Dan was so tall and striking, he was a man whose sheer presence was an overpowering force among those around him. Naked, he was….. Extraordinary. He was power and strength. Masculine grace and vitality. The stark, masculine beauty of his body made her throat constrict. His frame was forged in iron. He was long and lean of limb, the contours of his shoulders were sculpted and round, and his arms were sinuously defined with muscle. A dark netting of fur covered his chest and the ridged hardness of his belly. From somewhere she dredged up the courage to gaze the length of him...all of him. She dared what she had never dared before. What she saw made her eyes widen and her entire body go hot. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Rigidly unconfined, framed in coarse black curls, his staff stood boldly erect. Betty let out an uneven breath and transferred her gaze to the safer territory for they had just been newly married. But he knew she had seen him. As if he were precisely aware of where her gaze had resided for long, uninterrupted moments, an odd half-smile curled his lips. He allowed no time for shame. No time for embarrassment. A hand at her hips urged her body against his. His skin was hotter than any fire, the eyes that gazed down at her brighter than any flame, there was nowhere they did not touch. His fingers twisted in her hair, turning her face up to his. Then his mouth was on hers, a fevered caress that tasted of a tortuous hunger that was strangely thrilling. Warm breath filled her throat…. His breath. Never in her life had she dreamed a kiss could be like this. When his tongue danced against hers, a swirling foray, she felt utterly boneless. She would surely have fallen were it not for the hardness of his arms braced around her back. She was only dimly aware of being carried to the bed. Firelight flickered over his features as he propped himself on an elbow, his regard utterly intent. "You know what I will do to you?" he said quietly She blushed "Yes" He ran the pad of his thumb over her lips. "Then listen to me, Betty, for when I take you…. It will be nothing like what was done to you before." his tone was low and vibrating "Nothing at all" "You must trust me, can you do that?" indeed, she thought wildly, she had no choice. Some little-known sense inside warned her they had come too far to turn back now. "Yes," she whispered. Yet he must have heard the vulnerability in her voice, for his eyes darkened "It will not be the same as before," he said again. With fledgling courage, she laid her fingertips on the bristly plane of his cheek, unable to tear her eyes from his. "Will you swear it down? Will you?" His gaze rested on her mouth. "I swear it" This time his kiss was so unbearably sweet, that she nearly cried out. He whispered her name, a sound that sent a quiver all through her. His lips found the corner of her mouth. " Betty…. Sweet Betty. You must tell me what pleases you." With his thumbs, he traced slow circles around the boundary of her breast "Does this please you?" She could only nod, for he was drawing perilously close to the delicate roseate peaks. She longed to drag his hands heavy against her selling fullness, for her nipples thrust turgid and hard, in a way that had only happened with him…. " And this? " he grazed the very tips, the merest butterfly caress. She inhaled sharply. Her breasts seemed to swell still further. That evocative touch came again….. And yet again. Lightning shot through her, centred there at those dusky crowns. She hadn't realised that he would try to please her. Somehow she'd been convinced he would see to his pleasure first. He seemed to know exactly where she ached, what she wanted. He gave an odd little laugh. "You like that, don't you? Ah, but I knew you would " His mouth slid down her throat. Heat splintered all through her, even as her mind baulked. No, she thought hazily. He had touched her there. But surely he would not…. She could only watch in mingled shock and fascination as his dark head hovered over her breast. Never had she dreamed he might kiss her there? As if in anticipation, her nipples peaked and hardened, as his mouth touched the quivering tip, she gasped. "Dan, what…. What do you do?" He raised his head, his smile wicked "Ahh, but there's more, lass. Much, much more…."
Chapter 1 The Encounter
BETTY'S POV
Betty knew she would be worried about her predicament, but instead, she could only feel tired. And she was grateful. She hadn't been able to sleep more than an hour or two at a time since leaving her office. Then again, she'd never slept well. Surrendering to exhaustion, James's mind sloughed off her worries and flew out of the place where she was attacked to the oblivion of deep, dreamless sleep.
The fragile strands of consciousness lay just out of her grasp for Lord only knew how long. With a strength she hadn't known she possessed, Betty clenched her fingers repeatedly to waken. She lay there a long time before she forced down some of the contents of her flask and coughed violently against the burn.
Her mind was blurry, she wasn't sure if she had swooned or fallen asleep. But she wasn't foolish enough to succumb to it again. This unnaturally dark, frigid cocoon frightened her.
The hinges creamed as she shoved at the door above. In a rush, the door fell from its moorings, taking a portion of the car sliding with it.
"What happened to James? Lord, please let him be safe….. My husband should be on the lookout for me now"
Well, she had to get out and had to start walking. No one was coming for her. She would perish if she remained here. Yet it was hard to make her limbs obey. Tears of frustration almost froze inside her eyelids as she twisted from the wreckage.
Bent with weariness and the edge of pain furrowing her side, she leaned into the wind, into the gloaming, and trudged towards the main mail coach road, away from the direction James had taken. It was her best chance. She was certain she would find a house around the next bend.
The world around her became ghostly, the flakes falling on a slant, drifting onto the heavy branches of the trees, hedgerows, and the lane, softening the ugly ruts in the road. She shivered and drew the blankets more tightly about her. How she wished she could fly away.
Her breath crystallised in the blanket near her mouth as she tried to regulate her thoughts and her breathing, as the weather was getting colder.
Just past the first turn, she realised there was no house, no village in front of her, only a long stretch of whiteness bordered by snow-powdered hedges without a telltale rise in smoke in the distance.
She didn't dare look up again for a long while. Time lost all meaning as she walked onward, her cheeks stinging, then without feeling, as hints of eventide crept in behind the melancholy December sky.
It was then that Betty murmured an almost forgotten prayer from her childhood……...a little something to her guardian Angel begging an entree to paradise.
…………………………..
She awoke stretching contentedly. Staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling, it took her a few moments to determine where she was, but she couldn't recognise this place.
Sitting bolt upright, she tossed the covers back. The other bed was empty. One glance out the small window told her that the sun was well. The woods seemed to have been washed clean by a storm that might have happened. She hadn't thought she would sleep so deeply or so long.
She quickly stood up " Where the hell am I? What happened last night " she covered her face with tears, that was when she noticed she wasn't wearing the clothes she remembered wearing to work Yesterday. She was confused as she couldn't remember what happened after the drink Mr Jude gave her in her office.
Henry ran up to check on her as he heard her almost screaming. "Good morning Miss"
" Who the hell are you and why am I here?" She took a few steps away from him then she continued "Whose cloth am I wearing?"
" Ok, if you would let me talk," Henry said and also took more steps back to make her comfortable enough for her to know that he won't hurt her.
"Go ahead," She said calmly this time
"I saw you half-dead on my way back to him from work, I tried waking you up to get more information on how I can get you home but it seems you " he wanted to say drugs, but he thought better.." seems you were drunk, so I bought you here so that you can get yourself and for your cloth, they were terrible and dirty, so I decided to be nice enough to change your dress" His attitude, how she was drawn to his attitude
"Can you take me home?" She asked, "I should know this area and locate my home," She said politely going to sit on the bed
"Yes," He said going back to what he was doing
"Thank you for saving me, I appreciate and thanks for the cloth" she as he stopped and turn to her coming close to him
"It's Ok" he squeezed a smile.
Betty went close and kissed him. Betty's kiss not only stole his breath away but also drove his hangover tiredness out of his skull.
He tasted enthusiasm and awe on her lips. It had been a long time since a woman had kissed him like that. He stared at her, then looked at her hand and saw that there was a ring that broke his heart. " I would be ready in no time to get you back home, I hope you don't mind wearing my cloth home, yours is damaged already as it seems you crawled a lot, " He said and moved away from her
" Ok Mr, Thank you" She was surprised that he did not make some advances on her unlike some uncontrollable men out there.
He got prepared as fast as he said he would and drove her down to her place, just like one of her bad habits, she gave him her contact.
Betty knew how her husband might react to her coming home now, so she went prepared. She slowly opened the door hoping he wasn't in the living room, that alone made her guilty.
"Where have you been?" His voice echoed from the kitchen
"I honestly don't what happened to me"
"How would you not know what happened to you, what kind of useless excuse is that" He came out to the living room where she was to see her clearly "And whose cloth are you wearing?"
This……… She thought better than, to be honest, " A lady, I don't know her, she saw me half dead and saved me"
"Half dead?"
"Why didn't you come looking for me huh?" she raised her voice
"You think I did not?"
She was silent for a minute because it might have been true, "Allow me to explain what happened"
Mr Dan stared hard hoping it was not what he is thinking " Go on"
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