Page 39 of The Laird's Masked Passion

Colin held still. “Say nay, and I stop.”

Her lips moved, but no sound came. He brushed his thumb once, lightly, feeling her pebbled nipple through the dainty fabric. Her body answered before her pride could forbid it. A tremor ranthrough her, small but unmistakable. Confusion filled her face so sweetly, so fiercely, that desire hit him harder than he liked.

“This is impossible,” she whispered.

“What is?”

“That.” Her voice had gone thin. “Whatever that was.”

“That was yer body telling ye yer maither didnae ken every truth.”

“The marital bed isnae about pleasure fer women.”

The words were spoken as fact, but her eyes pleaded with him to contradict them. So he did.

“It can be.”

She stared at him.

“Itshouldbe,” he added, more roughly than he intended.

For a moment neither moved. The fire snapped softly. Outside the narrow window, the castle settled into night around them, all stone and shadow and guarded doors. In the bed beneath him, his wife looked up as if he had placed an impossible country before her and told her it had always existed.

Colin drew his hand away.

She blinked. “What are ye daeing?”

“Sleeping.”

He rolled off her, stood, and walked to the other side of the bed. Elspeth pushed herself up on her elbows, with her hair loose around her shoulders, her lips parted, her face flushed with fear, anger, and a bewilderment so complete he nearly smiled again.

“S-sleeping?” she repeated.

“Aye.”

“But ye—” She stopped.

He pulled back the covers and got beneath them. “Ye sound disappointed.”

“I am nae disappointed.”

“Good.”

“I am perplexed.”

“That sounds more like ye.”

She stared at him in open disbelief. “Ye are simply going tae sleep?”

“I was, before ye arranged yerself fer sacrifice and made the evening memorable.”

She remained upright a moment longer, clutching the linen strip as though unsure whether to use it as a weapon, a gag, or evidence in some future accusation. Then, with a stiffness that attempted dignity and achieved indignation, she lay down beside him…farbeside him.

Colin turned onto his back and closed his eyes. For several breaths, there was only quiet. Then the bed shifted as Elspeth turned her head toward him.

“Colin?”

“Aye?”