Page 24 of Highlander's Secret Heiress
But Lachlan seemed not to have heard her as he went on: “And I made another child an orphan too, that day. The MacAdams girl.” Alyth stiffened around him. “That too weighs heavily on my conscience.” He wiped his tears away, but they came streaming back, and eventually, he burst into a storm of weeping.
The MacAdams girl,she thought.He is concerned about me,and she suddenly realised that the man she was holding in her arms, whom she had thought cold-hearted and brutal, instead had a loving, gentle spirit. He kept it hidden inside himself because he had been so hurt that he could not bear any more damage. He was too afraid that if he bared his soul to the world, it might become a target for those who wished to ruin him forever.
Alyth felt his agony seep out of him into her own heart, awakening her own hidden pain, and she began to weep with him until they had both run out of tears. Then, for a long time they were still, arms around each other, until Lachlan looked up at Alyth.
They gazed at each other for a long moment before he drew her down and sat her on his lap, then kissed her with such tenderness that her whole body sang with a sweet sensation of desire. She wanted him desperately, but there was no way of telling him that without making herself look loose and wanton. Society held women to a much higher standard than men.
He broke the kiss, leaned back a little on the chair, and gently drew a wisp of hair away from her face. He looked almost puzzled, Alyth thought.
“You fascinate me,” he murmured. “I have never met a woman quite as bewitching as you. From the very first moment I saw you, I felt that there was something about you—something I would never be able to understand, Jeannie. And I want you.”
“You are the Laird,” Alyth said huskily. “I am quite sure you could have any woman you want.”
He laughed softly. “Not quite any woman,” he said, cupping her cheek with one hand as he gave her a small, soft kiss on her lips. “And I don’t want just any woman. I want the one who made my daughter speak again, who awoke my body after years of frigidity. I want you, Jeannie, because of the person you are.” He looked at her quizzically. “Do you not want me?”
This was Alyth’s last chance to refuse, to tell Lachlan that she was not going to risk her reputation or whatever other excuse came to mind, but she simply could not do it. “Yes,” she answered. “Yes, M’Laird, I do.”
“Call me Lachlan,” he replied, as he gazed at her lips before kissing her again. This time it was not tender, but hungry and desperate, as if he wanted to possess all of her in a single moment.
Alyth moaned and gave herself up to it with every ounce of passion and desire she had been storing up inside herself. It seemed that she had been waiting for this moment her whole life. However, in her wildest dreams, she would never have imagined that the man who stirred her senses in this devastating way would have been a Carrick—especially not the Laird.
For a fleeting second, she felt guilty, but that feeling was swiftly washed away by a tide of desire so strong that Alyth could hardly stand it. She had never been with a man, and althoughshe had no experience, she could not fathom it would feel like the sweet madness she was experiencing now.
Lachlan, for his part, needed her so much that he was willing to forego any more kisses and tender caresses so that he could be inside her, driving her to the place where they could, for a fleeting moment, be in heaven together. However, he wanted this, their first and perhaps their only time together, to be wonderful for her.
A moment of sanity returned when Lachlan realised that they were seated on the hard chair behind his desk. He stood, lifting her into his arms as they moved to the soft couch that stood in front of the fireplace. He placed her tenderly on the soft furs so that she was sitting facing him, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly. His hands were rough, which both surprised and pleased Alyth; he obviously did some tough manual labour, and she admired him all the more for that.
Lachlan moved his hands to her breasts, caressing and gently squeezing them, teasing her nipples into hard points over the fabric of her dress, while he feathered tiny kisses down her throat. Alyth had never been touched in these most sensitive places before, and she almost cried out at the intensity of the pleasure.
Lachlan made a growl of frustration as his mouth came to the neckline of her dress; she was wearing too many clothes, and for a second, he thought of ripping them off her before reason returned. She probably only owned two dresses. But he urgently wanted to see and explore those beautiful breasts.
Alyth felt a sweet pulse beginning to beat between her legs, and every inch of her skin was tingling with delight. However, the next moment she was unable to think about anything more as she felt Lachlan raising her skirt then gently parting her legs. He bent down to kiss his way tenderly from her knee to theinside of her right thigh, almost touching her sex, before he set to work on the left.
Alyth raised her hips instinctively, moaning softly at the wicked, delicious sensations he was arousing. Her fingers were tangled in his thick, strong hair, revelling in the silky feel of it.
A moment later, Lachlan pushed his first two fingers gently inside Alyth’s channel and stifled her startled cry with a hungry kiss. He moved in and out, in and out, then he found the nub of flesh that was her sweetest spot before using his other thumb and forefinger to tease and play with it. A jet of intense pleasure, so strong that she could hardly bear it, seared through her.
Lachlan looked up and smiled at her wickedly. “Good?” he asked.
“Oh, yes!” Alyth gasped. She could hardly speak, for something wonderful was gathering inside her. She had no idea what it was, for she had never experienced anything remotely like it before. It was heaven, Alyth thought. Perhaps this was what so many poets and songwriters wrote and sang about.
She was a little puzzled when she saw Lachlan push her skirt further up and bend his head down between her legs. She was utterly shocked as she felt his tongue sweeping between her womanly folds, from front to back, over and over again.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
Lachlan looked up. “Do you not like it, Jeannie? I can stop if?—”
“No!” Alyth cried, then almost screamed as she felt the astonishing new sensation Lachlan was unleashing upon her.
Alyth felt his tongue tip teasing her bud, then he sucked it and scraped it with his teeth, making her cry out in an agony of pleasure. She had never felt or even imagined anything like it before.
Lachlan looked up to see Alyth’s incredulous expression, and smiled inwardly. He was so ready to plunge inside her as naturedictated, to finish what he had started with that kiss, which now seemed a lifetime ago. Yet, he waited, returning to her breasts which he suckled through the fabric of her dress, before he kissed her again.
His arousal was throbbing so hard it was almost painful. “Are you ready for me, Jeannie?” he asked hoarsely. He could hardly speak by now.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered. “So ready.”
Lachlan pushed her legs apart and settled in between them, then slowly pushed himself inside her. Alyth felt herself opening, welcoming him in, loving the sensation of them joining together as one.
