Highland Vengeance by Saydee Bennett Page A

for
surely you couldn’t be very agile.”
    As Olivia was finishing her sentence,
Camden leapt from the bed to stand in front of her and then he
quickly pushed her shoulders back on the bed and covered her body
with his. Their mouths were an inch apart and the tips of their
noses touched. The laird looked deeply into her beautiful eyes and
stared for what felt like eternity.
    “ Never question my abilities
as a warrior, wife,” he ordered.
    Olivia was shaken to the core by the
heat of his bare skin as it radiated through her dress. She was
suddenly aware of his perfect masculine body and she could not help
but touch his smooth skin. She became fascinated by the ripples of
his muscles and envisioned of how strong he must be. Olivia had
grown up watching men battle but they always wore armor or at least
clothes. She was certain none of the English men looked like this
underneath their tunics.
    The more his new wife touched him, the
less control he had. Camden wondered if she knew the light touch of
her fingertips was driving him mad. He quickly moved off of her
before he broke his promise and took full advantage of their
marriage union. Why was she affecting him this way? The laird had
been with women before but now he felt a need to protect her as if
she were a fragile gift he had been given.
    Olivia stood and tried to remove the
dress from her body. She was successful in the first layer and then
was stuck with the second. Camden watched with amusement and
wondered why she did not know how to remove her own dress.
Certainly she had done it many times and he thought maybe she was
just trying to stall coming to bed.
    “ Do all English women have
such a difficult time getting out of their dresses?” He
asked.
    “ Do all Highland warriors
find enjoyment in their wife’s problems?” She said not answering
his question but giving him one of her own.
    Camden laughed out loud and the rich
sound of his laughter sent chills through Olivia’s body. Maybe she
would always make him laugh because she found great pleasure in the
sound. He left the bed, walked close to her and made her lift her
arms. He reached to the floor and pulled her entire dress up and
completely over her head. Olivia stood in only her chemise and then
started to take the pins from her hair. She hated having it pulled
back because it always made her head ache. Camden sat on the edge
of the bed and watched as she moved her body with
elegance.
    “ You don’t seem to be very
shy with me any longer.”
    She looked at Camden and his statement
seemed so ridiculous. He was the one fully nude in front of her and
he was concerned about her being shy. Olivia smiled at him and
through the firelight of the hearth, Camden saw the face of an
angel. He was grateful he was sitting for surely his knees would
have had gone weak.
    “ I am far more comfortable
in only this shift than in that silly dress. I grew up in a convent
and never wore fancy dresses like that. That dress doesn’t even
belong to me and I only wore it because the king asked me
too.”
    “ I assumed because you were
a countess that you always had fine clothing and jewels,” he said
as he continued to watch her.
    Camden could see her feminine shape
that was visible through the thin chemise. He watched the swell of
her breasts rise and fall with every breath and he struggled to
control his senses. The laird moved back against the pillows and
pulled the covers over himself so she could not see how the sight
of her body was affecting his own.
    “ I am sorry I have no fine
clothing but we do have family jewels. If you wanted a dowry you
should have spoken with my brother before we wed.”
    “ I received the dowry I
wanted,” he said flatly as the thought of the land and the
Sinclairs brought him back to reality.
    “ Of course, you got the
precious land that you wanted. Well I am grateful someone benefited
from this marriage,” she blurted out.
    “ I take it you did not come
willingly to this