Adam did not reply. He lifted his leg and sliced the dagger tip along the inside of his thigh. Blood welled up.
“What have you done?”
He still kept his back to her, not wanting to embarrass her. “Rayna,” he said over his shoulder, “virgins bleed. Since you will remain a virgin, I must bleed for you. Now, pull down the cover.”
She only stared at him, and he walked abruptly near to her and whisked the cover away from her. “Open your legs, quickly.”
He heard a sharp intake of breath from her, and watched her thighs slowly part. He sat down beside her, wiped the blood from his thigh onto his finger, and smeared it over her. She jumped at the touch of his fingers.
“Hush,” he said. He daubed a bit of blood on the sheet beneath her hips. He turned his back to her and touched more blood to his swollen manhood. Rutting bastard, he thought, staring down at himself for a moment. His head jerked up at the nearing sound of laughter and the clomping of boots.
“Rayna, scream, now.”
He uncoiled his body and lay beside her, taking her into his arms.
“Scream, dammit.”
She let out a high, wailing cry that reverberated off the walls of the small room.
“Again. Louder.”
She yelled so loud he thought his eardrums would shatter.
He heard Gervaise in the corridor and knew he would burst in at any moment. He heaved his body on top of her, clutched her face between his hands, and kissed her, brutally.
She began to struggle against him, pounding her fists against his back. Not an act now. That was what the comte saw when he jerked open the door and strode into the room.
Tino laughed behind him.
“Well, Pietro, was the little slut a virgin?”
Adam rolled off Rayna, rose slowly, and gave the men a victorious bow.
“Dio, he’s still hard for her.”
“I want to see for myself,” Gervaise said.
Adam tore back the cover, and pulled her legs apart.
“Ah, she bleeds red.”
Rayna was sobbing, her eyes closed tightly against the men who stared at her.
“Did you tear her?”
“No,” Adam said, and immediately realized it was a mistake.
“Excellent. Now she is mine. I too have a gift for you, my lady.”
Rayna grabbed the covers, jerking them to her chin.
“You will fight me, little dove?”
“I want her, Gervaise.”
“Shut up, Tino. If she swells with child from this night, she will know that it is a gift from one of the two men she he
rself trifled with.”