Knight In My Bed by Sue-Ellen Welfonder

shattered the spell he' d cast over her with his damnable touch and his striking ... maleness .
    "A sennight, a fortnight?" he demanded. "A day?"
    Isolde peered at him, her mind still befuddled, her senses even now reeling with torrid images. "Hmmm?"
    Impatience glittering in his eyes, Donall the Bold shot to his feet. He braced his hands on his hips and scattered every last wispy illusion tumbling through her mind with the sheer weight of his stare.
    "Lady, I have listened to the rants of your gray-bearded worthies. The oversized buffoon and his cohort standing guard out-with your door are overeager to visit all manner of unpleasantness upon me." His contempt leaped between them, palpable and menacing. "Should they make good their threats, I shall be offering my felicitations to my Maker in one month's time."
    He slammed his fist on the table. " One month , " he thundered. "And you order me bathed and affixed to your bed yet refuse to tell me why or how long you would see me suffer through this perverse form of torture?"
    "It is not my will to torture you."
    "Nay? You torment me by your very presence and 'tis well I think you know it.' He towered over her, his face dark with rage. "What is your will?"
    Trembling, Isolde pushed to her feet, intending to shove her chair between herself and his wrath, but his arm shot out and he seized hold of her, his fingers digging into the tender flesh of her upper arm.
    Before she could voice a protest, Bodo burst between them, his hackles raised, his barks piercing. The MacLean released her at once. Her pulse racing, she snatched up the snarling dog, pulling him close against her chest, as much to soothe him as to ease her own agitation.
    "I do not have the frivolous leisure of time, your most fair ladyship," Donall seethed, his voice restrained though fury still blazed in his eyes. " Why am I here?"
    "So I can save you," Isolde breathed, unable to stop the hastily whispered words from slipping past her lips.
    " Save me ?"
    She nodded. "Aye."
    Incredulity rendered Donall speechless. Stunned, he gaped at her, a plethora of possibilities whirling through his head. And not a one of them made a whit of sense. The wench had a warped view of the world if she thought to fatten him up nightly, keeping him alive for the sole purpose of driving him to madness with her bountiful charms, only to surrender him to the whims of her crazed men-folk come the morn.
    Her henchmen had taken much pleasure in assuring him his visits to her bedchamber were to be of short duration, naught but a brief reprieve from the onerous agonies they meant to inflict upon him by the light of day.
    Donall swore under his breath and raked a hand through his still-damp hair. "By all that's holy, woman, I want neither your food, the lunacy of being shackled to your bed, nor your deliverance from whatever ills you mean to save me from."
    He paused, turning away from her to pinch the bridge of his nose. Saints, but the world had careened out of control of late! His household hovered on the verge of disaster, he'd walked blindly into a trap he should have seen coming at him full-tilt, and the lady would claim she wants to save him.
    "What I want, Isolde of Dunmuir, is out of here." He wheeled around to face her. " Now. "
    She shook her head. "That, sir, is an impossibility."
    "Yet you vow to save me?" he roared, balling his hands to tight fists to counter the tension thrumming through him.
    She clutched her dog tight and peered at him from amber-colored eyes gone over-bright. The entire length of her trembled, yet she lifted her chin and met his glower without flinching. And curve him to the gates of hell and back, but he couldn't help but marvel at her brave courage in the face of his blustering.
    Did you kill her, Iain?
    Swear by the Rood your quick temper had naught to do with this foul deed.
    Donall's own words carne back to haunt him, a repetitive drone in the darkest corner of his heart, cutting him to the bone and chiding