Page 140 of Forbidden

The sound was more a caress than it was a word, for she spoke with her lips pressed against the pulse that beat in his neck.

Duncan’s body stilled for an instant before he shuddered and tightened with a different kind of tension than that of a warring mind. He felt an answering ripple of sensation pass through Amber and knew how clearly she felt his desire.

Yet he knew now that it was alsoherdesire. In the brief time of their marriage, she not only responded when he cast the sensual lure, she wanted him whether or not he was touching her.

She came to him when he stood brooding and watching the rain through the keep’s narrow windows.

If she awakened before he did, she curled against him, stroking her slender hands the length of his body and laughing softly when he rose to meet her touch.

Each day before dinner she rode with him, sharing her knowledge of the forest and fields and the people of the keep.

In the evenings she dismissed his attendant and bathed Duncan with great pleasure, teaching him the Learned way of purifying the flesh and then shivering with delight when he taught her how the Saracen sultans bathed.

And always her eyes brightened when he came to her after hearing the complaints of serf and villein in the morning. She smiled with happiness when she turned and saw him standing in a doorway, watching her decipher ancient manuscripts.

In a thousand ways she came to him, telling him how much she was pleased to be his mate.

“You are sunlight when all else is rain,” Duncan said.

More tears seeped from Amber’s eyes to glide hotly over Duncan’s skin. He shifted onto his back, pulling her close against his side.

“Without you,” he whispered, “I don’t know how I could have survived the battleground that is my mind.”

“Dark warrior…”

Pain twisted in Amber, squeezing her throat shut more surely than tears. The words of love she wanted to give Duncan were fire burning within her silence.

Blindly Amber moved to lie even more closely against her husband’s body. His heat and power were a lure that grew greater every hour she spent with him. The thought of losing Duncan was a dagger turning in her soul.

“Duncan,” she whispered.

Amber’s ragged voice and the hot glide of her tears against Duncan’s shoulder sent a wave of tenderness through him. Gently he stroked her hair. She shifted and a moist heat traced the length of Duncan’s jaw.

For an instant he thought it was her tears. Then he understood that it was the tip of her tongue in a lover’s caress.

“You tempt me,” Duncan said huskily.

A ripple of pleasure went through Amber, a sweet echo of the sensual anticipation sweeping through Duncan. He no longer fought the wild surging of his desire when she touched him, for he no longer worried whose hunger rose first to the sensual lure and whose followed.

Duncan had learned that Amber’s passion was a fire that burned brightly whether alone or entwined with his.

Small teeth delicately tested the pad of muscle on Duncan’s shoulder. Hidden within the caress was a sensual tasting of his skin. Surrounding and enhancing the kiss was a shivering sigh.

“Do you want me, precious Amber?”

Another trembling sigh.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Yet when Duncan moved to hold her, she pulled away.

“No,” she whispered.

“It appears you are of two minds,” Duncan said, smiling. “Is there anything I can do to—”

His teasing words broke over a groan of pleasure as Amber’s leg moved to lie between his.

“The flower is already blooming,” Duncan said thickly. “I can feel its heat.”