Tangled (Handfasting) by Becca St. John Read Free Book Online Page B

not do that with another man’s child."
    His
words tugged at her. She did not want the sense of it any more than she wanted
to hunger for his nearness.
    Talorc
lifted a strand of her hair, traced her cheek with it. She brushed him off.
    "Maggie?"
    She
would fight the warmth of him. The security. He was a warrior. A spear-heading,
dive into the fray, warrior. He had already played against the odds of survival.
He was not a man that a woman could count on to grow old beside her. He was not
a man to be content unless he had his way.
    He
was not the man she wanted to dream of.
    "I'm
tired, MacKay." She willed thoughts that would turn her against him. "What
with all the sleep I've had, I'm still tired." She rolled away, settled
deep in the covers.
    "Fine,"
he whispered, "Just remember I'm here for you."
    He
was there for too many. That was the problem. Chin over her shoulder she asked,
"Were you there for her too?  Did you make such promises to Seonaid?"
    His
eyes lost the heavy lidded look. "She's nothing to you, Maggie. We grew up
together. Her father was my da's right hand. I promised to watch over her. There
is nothing more to it than that."
    "She's
fairly cozy with you."
    "Maggie,
I'll not treat you false." 
    She
heard the way he held on to his patience. "You've already done that."
    "Maggie,"
his exasperation escaped, "why would you think I could want a woman like
that when I have you?"  Possessively he cupped her breast, she moaned. "You,
who are so responsive?"  He worked his hand under her blanket, trailing it
across her belly and lower. She wanted to stop him but he had started to kiss
her again, his words no more than a wisp of air against her cheek, in her ear. The
whoosh of it spiraled straight down her inners, parallel to the path of his
hand. "You are so brave." Horrified, she felt his fingers thread
through the small cluster of curls at the juncture of her thighs. "You
don't run from your desire," his fingers were turning to magic. Maggie
twisted in his hold, buried her face in his shoulder, "You meet my
challenge, come to me like the warrior lass you are."  He was stroking
that part of her that ached with desire, between the folds of her womanhood. One
finger drew a tiny swirling design on the tenderest of places. Her hips lifted
off the bed, she whimpered, felt weak and foolish.
    She
would meet him. She would take his challenge. Quickly, before she could stop
herself, she reached below his cover and found that solid hard ridge that
commanded her desire. With determination, she wrapped her hand around him,
stunned by the size and texture of him. Hard as a sword’s handle but soft as a
babe's flesh it drew her with wonderment. She slid her fingers from base to
tip, felt its involuntary jerk, felt the drop of moisture that topped it.
    "Oh,
Maggie." He covered her hand with his, forced her hold to tighten. "How
I wish you weren't still mending."  He groaned, his forehead to hers, his
other hand still working glory between her thighs.
    She
licked her lips wanting something, anything to free her hunger. "I want
more. You never seem to give me enough."
    "Maggie,"
Talorc lifted her chin, forced her to meet his eyes. "When I give you
enough, it will be with the length and breadth of me."
    Oh,
good Lord.  "You would never fit." She shook her head. "Never,
ever, in my lifetime."
    He
had the cheek to laugh. It was time to back off before he tried to do what he
spoke of. For if he tried, she was not certain she would stop him.
    "I
will fit, Maggie, trust me. But you will not be the same from that
moment."
    "Then
that moment best not happen."
    He
surprised her with a gentle kiss on her mouth, a slight lick of her lips. "That
moment will happen. I promise that. But you must know, when it does, you will
be mine. No skirting past that. I will be your husband in body and word."
    "Never."
    "Aye
bodies chained, will make you my wife."
    "You
don't claim Seonaid as wife."
    He
sighed, rolled to his back. "Maggie, Seonaid has