Outlander 01: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Author:Diana Gabaldon [Gabaldon, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9780440423201
Google: iCe-nkdhJ20C
Amazon: 0440423201
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 1991-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor woke as I sat down next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.

"Looks as though it was a hard ride, Sassenach," he said, lightly touching a blue bruise on my inner thigh. "A bit saddle-sore, are ye?"

I narrowed my eyes and traced a deep bite-mark on his, shoulder with my finger.

"You look a bit ragged around the edges yourself, my lad."

"Ah, weel," he said in broad Scots, "if ye bed wi' a vixen, ye must expect to get bit." He reached up and grasped me behind the neck, pulling me down to him. "Come here to me, vixen. Bite me some more."

"Oh, no, you don't," I said, pulling back. "I can't possibly; I'm too sore."

James Fraser was not a man to take no for an answer.

"I'll be verra gentle," he wheedled, dragging me inexorably under the quilt. And he was gentle, as only big men can be, cradling me like a quail's egg, paying me court with a humble patience that I recognized as reparation—and a gentle insistence that I knew was a continuation of the lesson so brutally begun the night before. Gentle he would be, denied he would not.

He shook in my arms at his own finish, shuddering with the effort not to move, not to hurt me by thrusting, letting the moment shatter him as it would.

Afterward, still joined, he traced the fading bruises his fingers had left on my shoulders by the roadside two days before.

"I'm sorry for those, mo duinne," he said, gently kissing each one. "I was in a rare temper when I did it, but it's no excuse. It's shameful to hurt a woman, in a rage or no. I'll not do it again."

I laughed a bit ironically. "You're apologizing for those? What about the rest? I'm a mass of bruises, from head to toe!"

"Och?" He drew back to look me over judiciously. "Well now, these I've apologized for," touching my shoulder, "those," slapping my rear lightly, "ye deserved, and I'll not say I'm sorry for it, because I'm not."

"As for these," he said, stroking my thigh, "I'll not apologize for that, either. Ye paid me full measure already." He rubbed his shoulder, grimacing. "Ye drew blood in at least two places, Sassenach, and my back stings like holy hell."

"Well, bed with a vixen…" I said, grinning. "You won't get an apology for that." He laughed in response and pulled me on top of him.

"I didna say I wanted an apology, did I? If I recall aright, what I said was 'Bite me again.'

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.