Page 29 of Brigand

Even in his sleep, he wanted her.

Gently, she turned in his arms and laid her head on thepillow so she could gaze at his handsome face. She loved every line. Yes, hewas sometimes surly and often mulish. He could bellow and yell and glower likethe dickens. And he was a brigand. He’d locked her in the dungeon and treatedher like a servant.

She didn’t care.

She should care.

One day this would all be over. Kaitlin would relent andreturn, or Ned and Malcolm, or Edward, would find her. One day she would returnto her family.

They would pressure her to wed. Some prancing lord.

A man like Ewan was not in her future. He couldn’t be.

Unless she walked away from her family—and she simply couldnot—she would, at some point, have to say goodbye to him. To this.

Her heart ached at the thought but she couldn’t see any wayit could be different. The world was what it was. Ladies of the haute tondid not wed Scottish criminals.

He snuffled and grumbled. His brow lowered in his sleep likea petulant boy’s. Her heart skittered, melted. Unable to resist, she leanedforward and pressed a kiss on his bristly chin. Then laved him. Made her wayalong the underside of his jaw to his neck.

The skin there was fragrant, infused with his scent, hisessence.

When he had nested in the crook of her neck last night, shehad been stunned by the pleasure his working lips evoked. She’d never knownthose spots to be so sensitive. She wondered if he would feel the samewonderment, the same bliss if she nuzzled him there—

He stiffened. Sucked in a great breath and let it out in agroan.

Violet smiled to herself and doubled her efforts. He didlike it.

And he was awake.

She let her hand drift over his chest, playing with the lineof his scar, making her way to his nipple. She scraped it with a nail. Heflinched but didn’t pull away. So she did it again.

“Violet.” A harsh rasp.

She ignored him, let her kisses trail down over the wiryhairs on his chest. And she captured the nipple with her lips. And sucked. Hismuscles locked. Every fiber of his being hummed. A groan wrenched from histhroat.

Oh. She liked this. She enjoyed plying him with pleasure.Teasing his passion.

He did not allow her to tease him for long.

When her questing touch drifted to that fascinating spike,when she fisted his length and stroked, marveling at how it could be hard andoh so soft at the same time, he caught her wrist in a gentle cuff.

“Darling,” he murmured. “Much more of that will unman me.”

She laughed up into his eyes. “I’d like to unman you.”

“I’m sure you would. However…” He tipped her onto her backand levered over her, wedging himself between her thighs. He raised up onto hisknees, spreading her legs farther. “I have a need for my spear and would preferit unbroken.”

She hissed in a breath as he entered her. As delicious as ithad been last night, this morning it was better. Last night there had been asting before the pleasure. Now there was only delight.

He went slowly, filling her with an unrelenting advance,then he eased out, leaving a void. She tried to be patient, really she did. Butwhen he didn’t fill her again as quickly as she would have liked, she plantedher feet on the bed and thrust up at him.

He chuckled. “Greedy girl.”

“I am,” she said on a sigh. “I am greedy.”

He gave her what she wanted, hard and deep. He nudged somearcane magic deep within her, a place that made her nerve endings explode, madeher shatter into a thousand glittering fragments. And then he did it again. Andagain, making her mindless, thoughtless, helpless. Lost to anything andeverything but the exhilaration pounding in her blood.

He captured a nipple with his lips, as he had the nightbefore. And sucked. Shards of agony, an exquisite twinge, shot through her.