Page 38 of Forbidden

Amber started to speak, but the feel of Duncan’s hand over her breast stole her thoughts.

“How many times have I undressed you, kissed your breasts, your belly, the creamy smoothness of your thighs?” he asked.

A broken sound of desire was her only answer.

“How many times have I opened your legs and sheathed myself within your eager heat?”

“Duncan,” she said raggedly. “We mustn’t.”

“Nay, lass. Why not do again what we must have done so many times before?”

“We have—” Her breath fragmented. “Never.”

“Always,” Duncan countered.

“But—”

Gently he caught Amber’s lower lip in his teeth, stopping her words. When his fingers slid beneath her mantle, finding and teasing nipples that hardened at his touch, her knees buckled.

“Desire is a road we’ve traveled many times together,” Duncan said, smiling, bending to her breast. “That’s why our bodies respond to each other so quickly.”

“No, it’s—”

Amber’s voice splintered as she felt the heat and pressure of Duncan’s mouth over her breast. When his teeth raked lightly, she could barely stand.

“Duncan,” Amber said brokenly, “you are a fire burning me.”

“It is you who burns me.”

“We must stop—touching.”

Duncan smiled rather darkly.

“In time,” he agreed. “But first I will quench the fire within your body. And you will quench mine.”

Trembling, Amber thought of being naked with Duncan, no clothing to dull the piercing joy of his touch, nothing between them but the sultry heat of their shared breath as she gave her body to her dark warrior.

A man with no name may you claim, heart and body and soul.

“Nay!” she cried suddenly. “It’s too dangerous!”

Strong hands tightened, holding Amber when she would have wrenched herself away.

“Let me go,” she cried.

“I can’t.”

“You must!”

Duncan looked down into Amber’s wild, golden eyes. What he saw there so astonished him that he released her. Instantly she retreated beyond his reach.

“You’re afraid,” he said, hardly able to believe it.

“Yes.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you, precious Amber. You must know that. Don’t you?”

Amber backed away from Duncan’s outstretched hand.