Page 51 of The Lone Wolf's Bride

‘No, don’t stop, please. I want this. I want you.’

He was careful and gentle, not like Aidan who had grabbed and pushed, shoved and crushed. Murray moved slowly, controlling his pleasure so as to ensure hers. Every time he moved against her, Ilene felt shoots of pleasure and a need to surge against him, matching his thrusts with hers. She had no shame or restraint or regret any more, just a violent desire.

‘Murray, oh Murray,’ she cried, as she gasped out her passion. The pleasure became too intense and burst over her in a beautiful, pulsating ecstasy as she wrapped her legs around him and tore free her hands from his iron grip. She clutched onto his broad back crying out his name over and over, as he too found his release.

Ilene lay panting under him. She had never expected anything like this, such a beautiful feeling, as if every inch of her skin was alive with sensation. She pushed Murray onto his side and kissed him thoroughly, pressing her breasts against him as he kissed her back just as eagerly.

‘I did not hurt you? The bairn…?’

‘No, you did not hurt me, quite the opposite.’ She smiled warmly into his eyes. ‘I have no words Murray, that was so wonderful,’ she breathed, excitedly. ‘I never thought I could feel like that. I did not expect it to be so…’

‘Surely you knew what to expect?’

‘What?’

‘You knew what to expect. Was it not like that with Grant?’ he said flatly.

It was like being punched, the hurt of it, the shock.

‘Murray must we speak of him. I…I thought all that was forgotten.’

‘Do I compare favourably?’

‘Murray, stop this.’

‘Because I should like to know that I have done as good a job of bedding you as he did.’

‘Why are you being cruel?’

‘I don’t know, I can’t help it,’ he said bleakly. He sat up and stared out at the dying sun.

‘I thought you wanted me.’

‘Of course I wanted you, I am a man, I have needs.’ He turned to her. ‘And you are so lovely it would test the strength of any man to resist you.’

He turned away and hung his head down. Ilene could do nothing but stare at him in shock, noticing the tiny pink crescents along his ribcage where she had dug her nails into him at the height of her passion. One by one, like the drip of poison, his words burned her.

‘It would seem you are eager to please and have taken to my bedding you with an enthusiasm which is quite astonishing.’

‘Murray, I thought you lay with me because you had forgiven me. I thought it meant there was affection between us. I thought we could…you called me yourlove.’

‘Those are words one says in the throes of passion. You think too much Ilene. Be in no doubt about my motives here, I want you as a man wants a beautiful woman. In a moment of weakness, I have taken what was on offer and it was long overdue.’

He got up and out of bed, leaving her to hastily pull up her shift and clutch the blankets to her. He loomed over her with a bleak look on his face.

‘Think of this as the price you pay for pledging yourself to me. It is my right and your duty. You seemed to enjoy it, so you should have no cause for complaint. There is no reason why we shouldn’t get some small joy out of our marriage.’ He pulled on his clothes and there was shame in the way he would not meet her eye.

‘Please don’t do this.’

‘The marriage is properly consummated so there is no going back now.’

‘Is that what this was, a way of binding me to you?’

‘Perhaps, I don’t know, but if you think you can play the martyr, confess your sin and go back to your family to escape me, then you are wrong. You belong to me completely now.’

‘So this was some kind of punishment. You must really hate me to do this,’ she said desolately.

‘I don’t hate you, Ilene.’ He hung his head. ‘But I cannot love you either, no matter how much you want me to. I told you before, I will not be your fool.’

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