A Knight and White Satin. Jackie Ivie

      “I said, wash yourself.”

      Now, he was talking to her bosom.

      “When you’ve gone.”

      He pulled on the coverlet she held, raising her into a sitting position with the motion and proving the power in just one arm, as well as her obstinacy in not letting go.

      “What makes you think I’ll leave?” he asked.

      “You got what you wanted. You’ll leave.”

      He swung his gaze to hers and even steeled for the contact, she had to force her jaw not to slacken when she got it. She told herself it was due to his handsomeness and not any other reason, and then worked on believing it.

      “Do you na’ listen, either?”

      Dallis straightened her back, which was pure stupidity, since that just made every bit of her jut right at him, catching his glance before he moved it back to her face again.

      “Say something I wish to hear. I’ll listen.”

      “You’re a bonny one, Wife. Right bonny. I’m man enough to appreciate it. And hold on to it. You ken?”

      “That is na’ what I wish to hear.”

      Both sides of his mouth quirked, and the line beside his lips followed as he smiled. And she didn’t need to note any of that!

      “I suppose you’re wishing it was your intended husband in your bed and at your side…and with the right to your body?”

      “Nae man has the right to my body. Including you. Especially you.”

      It would help if he wasn’t rubbing the sheet between his thumb and fingers with a mesmerizing tempo, right between her breasts. It would also be beneficial if her body wouldn’t note that he was doing so. Nearly touching her. And all that was made worse when she couldn’t prevent the tightening of her breast tips at the possibility of such an event.

      “And with the proper size and prowess to grant such satisfaction to you that your skin still tells of it?”

      If there was a purgatory ripe enough to place him in, she hoped he’d fall into it and then stay there!

      “I dinna’—”, she began.

      “Kilchurning is too small to satisfy you, Wife. Much too small. Near shamefully so.”

      “How would you ken?” Dallis shot back.

      “Wenches talk. And gossip. They’re heavy with their praise, while blunt with their stings.”

      “You listen to women’s gossip?” Now it was her turn to put amusement in the words and she did so with such satisfaction, she was probably glowing with that. Which was a better thing than the other reason, the sensual response he was lifting in her. That she was definitely keeping hidden.

      “When they’re beneath me and I’ve failed to keep their lips busy with something else…aye.”

      Dallis’s face fell. She felt it. “Get out.” The tone she used would have made Leroy’s eyes puff up with unshed tears. She already knew that. The man holding her sheet didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest.

      “When I’m good and ready to. And na’ one moment a-fore.”

      “Now, Dunn-Fadden. Out.”

      “We’ve been wed years, Dallis.” He emphasized her name, and she tried to tell herself that at least he’d used it this time. “I’m your husband. Dunn-Fadden clan…which makes you Dunn-Fadden clan. Legal and right and justly.”

      “You are na’ my husband!”

      “Would you be carin’ for a repeat? I’m man enough to bed you again. And willing, as well. Or, perhaps you’d like to test that.”

      She couldn’t control the response her body was giving him, and watched as he saw it. All of it. He scanned from the tight pinch of her nipples to the slight opening of her lips to gasp breath in and then caught and held her gaze from beneath lowered eyelids. It wasn’t her fault! She wasn’t versed in what to do when a man lowered his voice, moved a fraction closer to her. Or maybe it was the pulling on the sheet she held that took her closer to him, but it had the same effect, and all of it was to demonstrate the status of his arousal. Dallis had never been around a virile male before Payton Dunn-Fadden. The Caruth clan made certain of that. And she’d never had a man place that manliness in her face before. She didn’t even know they did such.

      She settled with shaking her head.

      “You surrender? Already?” He was pulling her closer as he said it, and she either had to go with the sheet or give it over and be naked. Either was bad.

      “I doona’ wish a…repeat,” she whispered just before knocking her shoulder into his chest. Both his arms went around her, locking her where she was, and then she knew what was worse.

      He snorted, the air from it tormented her shoulder while what had to be his mouth touched at her neck. “Your frame says different.”

      “We both ken…I canna’ prevent…you from taking me,” Dallis stammered it in a throaty whisper. “You’re too…strong.”

      “I’m fond of your wording even if it’s a lie.”

      “Payton—.” What was meant as a curt tone, came out breathless and warm.

      “Aye?” he murmured against her skin.

      “Why…are you doing this? Now?”

      “Why na? I’ve an estate to secure and a wife to do it with. And I find her womanly and ripe and verra pleasing to the eyes. And the touch.”

      “Nae, I…” She was losing her thought to his tongue against her shoulder as the spot sparked, and then warmed, markedly and rapidly.

      “And now I wish an heir.”

      “A…bairn? You wish a bairn?”

      “What man does na’?”

      He was rolling her in his arms, placing her fully against his chest and putting her in a twist since she refused to split her legs to straddle him.

      “But—.”

      “You’ve too many words and none of them worth the listen,” he replied.

      She shoved at him and gained herself stronger bands about her torso. And not much else. “But…we already did that,” she stammered.

      Payton hooted what was probably laughter and it lifted her with it. It also lifted his mouth from her. “Once? You believe I’ll gain an heir with but once?”

      She nodded.

      He grunted, settled back onto the bed, and then pooled her into the cavity of his thighs, causing a contact with his arousal that speared her in the lower back. And that caused him to stammer. “’Tis possible…I’ve heard. True enough. Dallis, lass. With enough luck. I’ve about spent my share of luck. Aside from which…I want to.”

      “Well, I don’t.”

      “Jesu’, Wife. Do you never tell the truth?”

      He had every right for the confident way he said it, since she’d taken off shoving at him and had her fingers threaded through his midnight hair and was sliding her own mouth along his jaw preparatory to securing his kiss.

      “It is…the truth.”

      She lost the last word against his mouth as her lips melded to his, and the moan that escaped them probably had more of her voice to it than his. She’d worry about that later. After he left. And when her conscience returned from wherever it had hidden.

      “The next thing you’ll be speaking is that you wish it was Kilchurning gracing your bed and pleasuring your body.”

      “Kil…churning…”