Page 71 of Forbidden

“Why, I will warm you, of course.”

Duncan’s smile widened. He threw off his mantle. His shirt soon followed. With a slow care that was both torment and pleasure, Amber drew the mantle back around Duncan’s shoulders and fastened it at the side.

The amber talisman he wore shimmered with an uncanny light, as though infused with Duncan’s own immense vitality. Amber bent her head and brushed her lips over the ancient talisman in silent greeting.

Only then did she give in to the temptation that haunted her, running her fingers through the cloud of dark hair on his chest. Eyes closed, smiling, kneading him as a contented cat would, she tested the muscular flesh of Duncan’s torso with fingernails like delicate, unsheathed claws.

“I love the feel of you,” Amber said softly. “When you slept so unnaturally, I spent many hours rubbing oil of amber into your skin to keep away fever.”

“Did it work?”

“Of course. Amber is noted for its ability to take fire from a body.”

“It wouldn’t work on me now,” Duncan said.

“Why not?”

“Your hands bring me fever.”

Amber didn’t doubt it. She could feel the passionate heat radiating from Duncan’s body.

And if that wasn’t enough, she had the truth of his words pouring into her through the medium of touch.

“’Tis like bathing in a magical fire,” she whispered.

“What is?”

“Touching you. Feeling your passion.”

The smile Duncan gave Amber was rather fierce, but she didn’t care. She felt the truth of him, and that truth was his restraint. He had given his vow, and he was a man who would die before he was forsworn.

“But I must confess something to you,” she whispered.

“Why? Do I look like a priest?”

Amber laughed. “Nay. You look like what you are, a warrior both fierce and sensual.”

“Then why confess to me?”

“Because I only now realized that I smoothed oil over you long after the danger of fever was past.”

Duncan’s breath caught. “Did you?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Why?”

“For the forbidden pleasure of touching you.”

One of Amber’s fingertips brushed over a male nipple. The sudden surge of pleasure that went through Duncan was as clear to her as a cry. Her fingers returned, lingered, and teased with a skill far beyond her experience, for his response was her unfailing sensual guide.

“But touching me isn’t forbidden now?” Duncan asked almost roughly.

“No. ’Tis foolish,” Amber whispered, “but not forbidden.”

“Why not?”

She bent her head and kissed first one, then the other, nipple. When she drew her tongue slowly over him, his whole body tightened with a pleasure that was nearly violent.