Page 14 of Katherine the Vixen

“Yes,” he growled at the same time.

The heat she remembered from the night before flooded her, prolonging the pleasure, which seemed to go on and on.

Katherine lay there panting a long time, bewildered by what had just happened. What on earth had Siaspar done to her? What magic did he wield?

To add to her confusion, a moment later she felt him place a kiss on her temple. Her eyes filled with tears. She was in a bed with a man. That man had made her discover something about her body she had never suspected. He was still inside her, his weight comforting her; he was even kissing her.

She was overwhelmed.

Siaspar could barely breathe or comprehend what had just happened. But one thing was certain, he had to leave, now, or he would make love to the woman again. He could feel his body starting to respond to the warm softness still surrounding him, getting ready for a second, slower, even more decadent possession. It had not been part of the plan and he could not let it happen.

He had to go.

When he had felt her tighten around him in fierce spasms he had been unable to last. Suckling at her neck, he had poured himself inside her, stifling his cries of ecstasy against her soft skin.

He should be glad, he had fulfilled his mission. He had made the scullion surrender to his caresses, brought her to completion, twice. Still, it felt like an odd victory, as if they had both gained something.

What that was, he couldn’t be sure.

He stayed above her for a long time, trying to come to terms with what he had done. Never before had he made love to a woman as a means to exact vengeance. He had not aimed for her pleasure as much as her surrender; he had not come to her in desire but to show her—and himself—who was master and to force a reaction out of her.

But in the end, he had been the one overwhelmed. He had spent less time in the woman’s presence than it took to write a letter. He had barely heard ten words from her lips, and up until that morning, he had not even known of her existence, yet what he had experienced in her arms surpassed everything he had ever felt. The intensity of this lovemaking, the force of his release had been mind-blowing. Every nerve ending had ignited, every muscle in his body had caught fire, every sensation had been increased a hundredfold by the darkness, and the knowledge that they didn’t know one another and might never sleep or even speak together ever again.

And so, he had done something he had not planned on doing. He had kissed her temple.

That had been a mistake.

Angry at his weakness, Siaspar eased himself out of her and left the bed. In silence he found his clothes and got ready. He knew he should have brought a torch inside and demanded to see Lady Malpas, expose the deception, but in that moment his revenge was forgotten. He just wanted to leave before he⁠—

That was the problem. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do exactly or why. He needed to think before he acted.

“I’ll bid you good night.”

Despite his confusion, he could not take his leave from a woman he had just tumbled without so much as a word. Predictably, there was no answer.

Before he closed the door, Siaspar turned toward the bed, but all he saw in the moonlight was a pale body. It could have been anyone.

He slammed the door.

“Well. I don’t need to ask you if it was painful this time.”

The sardonic comment made Katherine start. Lost in reverie she had not heard the door to the antechamber open.

“I b-beg your pardon?”

“You reached your pleasure this time, did you not? Twice at least, perhaps even more.”

Yes, she had but how did Lady Malpas know that? The horrible idea crossed Katherine’s mind that perhaps she had been in the room all the time, watching what she could see of her and Siaspar’s coupling in the darkness. No. Surely she was not as depraved as that? Besides, she would not have wanted to run the risk of her husband seeing her.

But if she had not seen anything, she had certainly heard, as her next comment made clear.

“Heavens, what did the man do to make you moan like that? Who would have thought it, little miss scullion enjoying herself in her master’s bed?” Her laugh had a cruel tinge to it. “It would seem that you do enjoy being bedded by brutes.”

Katherine gritted her teeth under the onslaught. “Your husband is not a brute. I already told you so,” she said, scrambling up the bed. She only had one idea, leave this room as quickly as possible, but her body didn’t seem to want to cooperate. It had gone oddly languid.

There was a pause, as if Lady Malpas was reassessing her opinion of her husband.

“Mm, maybe not,” she said eventually. “He seems to have some skills in the bedroom, I’ll grant you that. Judging from what I heard—and the amount of time he spent in here—it is clear he has some experience. Still, skilled lover or not, he is nothing more than an uneducated savage.”