by Jackie Ivie
“Pay…ton?”
The name came out in two parts due to not having enough breath to say it. He groaned slightly and then snorted. Dallis tried again, and this time, she trilled a finger along his side. The response this time was a roll to the side of her with his upper body. It didn’t separate them and he was still shaking and twitching there. Dallis reddened despite herself as she looked down at them.
“Jesu’, Mary. And Joseph. Where did you learn to tupp, wife?” He lifted his head to ask it before dropping it back to the pillows again.
“Well!” Dallis pulled in the surprise and anger and tried shoving away from him, but that was as successful as shoving at a loaded cart would be.
He was chuckling then, and moving his head sideways to rub his chin along her cheek. “Dinna’ take more offense, Wife. Just get the damned ring on your finger.”
“I…” She stopped. She didn’t know how to tell him she’d sold it.
“If you’ve lost it, I’ll have another crafted. Larger. With a larger stone. I might just make it with a chain, too. Attached to me.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you are…without one doubt…the most amazing woman I’ve ever had. Ever.”
I…am?”
“Oh, aye.”
Dallis couldn’t believe the ripples of joy that cascaded over her at the praise. And then she stopped it. This was the Dunn-Fadden clan laird heir. She shoved again at him.
“And cease that.”
“But Payton. I have to wash. I have to…”
He opened one eye and stopped every thought with the blue-lit color made easy to spot since he had both eyebrows lifted.
“Oh, nae. You’re na’ to move. Na’ yet. Na’ for some time. And if you complain more, I may make it a larger span a-fore I allow you from my marriage bed. Jesu’! You’re that good, lass. That good. I hope I survive.”
“Payton!”
Chapter 4
The disgust started the moment he disengaged himself from her and rose from her bed. Dallis knew what the sensation was and welcomed it, and then used it to temper and cover over what she’d done. She’d failed clan creed. Not only had she been taken by an enemy, but she’d failed to exact the proper revenge for it. It no longer mattered about the funds she’d used against him, or the sleepless nights she’d undergone plotting her vengeance, nor what emotion she’d vowed to show him if he dared be in her presence again. She’d schooled herself to show nothing but disdain and hatred.
And her own body had betrayed her!
She could hear him fussing with the basin of water at her long dresser, splashing a bit. That raised the gall, as well. He was washing the proof of her maidenhood from himself. Her blood…not his.
It was better to stay buried with her face in the mattress than witness any of it. Maybe that way, it would all stay hidden.
“Wife?”
The title was smoothly said and in a low grumble of voice, alerting her to his approach. Her back tightened.
“My name is Dallis,” she replied in a stiff voice.
He chuckled and the mattress bowed with his weight.
“I ken as much,” was his reply.
“Then use it.”
There was silence for a bit and then there was a slap of a wet cloth upon her backside, followed by her gasp. And that was accompanied by a jerk in the bed he couldn’t help but feel.
“Here.”
His warning was too late, but she should have known a man whelped by a she-wolf had little manners and less sense.
“Wash yourself.”
“Nae.”
“We’ll work on obedience to your husband after we work on your lying tongue,” he replied.
Dallis pushed her teeth together to halt the immediate response. She couldn’t do anything about the pull of breath that came with it that was loud enough he heard it. And would know what caused it.
“So do as I say. Wash.”
She shook her head, rolling her cheek against the satin sheet.
There was a moment respite before what had to be his hand came down on her buttock. Fully and with a loud slap.
Dallis whirled onto her back, making the mattress sway as much as their mating had, and she was glaring at him when it was done. He wasn’t witnessing her expression, primarily because he wasn’t looking at her face. He was looking at her bosom and liking what he saw.
She pulled at the bedding and almost had it to her breasts before he stopped her with a fist full of material directly between where she held it. Despite her straining against his one hand, all that happened was a slight ripping noise somewhere in the fabric and his amusement feathering every breath across her exposed skin, lifting rivers of shivers she’d die before she admitted.
“I said, wash yourself.”
Now, he was talking to her bosom.
“When you’ve gone.”
He pulled on the coverlet she held, raising her into a sitting position with the motion and proving the power in just one arm, as well as her obstinacy in not letting go.
“What makes you think I’ll leave?” he asked.
“You got what you wanted. You’ll leave.”
He swung his gaze to hers and even steeled for the contact, she had to force her jaw not to slacken when she got it. She told herself it was due to his handsomeness and not any other reason, and then worked on believing it.
“Do you na’ listen, either?”
Dallis straightened her back, which was pure stupidity, since that just made every bit of her jut right at him, catching his glance before he moved it back to her face again.
“Say something I wish to hear. I’ll listen.”
“You’re a bonny one, Wife. Right bonny. I’m man enough to appreciate it. And hold on to it. You ken?”
“That is na’ what I wish to hear.”
Both sides of his mouth quirked, and the line beside his lips followed as he smiled. And she didn’t need to note any of that!
“I suppose you’re wishing it was your intended husband in your bed and at your side…and with the right to your body?”
“Nae man has the right to my body. Including you. Especially you.”
It would help if he wasn’t rubbing the sheet between his thumb and fingers with a mesmerizing tempo, right between her breasts. It would also be beneficial if her body wouldn’t note that he was doing so. Nearly touching her. And all that was made worse when she couldn’t prevent the tightening of her breast tips at the possibility of such an event.
“And with the proper size and prowess to grant such satisfaction to you that your skin still tells of it?”
If there was a purgatory ripe enough to place him in, she hoped he’d fall into it and then stay there!
“I dinna’—”, she began.
“Kilchurning is too small to satisfy you, Wife. Much too small. Near shamefully so.”
“How would you ken?” Dallis shot back.
“Wenches talk. And gossip. They’re heavy with their praise, while blunt with their stings.”
“You listen to women’s gossip?” Now it was her turn to put amusement in the words and she did so with such satisfaction, she was probably glowing with that. Which was a better thing than the other reason, the sensual response he was lifting in her. That she was definitely keeping hidden.
“When they’re beneath me and I’ve failed to keep their lips busy with something else…aye.”
Dallis’s face fell. She felt it. “Get out.” The tone she used would have made Leroy’s eyes puff up with unshed tears. She already knew that. The man holding her sheet didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest.
“When I’m good and ready to. And na’ one moment a-fore.”
“Now, Dunn-Fadden. Out.”
“We’ve been wed years, Dallis.” He emphasized her name, and she tried to tell herself that at least he’d used it this time. “I’m your husband. Dunn-Fadden clan…which makes you Dunn-Fadden clan. Legal and right and justly.”
“You are na
’ my husband!”
“Would you be carin’ for a repeat? I’m man enough to bed you again. And willing, as well. Or, perhaps you’d like to test that.”
She couldn’t control the response her body was giving him, and watched as he saw it. All of it. He scanned from the tight pinch of her nipples to the slight opening of her lips to gasp breath in and then caught and held her gaze from beneath lowered eyelids. It wasn’t her fault! She wasn’t versed in what to do when a man lowered his voice, moved a fraction closer to her. Or maybe it was the pulling on the sheet she held that took her closer to him, but it had the same effect, and all of it was to demonstrate the status of his arousal. Dallis had never been around a virile male before Payton Dunn-Fadden. The Caruth clan made certain of that. And she’d never had a man place that manliness in her face before. She didn’t even know they did such.
She settled with shaking her head.
“You surrender? Already?” He was pulling her closer as he said it, and she either had to go with the sheet or give it over and be naked. Either was bad.
“I doona’ wish a…repeat,” she whispered just before knocking her shoulder into his chest. Both his arms went around her, locking her where she was, and then she knew what was worse.
He snorted, the air from it tormented her shoulder while what had to be his mouth touched at her neck. “Your frame says different.”
“We both ken…I canna’ prevent…you from taking me,” Dallis stammered it in a throaty whisper. “You’re too…strong.”
“I’m fond of your wording even if it’s a lie.”
“Payton—.” What was meant as a curt tone, came out breathless and warm.
“Aye?” he murmured against her skin.
“Why…are you doing this? Now?”
“Why na? I’ve an estate to secure and a wife to do it with. And I find her womanly and ripe and verra pleasing to the eyes. And the touch.”
“Nae, I…” She was losing her thought to his tongue against her shoulder as the spot sparked, and then warmed, markedly and rapidly.
“And now I wish an heir.”
“A…bairn? You wish a bairn?”
“What man does na’?”
He was rolling her in his arms, placing her fully against his chest and putting her in a twist since she refused to split her legs to straddle him.
“But—.”
“You’ve too many words and none of them worth the listen,” he replied.
She shoved at him and gained herself stronger bands about her torso. And not much else. “But…we already did that,” she stammered.
Payton hooted what was probably laughter and it lifted her with it. It also lifted his mouth from her. “Once? You believe I’ll gain an heir with but once?”
She nodded.
He grunted, settled back onto the bed, and then pooled her into the cavity of his thighs, causing a contact with his arousal that speared her in the lower back. And that caused him to stammer. “’Tis possible…I’ve heard. True enough. Dallis, lass. With enough luck. I’ve about spent my share of luck. Aside from which…I want to.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Jesu’, Wife. Do you never tell the truth?”
He had every right for the confident way he said it, since she’d taken off shoving at him and had her fingers threaded through his midnight hair and was sliding her own mouth along his jaw preparatory to securing his kiss.
“It is…the truth.”
She lost the last word against his mouth as her lips melded to his, and the moan that escaped them probably had more of her voice to it than his. She’d worry about that later. After he left. And when her conscience returned from wherever it had hidden.
“The next thing you’ll be speaking is that you wish it was Kilchurning gracing your bed and pleasuring your body.”
“Kil…churning…” She split the name with her breaths, but that was his fault.
“Aye—”
“Kilchurning!”
The guttural cry coming through the door interrupted him. Dallis’s eyes met his for a fraction. She watched the black of his enlarge to overshadow the intense light blue color and wondered at her sanity in noting that.
“Laird Dunn-Fadden! ’Tis Kilchurning!”
“Where?”
Payton yelled it as he shoved from her, making a buzz in her ear with the volume of voice he gave it. He pushed her into the mattress in order to spring to the floor. From there he went to a squat, shoving aside his discarded clothing for his weapons. Dallis pulled the covers to her chin and shimmied to the far wall, putting her back against it and ignoring the cold from the stone.
“Here!”
He growled it as a dirk was tossed her way, landing in the sheet at her knee. He’s giving me a knife? For a scant moment she felt like giggling, and then put it aside.
She didn’t have time for such an idea. Payton’s tupping with her had taken the choice away. She didn’t have the luxury of wedding Kilchurning once she proved her virginity. Like before. Now, all she had was the right of captive.
“Well? Where?”
Payton was at the door, pulling the bolt out of its socket, rather than lifting it. He wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.
It was the man that had been with Payton earlier. In the shadows of the hall he looked even more massive. And he was fully dressed. Dallis caught his glance and went so warm with the blush the wall at her back lost its chill.
“At the woods. Inside the demesne.”
“Jesu’, Man! You interrupted me for that?”
Payton straightened and pulled himself into a full stretch, while Dallis tried to ignore the winter light as it caressed sinew and muscle and buttocks. It wasn’t possible! She had to turn aside.
“You were warned,” his man continued.
“Aye. ’Tis why I posted guards. You ken that.”
“I also ken our numbers.”
“So? Each one is worth three men. And he’ll be spent. ’Tis a fair ride from Castle Kilchurn,” Payton said.
“Unless he encamped closer.”
“Why would he do that?”
“To gird you in this accursed tower the moment you’re spotted outside Edinburgh’s high walls…what else?”
“Only if he had warning. Who would give him that?”
Both men turned and looked toward her. Dallis could see it from the corner of her eye. She kept her gaze fixed to the footboard. She supposed they thought they were whispering.
“’Tis a blizzom outside. Kilchurning is daft.”
“The man is burning with vengeance. Warms a body in the coldest of climes. You ken this. ’Tis your own creed.”
She waited for Payton to answer, then had to look at what was taking so long. He’d donned the shirt and was shaking out his plaid, prior to winding it back onto his frame. And then he secured it with the immense silver belt of the King’s Champion. “You sent Daws?” he asked, when the belt was affixed.
“And Graham. To Edinburgh. Upon your order.”
Payton nodded. “We’re ten then.”
“Aye.”
“And Kilchurning?”
“Forty.” The man in the hall shrugged. “Perhaps more. Less. ’Tis difficult to be certain in the storm. Dugan dinna’ wait around to count fully.”
Dallis was going cold again. And it wasn’t from any element outside her body anymore. Forty…or more? Against ten? Payton was mad.
“Heat the oil. Prepare the pitch. Gather the men. Check for an armory. If I still possess such. And see if there’s a catapult with any service to it.”
The man in the hall nodded, and didn’t move.
“What are you waiting for?” Payton asked.
“You.”
“I’ll be down shortly.”
“I’ll just wait that event. Right here. Watchful.”
Payton probably had the same expression she did. Dallis didn’t need to verify it. She felt mystified and Dunn-Fadden looked it as he turned his head toward where she was still s
hoved against the wall. She raised her brows and shrugged when all he did was stare, and then relaxed as he turned back to his man. She hadn’t even known she was tense.
“What for?”
“The wife.” His man gave a nod in her direction in the event anyone questioned who that was.
“We’ve more worries than a lone woman, Redmond.”
“She has one of your dirks. I want it back. On your person.”
Dallis had forgotten it. So had Payton, although the outline was easy to see amidst the mass of white satin all about her. She watched him glance there and then to her face.
“She’ll have need of it,” he replied finally.
“You planning another romp?” Redmond asked. “Now?”
Payton chuckled. “Nae. I’m planning a battle. With your help. Go. See to my orders. I’ll be down shortly.”
“She’s already proven treachery, My Laird. Dinna’ gift her with your life.”
Payton turned back to his man and lowered his voice so far Dallis couldn’t catch what more he said. It must have reassured him, for the hulk turned and vacated the space he’d been in.
And then she had Payton’s full attention again. But at least, he was dressed. That didn’t help much as he moved across the floor to stand at her bed, feet apart and hands on his hips. He flicked a glance to the knife and back to her face. Dallis kept everything blank.
“If I allow you yon dirk, will you use it properly this time?”
“This…time?” She had to clear her throat of the dryness to get the words out.
“Kill the man who claims you without the right. Doona’ just stick him in a non-vital spot.”
He moved a hand to the scar at his left side. It wasn’t necessary. She already knew what he meant.
“You dinna’ have the right.”
He lowered his chin and regarded her through his eyelashes. “’Tis why I gift my blade to you now. Use it. But doona’ go for his manhood. ’Tis powerful hard to spot.”