He hadn’t intended for this to be anything but a kiss, an indication to her of what was to come. But he couldn’t stop himself from deepening the kiss. And she kissed him back with a wild abandon he’d sensed within her from the first. She pressed her body to his and opened her mouth wider to allow his tongue to explore hers. His hands slid down her back, caressing her shoulders, the sharp incline into the small of her back, and down further, onto the curves from which he’d been unable to take his eyes every time she turned her back to him. They were as luscious as he’d imagined. He spanned his fingers until they covered and tucked underneath those curves, drawing her into him.
She moaned under the ministrations of his hands, his tongue, his lips and without thinking, he lifted her and she slid her legs around his hips. She trembled in his arms—this strong warrior woman was vulnerable and needy for him. He groaned as his body heated and hardened under the knowledge of her surrender and his need for her—raw and unadulterated. He moved her back until she was pressed against the cold, flint wall, and ground his sex against hers. His lips sunk then to her neck, kissing and nipping as he went. Then the moon shifted from behind a cloud and showered its silvery light on the countryside, illuminating Rowena in its beams. She opened her eyes and looked out through the unshuttered window and froze. He drew back and followed her gaze out to the moon that illuminated the high ridge with its solitary tower that overlooked the castle, down to the fields that surrounded it. He turned to her once more, his heart was thumping, his mind and body narrowed to one purpose—possessing her.
She jammed her hands between their bodies and let her legs slide to the floor. She shook her head against his chest. He drew in a deep breath and let his hands fall.
“No, I can’t, I don’t want this,” she said, shaking her head again and pursing her lips as if unable to say anything further. She looked up at him only briefly before picking up her skirts and running up the winding steps that led to her solar.
He hesitated a moment, trying to regain control over his body, trying to understand how such a passionate person as Rowena could have stopped the natural progression of their love-making. He didn’t understand but, by God, he was going to. He followed her up the stairs.
The door was closed and he knocked. There was no answer so he pushed it open. “Rowena?”
She turned from the window where she was standing before the open shutters. She looked younger than her years, and vulnerable. “I thought…”
He stepped inside and closed the door. “You thought I would burst in on you whether you wished it or not? No, my lady, I don’t do that. If you tell me to go, I will go. Do you?” She didn’t answer but he saw the shake of her head in the moonlight. He went and stood behind her. “What is the matter, Rowena? Tell me what haunts you? What is it you’re so afraid of?”
He put his hands gently on her shoulders and followed her line of vision, out beyond the shutters to the tower that stood atop the hill. It would have been used as a beacon in years past, but now it was a near ruin.
“I’m scared, Saher.”
“You, scared? I don’t believe you’re afraid of anything.”
“Oh, but I am.”
“Tell me.”
“I’m afraid of being claimed, being owned, and then,” she turned away from the window to face him. “Of being abandoned. You must go… please.” She placed her hands on his shoulders. He lifted her face to the moonlight and kissed her gently on the lips.
“I’ll go, but you have no reason to fear being abandoned. Why would I? How could I? You are my wife. What is it really you afear? Is it that I’ll turn into a brute like your sister’s husband?”
She shook her head and looked out over the land, now flooded with moonlight, out to the broken-turreted tower. He followed her gaze. What was it that drew her attention so?
“Please go.” Her voice was so uncharacteristically soft, so low, so plaintive that he could not bring himself to voice any words of objection.
Slowly, he thought to himself. He was meant to seduce her slowly. But his lust for her body had overridden his sense. He stepped away. “I don’t know what you’re hiding, Rowena, what fear that lies deep in your soul, but I will find it, I will eradicate it and I will claim you, heart and soul and body, to be mine.”
“To do with as you wish?” Bitterness and fear edged her tone.
“To do with, as you wish. Not me. Because, believe me, you will want everything I have to offer. I can feel it on your skin, can hear it in your soft breath, as it pants into my ear, wanting me.”