Page 67 of Marin’s Promise

Marin's knees went weak and threatened to drop out from beneath her. Bran pulled his hand away, evidence of her need glistening on his fingertips. She swallowed.

“Can ye wait that long, wife?” He pulled her closer to him and her heart pounded erratically. “I intend to show ye many ways of pleasure and can assure ye, no' any of them are sanctioned by the church.”

Her nipples prickled into hard points and a breathy moan was all she could produce by way of a reply. A knock sounded at the door, startling her nerves and making her jump.

Bran released her gown and the silk fell heavily into place. He put his finger into his mouth, the one he'd touched her with, and gave her a look that shot straight to her core. Marin's knees buckled this time, but she managed to set her hand to the solid desk and brace herself. Bran's mouth curled in an arrogant smile. One she wanted to kiss off his face.

He backed to a respectful distance and bade their intruder to enter.

Drake strode into the room and nodded courteously to Marin. “Good morrow, my lady. Pardon the intrusion.” His gaze met Bran's. “’Tis the Grahams.”

Marin stepped forward, shedding aside the desire of moments before as the soldier in her came to attention. “Are they rallying?” she asked.

Drake cast her a regretful look. “They are here.”

* * *

Bran stoodat the battlements and regarded the large group of reivers dotting the grounds below, like vultures waiting for death. Their ponies moved on anxious legs beneath them, anticipating a battle. Not that attacking the castle would win them any victory. It would be difficult for the men on horseback to overtake the castle.

But not impossible.

Bran had proven as much himself when he took the castle by threatening Cat. It simply depended on how determined the Grahams were willing to be, how vicious.

“There's more than two score of them.” Marin rested her hand atop the depressed crenellation of the wall and tapped her forefinger against the stone in thought. “Why do they stay when they know they cannot defeat us? Do they mean to intimidate?”

Bran narrowed his eyes against the cutting wind and leveled his stare at a single man on a dark hobbler. “That is exactly why they stay.”

“They are assessing us,” she stated.

He grunted in agreement.

“What can we assess of them?” she queried. “Aside from evidence of their brashness, of course.”

Bran had not wanted Marin to join him on the battlements, especially without her chainmail. He'd almost put his concerns to voice when the ferocity lit her eyes as Drake gave them information on the Grahams. She knew Werrick Castle better than perhaps anyone else, certainly better than him. Mayhap even more than the earl himself. Bran would do well to remember what a valuable treasure she truly was.

And yet seeing her facing the armed men below in naught but a silk gown, with her hair secured beneath a delicate gilded caul, left him with the driving need to stand in front of her. For all he knew, their wedding night had resulted in a babe.

The possibility jolted through him like lightning.

His child could be seeded in her flat belly at that very moment.

Marin frowned at him. “Why do you stare at me so?”

“What if ye are with child?”

She laughed. “I’m sure you haven’t cause for concern.”

He could not pull his gaze from her stomach. “Ye could be. It can take only one time.”

Marin smirked. “Fire arrows upon them.” She turned from the reivers with bored disinterest. “Have them scatter like vermin when met with a light.”

“My exact thoughts, Wife.” He caught her wrist and kept her from leaving.

She turned back to face him. Before she could protest at his behavior, he eased a hand around her narrow waist and pulled her toward him. His mouth came down on hers, his tongue grazing playfully against her own.

She drew in a sharp breath and her knees gave gently.

Bran broke off the kiss as abruptly as he'd started it and gazed down at his wife. Her mouth was soft, her eyes bright with desire already. “I dinna care the time of day or the day of the week, Marin. No' even God himself could stop me from having ye now that ye're my wife.”