She turned into him, snuggling closer, her eyes shut in sleepy contentment. He combed his fingers through her luxurious hair while her breath warmed his neck and shoulder.

“There is no need to be careful. You may call me Mark if you want.”

She opened one eye and glanced at him, as if she found that interesting. He couldn’t imagine why she would.

He nuzzled her ear. “The knight of your girlhood dreams had a bowed mouth?”

She nodded. “An angel’s mouth.”

“What were you thinking of? A mouth like that is stupid on a man. I saw such a face once, and the man who owned it walked around looking like a half-wit. A mouth like mine is much better, even if it is harsh.”

“After tonight, I am bound to say that your mouth is perfect.”

“If it gave you pleasure, I am glad. I also think you have not known that intimacy with anyone else.”

“Does that make you glad, too?”

“Aye.”

Her lids lowered, as if she contemplated how to respond. “In truth, I have known very few of tonight’s intimacies with anyone else.”

He almost asked if she meant the acts or the heights their passion had reached, but that would touch on the kind of talk she did not want.

He looked down at her breasts and kissed one, then the other. “Let us see how perfect my mouth is. I wonder if I can make you cry for me again if I do nothing but use my lips and tongue.”

He could.

CHAPTER 17

Her days were betrayals of her nights, and her nights of her days.

Every afternoon she swore she would not go to him, and every night after her women fell asleep she found herself slipping into his chamber.

It was reckless and dangerous and she knew that it did not speak well for her judgment. She was not a silly girl, and she should be able to resist the allure of a handsome man and the pleasure he offered.

Still she went, drawn by the sparkling emotions she experienced in that chamber, tempted by the sweet lightness her heart would know for a few hours. The days and their duties did not exist in his arms. For three glorious nights she explored forbidden passion with the man charged with destroying all she had lived for these last few years.

If they had just shared simple pleasure, as she had demanded, she might have stayed in her own bed. However, other joinings lived within the physical ones, and her heart could not contain them. Nor could she ignore the delight that she took in the friendship they shared before and after they made love, when he held her on that feather bed and they laughed and spoke of unimportant things.