Page 18 of Ena’s Surrender

Her brows rose with a surprised pleasure. “There,” she gasped. “Please.”

He kept his hand in place where it cupped her sex. The linen was damp against her body, wet with her need. How he wanted to sweep his finger against her, to watch her eyes flutter with pleasure. “You’re a maid.”

“I dinna have a dowry and I dinna expect to wed.” Her fingers worked over the sark, drawing it higher up her legs. “My body is my own to do with as I please.”

The thin linen passed her knees and crept up her slender, fair thighs.

“And ye please me.” She gave a little tug on her underclothes and the linen slipped out from beneath Renault’s cupped hand, leaving her sex naked for his touch.

She kept her eyes locked on him, deep brown and alight with a desire that made his ballocks tighten. Her hips flexed forward into his hand.

He could refuse the invitation no longer. His finger curled inward, stroking the sweet line of her slit.

She gasped and held onto his shoulders as if she needed him to help her stand.

“Like that?” he asked.

“Aye,” she breathed.

He traced the path, up and down, up and down, paying careful attention on each pass to stroke the sensitive nub at the top of her sex. Each time he swirled his fingertip over it, her eyes closed, and her breath caught.

He wanted to make her pant with need and elicit husky screams of passion. His cock raged with unspent desire, cramped in the leather trews. He gripped it from outside his clothing and shifted it as he touched her, trying to find some comfort in the limited space.

Ena reached for him and framed her palm over the shape of his shaft. Tingles of pleasure radiated out from the simple caress and left him clenching his teeth.

“Don’t,” he ground out.

“Because it feels too good?” she asked breathlessly. “Because ye dinna want to stop?”

“Aye.” He paused a finger over her entrance and gently eased it inside.

Her knees buckled and she fell against him. He drew her up into his arms. For as strong as she was, she weighed almost nothing. He carried her toward the pallet where the sheets were rumpled from her sleep. A small cat slumbered on another pallet set against the opposite side of the wall, curled atop a blanket.

Renault’s arousal thundered with a need he couldn’t ignore. The musky perfume of her arousal clung to his fingers, driving him mad with desperation. He set her onto her feet and gently kissed her again, warring with himself over his need to have her and to do what was right—to walk away.

Her hands worked at the ties of his trews, pulling one free before he could stop her. It was one thing to please her, and yet another to take her.

She yanked the second tie free and his cock sprang from the partially opened flap, eager for whatever heat she would wrap around it: her hand, her mouth, her sex.

With trembling hands, he tried to put himself back to rights, but she stopped him, watching him, her eyes wild with lust.

“Nay,” she whispered. “I want ye. I want ye as badly as ye want me.”

He shook his head, unable to give voice to his protest.

She rose on her tiptoes and curled her arms around him. “Make me forget,” she whispered. “The fear tonight, the fear all those years ago.” She clutched him to her. “Please.”

She kissed him, her mouth and tongue now skilled from the experiences of their passion. Her right leg slid up his body and curled around his hip, opening herself to him.

Jesu.

His hand moved of its own volition, cupping the underside of her thigh, cradling her bottom, pushing her against him. The wet heat of her sex grazed his cock and he knew he could protest no more. Not when this was clearly what they both so desperately wanted. Not when she was asking for his comfort.

He could not turn her away.

The intimate place between Ena’s thighs thundered with the need. For the escape from everything she endured. But it was more. Her desire was for Renault. For the honest man he was, for his selfless deeds. And, if she were being entirely honest, for the pleasure she knew he would give.

Her mouth trailed over the collar of his shirt before she grasped the hem and drew it upward. She paused at the sight of him, taking all of him in. Pale skin stretched over rigid muscle, powerful and beautiful and peppered with scars.