Page 31 of The Mercenary

Opening his eyes and spinning toward her, Guy propped himself up on his elbow. The sight of her auburn tresses, tumbling down around her breasts, was too great a temptation, and he took hold of a lock, twirling it gently around his fingers. His hand brushed against a very full breast with each twirl.

“I knew to what you referred,” he admitted.

“Why do you do that?”

He allowed his hand to linger on her covered breast a bit longer each time he wrapped her hair around his fingers. Inching closer and closer to the center of the mound, he finally found his mark. As he’d expected, her nipple hardened beneath his hand.

“I love the color of your hair, the feel of it beneath my fingers. When it was covered, I imagined it would be a soft brown. But nay, this suits you more. Bold, like my lady wife.”

She swallowed.

“Not that.” Her eyes begged him not to make her say the words, so he relented and did it for her.

“Ahh, you mean, why do I allow my finger to caress your hardened nipple with each pass?”

Pink stained both of her fair cheeks. “Aye.”

Dropping the pretense of toying with her hair, though he did enjoy doing so, Guy tossed the tresses aside so he might lavish his attention on Sabine’s breasts. He rubbed his thumb back and forth, easily feeling her arousal even through the linen shift, then took her nipple between his fingers and pinched, ever so slightly.

“You said you would wait until I offered myself to you,” she said.

“Mmmm . . .” He cupped her then, nearly overwhelmed by the need to do so without any offending material between them. “I do believe you already did?”

Her eyes widened.

“The very night you asked for me to take you.” He clarified, “The night you blackmailed me.”

Leaning toward her, so close he could smell the mint on her breath, Guy removed his hand from her chest.

“Does that mean . . .”

Again, she did not put what she wanted into words. No matter, he had plenty of words for what he would like them to do together.

“Does that mean I will finally taste the sweetness of your lips? Continue my exploration of your body, your breasts? Or that I will slide into you and then spend this night making love to the woman who is already mine, in the eyes of both God and man?”

He almost felt sorry for her.

Guy should not do this. His words tortured both of them. By God’s own nails, he had never wanted anything more than to do every last thing he’d just described.

But she would ask for it.

Sabine nodded.

And because he was a bastard, Guy opened his mouth and very deliberately licked his lips, wetting them. “Nay,” he said, waiting for her reaction. “I’d not hold you to that early offer. ’Twas made out of desperation.”

Lying back down, he forced his eyes to close once more.

“Next time, I’d have the offer be made out of desire instead.”

He smiled at the strangled sound his dear wife made.

Chapter 15

Sabine had never felt less refreshed. Sitting up, she groaned. Guy was gone.

The light streaming in through the window alerted her to the hour, but although she’d slept later than usual, she hadn’t slept much. It had taken her most of the night to drift off to sleep. Even after Guy’s breathing had turned slow and steady with sleep, she’d lain awake, shocked that he’d found rest when she could not.

At one point, he’d shifted toward her in his sleep, and Sabine could not resist staring at him. His features looked so much softer in sleep. Lips that he’d wet, no doubt intentionally, luring her in as she watched. Her eyes had wandered lower, to the marking on his arm she’d always wondered about, a fleur-de-lis etched in black. Sabine watched as his muscles shifted beneath his flesh every time he moved.