“For God’s sake, do not lie to me. I saw you.”
“But I—”
“You broke your promise to me!” He slammed his fist on the table beside them, making the jars on it rattle. “In the name of all that is holy, why can you not see how dangerous this is? What will I have to do to keep you out of trouble? Chain you to the floor? Leave a guard of twenty to watch you?”
“I felt as if I were possessed,” she said, sounding more bewildered than contrite. “I knew ’twas not the place nor—”
“Not the place? For God’s sake, you were about to attack him in front of three hundred people. And that is not the worst of it. The Duke of Gloucester was standing next to Pomeroy. If you brandished a blade near Gloucester, I’d never get you out of the Tower.”
“Who was the third man talking with them?”
Was she finally beginning to see the gravity of what she had done? “God’s wounds, Linnet, that was the mayor of London. You could hardly have chosen a worse group to assault if you tried.”
“The mayor?” She blinked several times, as if trying to absorb this news. “But you told me he was a good and honorable man. Are you quite certain of his character?”
“What does it matter what sort of man the mayor is?”
When he rubbed his forehead against the blazing headache she was giving him, she stepped closer and put the flat of her hands on his chest. His skin sizzled beneath her touch.
Hurt and love and anger surged through him in a ball of emotion too strong to contain. He slammed the bar across the door. This time, he did not care who might have seen them enter her bedchamber. Let them all know he was here in her bed.
He gripped her face in his hands and covered her mouth, letting her feel his anger. His shaft throbbed with need. He wanted to claim her, subdue her, finally make her his.
For she was not his. Not yet. Despite her promises, her pledges. She had not truly given herself to him.
Why could she not love him enough?
He would take her now, because he could. Because he wanted her. He clenched the silky strands of her hair in his fingers and kissed her until she sagged against him. When he pulled away, her lips were swollen, and her skin was pink where his whiskers had rubbed against it.
She looked so fragile in his arms. But Linnet was no delicate flower. She tore through life, leaving a burned trail behind. He both loved and hated her fiery nature, her strength, her unwillingness to follow the rules of her class and her sex and do as she ought.
He wanted to bend her to his will. Possess her.
When he lifted her, she wrapped her legs like a vise around him. Their mouths were locked as he slammed her back against the door. She made little cries against his mouth as he covered her breasts with his hands and squeezed the nipples through the cloth. When she tore her mouth away, he sucked on the skin of her neck, leaving his mark. The smell of her hair in his face made him mindless with desire. He wrenched her skirts up and ran his hands up her bare thighs. Gripping her rounded buttocks, he held her tight against him. Despite the layers of cloth between them, he could feel her heat.
Gasping, he leaned his forehead against the door and moved against her. Jesus and all the saints, she felt good.
But not as good as he would feel inside her.
“Jamie, please,” she said against his ear.
He claimed her mouth again as he frantically untied his braies. When her hands found bare skin under his tunic, the breath went out of him. Finally, he freed himself from his braies and leggings. He paused with the tip of his cock just inside her and closed his eyes, savoring the unbearable rush of desire that pounded in his ears and pulsed through every vein.
Then he plunged into her. And he was home again. All he wanted was to be here inside her right now. Again and again, he thrust deep inside her, as she clawed at his back and made those sounds in the back of her throat. As she screamed in his ear, he came in an explosion of lust and anger and so much desire that it staggered him.
Using the door as support, he slid to the floor with her before his knees gave way. Christ, what this woman did to him!
When he could move again, he lifted her off him and stood to tie his braies.
She stumbled to her feet and threw her arms around his waist. “Please, don’t be so angry with me. You don’t under—”
He pushed her away and forced himself to say it.
“You must choose. I will not have a wife who will take a blade to a man in the middle of Windsor Castle, in the presence of half the royal family.”
“But he—”
“I cannot chase down and kill every villain you provoke into threatening your life! And it will not be just your own life you put at risk, but our children’s as well.” He leaned close and shook his finger in her face. “I will not have it. I told you, I will not pledge myself to you unless you let the past lie.”