A Knight and White Satin. Jackie Ivie

straightened, earning a groan from the man beneath her, but he didn’t stop his rocking.

      “Pain?”

      There was the slightest smirk on his lips at the way she said it and then he slit his eyes open, caught her gaze and nodded.

      “Definite…total…pain,” he replied, and then he went back to his crooning and rocking.

      “Where?”

      The ripple of laughter went all through him and transferred from where her hands were balanced on his chest and where they were joined, until she trembled with it as well.

      “Now what?” Dallis asked.

      “Doona’ move. That’s what.”

      She wasn’t moving anything. He was. Still. Although he wasn’t humming anymore. He was still moving her up and down, increasing the speed proportionately each time. He was sucking in small gasps of breath, too, easing them out and then doing it again, making a pout each time. That was visual and stirring and showing every bit of his handsomeness. She didn’t feel remotely like weeping anymore, either. What she felt was flickers of sensation coming from where he had her linked to him, to flit about her frame and lift every bit of hair she possessed.

      “Payton?” she whispered.

      “Aye?”

      “I doona’ understand.”

      He chuckled then, caught her to him with a sit-up of motion to halt everything, groaned, and then started shaking.

      “Sweet Jesu’. I’m na’ sure I can stay this…much longer.”

      “Stay…what? Where?”

      “This!”

      He slammed his mouth against hers, pulling her into an embrace of unbreakable strength with one arm, while the other held her loins exactly where they were, and then he was moving, shifting, pulling, and tearing and making everything hurt again. And if he’d give her a moment from the assault on her mouth she’d tell him of it.

      And then she was on her back, her legs wrapped all about him, and holding for dear life as he started pummeling her body with his, leaving off any small movements to make large, heavy lunges that made the entire mattress sway while the creak of the bed was louder than ever. And he was crooning love words again between kisses.

      “Ah lass. Lass. Love. That’s it. Sweet! Sweet! Ah…Jesu’!”

      Dallis held to him as he arched upward then, filling her entire vision with a red flush happening all over him, and the deepest, most heart-rending sobbing noise came with it. Dallis had her hands full of him, her arms wrapped about him, finding that holding to him was lifting her from the mattress as well, and then he was shuddering, the massive arms holding him making the bedstead rattle for a differing reason before he collapsed heavily, pushing every available bit of air from her body since he landed directly atop her.

      “Pay…ton?”

      The name came out in two parts due to not having enough breath to say it. He groaned slightly and then snorted. Dallis tried again, and this time, she trilled a finger along his side. The response this time was a roll to the side of her with his upper body. It didn’t separate them and he was still shaking and twitching there. Dallis reddened despite herself as she looked down at them.

      “Jesu’, Mary. And Joseph. Where did you learn to tupp, wife?” He lifted his head to ask it before dropping it back to the pillows again.

      “Well!” Dallis pulled in the surprise and anger and tried shoving away from him, but that was as successful as shoving at a loaded cart would be.

      He was chuckling then, and moving his head sideways to rub his chin along her cheek. “Dinna’ take more offense, Wife. Just get the damned ring on your finger.”

      “I…” She stopped. She didn’t know how to tell him she’d sold it.

      “If you’ve lost it, I’ll have another crafted. Larger. With a larger stone. I might just make it with a chain, too. Attached to me.”

      “What? Why?”

      “Because you are…without one doubt…the most amazing woman I’ve ever had. Ever.”

      I…am?”

      “Oh, aye.”

      Dallis couldn’t believe the ripples of joy that cascaded over her at the praise. And then she stopped it. This was the Dunn-Fadden clan laird heir. She shoved again at him.

      “And cease that.”

      “But Payton. I have to wash. I have to…”

      He opened one eye and stopped every thought with the blue-lit color made easy to spot since he had both eyebrows lifted.

      “Oh, nae. You’re na’ to move. Na’ yet. Na’ for some time. And if you complain more, I may make it a larger span a-fore I allow you from my marriage bed. Jesu’! You’re that good, lass. That good. I hope I survive.”

      “Payton!”

      Chapter 4

      The disgust started the moment he disengaged himself from her and rose from her bed. Dallis knew what the sensation was and welcomed it, and then used it to temper and cover over what she’d done. She’d failed clan creed. Not only had she been taken by an enemy, but she’d failed to exact the proper revenge for it. It no longer mattered about the funds she’d used against him, or the sleepless nights she’d undergone plotting her vengeance, nor what emotion she’d vowed to show him if he dared be in her presence again. She’d schooled herself to show nothing but disdain and hatred.

      And her own body had betrayed her!

      She could hear him fussing with the basin of water at her long dresser, splashing a bit. That raised the gall, as well. He was washing the proof of her maidenhood from himself. Her blood…not his.

      It was better to stay buried with her face in the mattress than witness any of it. Maybe that way, it would all stay hidden.

      “Wife?”

      The title was smoothly said and in a low grumble of voice, alerting her to his approach. Her back tightened.

      “My name is Dallis,” she replied in a stiff voice.

      He chuckled and the mattress bowed with his weight.

      “I ken as much,” was his reply.

      “Then use it.”

      There was silence for a bit and then there was a slap of a wet cloth upon her backside, followed by her gasp. And that was accompanied by a jerk in the bed he couldn’t help but feel.

      “Here.”

      His warning was too late, but she should have known a man whelped by a she-wolf had little manners and less sense.

      “Wash yourself.”

      “Nae.”

      “We’ll work on obedience to your husband after we work on your lying tongue,” he replied.

      Dallis pushed her teeth together to halt the immediate response. She couldn’t do anything about the pull of breath that came with it that was loud enough he heard it. And would know what caused it.

      “So do as I say. Wash.”

      She shook her head, rolling her cheek against the satin sheet.

      There was a moment respite before what had to be his hand came down on her buttock. Fully and with a loud slap.

      Dallis whirled onto her back, making the mattress sway as much as their mating had, and she was glaring at him when it was done. He wasn’t witnessing her expression, primarily because he wasn’t looking at her face. He was looking at her bosom and liking what he saw.

      She pulled at the bedding and almost had