She nearly groaned with her humiliation. How was she supposed to act like a grown woman who’d been on her own for the last years when she swooned at the mere sight of a man’s shaft. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen one before. She’d seen his for that matter, but they’d all been at rest. Not flagging upward like a battle-ax.

It amazed her that something soft and unremarkable could grow to such a size and appear so menacing.

Alaric laughed softly, and his eyes gleamed with amusement as he gazed down at her.

“Aye, it’ll fit. ’Tis your duty to accommodate me.”

She arched an eyebrow at his arrogance. “ ’Tis my duty? Who made this rule, warrior?”

He grinned. “You’ll soften and grow damp. ’Tis my duty to make that happen.”

“I will?”

She tried to keep the confusion and question from her voice, but it came out breathy, almost excited.

He moved in close and then leaned over her, his body so close to hers that his heat surrounded her and seeped into her flesh. “Aye, you will. I’ll make certain of that.”

He settled onto her, scorching her as their skin molded and her body melted into his. The hair on his chest lightly abraded her skin and his hair fell over his shoulders and onto hers.

“ ’Tis unseemly for a man to have such beautiful hair,” she murmured.

He levered up and scowled down at her. “ ’Tis unseemly to tell a man he has beautiful hair.”

She smiled. “Oh, but I love to run my fingers through it. Do you remember me washing you when we were still in my cottage? I dried it and put a brush to it and then I rebraided the strands at your temples. ’Twas like silk, the finest I’ve ever felt.”

“I remember an enchantress with her hands sliding through my hair. ’Twas like a dream I never wished to waken from.”

She reached up to capture his hair with her fingers and let the strands twine around the tips.

“And this is a dream I never want to waken from,” she whispered.

He captured her mouth. Fierce and hot. Not as gentle as he’d been before. He stole her breath. Demanded it and her kiss. His body moved urgently against hers, roughly as their legs twined and he branded her flesh with his.

His arousal was bold and hard, butting against the juncture of her legs. Instinctively, she parted her thighs, and then she gasped when the length of him slid along her most intimate flesh.

Indescribable sensations jolted through her body as his thick shaft rubbed along the tiny nub of flesh between her folds. She lifted her thighs, wanting more, but he pushed himself off her and slid down her body.