Page 7 of Unspoken
He turned to study her. After a tense moment, hecast a hard glare down the hallway, but stepped all the way into the room andlatched the door.
Relief caused her to smile.
“Um, we haven’t been properly introduced and Ifigured that you should at least know my name if...” She gestured towards thebed, abruptly feeling bashful.
Wrapping her arms about her waist within her itchycloak, she chewed on the inside of her cheek wondering what a worldly,experienced woman would do next when locked in a bedchamber with such a man.
How did one go about seducing a Berserker?
Roderick held his large hand out to her, gesturingfor her to hand him her cloak.
He was being a gentleman. Well, good.
After hanging it on a wall hook, he turned back toregard her, a sensual tilt to half of his sinful mouth. Bending forward in afluid motion, he lifted his leg to unfasten his boot.
Oh!He was undressing. Whirling to facethe bed did little to slow her racing heartbeat, but Evelyn couldn’t bringherself to watch.
Of course he is getting undressed, you twit,sheberated herself. With trembling fingers, she grappled with the ties of herbonnet while she stared at the clean green coverlet in front of her.
There would be no marriage bed for her, no tenderhusband to give her babes. She remained a spinster at twenty and two, with noprospects, no money, no dowry, no past, and no family. But tonight the Berserkerwould keep her safe from the MacKays and the unknown evil lurking in thewoods. It would only cost her virginity. Perhaps, in some small way, shewould be an adequate companion to the warrior on his last night alive—
No, she couldn’t think of that now.Squeezingher eyes shut against a pang of deep regret, she somehow managed to finallypull the bonnet off the tightly braided knot of hair at the nape of her neckand drape it across the bed frame. She reached behind her to start on thelaces of her kirtle,her usually nimble fingerspicked and yanked with no success.
Large, strong hands surrounded hers and she jumpedat the contact. Roderick kept her hands captive as he pulled her back againsthis chest and wrapped her arms around her own waist, covering them with his.His warmth soothed the tremors coursing through her.
For a moment, she stood encased in a coffer ofmuscle and flesh. The foreign intimacy of the embrace was startling as much ascomforting. She detected a trace of dominance in the gesture along with gentlerestraint. The contradiction comforted her somehow. Allowing herself to sagagainst him, her eyes fluttered closed, her head pillowed between the deepgroove of his pectorals.
This was how it felt to be held. To beprotected.
It feltmarvelous.
Unbidden tears sprang to her eyes, and she quicklyblinked them away.
She stood passively as he took his time undressingher, not letting their skin come into contact as he slid her kirtle off first,then her under shift.
The kiss of the chilly evening air on her skincaused gooseflesh to blossom everywhere, and her nipples to constrict intoaching beads.
Her chest heaved with wild breath. She’d neverbared herself to a lover. Were her hips too wide? Her arms too plump? Herbreasts too heavy?
Surprised to hear his breathing quicken along withhers, she waited with vibrating anticipation to see what Roderick would donext. She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d dragged her to the rushesand taken her like a stallion.
He started at the very end of her braid andmethodically unbound the silken locks, running his fingers though it untilthick golden waves fanned about her shoulders and tickled the small of herback. It seemed like he might be torturing himself, and her in the process, bydenying the contact of their exposed skin.
Aware of a dull, moist ache between her legs,Evelyn fought the persistent need to squirm. She leaned back a little,searching again for the comforting warmth of his hard chest. Instead, sheencountered blunt, hot velvet as it stabbed the cleft of her back and angledupwards.
Oh dear lord.
Delicious curiosity snaked though her. That warm steelyhardness pulsed against her lower back. It flexed against her, tangling withthe feathery ends of her hair.
She squeezed her eyes shut. What was she doing?
Hot breath stirred against her ear as he closedhis large hands around both of her shoulders. Calloused fingers abraded herskin lightly. Sensation reverberated through her bones as he caressed the thinsensitive skin of her clavicles and angled south to follow the line of herfigure. Both hands spanned her ribcage before moving back up to run afingertip along the sensitive undersides of her full breasts. A deep rumble,almost a purr, vibrated against her, the sound unlike anything she’d ever heardbefore.
Absorbed and over-stimulated, Evelyn let out thebreath she’d been holding in one greatwhoosh, on which a tiny groanescaped without permission.
She felt his smile as he pressed his mouth to hertemple.
Finally cupping the mounds in both of his warmhands, he lifted them gently, testing their weight in his palms. Massaging thepliable skin in tandem, his lips found her sensitive ear lobe, her jaw, andthen her neck. He burrowed there, moistening it with his tongue. When henipped her lightly with his teeth, a flare of crippling desire and surprisecaused her knees to buckle and give.
