Page 91 of Forbidden

“Do you want me less now than yesterday or the day before?”

Her eyes closed as she made a despairing sound.

“Amber?” Duncan pressed.

“I want you more, not less,” she said in a low voice.

Duncan’s smile flashed. Then he saw the tears slipping from beneath Amber’s closed lashes and the smile vanished as though it had never been. He urged his horse closer to hers.

“Why do you cry?” he asked.

Slowly Amber shook her head. Warm, hard fingers tilted her chin up.

“Look at me, precious Amber.”

A torrent of Duncan’s emotions poured into Amber with his touch. Even as she drank them, she knew she must stop. The longer she knew Duncan, the more she understood what taking her would cost him.

His honor.

“Won’t you tell me why you cry?” Duncan asked.

Amber’s tears simply fell more rapidly as she sensed his concern.

“Do you feel I dishonored you with my touch?” he asked.

“Nay,” she said.

The sound of Amber’s voice was thinned by the restraint she had to exert to keep herself from fleeing Duncan.

Or from throwing herself into his arms.

“Are you afraid I will take you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Would giving me the Paradise within your body be such a terrible thing?”

“No.”

Amber took a deep, aching breath and opened her eyes. Duncan was watching her with such tender concern that she longed to reassure him.

“For me it would not be a terrible thing,” she said in a shaking voice. “For you…ah, dark warrior, for you I fear it would be the beginning of Hell rather than Paradise.”

Duncan smiled. “Fear not. You will please me to the soles of my feet. I know it as surely as I know the hammering of my own blood at the thought.”

The sound Amber made was half laugh, half cry of despair.

“And then what?” she asked. “What if I am the maiden you don’t believe I am?”

“I will keep my vow.”

“We will marry?”

“Aye,” he said.

Amber took another deep breath. “And in time you will hate me.”

At first Duncan thought she was teasing him. Then he realized she was not.