Free Forbidden by Elizabeth Lowell Page A

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. With a savage curse, Duncan turned on his heel and stalked back out into the yard.
    5
    “Young Egbert told me that you want to go to Sea Home with me and watch my men train for battle,” Erik said.
    “Yes,” Amber and Duncan said as one.
    The three of them stood just inside the cottage. A few steps outside, Egbert waited with outward patience in the drizzle, holding the horses Amber and Duncan were to ride. One of the spare horses stamped and snorted, irritated by a trickle of rainwater down its leg.
    Erik shot a hooded glance at Duncan before he turned his attention to Amber.
    “You were never keen to watch my men train before,” Erik said mildly.
    “Like Duncan, I tire of the four walls of my cottage,” Amber said in a tight voice. “Autumn rains can be tedious.”
    Erik turned toward the other man. Duncan offered a smile that lacked both humor and comfort.
    “The witch and I—excuse me,” Duncan said sardonically, “the Learned female and I are weary of shadow games, unanswerable questions, and Squire Egbert's company.”
    The squire in question gave a heartfelt sigh. He was heartily tired of tiptoeing around a witch of uncertain temper and a warrior whose temper was very certain—and quite vile.
    “Then by all means,” Erik said, stepping away from the cottage door, “let's be off to Sea Home.”
    Amber pulled the hood of her mantle over her hair and walked across grass that shone with thick drops of water. The smoke of wood and peat fires curled through the early morning, finding space between drops of moisture that were too fine to be rain and too thick to be mist.
    When Amber approached, Egbert whisked a protective cloth from the saddle of a dainty little chestnut mare. The squire made no move to help Amber into the saddle. That would have required touching her, and Egbert knew that no man touched Amber without her specific invitation.
    Duncan didn't know any such thing. He threw a disbelieving look at the stripling squire, stepped forward quickly, and lifted Amber into the saddle before the