Page 28 of Scot of Deception
Finally, she settled on a half-truth. “I wasafraid! O’ thewolves!”
Blaine only laughed in response, a hand coming up to pat her patronizingly on the top of her head. With a scowl, Kathleen batted Blaine’s hand away, and in the silence that followed, she felt her cheeks heat so much that she feared she would simply explode.
“Well, how many women have ye been with?”
Because, of course Blaine had been with women before. A man like him could probably have any woman he desired.
“A few, actually. But nae in the way ye imagine with all o’ them.”
By then, Kathleen’s face was boiling. She didn’t think she had ever blushed that much in her life—not even as a child, when her parents caught her doing something she shouldn’t be doing. Could Blaine see it in the light of the fire or was the darkness of the night enough to obscure it, to save her from further embarrassment?
She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Ye mean… dae ye mean… beddin’ them?” Kathleen asked, having to force the words past her lips.
“Aye, that’s what I mean,” Blaine said.
Kathleen stared into his green eyes before her gaze was drawn to the curve of his lips. They were slightly parted and they looked soft, inviting.
“What’s that like?”
Even to her own ears, she sounded breathless, overtaken by lust. If Blaine noticed, though, he was kind enough not to mention it. Even so, he remained silent for so long that Kathleen felt the need to fill the space between them.
“I mean, I’ve heard what the maids say,” she said. “An’…. an’ our healer has explained a few things tae me, but they were mostly about bairns an’ pregnancy an’—”
She cut herself short before she could say anything else that would sound foolish. Blaine’s expression softened as he looked at her, though, and his voice was quiet as he spoke.
“Did the maids frighten ye?”
Kathleen nodded wordlessly. She had heard plenty of stories in the castle that had made her think that when the time would come for her to consummate her marriage, she would suffer for hours if not days. She couldn’t make sense of it, though. If it was so terrible, why was everyone doing it?
“Dinnae fash,” Blaine said. “It can be very pleasurable fer the lass, as well.”
Kathleen’s breath caught in her throat. Her tongue darted out to swipe over her bottom lip and she watched as Blaine tracked the movement with his gaze before it flicked back up to her eyes.
“If yer husband kens what he’s daein’, then ye’ll enjoy it,” he assured her.
“How dae I ken if he kens what he’s daein’?” Kathleen asked.
“Och, ye’ll ken,” said Blaine with a chuckle.
“An’ what if he daesnae ken?” she asked. “What if he’s bad at it?”
“Well, then ye endure an’ find yerself a paramour,” Blaine said, and though he made it sound like a joke, Kathleen could detect a hint of sincerity behind it. “Just make sure ye let yer husband bed ye first so he daesnae find ye ruined.”
Kathleen winced at the phrasing, rolling over onto her back to stare at the dark sky above. The stars peeked through thecanopy of leaves, twinkling in the unimaginable distance, and she remembered the days when her father would show her all the constellations and teach her their names.
Simpler times.
“Why is it that a lass is ruined but a man can dae as he pleases?” she asked, mumbling mostly to herself. She didn’t think Blaine would have an answer any different than her parents did—men and women were simply different.
But his response surprised her. “I dinnae ken. I wish I had a better answer fer ye.”
This was the most danger Blaine had ever been in, and he had been in several battles and twice as many skirmishes. And yet there, in the middle of the woods, with nothing but the light of the stars and the flames to break the darkness around them, he was feeling more vulnerable than ever before.
Kathleen could undo him with one simple request. He knew he could never resist her in the dark of the night as he could under the harsh light of the morning sun. Nights were strange things, demanding actions of people that they would never take in the day.
He only hoped she would never ask. Perhaps she had more reason than he did, more restraint.
