With a gasp, she dropped the vellum and groped around the top of the chest as she whirled around to face him. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Could you no’?”

She suddenly thrust a gold chain into his face. “Who is this for?”

“For you, leannan,” he said smoothly, and reached around her, pushing the vellum under a pair of gloves.

“That’s absurd.”

“Who else?” he asked easily, and pried the necklace from her hand. He’d actually taken it in trade for a pistol.

“Maybe the girl who was sitting in your lap when I arrived,” she said curtly, her brows dipping into a vee.

He frowned at her attempt to appear jealous and casually laid his hand across her throat. “Would I have loved you as I did tonight if this gold was for that wee strumpet?” He turned Margot about, pushed her mane of hair out of his way and draped the necklace around her throat. He bent his head to kiss her neck. He was aroused again and pushed his erection into her hips. “It’s yours now.”

“I don’t want it,” she said, but made no move to remove it.

Arran reached around her abdomen, grabbed the linen and yanked it free of her body. Margot didn’t resist; she leaned back against him, her hands sliding down his thighs. She was different than before. Now she seemed to understand the power she wielded over him.

He took her by the wrist and pulled her back to the bed with him, falling onto it and dragging her along to straddle him.

Margot sighed and dug her fingers into his chest. “You’re insatiable,” she said, and began to move on him, sliding against his erection.

“Mmm.” He’d not argue. He had strong appetites for life. He stroked her cheek with his knuckle.

Margot gave him a cool, sultry smile and turned her head, kissing his hand. That was the sort of smile that could inflame a man’s blood. Pleasant, Jock had said. What a ridiculous word. Ah, but it hurt him to look at her now, Arran thought, as he lifted her hips and guided her onto him.

She sighed, closed her eyes and let her head fall back as she sank down onto him.

This beauty was a liar and was here for some reason he would have to ferret out. But in his heart, fool that he was, he wished she had come back for him. He wished it was true that she wanted to rekindle their marriage. In spite of their differences, he was a loyal man, a man of his word, and he had come to care for his timid, naive wife, in spite of their rocky beginning.

But she hadn’t come back for him. She did not want to rekindle their marriage and likely never would. Worse, it was up to him to discover what she was about.