Page 52 of Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt

Her eyebrows and her cute little nose scrunched up. "No? Ye cannae order me to —"

Gavin covered her mouth with his own, silencing her complaint. He raked his lips over her softer, sweeter ones, licking at the seam and nipping at her flesh. She'd gone tense, though her breaths came fast and shallow. When her lips parted, he glided his tongue between them to tease her mouth with light flicks, then he coiled his tongue around hers, slick flesh sliding over slick flesh, and still he didn't touch her with any other part of his body. Only lips. Only tongue. A tiny gasp escaped her lips, and he deepened the kiss with rough strokes of his tongue, catching her exhalation, taking a part of her into him. He plundered her mouth with an animalistic hunger, starved for the taste of her and inflamed by the tickling sensation of her quick breaths gusting out her nostrils onto his skin. He burned to take her but forced himself to hold back.

His dick had gotten so hard, he didn't know how long he could restrain himself.

Until she caved. Until she admitted sex only wasn't what she really wanted.

"Say it," he murmured against her lips.

Jamie made a desperate little noise, halfway between a gasp and a whimper. "Say what?"

"Tell me you want me, not just sex. Admit you want us to talk. You want a relationship, not just a quick wrestling match in the sheets."

"I told you what I need."

He raised his head to gaze down at her, propped on his straight arms. "Tell me the truth, Jamie. Say it now, or I'm walking out that door. I'll come back every day and kiss you into a frenzy, but we won't have sex again until we talk.Say it."

*****

Jamie couldn't tear her focus away from his eyes. Their honey color seemed to glow in the muted lighting. He regarded her in a way he hadn't done in months. With conviction. Certainty. Determination. A hint of tenderness tempered the commanding force of his gaze. Though his erection nudged her belly, hard and thick, he refused to give her what she told him she wanted. Sex. Only sex. Why couldn't he go along with it like any normal man would do? Another man would've been thrilled to have a woman order him to fuck her with no conversation required afterward.

At least, she thought other men would. Since she'd never demanded this from a man before, she had no way of knowing for sure.

Emery had been right that Gavin wouldn't really open up to her unless she plied him with sex first. He'd announced he wanted to talk, after previously announcing he needed time and space from her, but he denied her the one thing she'd sworn she needed — no emotional entanglement, no intimate conversation. After months of avoiding touching her, he'd suddenly shifted back into his old purposeful, irresistible self.

He was confusing the living hell out of her.

Could she trust him not to lose his nerve again? And what about his hostility toward her brothers? None of that had been resolved.

So talk to him, you silly hen, a voice inside urged her.

Not yet. She needed more time to… What? She didn't know anymore.

That kiss. He'd done it on purpose. He'd gotten her so worked up, so turned on and heated up, that she couldn't think. His take-charge attitude had always made her want to rip his clothes off, but when he'd casually stripped naked and bent his muscular body over her, she'd fought a thousand impulses to do naughty things to him. Her body tingled with need, her nipples ached, and the wetness in her sex oozed down the insides of her thighs.

"Sex, please," she said, breathless from the intensity of her arousal. "Talk later. We can talk about whether to talk after we —"

He lunged his head down to nibble at the hollow of her throat. "Mm-mm. Say you're done with the sex-only plan, or I'm outta here."

"You're naked, and it's cold outside. You'll catch pneumonia."

When he chuckled, his lips vibrated against her skin. "Thanks for worrying about me, but I'll get dressed before I go." He nuzzled her throat, his breaths hot and sultry. "Besides, I've been working outside all day. Got rained on too, and I survived."

"I'm surprised you took a job with Aidan. He's one of my evil brothers."

"Never said they're evil." His mouth traveled up to her chin, meandering along her jaw. "But I've made peace with Aidan. We're cool."

"What…" Her voice and her thoughts trailed off as he curled his tongue around her earlobe and drew it into his mouth. Her breaths hitched, but she managed to expel words between gasps of involuntary pleasure at his suckling of her flesh. "What kind of work… ah… were you… oh… doing for… mmmm… my brother?"

Gavin raised his face over hers. "Smashing rocks. With a sledgehammer."

She'd seen him at Aidan's job site, but she hadn't known what type of work Gavin was doing. Smashing things? With a sledgehammer? Her mind painted a vivid image of him wielding that tool, muscles rippling, sweat dribbling down his torso. In her fantasy he was, of course, shirtless. She imagined the perspiration droplets rolling down the outlines of his pectoral muscles and her tongue lapping them up, tracing a path up his chest.

"You're so hot for me," he said, his gaze capturing hers, "I can smell it."

She could smell it too. The realization didn't fash her as much as she would've expected.

He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath through his nostrils, then let it out while his lips curved into a smile of pure satisfaction. His lids parted, and he drank her in with hooded eyes. "Sweet and musky. Damn, I want to eat you up."

---