tore the frail garment asunder, baring her for his onslaught. He wouldn’t hurt her, of course—he never let his temper interfere with his control—but he’d wring the facts from her if it was the last thing he did.
Cambria could feel Holden’s rage as she thrashed beneath him. What was wrong with him? She’d told him the truth about the inn…well, most of it. What more did he want? She felt completely vulnerable now, lying there half-naked, her heart beating a rapid cadence against her ribs.
She swung at him with her fists. A few of her punches landed on firm flesh before his arms snaked around her wrists. Then he settled his formidable weight upon her hips, and she found herself pinned to the pallet. Damn him, he was straddling her like a palfrey.
What he did next astonished her. Slowly, deliberately, he raised one of her fists and pried it open with his strong fingers. He nipped the palm of her hand with his teeth, and then let his tongue trail across her skin until he was licking at the webbing between her fingers. She gasped at the current that rushed through her as he grazed the length of each of her fingers with his teeth.
“You threatened to kill him, didn’t you?” His voice was dangerously soft.
Holden’s body was fast becoming dangerously hard. He used all his power of concentration to ignore the lusty woman-flesh so warm against his loins as Cambria squirmed beneath him. He joined her wrists above her head with one of his hands, freeing the other to do as he pleased. Wary of her sharp teeth, he caught her jaw firmly and turned her head to the side.
Cambria stiffened as she felt his warm breath upon her cheek. Then, without warning, his tongue delved deep into the hollow of her ear. She nearly bucked off the bed.
“Did you threaten to kill Roger?” he whispered.
“Aye!” she hissed, angry at the way her body was responding, the way it actually craved his touch. God, she’d tell him anything if she could just have her control back.
“Good,” he said smugly. “Now you’re telling me the truth.”
She tried to shake her head free, but he impertinently licked her eyelids with the tip of his tongue as he turned her head to the other side.
“Myles and Guy told me they heard sounds from the room,” Holden breathed, making her cringe in anticipation, “sounds of heavy objects striking the wall.”
Cambria clenched her teeth together so tightly she thought they would crack. She wished she had a heavy object right now.
“Did you throw anything at Roger?”
His words tickled her neck, but in spite of bracing herself for what she knew was to come, her body still betrayed her, writhing in delicious agony when his mouth closed over her ear.
“Nay!” she sobbed.
“Nay? You didn’t throw anything?”
“Aye!” she said fiercely. “Aye, I threw anything I could find—a candlestick, a pot—“
“A dagger?” he asked carefully, releasing her jaw. “Hmm?”
He moved the fingers of his free hand along her collarbone, then lower, brushing the crest of one nipple with his palm. She winced at her body’s eager response. He lowered his head to the other breast and impudently licked across the nipple, blowing a cool breath upon it that stiffened it instantly. She moaned.
“Damn you, what do you want from me?”
He shut his eyes tightly. He knew what he wanted from her. Her uneven breathing and involuntary groans incited him almost beyond his control. Aye, he knew exactly what he wanted.
“I want the truth,” he said instead.
“I didn’t kill your knight.”
Holden’s voice grew deathly quiet. “Did Roger touch you?”
She hesitated, then chose to deliberately misunderstand him. “Of course he touched me,” she muttered. “I’ve told you he dragged me up to the room of the inn.”
“Cambria,” Holden growled in warning.
He slid his hand down her belly. She tried to roll over onto her stomach, but his thighs trapped her. He buried his fingers boldly in her curling thatch of hair and pressed firmly against her. Her hips answered him, pushing upward of their own accord.
