Highland Hellion (Highland Weddings #3)(55)

“Women crave more than just the ride.”

She felt her heart settling into a more normal rhythm, but her temper heated in response to his words. “And how many women have you enjoyed to know that?”

His lips parted in a smirk. She let out a snort and grabbed a pillow that she swung toward his head. Rolfe blocked it far too easily for her pride. She rolled over and right off the bed.

“I hope you enjoyed them,” was her tart reply.

“Ye’re lying.” He sat up and contemplated her.

Katherine suddenly felt exposed. There was a certain knowledge in his expression as he looked at her bare frame that told her he knew exactly what a naked woman looked like.

And she didn’t care for how jealous it made her feel.

So she found her chemise and put it on, earning a frown from her husband. He sat all the way up before standing and walking toward the small table in the outer chamber. He opened a bottle of honey mead supplied by Duncan and poured two glasses of it.

“Her name was Gret.”

“I don’t wish to hear about it.”

Rolfe only offered her a glass. She glared at him, but he was unrepentant, so she took it and drew a sip of the sweet beverage.

Rolfe was still bare as the day he’d been born.

She really wished she didn’t enjoy the sight so much. It was undermining her efforts to be cross with him.

“She was the widow of one of me father’s captains,” Rolfe continued. “A woman who had position, and therefore no reason to wed again and risk losing her freedom.”

“Are you deaf?” Kat asked. “Or simply indifferent to my pride?”

Rolfe grinned at her. “I’m trying to tell ye I am no’ the sort of man who keeps a mistress.”

She hadn’t expected that. In fact, Kat realized she knew very little about him. She felt a teasing of heat on her cheeks as she sat down on a chair and waited for him to continue. They did need to learn about each other.

“Gret caught me kissing a kitchen maid, when the girl had slapped me for following her.”

“I hope she added a slap of her own.”

He raised his glass to her in agreement before he emptied it.

“She hit me with a pastry roller, and it left a bruise that didn’t fade for a month.” He grinned at the memory. “Warned me that she’d crack me skull if I ever failed to respect a lass’s wishes again.”

“And still, she became your…lover?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Rolfe held up his finger when she started to ask another question. “I learned from her that fucking and making love are two very different things. I was a very fortunate man to have a woman who took the time to instruct me.”

He was moving toward her, plucking the glass from her distracted fingers and setting it aside before he gently raised her to her feet by cupping her elbows. It was such a tender touch, one he followed with a soft stroke of his fingers across her cheek.

“A woman is more sensual than a man,” he leaned down and whispered against her ear. She felt his warm breath teasing her neck a moment before he pressed a gentle kiss against her nape.

She shuddered.

Rolfe lifted his head, watching her response. What made her catch her breath was the way his eyes flickered with enjoyment, as though he found her delight pleasing.

“And if a man is wise”—he caught the soft fabric of her chemise between his fingertips and started to draw it up her body—“he learns to awaken her passion.” The garment came between them, blocking him from sight as he pulled it up and over her head.

“Strength has its place, too.” He caught her wrists while her arms were still raised high and held them prisoner in his large hands. “But tempered by an iron will.”

He pulled her arms straight above her head as he came close enough for his body hair to touch her breasts. She shivered, gooseflesh rising on her skin as he held her gaze just as securely as her wrists. Her belly twisted with awareness. Of him, of his strength, of how much she wanted to feel it.

“Any man can claim a woman,” he rasped in a voice edged with promise. “Only a lover can earn her passion.”

He leaned down and scooped her up, cradling her against his chest as she settled into the embrace. It felt so very right.

Secure.

As though he was everything she might ever need.

He moved slowly toward the bed, his bare feet making soft sounds against the floor. When he laid her among the rumpled bedding, the ropes groaned as they took her weight and then his.

Her senses were heightened, feeding her all of the tiny details she had heard before when climbing into bed. Now, with Rolfe there, it all seemed much richer. As though she’d been swallowing her food without tasting it before.

Rolfe leaned down and kissed her, lingering over the press of his lips against hers. He didn’t rush to part her lips, but took a long moment to taste her. It made her twist up toward him, slipping her hands along his wide shoulders and into his hair. The need to bind him to her was growing, like a newly lit fire. The flames began to lick at the wood before it popped and caught.

Her skin was heating, making being nude feel so very perfect.

“Do nae be jealous of Gret,” he whispered against her ear. “She taught me to respect a woman’s need to be aroused.”

“That is…a puzzle…” Katherine rasped out as he stroked her sides.