Chills exploded across his flesh as she ran her hands over his biceps, squeezing them as she went. His groin tightened and burned, stretching against his chausses, aching for possession of her.
Her touch was heaven and chills spread over his skin as he felt her breath against his flesh. Saints above, how he wanted her. Just one taste of her succulent flesh. One precious moment in her arms.
Callie swallowed at the hard feel of Sin’s muscles under her hands. She’d done this countless times for her father, uncle and brother, and yet with Sin, touching his skin made her mouth dry. Made her legs weak and her breasts tingle. A hot stab of desire sliced her middle as she throbbed for him.
The feel of his strength, of his hardness was more than she could stand.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Enter.”
A maid came in leading a brigade of servants with a tub and buckets of steaming water. “Lady Emily said his lordship would be needing a bath.”
Callie smiled at the thoughtfulness.
Once the tub was filled, she stepped back for her husband to rise.
Sin didn’t move. He stared at the tub as images whirled through his mind. Callie wet and dripping, straddling his hips as he eased his aching loins.
Aye, he could just imagine her breasts shining in the light, her lips smiling at him as he pleasured her.
“Are you not going to bathe?” she asked.
It wasn’t until he removed his chausses that Callie realized she had no memory of her wedding night.
She swallowed at the bare beauty of him. Of his body so lithe and powerful. He was magnificent.
Sin made himself sit in the tub, but what he really wanted to do was take his wife into his arms and make love to her for the rest of the night.
And it was the one thing he couldn’t do.
He had no intention of staying in Scotland. Ever. And he refused to take a chance on getting her with child. He would never be his father. Never take his pleasure, then leave a woman to tend a child of his.
To hate and despise his child.
Without a word, she took the cloth from his hands and lathered it. Sin ground his teeth as he hardened even more. “I can do that myself.”
“I know you can. But I wish to do this for you.”
He would never understand her kindness, but then she thought them to be married. Only he knew the truth of their wedding night.
“Why are you so accepting of me as your husband?”
She set her soap aside. “My grandmother was Irish and she always had a saying, Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I canna change.”
She placed one hand against his shoulder as she started washing his back. “For whatever reason, you and I have been joined. I could fight you and hate you, but in the end it would change nothing. It would only make both our lives miserable. From what I have seen, you are a good man. So, I prefer to make peace for both our sakes, and to hope that maybe you can make my clan understand that the English aren’t so terribly bad. That we can live in peace with one another.”
Her words brought an unexpected pain to his heart. “So, you have no real care for me.” The words were out before he could stop them.
She paused her hand and moved forward so that she could meet his gaze. “I barely know you, Sin.” Her earnest gaze bored into him until a light of humor lightened it. “Still, I like what I have seen.” She returned to washing his back. “Except for tonight. I think you let your pride get the better of your common sense.”
He smiled at that. Indeed, he had.
“And I do care for you.”
Her words startled him, and yet he understood her meaning. “As you would any stranger.”
“Yea and nay. I daresay, I wouldn’t scrub the back of a man I didn’t know.”
