Chapter Six
Evelyn couldn’t decide where to rest her jumpy gaze. So, she examined the room she’d prepared earlier that afternoon. It wasn’t one of the biggest accommodations the inn boasted, but agreeable nonetheless. A basin with a pitcher of fresh water perched on a stand next to the window, and an oil lamp glowed golden atop a rough hewn chest next to the sturdy bed.
The clean rushes on the floor rustled beneath her footsteps as she set the basket down against an unoccupied space of the wall and turned uncertainly to look at Roderick.
He cast a curious glance towards the stairs and she worried that his exemplary hearing would hone in on the MacKay’s intent toward her. If she caused an altercation, she’d be dismissed. The streets of Scotland were full of men like the MacKays.
“Ah, I’m Evelyn.”
He cocked his head toward the door as he studied her, narrowing his eyes in displeasure at something he heard in the hall.
“Evelyn Woodhouse of Kent.” A note of desperation crept into her voice and she took a step toward him. She didn’t want any more trouble with the Mackays, nor the malevolent presence lurking in the forest outside. She just wanted him to shut them away from all that. At least for the night. “And you are Master Roderick MacLauchlan.”
He turned to study her. After a tense moment, he cast a hard glare down the hallway, but stepped all the way into the room and latched the door.
Relief caused her to smile.
“Um, we haven’t been properly introduced and I figured that you should at least know my name if...” She gestured towards the bed, abruptly feeling bashful.
Wrapping her arms about her waist within her itchy cloak, she chewed on the inside of her cheek wondering what a worldly, experienced woman would do next when locked in a bedchamber with such a man.
How did one go about seducing a Berserker?
Roderick held his large hand out to her, gesturing for her to hand him her cloak.
He was being a gentleman. Well, good.
After hanging it on a wall hook, he turned back to regard her, a sensual tilt to half of his sinful mouth. Bending forward in a fluid motion, he lifted his leg to unfasten his boot.
Oh! He was undressing. Whirling to face the bed did little to slow her racing heartbeat, but Evelyn couldn’t bring herself to watch.
Of course he is getting undressed, you twit, she berated herself. With trembling fingers, she grappled with the ties of her bonnet while she stared at the clean green coverlet in front of her.
There would be no marriage bed for her, no tender husband to give her babes. She remained a spinster at twenty and two, with no prospects, no money, no dowry, no past, and no family. But tonight the Berserker would keep her safe from the MacKays and the unknown evil lurking in the woods. It would only cost her virginity. Perhaps, in some small way, she would be an adequate companion to the warrior on his last night alive—
No, she couldn’t think of that now. Squeezing her eyes shut against a pang of deep regret, she somehow managed to finally pull the bonnet off the tightly braided knot of hair at the nape of her neck and drape it across the bed frame. She reached behind her to start on the laces of her kirtle, her usually nimble fingers picked and yanked with no success.
Large, strong hands surrounded hers and she jumped at the contact. Roderick kept her hands captive as he pulled her back against his chest and wrapped her arms around her own waist, covering them with his. His warmth soothed the tremors coursing through her.
For a moment, she stood encased in a coffer of muscle and flesh. The foreign intimacy of the embrace was startling as much as comforting. She detected a trace of dominance in the gesture along with gentle restraint. The contradiction comforted her somehow. Allowing herself to sag against him, her eyes fluttered closed, her head pillowed between the deep groove of his pectorals.
This was how it felt to be held. To be protected.
It felt marvelous.
Unbidden tears sprang to her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away.
She stood passively as he took his time undressing her, not letting their skin come into contact as he slid her kirtle off first, then her under shift.
The kiss of the chilly evening air on her skin caused gooseflesh to blossom everywhere, and her nipples to constrict into aching beads.
Her chest heaved with wild breath. She’d never bared herself to a lover. Were her hips too wide? Her arms too plump? Her breasts too heavy?
Surprised to hear his breathing quicken along with hers, she waited with vibrating anticipation to see what Roderick would do next. She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d dragged her to the rushes and taken her like a stallion.
He started at the very end of her braid and methodically unbound the silken locks, running his fingers though it until thick golden waves fanned about her shoulders and tickled the small of her back. It seemed like he might be torturing himself, and her in the process, by denying the contact of their exposed skin.
Aware of a dull, moist ache between her legs, Evelyn fought the persistent need to squirm. She leaned back a little, searching again for the comforting warmth of his hard chest. Instead, she encountered blunt, hot velvet as it stabbed the cleft of her back and angled upwards.
Oh dear lord.
Delicious curiosity snaked though her. That warm steely hardness pulsed against her lower back. It flexed against her, tangling with the feathery ends of her hair.
She squeezed her eyes shut. What was she doing?
Hot breath stirred against her ear as he closed his large hands around both of her shoulders. Calloused fingers abraded her skin lightly. Sensation reverberated through her bones as he caressed the thin sensitive skin of her clavicles and angled south to follow the line of her figure. Both hands spanned her ribcage before moving back up to run a fingertip along the sensitive undersides of her full breasts. A deep rumble, almost a purr, vibrated against her, the sound unlike anything she’d ever heard before.
Absorbed and over-stimulated, Evelyn let out the breath she’d been holding in one great whoosh, on which a tiny groan escaped without permission.
She felt his smile as he pressed his mouth to her temple.
Finally cupping the mounds in both of his warm hands, he lifted them gently, testing their weight in his palms. Massaging the pliable skin in tandem, his lips found her sensitive ear lobe, her jaw, and then her neck. He burrowed there, moistening it with his tongue. When he nipped her lightly with his teeth, a flare of crippling desire and surprise caused her knees to buckle and give.
Collapsing against him with a gasp, she trembled with the force of sensation coursing through her.
Roderick took in a slow breath and exhaled for an eternity before gently setting her away from him.
Evelyn was unable to name the emotions surging through her. Awe, incredulity, power, emptiness, need, and uncertainty clamored for attention inside her desire muddled brain.
Unable to stand it any longer, she spun to face him.
Roderick stared at her with such intensity, such naked desire. He seemed larger now that she could plainly see the dramatic taper into lean hips, the ropes of his stomach muscles spilled all the way down to…
Oh my. She felt her throat work over an audible swallow.
Even that wasn’t dwarfed by the size of his corded thighs. Could it possibly fit?
Judging from the fierce look on his savagely handsome face, he intended to try. Roderick bent toward her, a dark intent in his gaze.