Page 190 of Forbidden

“That you won’t touch me tonight.”

“Aye, witch. I won’t touch you!”

Amber’s triumphant smile was as primitive as the light in Duncan’s eyes. Had he been less angry he would have been wary. The feminine ruthlessness in Amber was almost tangible.

“Then take your hand off me,” she said distinctly, “or find yourself forsworn before you’ve drawn another breath.”

Duncan let go of Amber as though she were the burning end of a candle.

“Get out,” he said flatly.

Amber simply looked at Duncan for a time. Then her hand moved with a speed that rivaled Simon’s. The last of the bed coverings were raked aside, revealing that Duncan was like her, naked but for an amber pendant.

Equally naked was his desire. Rigid, erect, his flesh stirred with each quickening beat of his heart.

Amber made a sound of pleasure that was almost feline.

“Get. Out.” Duncan’s voice was icy.

Smiling slightly, Amber trailed her fingertips down his chest to his navel, slowly approaching the center of his need.

Duncan started to grab Amber’s hand, then realized that he could not.

Not without being forsworn.

“Witch.”

Furious and savagely aroused at once, Duncan watched Amber’s elegant, teasing fingers prowl closer and closer to his straining flesh. At the last moment she turned aside, tracing a half circle in the thick nest of hair.

“You could call for Simon,” Amber suggested.

Her smile said just how much she enjoyed Duncan’s dilemma. Her fingertip traced the creases where muscular torso and legs joined.

Duncan hissed through clenched teeth.

“Simon has little trust in me,” Amber pointed out, “and less liking.”

Her nails bit delicately into the taut skin of Duncan’s thighs. She felt the hot explosion of his desire.

His finger’s dug into the soft mattress. He willed himself to feel nothing.

Amber laughed softly, knowing everything he felt. No matter what his mind said, his body knew what it must have.

Soon.

“Simon would be pleased to drag me from your bed,” Amber murmured.

She fitted her palm over Duncan’s thigh, openly savoring the strength of him. The contrast between her graceful fingers and the blunt, clenched power of his body aroused Duncan until he could barely stifle a groan.

“But I wouldn’t be pleased to be dragged from you,” Amber whispered, bending over Duncan.

Her hair spilled across his thighs in a cool cascade. He groaned despite his determination not to respond.

Amber smiled even as her teeth bit sweetly into the long muscle of his thigh. The center of the bite was a hot touch of her tongue.

The shudder that went through Duncan went through Amber as well.

“Tonight you are like winter wine to me,” she said in a low voice. “Dark, potent.”