Page 55 of The Highlander's Dangerous Bride

Suddenly, she turned her back to him and asked politely over her shoulder, “Would ye mind helpin’ me out of me dress?”

“Certainly, melady,” he replied, his voice deep and thick. “I’m at yer service.”

A gasp slipped from Raven’s lips when she heard the chair creak as he sat forward. Her entire body quivered like an arrow about to be let fly from a bow when she felt his hands on her waist, drawing her backwards to stand between his open thighs. When he began slowly undoing the fastenings of her bodice, her nipples hardened, rubbing against the fabric of her gown. She could not wait to be free of it, yet the sensations he was giving her were so deliciously erotic, she wanted them to last forever.

As Arne’s fingers worked their way methodically down the back of her gown, and it gradually loosened, revealing more and more of her naked flesh, she closed her eyes and smiled. She knew that he too was enjoying the sexual tension that was ramping up between them by slow degrees, that he was deliberately teasing her when he allowed his fingertips to graze her skin tantalizingly. Finally, her bodice came loose. But she did not take it off just yet.

“Would ye mind undoin’ me stays as well, please, and me petticoat if ’tis nae too much trouble?” she managed to get out, her voice quivering with pent-up craving.

“With pleasure,” he breathed hoarsely, obliging as she requested. When it was done, Raven turned around to face him, unable to keep the wanton smile from her lips as she looked into his eyes, relishing the hunger within them as well as his wolfen grin.

“Thank ye kindly,” she murmured, bobbing a small, teasing curtsey, making sure to give him a good flash of her half-exposed breasts. He licked his lips, fanning the flames of hot desire already coursing through her belly and between her legs.

Then, watching his face, she proceeded to slowly remove her bodice and throw it aside. A moment later, it was followed by her stays. Next, taking immense pleasure in the way his eyes were darkening and gleaming in the firelight, she stepped neatly out of her skirt and petticoat and kicked them aside. Now, she was clad in naught but her shift and stockings.

Arne’s breath was deepening as he watched her every move with growing intensity. Emboldened and excited by the growing bulge in the front of his trews, Raven taunted him further by raising one leg and placing her foot on his thigh. “I think I may need yer assistance with me garters,” she told him, leaning a steadying hand on his mighty shoulder and batting her lashes at him.

“Always ready tae help, melady,” he breathed, grinning as he leaned forward and seized her garter between his teeth. Raven could not stop the giggle that burst out of her as he pretended to growl like a dog and worked it down her leg and let it fall.

Deliberately, she leaned forward and bent over, knowing he could see her shape perfectly clearly through the diaphanous material of her shift as she slowly rolled down her stocking and draped it around his neck.

“And the other one if ye please,” she murmured, stepping down and placing her other foot on his thigh, never taking her eyes from his.

“I live tae oblige ye, melady,” he told her with a hungry look as he did the same with her remaining garter. However, this time he snatched it up and tucked it in the pocket of his shirt. “I’ll be keepin’ that,” he told her, “as a memento.”

Raven giggled again, her excitement soaring. “Thank ye again, kind sir.” She teasingly rolled down the stocking in front of his eyes before decorating him with it as well. Then, she put her foot gently on the front of his trews, right where she could see his erection practically bursting out from inside them, massaging it in slow circles, delighting in the way he groaned and narrowed his eyes.

The sound, so deep and primal in his throat, fanned the flames of the bonfire already burning in Raven’s belly, spurring her to continue teasing his growing bulge with her foot.

“Ach, Arne,” she gasped when his large, calloused palms clamped around her raised thigh and then slid upwards over her naked skin inch by delectable inch, until his fingers brushed her sex.

Her whole body trembled, and shards of indescribable pleasure shot through her when he gently parted her lips and stroked her there, teasing and caressing, his thumb brushing tantalizingly over her rosebud, making it stiffen and ache beneath his expert touch. Nothing had changed—he knew exactly how to arouse her passion!

But by the same token, she could tell her manipulations at the front of his trews were having a similar effect upon him, which excited her even more.

“Aye, ah, ah!” she moaned when he slid one finger inside her entrance, then another, and another, pushing deeply into her, opening her up.

Raven, ye’re soakin’ wet,” he ground out low, burying his fingers in her hot slickness, watching her hungrily as she writhed and moaned above him.

Her breath hitched her throat as she rode his questing fingers in a kind of delirium while teasing his crotch.

“I’ve dreamed of this so many times and wanted ye so badly, I’ve wished ye were there in me bed, doin’ this with me all night long, like we used tae,” he said, his eyes watching her every expression as he teased her bud with his thumb, his fingers delving rhythmically inside her.

“I was always there with ye, Arne, in me mind, in me spirit. I hated every night we were apart. I was always there with ye in the bed if ye did but guess it, dreamin’ of ye too,” she panted, leaning heavily on his shoulder to keep from collapsing, letting out a small, mewling moans.

“Were ye, truly?” he asked, his voice a husky whisper.

“Aye, always,” she panted, “I never stopped thinkin’ of ye.”

“And did ye touch yersel’ as ye thought of me?”

His question inflamed her even more. “Aye, I did, many, many nights,” she confessed, letting out a helpless groan, thrusting her hips hard against his hand, craving more of the sensations coursing through her.

“Show me,” he commanded, his eyes liquid slits of desire as he watched her, toying with her body relentlessly, enough to drive her half mad.

“Like this,” she whispered, lowering her hand between her legs, her fingers entwining with his as she caressed her slick folds and rubbed her aroused bud as she had used to do when she was so far away from him and that the memory of his touch was all she had.

Arne’s fingers continued their exploration of her hot, moist flesh while he watched her touch herself, his eyes gleaming like chips of blue ice in the lamplight His breathing was growing heavier by the moment. Suddenly, he deftly gripped Raven’s ankle and moved her foot from his groin before expertly unfastening his trews.

---