Free Return of the Rogue by Donna Fletcher Page A

her distance from him, for his desire for her was growing stronger by the day. He could just take her and be done with it, but then, each time he looked into her eyes he saw her innocence, her need for a loving husband, not a barbarian who needed to assuage his own animalistic need.
    He didn’t want to leave her with scars, as had been done to him. She was his wife and deserved more; whether he could ever give her that, he wasn’t sure. It was too early to tell.
    Cavan made his way carefully past trees gnarled with age, branches that bowed in the wind to him, and whispers that had to be the wind whistling through the trees. Or was it a voice traveling upon the wind?
    He decided to follow the voice and see where it led, and he wasn’t surprised when it took him straight to his wife. She sat on a smooth rock as if talking with someone, and he paused in the shadows to see if he could catch sight of anyone or anything. When he saw no one about, he listened to what she was saying.
    “I don’t know what to do with him. He is my husband and I have a duty, but he does not like me. I think sometimes he hates me.”
    Her words pierced his chest like a sharp sword. He could never hate her. She was too good, too honorable, too pure.
    Honora sighed. “He thinks me—”
    She stopped and abruptly stood, looking frantically around her.
    It seemed that she had somehow sensed him, or had something alerted her to his presence? He wished that she had finished what she was saying, wanting to know what she thought he thought of her.
    “Watch where you step,” she called out.
    “Why?” he asked, taking cautious steps.
    Honora turned toward the sound of his voice. “The vines can trap your feet.”
    Cavan heeded her warning and proceeded carefully, eventually entering the secluded clearing where she stood. He didn’t want her to know he’d been listening, and so, though curious, didn’t ask who she had been speaking with.
    “These woods are not safe,” he said.
    She looked affronted. “These woods are safer than anyplace I know.”
    Her words slapped him hard. On the battlements she’d told him that she felt safe in his arms, and now she let him know it was here she felt the safest. But then, why should he expect otherwise after what he’d said to her? And why did her words disturb him?
    He stepped closer to her and was caught by the beauty of her violet eyes. But it wasn’t only beauty that shined in them. There was also a loving, peaceful tenderness he longed to taste. “You should not have run away from me and made me give chase.”
    “You need not have chased me.”
    He reached up to brush a strand of hair away from her mouth and his thumb brushed her lips. “I must see you safe. You are my wife.”
    He ran his thumb across her moist full lips over and over until he felt his loins grow hard and ache. Then a growl rumbled deep inside him and surfaced slowly until it burst forth and he grabbed Honora around the waist and yanked her hard against him to claim a kiss.

Chapter 10
    T he first taste of her told him he was in trouble and to stop, to go no further, to end it now, while he was still capable of sound reason. He ignored the silent warnings. How couldn’t he? Honora did not deny him; she responded with innocence and gentleness, which only served to excite him more.
    He silently warned himself not to draw her close to him, not to let their bodies touch; just enjoy the kiss, the pure taste of her. How she wound up in his arms, flush against him, he wasn’t certain, nor did he care. His only thought was their lingering kiss and not the rush of passion to his loins, though he did acknowledge the strange feeling of utter contentment that snuck over him and laid claim.
    Her slim tongue mated more easily with his as she relaxed in his arms, and his own pace slowed until their kiss turned to savoring each other, like fine food or wine one wished the palate to appreciate.
    It took a forceful rush of wind to nearly rip them