Page 51 of The Mercenary

Guy grabbed her head as roughly as he dared and brought his lips crashing down onto hers. Always he’d held something of himself back, but not at this moment. He poured everything into her, kissing her as a starved man would consume the nourishment he needed to survive.

He waited until she gave herself over to him completely, and then, like the savage he was, Guy tore himself away. But he’d not leave her bereft for long. She wore nothing under the riding gown, and he knew it well. Spinning her around, he divested her of the gown.

When she stood nude before him, he was pleased to realize she did not cover herself this time. Her body was something to be worshiped, its luscious curves begging for him to touch and taste.

“Lie on the bed.”

He would have carried her there himself, but Guy did not trust himself to touch her. This would not be a quick coupling, his body’s needs be damned. Ignoring the ache that threatened to crush him until he sank deep into her, Guy willed her to do as he asked.

When she did, he groaned aloud, taunted by the clear view of her backside.

Stalking her to the bed, Guy did not waste a moment. He knelt between her legs, opened them and lowered his head.

“What . . .”

He didn’t answer. At least not with words. His aim was to show his wife more pleasure than she’d guessed was possible.

Then what?

Nay, not now. This moment was not for contemplation. It was for using his tongue to show Sabine that last eve had been only the beginning.

“People . . . do this?”

He could not laugh at her barely coherent words. But when she reached for his head and lifted her hips to meet him, neither could he continue without completely losing control. Lifting himself above her, he entered her much more swiftly than he had the night before, when her maidenhood had been intact.

Her gasp emboldened him, and her wild eyes nearly made him forget himself.

But he did not. When Sabine cried out his name for the entire inn to hear, he forced himself to pull away, grateful for his foresight in grabbing the cloth near the bed earlier.

Guy barely heard her gasp, but he could discern a distinct and unladylike “My God.”

Chuckling at the epithet, he stood and cleaned himself. He planned to lie back down, but Sabine’s look stopped him. She might be well-pleasured, but something was amiss.

Afraid to ask, he swallowed back the words—only to ask her anyway a moment later.

“Something is wrong?”

Her nose crunched up in displeasure as Guy sat beside her. The mattress sunk under his weight.

“Aye.”

She reached out and laid a hand on his arm.

“Very wrong.”

His stomach twisted into knots. Guy had no answer for the question she was about to ask. He needed time to think. To sort through all that had happened. To understand why she hadn’t responded to him.

Reaching up and taking a strand of her bright hair in his hand, Guy marveled at the woman sprawled across his bed. “Tell me.”

Her lips turned down, and he braced himself for her words.

“I am so incredibly hungry.”

Guy laughed at her obvious deception.

“That can be helped, my lady wife.”

It was the detachment between his mind and his heart that could not.