Highlander The Cursed Lord (Highland Intrigue Trilogy 3)

“I am free then to take pleasure in it or endure it,” she said.

Did he chance her taking pleasure in their coupling? Or did he make certain she was eager to leave by winter’s end?

“Your choice. Endure it or enjoy it. It matters not to me. I look only for relief to my own need,” he said, reminding himself that was what she was there for, to keep him warm in bed and feed his need to couple. That she cooked tasty food was a plus and that she was a healer, another plus. That she was pleasant to look upon and easy to talk with helped as well.

She would serve him well for the winter then be gone.

He stood, shed his garments, and went to sit on the edge of the bed. “Take your garments off and come here.

Bliss told herself not to be nervous. He had seen her naked, and he had bathed most of her body with a cool cloth. And she had seen him naked as well. But this was different. This was intimacy.

Still though, she was apprehensive about shedding his shirt and her tunic so deliberately in front of him. She sought a shadowed corner to see the deed done and as she turned and walked toward him, she saw that his hand was already stroking his swelled shaft.

CHAPTER 9

Quick words came to Bliss as she sat on the bed beside him. “I do not know whether to be impressed by your size or not since I have seen no other shaft enlarged to compare it to. And some women say size matters, while others say if the man is talented size does not matter. Is that true?”

That she blatantly asked him such a question dumbfounded him for a moment and almost deflated him. “Woman should not be talking of such things,” Rannick scolded.

“Why not? Men talk of their prowess with women, so why shouldn’t women discuss such matters?” she argued, finding their discussion interesting.

“It is something that should be discussed between husband and wife,” he argued.

“How could a husband answer such questions when he does not understand or often does not care how his wife feels when coupling?” she asked. “I have had women cry to me that they must be doing something wrong when coupling since they feel nothing and are glad when it is done. Then I have other women who tell me how wonderful it is. It makes me wonder, is it a woman’s problem or a man’s? As a healer it would help me to understand and see if there is anything I could do to help.”

His hand had fallen off his now limp shaft. “That should not concern you.”

“Why should it not concern me as a healer when it could relate to other problems in a woman or a man? How do I help them if I do not have the information I need to do so?” She went on, shaking her head. “A woman once complained to me that her husband had not touched her in over a month when he had rarely let a few days pass in doing so. She feared he might be seeking his pleasure elsewhere and asked me if there was anything I could give her that would amend the situation. If she had not come to me with her problem, her husband would probably be dead.”

Rannick’s brow scrunched in question. “How so?”

“I suggested it might not be her fault that there might be an issue with her husband. I advised her to talk with him about it. She told me they never talked of such things. I was surprised when she returned in two days in tears. She had gotten the courage to ask him if he was seeking another woman’s bed. They argued and that was when the truth came out. Her husband’s shaft had grown a large boil and coupling was painful for him. She cried while detailing it to me since he refused to come see me himself. I gave her what was needed and how she was to tend him and prayed he had not waited too long. Thankfully, all worked out well.”

What she didn’t tell him was that John had made sure that she and her sisters had wood aplenty for winter that year in appreciation for what she had done.

Bliss surprised herself and Rannick as well when she gently cupped his flaccid shaft in her hand and felt it stir. “So, you see I can learn much from your shaft and look forward to doing so.”

Her words had helped calm her since it made her realize that if she approached coupling as a way of becoming a more skilled healer instead of trying desperately to conceive, then she might feel at least a little less guilty of deceiving him.