“Look, I've always been a whore. You just didn't want to believe it of me,” she said, her voice strained.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her once. “No. That's not it,” he gritted out. “That's not it at all.” He picked her up by squeezing her upper arms into her torso until she was eye to eye with him. “I don't care about what you've been.”
Her chin was thrust forward, but her lips trembled. “You're jealous, then? Surely you know he meant nothing to me! I did it for the men—for your men!”
He shook her again, and her dangling legs danced with the movement. “Aye. I saw how it meant nothing to you. I imagine I meant nothing to you, either.”
Anger crossed her face. “How can you say that?” she demanded, spit flying in fury, tears spilling as she spoke. “That's what you really think? Truly? I should not be surprised. You never believed in what I offered you. I guess in your eyes a whore is not capable of love. Is that what you think?”
Pain seared in his chest. He stared at her, torn by his anger and some new hope seeping through. He wanted to throw her down and walk swiftly away, but he couldn't move. He couldn't look away. The depth of pain in her eyes matched his own. He faltered. Mayhap he'd been wrong.
“Or do you think your scars make you un-loveable?” she asked in a soft and dangerous tone.
He set her down on the ground, feeling dizzy. Something in him had just cracked open, and the flood of conflicting emotion was too strong.
“You were always planning to escape,” he accused her, trying to find solid ground. How could he believe in love from someone who wanted to leave?
“But I didn't,” she pleaded, weeping openly. “When I walked in that tavern, I felt sick, Ferrum. And I knew my place was with you.”
The world tilted and righted itself, and he felt the ground more solidly under his feet. A full breath filled his chest for the first time all day. “I thought you were mine.” His voice cracked on the last word, and tears filled his eyes momentarily before he blinked them back angrily. Her eyes widened and she opened and closed her mouth with a look of shock. He cursed himself inwardly for showing her emotion like that.
But her eyes filled with tears as well. “That's what I'm telling you—I am yours,” she whispered. “I'm sorry, Ferrum,” she said, looking genuinely pained. “I didn't think about how—” she swallowed, “—how my servicing another man would affect you.”
It hadn't occurred to him she wouldn't understand fidelity. But he supposed someone who had given her body to hundreds of men might not attach the same meaning to it he did. He rubbed her arms where he'd been holding her, fearing suddenly he had left bruises. “How could you not know you were mine?” he asked, but his voice was forgiving.
She dashed at her tears with the back of her hand and shrugged. “I don't know—I never imagined anyone would want me.”
He believed her, but it was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard in his life. “But Dani, I told you that you were mine. Many times. Did you not know that meant mine alone?”
She shook her head. “I don't know—I just never thought you meant anything by it. Are you saying you'd have me… as your…” she trailed off uncertainly.
He cupped her face in his hands. “My wife? Aye. Would you have me, little flower?”
She nodded silently, tears still running down her pale cheeks.
He pulled her head toward him and kissed the top of it before folding it into his chest. “I'll kill any man who touches you,” he said with a note of challenge, not sure if she truly knew what she was agreeing to.
“I won't allow any man to touch me, Ferrum. I promise.”
“I'll use you however I like. All day long if I want.”
She laughed tearfully into his chest, then tipped her head back to look at him. “I hope so.”
“I will tie you up and spank you and make you say you love me.”
“Tonight?” she asked, her voice soft with desire, eyes filled with heat. His cock hardened.
“Aye. Tonight I will spank and spank and spank and teach you never to stray again.”
Her breath had quickened, and he saw the war between fear and desire in her face. He ran his thumb along the delicate bones of her cheek. “I'll make you remember who you belong to,” he said, his voice husky. He saw the twin points of her nipples standing up under her bodice just for him.
* * *
She was trembling all over just in anticipation of his touch. She had no doubt he would spank her all night, as he had promised. He had sent her into the tent with the order to kneel in wait for him.