Margaret Moore - [Maiden & Her Knight 03] by All My Desire Page B

and stumbling footfalls as she tried to run.
    Thank God she was obviously too tired to run fast. That might be the difference between catching her and having her elude him.
    For an instant, he actually considered letting her go. She had displayed courage and fortitude, and he admired that.
    But if he let her go, he would have no prize to ransom.
    He heard a thud and a cry. She must have tripped and fallen, and he was silently thankful.
    There she was, clambering to her feet.
    She was not wearing the red gown. She wore only her thin white shift, now muddy and soiled. Her sodden hair hung limply to her waist.
    He grabbed for her but missed. Afraid she was going to escape him again, he threw himself at her, tackling her and falling with her onto the soft, muddy ground. She gasped and squirmed, but not with the power and energy she had demonstrated before.
    His arms around her, his hips pressed against hers, she lay beneath him with only the damp silk of her shift between them. Her puckered nipples pressed against his naked chest and her body moved beneath him like a wanton lover as she struggled.
    Although he knew that was not so, his desire awoke nonetheless, and his already boiling blood grew heated with a different flame. An impulse primal and possessive surged through him and he bent his head to cover her mouth with his.
    He half expected her to bite or scratch, but she did nothing. She suddenly lay still and let him kiss her. She yielded to him—or at least stopped fighting him.
    She tasted of wine and wealth, of all the things he wanted and didn’t have. She smelled of flowers and a life of prosperity and gentility he could only dream about. She was everything that he had ever yearned for, all the promises his father had made and not kept, here in his arms.
    He loosened his hold with his right hand so that he could caress her. Her skin was more silken than her shift, softer than goose down, more wonderful than velvet. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, the words drawn out of him as he brushed his hand over her breasts.
    She sucked in her breath and trembled.
    “I will warm you, my lady,” he murmured as he leaned down to kiss her again.
    She shifted, and he felt her hand meander lower. Her fingers grazed his thigh, then moved between his legs. Closing his eyes, he held his breath, delighting in her light and gentle touch.
    God’s wounds, she wanted him, too. Why, he didn’t know or care. All he knew was that he craved this woman as he never had another.
    She pinched his inner thigh.
    He cried out at the sudden, intense pain and, wincing, rose and tugged her to her feet.
    Trembling violently, her lips blue, she raised her quivering hand as if she would strike him.
    He caught hold of her wrist and forced her hand down, which took more strength than he would have guessed.
    “It will take more than that to get away from me.”
    “Then I will do more, any chance I get.”
    “Including trying to drown yourself?”
    “I wasn’t trying to drown myself. I was trying to get away from you .”
    “Where’s your gown?”
    “The bottom of the river, where I would have been if I hadn’t got it off.”
    “Where you might have been anyway,” he growled. “But you are captured again, my lady, so come along and stop this useless nonsense.”
    She stood her ground, and, although she could hardly speak for shivering, she managed nonetheless. “It will not be useless if it works.” She crossed her arms and straightened her shoulders. “You claim that you were deserving of a knighthood before your father’s death. Prove that you have the honor of a knight, if not the title, and leave me here. Tell the others you couldn’t find me. They won’t blame you, and I will never tell anyone who took me.”
    “I will not leave you here, benighted and freezing and wet,” he said just as firmly, willing his own body not to shiver in the cold. “And I will not give up my prize so easily.”
    “Then it is just as well your