Page 4 of Seduced By the Squire (Diamonds in the Rough #1)

A dark, looming shape in the shadows caught Llinos’ attention.

“Duncan?” she asked tentatively, as a chill crept up her spine.

What if it wasn’t him? Only a few days ago she might not have thought much of being alone with a man in a dark corner, confident that her rank would be enough to deter him from disrespecting her. In her mind Sir Huw’s behaviour had been an anomaly, brought on by her refusal to give in to his entreaties. She had not thought that he had only been waiting for a excuse to assault her, or that others might well do the same given the opportunity. After her shocking talk with the Scotsman, however, she wasn’t so sure. He had made it clear that all men were after the same thing and so she was wary, more than she would like to admit.

Before she had time to worry, Duncan appeared in front of her.

“You followed me all the way here,” she said in a shaky breath .

“Aye, lass, I did.”

If the look in his eyes hadn’t been enough to warn her about what was about to happen, the fact that he was addressing her in such an informal manner would have made it clear he was about to do what he had agreed to do.

Tonight he would be the fiery lover, not the respectful squire, and do what she wanted him to do.

Everything within her leapt at the thought.

“Here?” She looked around nervously. The bed behind them suddenly seemed an impossibly forbidding sight.

“Here,” he answered, coming forwards. “Now.”

Llinos’ throat went dry. This was it. In a moment she would not be a virgin anymore. Should she tell him that she was nervous? Should she ask him to be gentle? No, he would take offence if he thought she assumed he would not be. Besides, she trusted him not to hurt her on purpose.

Should she get undressed? Should she go to the bed? Unsure what to do, she waited. He had said he wanted to do this on his own terms and she had agreed. He wouldn’t take it too well to be denied control now.

“Lesson number one. Men like breasts.”

This was so far removed from what she had expected that she lowered her head to stare at her own two breasts. Neither large nor small, they were completely unremarkable. She was still wearing the linen dress Lady Janet had found for her and the bodice was cut lower than she was used to. Because of the heat of the day, up until then she had not really registered the fact. But now, under Duncan’s heated gaze, she felt almost naked.

“Why? What could you possibly find of interest in breasts?” she murmured, looking at the swell peeking above her bodice. The fact that her skin was sprinkled with freckles did not help to make them attractive in her opinion, quite the opposite.

“Everything,” he said in a low growl. “We like to look at them, feel their softness in our hands, cup them, taste them, lick them, squeeze them, watch them move while we fuck. And the nipples… There is nothing like having a tight — ”

“Very well, I believe you,” Llinos cut in before she could go red all over. “Men like breasts.”

Heavens but the man had a way of talking that would have made a nun rethink her vocation.

“Aye, we do. And ye have the most glorious breasts I’ve e’er seen.”

Seen? She blinked. When had he seen her breasts ?

“It was you!” she cried out when realisation dawned. “You watched when I undressed by the lake this afternoon!”

She had not been mistaken, someone had been there, hiding in the bushes! How had she not realised it was none other than Duncan when he had appeared out of the same bushes barely a moment later?

He arched a brow. “Of course I did. Only a fool would walk in on a naked lady and not watch. I am no fool. Are ye saying that ye would not have done the same had it been the other way around?” Llinos bit her lip. Oh, she definitely would. She would have stared at him until her eyes ached. “I see,” he drawled, “ye are no fool either. Perhaps I should go and take a wee dip in the lake tomorrow and see what happens.”

“You can do what you want,” she said in a low voice, trying not to picture the scene. Mercifully, as she had never seen a fully naked man before, she could not conjure up anything too dangerous for her peace of mind. All she knew was that he would look, well, glorious.

Duncan smirked, then his face suddenly became serious again. “Why were ye naked in the middle of the clearing?”

“I was not in the middle of the clearing!” Llinos protested, flushing. “Lady Janet had drenched me in wine earlier, and I was changing out of my soiled dress.”

“Weel, it was mighty foolish of ye. I stayed to make sure no one jumped on ye. How did ye not think ye were placing yerself in danger by doing something like that wi’ men lurking about?”

Absurdly, Llinos was disappointed. Shocking as it was, she would have preferred to hear he had watched because he thought her desirable, not just because he wanted to ensure her safety. “So you watched over me?”

“Aye, of course I did, as I would have done for any of the other ladies.” Something in his eyes shifted and she wondered if that was quite the whole truth. Perhaps he did find her desirable after all. “But I made the most of the opportunity. I needed to see whether I could perform as a stud for ye. Men cannae bed a lass if they do not feel any desire for her. They need to be hard, and that’s not going to happen wi’ someone who doesn’t appeal to them.”

Don’t ask. Don’t ask!

“And… Do you think you will you be able to bed me?”

Llinos’ eyes widened. Had she actually asked the inappropriate question? Was she mad? That was only courting disaster! Besides, she had already felt the proof that he thought her desirable that day on the battlements. She knew he could get hard with her .

“Och aye, definitely.” The look he threw her sent a burning arrow through her chest. “I will be able to rise to the challenge.”

Every nerve ending started to sizzle. Llinos wanted to lick her suddenly dried lips but she remembered his warning. Doing so would undoubtedly make him think of her performing some lewd act on him.

So what? her treacherous mind screamed. Let him think what he wants! Aren’t you imagining him performing some lewd acts on you even as we speak?

Yes, she was.

“So shall we, my lady?”

The polite squire again. She was learning to differentiate between the two quite easily, though she was not quite sure why Duncan would choose that moment to revert back to his formal persona, when they were about to do the most intimate thing a man and a woman could do together.

“Bare your breasts to me.”

Oh. Suddenly she understood why he had become the squire again. Instead of simply tumbling her onto the bed, he was going to make this as humiliating, as difficult for her as could be. Or was it… as arousing?

Because, undoubtedly, when she started to lower her bodice, something happened within her, something she was certain he had anticipated. Heat spread though her, making her feel beautiful and wanted rather than vulgar. Perhaps he did not mean to humiliate her at all, but make the moment as thrilling as possible for both of them.

“Look at me,” he ordered. “Look at me while I look at you.”

At her breasts he meant. She did, loving the way his eyes slowly caught fire, like the sun rising above the horizon at dawn. The more she revealed, the brighter the flame in his green eyes became. Thank God she was not wearing one of her own gowns, it would have been a lot harder to follow his instructions. When cool air brushed against her heated flesh, she shivered. When her nipples poked out from under the hem of her gown, she bit her lip. When the bodice fell to her waist in a whisper of fabric, she inhaled sharply.

Duncan had not touched her, not even said a word, yet she was more aroused than she had been in her entire life.

His gaze was fixed on her nipples, which had become as hard as pebbles and the urge to cover herself vanished. Instead, she fought the impulse to rub her palms against them, needing some friction to ease the stinging. As if he’d guessed her desperation he growled and lifted her onto a stool, bringing her aching breasts level with his head. And then finally, blessedly, he put his hands on her.

His hands and his mouth.

Llinos could not contain her moans. Her breasts which, up until that moment, she had not considered as worthy of more interest than her elbows or her feet now felt heavy, exquisitely sensitive and… well, glorious, just like Duncan had said.

True to his promise, he lavished his attention on every part, taking his time, massaging, squeezing, licking, biting. Oh, the biting! She moaned and moaned again like a wanton but she could not help it, it felt too good. Her hands went to his head, her fingers wove into his hair to anchor him in place. She couldn’t get enough of this, she didn’t want it to ever stop.

His hands travelled down to her hips, following the shape of her curves, before he grabbed her buttocks in a possessive, unashamedly masculine hold. That was it. He was about to lift her off the stool and bring her to the bed. Finally! He had reduced her to a mass of need with his teasing and she wanted to feel his weight on her, his heat in her.

“Now,” she rasped.

“Now,” he growled in response.

Footsteps resonated in the room next to them, bursting through the fog of desire.

Bewildered, Llinos looked around, panting. Duncan was already rearranging her shift and gown, covering her exposed flesh.

“Go, my lady, we mustn’t be seen alone together,” he urged.

But she couldn’t move, couldn’t think, she couldn’t even blink. She could only stare at him stupidly, unable to comprehend what had just happened. He swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair.

“Werra weel, I ’ll go then!”

He made to the door but, at the last moment, reconsidered and ran back to her. Without a word he plucked her from the stool and deposited her onto the floor. His face was a picture of hunger and frustrated desire.

In the blink of an eye, he was gone. A moment later, the door opened again.

“My lady?” Elena, one of the ladies Lord Masterson had assigned to her comfort – or possibly to spy on her – skidded to a halt in front of her. “Are you quite all right?”

“Yes, yes, I’m all right, yes,” Llinos said, her voice all hoarse, as if she was coming down with a cold. Odd, because she had never felt hotter in her life. “I’ll be going now. I need to rest. The heat is getting to me. ”

She willed her feet to move. Thank goodness Duncan had taken her off the stool. She had completely forgotten where she was and would have fallen flat on her face the moment she took a step into thin air.

“Erm, my lady, your bedchamber is that way,” Elena said, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Yes, yes, of course it is. Thank you.”

Llinos walked away on shaky legs. How on earth was she going to face Duncan after what he had just done? Even more worryingly, considering what she had felt with him doing no more than fondle her breasts, how was she going to survive being made love to? It would be overwhelming, possibly even frightening in its intensity.

In the end she didn’t have to worry about any of it. She spent the evening in her room, feigning a headache and the following morning, she was told he had gone to Shrewsbury and would be gone for several days. The news sent her into a flurry of anguish. Not that she thought Sir Benedict would be back before he was, but now that Duncan was gone, she realised that she had been looking for him at every turn, searched every corner of every room for a glimpse of him.

When a door opened she automatically raised her head in the hope that it would be him, when a horse was heard in the courtyard her heart started to beat faster, when someone laughed she checked to see if it wasn't him.

In less than a week he had taken a disproportionate place in her life.

And they had not slept together yet…

*

It was only when the heavens opened that Duncan understood why he was in such a foul mood. It had nothing to do with the sudden change of weather and the gnawing sensation in his gut was not hunger.

He was furious, that was what it was. Furious at having been taken away from Pitcairn Castle – or rather, to have been taken away from Llinos before he could use her body to douse the burning need she had woken up in him.

He had never seen anyone like her. Who the hell was this Lady Llinos and why did she have to burst into his life?

Duncan didn’t know many people who would have had the guts to stand up to him the way she did, to tell him to his face she wasn’t afraid when he had her all but squashed against the wall.

The woman was a walking contradiction. A lady yet not above mingling with inferiors, wee as a kitten and yet fierce as a wolf, innocent but bold enough to go to a man to demand to be taken and follow his most daring orders. Jesu the way she had bared her breasts to him! And the word ‘cock’ in her mouth! He grew hard just thinking about it.

What was he going to do with her? At first, he had wanted to teach her a lesson for thinking he was just a plaything to be used and discarded but now… Now he wanted to give her a proper lesson in fucking, plunge inside her again and again, until he had cured himself of this most unnerving infatuation.

Everything about her was sending him mad, even the most innocuous detail. Her freckles were a good example. That he had noticed them was already puzzling. That they sent him wild with desire was incomprehensible, and beyond maddening. Now he had touched the ones that graced her lush breasts and throat, he longed to see the ones covering the rest of her body. The absurd idea that he would not be satisfied until he had kissed and licked each and every one of the cinnamon-coloured dots crossed his mind.

At first he had thought she was only yet another pampered, selfish, foolish lady, but those ladies he despised would never bite into an apple as if it was the most delicious treat imaginable, they would not make a man like him feel like their equal, they would not ruffle a child’s hair and laugh at their jokes.

They would not let him suckle her because they knew how much pleasure he was deriving from it, they would instead demand he did what he was here for.

Nay, the lady was like no other. Even her name was unique. He did not know anyone else called Llinos.

He didn’t know anyone else who looked, smelled, or tasted as good as she did. God, the taste of her! So clean, so fresh, so utterly intoxicating. He could still feel her tight little nipples roll over his tongue, hear her moans and squeals of surprised pleasure. If it had been so satisfying to suckle her, how much better would it be to take her?

The last time he had bedded a virgin, he had been a virgin himself, and the whole experience had been disappointing, over in moments and rather messy. Although he had become a much more accomplished lover since then, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a tryst with the Welsh lady. One thing was sure, however, he would not be disappointed.

If what he had seen so far was to be trusted, it would be explosive.

What was he doing? Playing with fire, that was what. Getting obsessed about her had not been part of the bargain. God only knew what people would say if they saw him and Llinos together. No one would believe she had been the one coming to him, even supposing he was crass enough to reveal such a thing.

What would happen to her if she got her wish and Sir Benedict really did refuse to marry her because she was no longer a virgin? It was obvious she had not thought beyond ensuring he would not marry her but her actions would have serious repercussions. Would the man ruin her good name and make it impossible for her to find another husband? It was possible. Humiliated men were capable of the worst.

Why was he even wondering about it? It was not his problem, she had asked to be fucked, and he would fuck her. It was that simple.

Tonight he would be back at Pitcairn Castle, tomorrow he would go to find Llinos at the earliest opportunity, hold up his end of the bargain and put an end to whatever it was they were doing. There would be no more spying on her naked body, no fondling her breasts as if they were his to enjoy, no daydreaming about her. He would lift her skirts, take her maidenhead, spill outside her body, leave and be done with it.

Aye. It was the best thing to do. Then, with luck, his life could resume its normal course.

With a new determination he kicked his horse onwards.