Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Bloody hell if that didn’t stir something in him.
“What do we do about it?” Dru asked.
“A good question and with neither of us having an answer, I suggest we leave it be for now and revisit it another time.”
“The next time you kiss me?” she asked and wondered if that was hope she felt flutter inside her that he would kiss her again.
He turned away for a moment, fighting the impulse to kiss her right there and then. Not a wise thought. There would be a next time, of that he was certain. But not now. It couldn’t be now.
He turned, ready to tell her they had discussed it enough, but one look at her and he saw it, felt it. She wanted him to kiss her, so he did.
It was a gentle kiss, like a sip of a fine wine that left one wanting more, so he eagerly partook, and she responded, just as eagerly. He slipped his hand around her waist to draw her close to him as the kiss turned from gentle to eager to demanding.
Dru was lost in a misty haze of pure pleasure. She didn’t want the kiss to end and when with the slight ease of Knox’s arm, she found herself lying on the bed, his arm tucked firmly around her, she didn’t protest. Sensations she never felt before trickled along her body until it felt as if they consumed every part of her in the most pleasurable way.
She felt a gasp rise up only to be captured by the continuing kiss when she felt his hand slip over her breast and squeeze it before his thumb ran over her nipple. A feeling so pleasing gripped her that it frightened her, and a warning ran clear in her head—pleasure with a man can be amazing and can also prove dangerous.
Harsh memories flooded her head, and she shoved at Knox’s chest. He let her go, and she hurried off the bed and turned away from him.
Knox sat up silently cursing himself. “I should not have done that, Dru.”
She turned around, her response anxious. “Kissing me is one thing, touching me is another since it may go much farther than it should, than either of us want. I am not what you are looking for in a wife and I do not want a husband. It is best you don’t kiss me anymore.”
Why did it feel like her heart was breaking with every word she spoke and that she feared life would never be the same again?
“Aye, you’re right. You’re not what I want in a wife, and we made an agreement, and I will see it honored,” Knox said, standing. “I need to check on Star. Sleep, we leave early tomorrow.”
Dru almost stopped him when he walked to the door, but fear kept her silent. Fear of what could happen if she surrendered to her heart and allowed herself to love her husband.
Knox walked a short distance from the closed door, stopped, and rested his brow against the stone wall.
“Bloody hell,” he whispered.
How was it that he felt as if he was just stabbed in the heart? The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before this, and he had suffered God-awful pain at times. But this—this pain—was different. It was on the edge of unbearable and when he silently admonished himself for being a fool and walked away, the further he got the more intense the pain grew.
He hurried to the refectory and poured himself a tankard of wine and drank it down then poured another.
“Trouble sleeping?”
Knox spun around, his hand on the hilt of his dagger at his waist, annoyed at himself for being so lost in thought that he hadn’t heard anyone approach.
“Easy, my son,” Brother Ewan said. “I have trouble sleeping myself.”
Knox dropped down on the bench, resting his elbows on the table and rubbing his brow with his fingers.
“Marriage isn’t easy.”
“If only,” Knox said with a sorrowful chuckle, thinking if they were truly wed, their marriage consummated there would be no problem. Things would be easy. Or would they?
“Your wife has woken something in you that you don’t understand,” Brother Ewan said, joining him at the table and filling a tankard for himself.
Knox tilted his head to look at the monk oddly.
“I recall what you said to Phelan about how he beat the fear out of a frightened, and I imagine, very young lad. It was more than fear he took from you. He beat all feelings out of you. Your wife, with her boldness alone, has opened your heart and no doubt your soul to feel once again and that can be confusing, painful, and joyous. It will take time to heal from such harm and you are lucky to have a wife who loves you so much that she will keep you safe as you do the same for her.”