Betrayed by Claire Robyns Page A

shook his thoughts loose.
    “Then go ta bed,” he rasped, and immediately regretted the harsh order when she jumped back from him and yelped. This day would eventually end, Krayne assured himself as he moved to her side. “Let me see.”
    She shrank from him, keeping her gaze level with his chest.
    “Amber,” he warned, “I will see yer ankle.” He tipped her chin to look into her eyes. “I canna say what might happen if ye force me ta take ye in my arms again. Let’s not tempt fate.”
    He almost smiled at the spark of understanding in her green gaze. At least she didn’t pretend to be a blushing maiden with no inkling of carnal matters. He held his arm out. “Let’s go ta bed.”
    The moment the words were out, his mind flooded with fantasies of long legs wrapped about his waist; her secret triangle, the same raven black as her hair for sure, and parted wide in invitation. Blood drained from his head directly to his shaft. God above, he was being consumed by a lust he didn’t want. I have no control over this.
    “The bed,” he said hoarsely. “Let me take ye back to the bed.”
    Amber, meanwhile, ignored both his careless blunder and his arm, hobbling a wide berth around him. He shut his eyes, hands clenched into fists at his sides, and inhaled a long, clear breath that sucked the storm from his head.
    He was wrong. Too much control is the problem. His failure came in rejecting his lust and denying the pleasure.
    He snapped his eyes open to see where Amber had gone.
    She was on the chair beside the hearth, arranging the shirt about her knees while her stubborn glare remained on him. “You may examine my ankle here. Besides, that is what I wanted to know. Where will I be sleeping?”
    Krayne obliged by going down before her, gently lifting the leg she’d indicated. One hand supported the heel and the other prodded the tender flesh and delicate bone. “’Tis swollen,” he murmured, prodding a little more. “Nothing appears broken.”
    “I could have told you that.”
    In response to her sharp tongue, he let his hand roam up her leg, satin soft, firm and slender. It was a glorious experience, knowing he could indulge without restraint. Sweet heaven, and he would no more be denied.
    With little obvious distraction, he removed his hand to catch hold of her wrist before she landed an indignant slap. Only he knew how much he already missed that tantalising journey up her leg to paradise.
    Replacing her misbehaving hand in her lap, he delivered a lazy smile. “Ye’ll sleep in my bed tonight.”
    “I’ll give you no pleasure.”
    He chuckled, enjoying the fire in her eyes. “Ye already have, lass.”
    She made to jump up, but he held her down with a gentle, yet firm, hand. “I will bind yer ankle.”
    “Why?” she spat. “So you can later enjoy your wild play without guilt?”
    “Mayhap,” he conceded after a moment, then pushed to his feet to find a linen strip.
    “I’ll not lie with you.”
    The force in her words twisted his lips downward, but he quickly disregarded her contempt. It mattered little.
    “So ye keep informing me.” He knelt before her, binding the ankle with a solid tension. “One might almost think yer hoping ta convince yerself.”
    “Oh—you—you—” She leaned forward and thumped hard at his chest.
    Krayne grinned, wondering if she realised that the flush to her cheeks and the flashing green of her eyes were enemies to her cause, inflaming him with a want that could no longer be put off.
    He stood abruptly. “Come.”
    “No.” She held fast to the arms of the chair, refusing to meet his eyes.
    Krayne had lost the taste for taunting. Pleasure had turned to blessed torture and now he only wanted to sate his lust. “Ye will not be disturbed in my bed, Amber. I have no intention of bedding ye.”
    Her eyes narrowed on him in blatant disbelief. “Where—where will you sleep?”
    His hand swept the floor area by the hearth.
    “You cannot sleep here.”
    Krayne gave her