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“Are you still suffering the effects?” The concern in his expression surprised her

“Morag said the symptoms I described were too intense to be attributed to the herbs” Shrugging, she wondered if her skin would ever return to nor her shoulder ainst the inside of her dress in a way that felt decadent Sweetly sinful “I do not understand this heightened sensitivity”

“She did not suggest an answer?” He tilted his head, regarding her curiously His thick dark hair brushed his shoulder as he turned and she recalled the lush, silky feel of it in her fingers

“No But I left in a rush because of the stor about Finn’s arrival more than she wanted to co had reacted to the news of Violet’s suffering “I don’t think she was surprised, though She seemed more…amused Which is unlike her, because normally when she mixes herbs without success she is distressed about it”

A wolfish grin spread across Finn’s features, his teeth shiny white in the darkness

“That is because she understood your condition for what it was” He lifted a lock of her hair from where it lay on her shoulder and twined the dark curl around one finger “It is a circumstance that every man and woman should be so fortunate to experience once in a lifetime”

Without the fabric twined about her neck, Finn’s hand hovered close to the bare patch of skin at the base of her throat Her flesh practically vibrated with awareness of him as she remembered what it had felt like for him to touch her there

“You speak of lust?” She should not know of such things, perhaps, but with her one she’d been raised in close proximity to a keep full of her father’s retainers and she understood what drove the men to the maids’ pallets

“Nay” Relinquishing the curl, he allowed it to settle along her exposed skin in a teasing caress that called up the hot hunger she’d been running fronition of its one trueit will not be denied”

Like a gauntlet tossed, Finn’s words challenged her Would she prove his of her body that wanted his with a fierceness she could not understand?

His fingers went to the laces of his tunic and unfastened theap as he loosened the garment, then pulled it over his head His bare chest was sculpted with ith, his arms roped with muscle and his shoulders as broad as hammered armor

Her breath came in short, rapid bursts Flames flickered all over her skin The wantonness she’d experienced earlier caent demand

“You speak h her body already hovered closer to him

“Yesterday I would have agreed” He drew her into his ar her time to protest

But she could not A roar in her ears told her to touch him Take whatever he offered Take him

When his mouth met hers, her lips melted beneath his Like liquid, she conformed to the hard planes of his body as if they had already becoreedy fingers, wanting nothing between theht speak madness, it was a heady lunacy that she wanted to drown in How could his touch be so gentle, his restraint so great, when he possessed enough power in his hands to take fro he wanted? Yet he’d held hi her to free herself when her fears overwhelmed her

His kindness touched her, since her father had always been more likely to respond with a backhand than a kind word

Now, determined to lose herself in this tenderness, she savored the path Finn’s hands traveled He worked the laces of her kirtle, freeing the tight constraints With a nudge of his thigh, he lifted her onto his lap and then lifted her up to the heather tick she kept in one corner of the roo streaked through the high arrow slits, illu her see the restraint he used as he settled her on the blanket He was so strong, yet he handled her with exquisite care, dragging her garments up and off until she lay before him utterly naked

His gaze raked over her with a thoroughness she could only hope his hands would soon i his weight fro her how quickly he could le with pleasure